Should City Churches Celebrate the Harvest Festival?

 

This may seem a strange question perhaps, especially as we still bask in the heat of summer here in the UK. The question is straightforward. Should an urban church celebrate the harvest festival or is this something only relevant for rural parishes surrounded by the farms?

Growing up in church, the Harvest Thanksgiving Service as a fixed point in the church calendar, though I grew up in the inner city. Each October we had a Harvest Weekend, which consisted of a Harvest Supper—a church meal held on the Saturday evening—and a Harvest Thanksgiving Service held on the Sunday. Produce that had been donated for the harvest service was then distributed to elderly and needy people in the parish as well as to local charities working with the homeless and foodbanks.

In the church I now attend, we do not mark harvest in any way and I have always thought that was strange. The answer I once received was that as we are a city parish, harvest is something for rural parishes and so it is not relevant to us.

I didn't agree with that thinking then and I don't agree with it now.

So here are my reasons why I think celebrating harvest should be a part of urban church life as well as in rural churches.

1. Harvest Thanksgiving is about giving thanks to God for his provision for us. Christians in city parishes have no less reason to thank God for the production and supply of crops, fruit, vegetables, meat, fish and dairy produce than anyone directly involved in the production of these foods. Likewise, we can thank God for fresh and clean water, essential to life.

2. A Harvest Thanksgiving service gives us an opportunity to speak about God's creation and creation care more widely, which is obviously of relevant to all Christians wherever they live.

3. Harvest Thanksgiving can also provide an opportunity to reflect on those parts of the world that do not have enough food or clean water and encourage Christians to support charities working in these areas.

4. In urban areas, the concept of thanksgiving for the Harvest, can be broadened to include the "Harvest" of all the talents and work done by others that are good gifts from God—teachers, doctors, nurses, manufacturers, tradespeople, etc.

5. Harvest Thanksgiving in urban areas gives an opportunity to remind children (and indeed all city dwellers) that food does not ultimately come from supermarkets, but from farms and fisheries, and ultimately from God's providing hand.

These are practical reasons and possibilities to make an urban harvest relevant. There is no particular need to gather food in church for the service, though there may be benefit in doing so to support local foodbanks and charities.

It just seems really restrictive to me to suggest that only farmers or fishermen have any reason to give thanks to God when the harvest of food comes in each year. As the harvest hymn says:

All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above;
Then thank the Lord, O thank the Lord for all His love. 

The King Rises

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

With these words, Christians all over the world will begin the celebration of Easter.

Please read Luke 24:1–12

Most Jews in New Testament times probably believed in resurrection, which is the concept that the dead will rise in their bodies from the grave to have a new life with God. But what they believed in was a general resurrection of all the dead at the end of time. No one expected that for one man the resurrection would happen, not at the end of the world, but right in the middle of human history.

But early on the Sunday morning, on the third day after Jesus was crucified, died and was buried, that's exactly what happened. When it did, nothing would ever be the same again.

In the evangelical tradition, the focus tends to be on the cross rather the resurrection. Yes we believe in the resurrection and we focus on the bodily resurrection in contrast with the liberals who deny it. But I don't think we actually grasp the importance of the resurrection all that well. If we're not careful the resurrection can become merely the happy ending after Good Friday, the evidence that the sacrifice of the cross worked. Yet in New Testament terms the cross and resurrection go together as parts of Christ's saving work.

We need to really take hold of this: Christ's death took our sins away, but Christ's resurrection brings us new life. Salvation in biblical terms is about far more than sin management or sin removal, it is about transformation from what we were to what we will be. For that we need more than pardon or forgiveness, amazing though these blessings are. We need to draw new kind of life, eternal life, from Christ's own resurrection life. That's what happens when enter into a living relationship with the risen Christ. When we believe in him, we enter into union with him, so that his death becomes ours and takes our sins away, and his resurrection life becomes ours as well. When that life flows into us, it begins a process of changing us from the inside out. We start to become the kind of people God always wanted us to be. We need more than for the slate to be wiped clean. We need to replace the slate altogether with a new iPad. And that's what the resurrection means in spiritual terms for us.

Paul wrote in Romans 4:25 (Good News Bible): "Because of our sins he was given over to die, and he was raised to life in order to put us right with God."

Happy Easter to all my readers!

The King's Tomb

Please read Mark 15:42–47
 
The Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday is very much the forgotten day of Holy Week. In Christian tradition it is usually called either "Holy Saturday," "Easter Eve," or sometimes "Black Saturday." It is the day when the body of Jesus lay in the tomb after his burial late on the Friday afternoon and the earth-shattering events of the Sunday morning.

