Got Time?

The calendar has been on my mind a lot lately. The calendar is the macro system we all rely on for scheduling our lives. It of course is broken down into smaller units of time so our days can include all the meetings and tasks we must accomplish.

Did you know that for a very long time the church was responsible for keeping the calendar for the community? In addition to the seasonal crops growing, the church let the community know what time of year it was. This was much of the purpose of the liturgical calendar in ancient times. The life of Jesus was broken down into particular times of the year such as Christmas and Easter. The church would tell the story of Jesus in terms of the time of the year. The birth of Jesus always happened during the winter. The resurrection of Jesus would happen shortly before the planting season began. Advent would begin sometime after the final harvest. Lent would occur around the time of field preparation for the next growing season. In short, the schedules of the community were driven by the church. In fact, in most of the European cities the church even held the town clock. The church bells would ring, tolling out the times of the days.

With this in mind, I have been thinking how we can again reclaim the church as our guiding light through the calendar. It is clear from the observation that church is the first thing dropped when another event comes up in competition for our time that this is worth discussion. What I wonder is how we can again reclaim the church as the center without sacrificing the other things in life that have become important.

The church used to begin the day with prayer. It marked midday with prayer and it closed the day with prayer. It did not ask you to give up the other tasks of your day, but instead use these times of connecting with God as breaking points between activities. You would wake up, say these prayers, and then go to work. At midday when you needed to stop to eat lunch, you would mark this point of the day with prayer. At the end of the day when it was time to sleep, you again would mark the day with prayer. This was known as "the daily offices." It walked people through the day. Along with the larger church festivals and holidays, these routines walked you through your year.

Year in and year out you would follow the life of Jesus as it paralleled your own life. Your activities did not compete with the church for time, but instead were led by the church.

It is in this vein that I ask how we can reclaim this. How can we again find a place where church is not asked to compete with the rest of life, but church becomes the center point from which our lives flow? How can we reclaim Jesus Christ not only of our spiritual lives but of our physical life?

I don’t have any answers for you on this subject, but I would love to talk with you and hear your feelings on it. I would love to hear what practices you have picked up that help keep your life centered on Jesus Christ and the community he has built called Church. Come by and share your thoughts with me!

Pastor Chris

“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer