Why the Church Year Matters

I talk a lot about the church year around here. Why? Because I believe it is one of the most powerful tools we have for following Jesus faithfully and intentionally. The church year offers a way of aligning the rhythms and patterns of our lives with the life of Jesus and his church. It allows us not simply to follow a man who lived 2,000 years ago, but to follow Jesus in real time, participating with him in his life, death and resurrection here and now.

We anticipate and prepare for his coming during Advent, celebrate his birth during Christmastide, and walk with him through his childhood and ministry during Epiphany. We go with Jesus into the desert for forty days of fasting and repentance during Lent, and carry his cross to Calvary during Holy Week.

We are resurrected with Jesus on Easter, and in the seven weeks of Eastertide that follow, we walk with our resurrected Lord who preaches and performs miracles among his disciples with holes in his hands and feet. Forty days after Jesus’ resurrection, he ascends to Heaven to be with the Father. Ten days after that the promised Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost and the church is born. How the Holy Spirit moves and works through that newly formed church is what we call Ordinary Time.

By ordering our lives around the church’s calendar, “following Jesus” isn’t just an abstract ideal that we apply to particular situations and scenarios—it is something that we do day in and day out, year after Christian year.

A new year is about to begin again with Advent, and now is the perfect time to start thinking about how you will live into it.