The Gospels tell us the tomb where Jesus was buried belonged to a wealthy and influential citizen of Jerusalem called Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Jewish Sanhedrin. He had been a secret disciple of Jesus, yet after Jesus had died, when the other disciples fled, it is Joseph of Arimathea who "comes out" as one of Jesus' followers and he went to Pontius Pilate to take custody of the dead body. Joseph then used the tomb he had presumably purchased for his own use when the time came and laid Jesus to rest in it instead. This in itself is an extraordinary act of service and love that Joseph showed to his Saviour.

The question often asked is what happened to Jesus in between his death and resurrection while his body was in the tomb. What was going on when his body lay in the tomb? The traditional version of the Apostles' Creed says that after being "crucified, dead and buried, He descended into hell." There is no real biblical evidence for this credal statement however. Modern versions of the Creed sometimes change this to "He descended to the dead" or "to the realm of the dead" which ties in with the idea of Hades as simply the place where the dead go, rather than a place where they go to be punished as Hell (or Gehenna) suggests.

This raises the whole question of what theologians call "the intermediate state" between death and resurrection for all of us. It is too big a subject to go into in any detail here, but I think the correct view is that for us when a Christian dies their soul goes at once to a part of heaven and they are consciously in the presence of Jesus. When non-Christians die their souls go to a place usually called Sheol in Hebrew or Hades in Greek. It is not "Hell" as we think of it, but a sort of shadowy waiting place where their souls dwell until the last judgment. Hell, whatever it is, is only entered into after the judgment at the end of time.

But what about Jesus when he died? One biblical piece of evidence is that on the cross, Jesus said the thief, "Today, you will be with me in Paradise" (Luke 23:43). This would suggest that Jesus went to "Paradise" after he died. So what is Paradise? Well if we look at 2 Corinthians 12 we see that Paul calls the same place "heaven" and "paradise" so it would seem that Paradise is another word for heaven or at least a part of heaven. So after he died, Christ both in a part of heaven and in the realm of the dead, but not hell according to Scripture.

My own view, tentatively held, is that all the dead go to Hades, but part of Hades somehow overlaps with and is touched by heaven and is this place is called Paradise. Only those who are right with God can go there and they are in God's presence there. The word "paradise" comes from the Persian language and means a "walled garden" - which could mean it is both in Hades, but separated from the main part of Hades. If this is the case, then it is possible to affirm both that Christ was in Paradise while he was dead, but also that he descended to the realm of the dead or descended to Hades. He may even have been able to visit all parts of Hades, not just Paradise as 1 Peter 4:6 suggests.

But all this is not something I would be at all dogmatic about!

The important point is that Jesus was really dead, really buried, and really went to the realm where the dead go to show it. But only until the third day came...

The King Dies

Please read Matthew 27:33–53
 
Today is Good Friday, the most solemn day in the Christian year when we mark the crucifixion and death of Jesus. At a purely human level, the cross remains a shocking and sad event. The death of a young man, murdered by his powerful enemies, convicted of a crime he didn't commit, tortured to death, an idealist who paid the ultimate price for this principles of love, justice and freedom. Because of all this I hesitated to say that Christians "celebrate" Good Friday. We commemorate it and we are profoundly moved by it, but it is hard to celebrate a man's bloody and brutal murder. These are what we might call the "human interest" elements to the story and they tend to be the focus of dramatic treatments of Christ's death whether in paintings or in cinema.

Yet the Bible's focus is not so much on the human interest elements as on the theological meaning of the death of Jesus. It is in the profound spiritual truths of what Christ's death accomplished as atonement or reconciliation with God, expiation of sin, propitiation of wrath, redemption from slavery, victory over Satan, release from punishment and deliverance from death (to name just some things that the New Testament says the cross of Jesus Christ has done for us) that the death of Jesus finds its true meaning. It is because of what the cross means for broken and guilty humanity that it is transformed from the waste of a good life to the greatest use of a good life that has ever or could ever happen.

He died that we might be forgiven,
He died to make us good,
That we might go at last to heaven,
Saved by His precious blood.

