Time isn't just an arrow flying forever in one direction, but a circle, a web, life given, life lost, life renewed, so natural, witness to God's constancy.  Time has a rhythm, a pace.  Imagine a world with no seasons... and although a calendar can feel like an albatrosss, imagine lie without the marking of time...  Worship is an alternative calendar, revealing the hidden plot of time, the subtle activity of the Lord of time.  Children learn colors and symbols, and we dress up for sacred days.  The secular calendar is all about busy-ness, productivity, while the worship calendar is all about God, who made time, blessed time, entered time, acted in time.

   "You crown the year with your bounty" (Psalm 65:11).  In ancient times, the Israelites were obligated to join pilgrim caravans and travel to Jerusalem for the great festivals marking each year.  At Passover, the feast of Weeks (Pentecost), the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), and Tabernacles (read the calendars in Deuteronomy 16 and Leviticus 23), Israel remembered God's great acts in history, and in nature, and you brought your best livestock, your first grains, for sacrifice, to express gratitude to God.

   The Christian year begins (appropriately?) just after Thanksgiving, with Advent (from a Latin word that means "coming") - a time of waiting.  We prepare for the coming of Jesus at Christmas the way a mother feels a stirring of life unseen, prepares a crib, struggles through some agony before life dawns.  The Christian life always is waiting, longing, yearning, like winter for the spring, the presence of Christ something we want, long for, reach toward, but never fully possess.  Our true life is out in front of us, beckoning, promising to show up.  Then Christmas comes, and we bask in the glory of the angels and shepherds until the twelfth night, when the season of Epiphany (meaning "appearing") begins.  Just as the star appeared to the foreign Magi who were drawn to Christ, the truth of the Gospel is for all people, not just us insiders - and so Epiphany is a season when we focus on missions.  Easter is coming - but not without Lent, a period of intense repentance and even fasting, lasting forty days (just as Jesus willingly endured a forty day test of faith), beginning with Ash Wednesday.  Holy Week is the pinnacle of the year, as we re-experience Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, his last supper (Maundy Thursday), the crucifixion (Good Friday) and then the resurrection (Easter).  Then the Holy Spirit rushes upon the Church at Pentecost - and then next year, we re-rehearse the full Bible story all over again, we find ourselves as "extras" in the Bible's dramatic epic, now living inside the story.  My clock now seems to run differently, each tick, every lap a finger pointing to the goodness of God who came just in time - and my life makes sense.  "For everything there is a season, a time for every matter under heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

James

james@mpumc.org

Coming up (the last 3 installments as we conclude):

eWorship23 - Holy matrimony

eWorship24 - Benediction

eWorship25 - Funeral

*** An email series I did a couple of years ago has been fiddled with considerably and is now a book (people frequently ask if these will appear in book form) on the Apostles' Creed, with explanations of what we believe and why, along with reflective meditations.  To view The Life We Claim, click here.

The complete eWorship series may be found on our web site.