The question the death of Jesus poses to you today is this: will his death have been in vain for you or not? Because the true meaning of the death of Jesus can only be fulfilled in the lives of those who are in spiritual union with him, and the benefits of what Christ has achieved on the cross are only shared with those who want them. Do you want forgiveness for your past and transformation for your future? Do you want a relationship with God through Jesus? That's what Christ is even now offering you through the cross. To accept it he only looks for you to trust and follow him in faith. This Good Friday, let the King's death change your life forever.

The King's Feast

Please read Mark 14:12–26
 
The Thursday of Holy Week is often known as "Maundy Thursday." Maundy is an old word for the ritual of footwashing. It was on the Thursday of Jesus' last week that he washed the disciples feet to show the need for Christians to serve each other. Some Christian traditions still have footwashing as a ritual to show our humility and duty of service to others, especially our duty to the poor. (This is the origin of the monarch distributing "Maundy Money" today.)

But this post is about another rite that Christ introduced on the same day; one which is observed by almost all Christians - the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, also known as the Eucharist (Thanksgiving) or Holy Communion, or as we might also call it "The King's Feast."

Imagine the scene in the upper room that Thursday night. The disciples have gathered with Jesus to celebrate the Passover meal, just as they had every year since boyhood. They had probably eaten this special meal twenty, thirty or forty times before on previous Passovers. It's as traditional to them as Christmas dinner is to us. Then, in the middle of the meal, Jesus does something totally new and unexpected. He switches from commemorating, through the meal of roast lamb, the exodus from Egypt in Moses' time and now looks forward to a new exodus - a new deliverance for God's people - through his own death as the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.

The meal is as simple as possible. Bread and wine. Bread symbolising Christ's body broken for us on the cross; wine symbolising Christ's red blood poured out to seal a new covenant between God and his people. The eating and drinking of the bread and wine symbolising the living relationship of faith and obedience that depends on Christ and draws on Christ for spiritual nourishment and life. And the sharing of the loaf and cup with fellow believers symbolising our unity and comradeship as Christian pilgrims on the Way together.

A simple meal of bread and wine and yet the greatest feast this world affords and the foretaste of the great King's feast to come when Christ returns in glory.

The King's Enemies

Please read Luke 22:1–6
 
The Wednesday of Holy Week is sometimes known as "Spy Wednesday" in the Christian calendar because it probably on this day that Judas Iscariot went in secret to the Sanhedrin to begin the dark negotiations that would lead to him agreeing to betray Jesus the next night to them for thirty pieces of silver.

We may never know what motivated Judas to do what he did. Perhaps it was that by his actions Judas realised Jesus was not going to conform to his image of what the Messiah should be?  Judas may have felt betrayed himself because he expected Jesus to lead an armed rebellion against Rome and could not come to terms with his master's message of peace and non-violence? Whatever the reason, the time is now right for Judas to make his move and try to salvage something for his time "wasted" with Jesus and he agrees to give Jesus up for a payoff of thirty pieces of silver, which was roughly four month's wages at that time. A large amount of money, but by no means a fortune in return for selling out a close friend.

What is obvious is that Jesus was surrounded by enemies by this point. Not only the temple leadership but also the Pharisees are all looking for a way to have Jesus killed. Yet behind them all is Christ's archenemy, Satan himself. It was this enemy - the devil - that Christ came to earth to defeat and destroy as prophesied all the way back in Genesis 3:15. And it was this enemy that Christ did crush in the victory of the cross and the triumph of the resurrection.

The King's Wisdom

Please read Luke 20:1–8
 
The Tuesday of Holy Week is sometimes known as the day of questions because the Gospels record a number of questions that people asked Jesus on that day and the replies Jesus gave.

The questions were mainly hostile on that day. There were questions about who he was, what he was doing and what his authority was for doing them. As ever, Jesus’ answers are striking and supremely wise. When the questioner is trying to trap him he doesn't avoid answering but gives answers that can be interpreted in more than one way. He also turns the tables on the questioners and leaves them looking foolish. That tends to be the way when people come to Christ without faith and with hostility.

The situation is very different if we come with genuine, honest questions. If we come with the attitude of "I believe, help Thou my unbelief" then Christ is very patient and compassionate with us.

Paul wrote that Christ is the very wisdom of God. He gives the answers to life's most fundamental questions about who we are, what we're here for, and where are we going. Christ can answer all the questions in your heart. He asks you only one question in return: "Will you trust and follow me?"

The King Visits

Please read Matthew 21:12–17
 
The Monday of Holy Week is often used as a day to reflect on Christ's visit to the temple in Jerusalem. The Gospels tell us that when Jesus saw all the merchants and money-changers doing business in the temple courts he was angry. Jesus' words are sharp and to the point. "My Father's house will be called a house of prayer but you have turned it into a den of thieves."

Doing business in the temple this way was symptomatic of the corruption of the whole temple system that had crept in over the years. The area where the traders met was called the court of the Gentiles. It was an area that symbolised Israel's responsibility to draw the Gentile nations into covenant with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Instead it had been turned into a holy market place.

But not only was Israel failing in its calling to be the light for the world, the traders themselves were exploiting temple worshippers. Most people coming to the temple would come to make some kind of sacrifice in accordance with the Torah laid down in the first five books of the Bible. The traders sold animals that were acceptable for use, without blemish, but they sold them at inflated prices. They also operated currency changing facilities as only temple currency could be used in the temple (not Roman coinage). Again, sharp exchange rates operated to rip off worshippers and pilgrims.

It is this kind of "religion" where people are exploited and robbed of money that makes Jesus angry. One can only wonder what he would make of TV evangelists and certain Christian "ministries" in our day who seem to be more interested in the financial giving of people above all else.

In our churches we need to be constantly on our guard that no corruption enters into our practice and more likely perhaps that we do not put up needless barriers that stop people coming to worship God or enter into a relationship with Jesus Christ.

The King Arrives

As we approach Easter, I plan to post a short reflection each day about the events in Christ's life during the final "holy week" before his crucifixion and subsequent resurrection.

Please read Matthew 21:1–11

Today is Palm Sunday, marking the beginning of Holy Week in the Christian calendar. The Gospels tell us that it was on the equivalent Sunday in about AD 30 that Jesus of Nazareth began the last week of his earthly life and the culmination of the three years of his public ministry as an itinerant rabbi in Palestine. On that day, Jesus rode into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey and receiving the acclaim of a large crowd of thousands of people as the long awaited King of Israel, the Messiah.

As he rode into the holy city, the crowd threw down their cloaks and waved palm branches in praise to God (hence the name Palm Sunday). Children as well as adults sang his praises. For many people this was going to be the beginning of a holy revolution that would throw the occupying Romans out of Palestine and restore the nation of Israel to its former glory. It was the dawning realisation that Jesus wasn't going to be that kind of Messiah that led to the crowds turning against him and demanding his death only five days later.

What Christ's mission involved was far greater than defeating the Roman armies. Christ rode into Jerusalem knowing he was coming to die. And so courageously and resolutely he rode into the jaws of hell to win salvation for sinners. He was a victorious Messiah, but the enemies he defeated were sin, death and the devil. And rescued not just one nation but the whole world. He came as God's king to set up the Kingdom of God, but he came to do that through making peace, not through hatred and war. He was a king utterly unlike any before or since. He is a king who does not create subjects by force or by political guile; his "subjects" are regarded as his friends and their loyalty is won only by the king's love for them and their trust and love for him in return.

The Christian Year

I really like this graphic on the traditional Christian year.

The Beginning of Advent

We are now in the season of Advent, the beginning of the Christian Year. Once again we mark enter this season of looking forward to the coming of Christ in two senses. We prepare to celebrate his incarnation at Christmas when he was born as a tiny baby and we anticipate his second coming in glory to reign forever.

Earlier this year I wrote a piece on the Christian year. I decided back then that when this new year began I was going to consciously try to follow the Christian year in my own devotional life. I'm going to be using the lectionary readings as my guide as well as a couple of books: Living the Christian Year by Bobby Gross and Ancient-Future Time: Forming Spirituality Through the Christian Year by Robert Webber.

This advent my thoughts are going to focused on God's plan to bless the world through Abraham's descendants, in calling Israel to be the light of the world and the nation's failure to meet that calling, in the prophetic witness that God himself would act decisively to restore his broken creation and finally in God's sending his own Son to be the one faithful Israelite, the Messiah, who would fulfil the plan that Israel failed to fulfil, to be the prophet, priest and king that would redeem, rescue, rule and recreate the world.

I'm looking forward to the exciting spiritual journey ahead.

Pentecost

Today the Christian church celebrated Pentecost (also known as Whitsunday). The day celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit upon Christian believers in power as recorded in Acts 2. Jesus promised that when he went away he would then send another "helper" (John 14:16).

The word used by Jesus was "paraclete" which is a rich word, difficult to translate by one English word. It means a helper, a comforter, a counsellor, a guide, an advocate, an encourager, an interceder, an uplifter. The meaning of the Greek word parakletos implies that the one helping and so forth gets right alongside the person being helped or comforted. It implies an intimate, close relationship. In the case of the Holy Spirit's relationship with the Christian believer, he could not be closer to us, for the Holy Spirit dwells inside every Christian (1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Timothy 1:14).

As I sat in church this morning, seeing a wide variety of nationalities present in the service, I couldn't help but imagine the impact of the apostles speaking in foreign languages and being understood by various nations, undoing the events of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11) and signalling that God's Spirit and God's Word were now about to go out into all the earth to draw people to the Saviour.

And I gave thanks to God the Holy Spirit for coming like a rushing wind to Scotland over a thousand years ago. May the Holy Spirit come in power upon the Church of Scotland General Assembly this week for what will be a difficult and costly debate no matter what the Assembly decides. We all need his help, guidance and encouragement as much today as ever.

Ascension Day

We never fail to mark Christmas, Good Friday and Easter as Christians, but how many of us forget about the fourth leg of Christ's amazing salvation journey? Today is Ascension Day, when the church marks the fact that 40 days after his resurrection, Christ "ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty" (in the words of the Apostles' Creed). The event is recorded both in Luke's Gospel and in Acts.

The Ascension matters for a number of reasons including

1. It signals the end of his earthly ministry and his physical departure from this world. God the Father had lovingly sent His Son into the world at Bethlehem, and now the Son was returning to the Father.

2. It signified the ultimate success and complete triumph of his earthly work. All that he had come to do, he had accomplished.

3. It marked the return of his heavenly glory. Jesus' glory had been veiled during his sojourn on earth, with one brief exception at the transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9) but now he is revealed in all his cosmic glory.

4. It symbolises his exaltation by the Father (Ephesians 1:20-23). The Son with whom the Father is well pleased (Matthew 17:5) was received up in honour and given a name above all names (Philippians 2:9).

5. It allowed him to prepare a place for us (John 14:2).

6. It indicates the beginning of a new work as High Priest making intercession for us (Hebrews 4:14-16) and being the Mediator of the New Covenant (Hebrews 9:15).

7. It allowed him to send the Holy Spirit on his disciples (which happened 10 days later at Pentecost) as he promised. (Acts 2).

So let's celebrate the ascension of the Lord Jesus today.

The Christian Year

Why follow the Christian Year?

Recently I have been thinking on the benefits of following the Christian year in our churches. In the evangelical tradition I am part of the emphasis has traditionally been placed on systematic expository preaching through books (or sections of books) of the Bible, Sunday-by-Sunday, with little emphasis given to the Christian calendar except for Christmas and Easter.

Some have argued that there is no biblical justification for following a set pattern of festivals throughout the year marking the significant events of Jesus' life, death and resurrection or significant milestones in the life of the Church. Two things might be said in reply to this. First, there is biblical justification for marking significant events in the story of the people of God by special days and festivals because that is exactly what God commanded Israel to do in the Old Testament and the for the very same reason: so they would not forget their story as a people. There seems to me to be a good case to be made for taking this biblical principle and applying it to the story of God's people in the New Testament, though since the New Testament is not explicit about this, there must be liberty of opinion allowed in this matter. Never again should there be shameful days when one part of the Church would persecute another part of the Church because one part would or would not observe significant days in the Christian calendar. Second though, to those evangelical brothers and sisters who are suspicious of the Christian year and favour systematic expository preaching Sunday by Sunday, the point needs to be made that it is no more commanded in the Bible that we preach through whole books of the Bible or sections of larger books week by week than it is that we follow the Christian seasons in the traditional church calendar. Both are ways of organising the teaching schedule for the church; neither is laid down in Scripture as the right way.

Yet beyond these negative reasons for not prohibiting following the Christian year I think there are also a number of positive reasons why churches might consider following at least the basic pattern of the Christian year. In doing so we are following a rich tradition that has at least the wisdom of many generations of believers behind it. Let's look at a few of the arguments.

First, if we follow the Christian year there is a natural and welcome tendency to focus directly on the life and teachings of Jesus and the key events in the life of Christ's people, the Church. The Christian year is basically marked by reference to the key events in the life of Christ: his birth, his death, his resurrection and his ascension, the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the birth of the community of believers. Following the Christian year keeps Jesus and his life and teachings centre stage in our thinking. This is not always the case when pursuing a long series of expository sermons from the Old Testament or on other themes chosen by an individual minister or pastor.

Second, following the Christian year is a demonstration of the unity we share with Christians from many different churches and theological traditions. The Christian year can be a tool to remind us that we are part of a worldwide family and it fosters a sense of unity to be thinking of similar themes throughout the year with a large number of other believers. It gives us a sense that the whole church is sharing in worship together at particular times of the year. This is especially the case if the church is using a lectionary for readings shared across denominations.

Third, following the Christian year gives a pattern to our worship through the year and from year to year. For many people there is great comfort and spiritual benefit in the cycle of observing the great festivals of Christmas and Easter which focus on the two great truths of Christianity - that God became incarnate and came to earth in the man Jesus of Nazareth and that through his sacrificial death and rising from the dead he is shown to be the Lord and Saviour of the world.

Having grown up in a church which did tend to follow the basic pattern of the traditional year, with the addition of other "set days" like Mothering Sunday, Harvest Thanksgiving, Remembrance Sunday and Christian Aid Week I find it difficult at times to now be in a fellowship where such things are either totally ignored or perhaps briefly mentioned to the children but do not often form the backdrop to the sermon.

Perhaps this just means I am more of a traditionalist than I thought. There is benefit to working systematically through "the whole counsel of God". All Scripture is God-breathed and so all Scripture should be read and preached through in church services. That's agreed. But it should be possible to combine systematic expository preaching with marking the significant days in the Christian year. This is particularly the case if a church has two services on a Sunday, where different patterns could be used for morning and evening worship.

What is the Christian Year?

The Christian year begins in late November or early December with Advent and then runs through to twelve months, ending with Christ the King Sunday just before the beginning of the following advent. The seasons and significant days are shown in the following picture:

Advent

In the Christian year, "New Year's Day" is Advent Sunday, which is always fourth Sunday before Christmas and so it can occur be the last Sunday in November or the first Sunday in December. The season of advent follows, which focuses on waiting for the coming of the Messiah, whether that be his first coming as a baby or his second coming as Lord of glory

Christmas

Advent ends on Christmas Eve and then comes the Christmas season or Christmastide, the twelve days of Christmas, beginning on 25th December with Christmas Day and running through the (secular) new year to the evening of 5th January ("Twelfth Night"). This joyful time marks the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and the coming of "the Saviour, who is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:11). Christmas Day is, along with Easter, one of the two greatest days of the Christian year. The Christmas period either includes one or two Sundays depending on what day of the week Christmas Day falls.

Epiphany

After Christmastide comes Epiphany on 6th January. The word "epiphany" comes from the Greek and means "manifestation" or "significant appearing". This festival celebrates the revelation of God in the person of Jesus Christ and particularly the fact that God came to earth for all the nations of the world. This was shown in visit of the Wise Men recorded in Matthew 2 which is usually the focus of Epiphany Bible readings. In some churches epiphany is celebrated on the nearest Sunday to the 6th January instead of on the 6th.

Ordinary Time
 
The Sunday after Epiphany is usually used to mark the Baptism of Jesus and the beginning of his public ministry. This jump from his birth to his baptism is in line with the same jump found in the Gospel narratives. The period after this is the first period of so-called "Ordinary Time" in the Christian year. "Ordinary" in this sense has the same root as "ordinal" and means "counted" period. This period of Ordinary time lasts until Shrove Tuesday and can include anywhere from three to eight Sundays depending on when Easter falls in a given year. In terms of the secular calendar, this period occurs from January to either February or March. The teaching during this period usually focuses on Christ's earthly ministry and his teachings in parables.The last day of Ordinary Time is Shrove Tuesday.

Lent

Lent is a period of forty days between Ash Wednesday and the Saturday before Easter (although there are actually 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter, the six Sundays are not part of Lent). Lent is a period of re-dedication to God and solemn preparation for Easter through prayer, repentance, self-denial and giving to the poor and needy. The teaching focus during Lent is on Christ's life of dedication to his Father's will and his sacrificial giving of himself on the cross. The forty day period is reminiscent of Israel's 40 year wandering in the wilderness and Christ's 40 days of fasting and temptation in the desert. Many Christians will give up certain luxuries as a token of self-denial and reliance on God (often giving the money that would have been spent to charities working with the poor).

Passiontide and Holy Week

The last two weeks of the Lent period is known as Passiontide and Passion Sunday (the fifth Sunday of Lent) traditionally focuses on the atonement made by Christ on the cross. Passion here refers to Christ's sufferings on behalf of believers.

The final week of Lent is usually known as Holy Week. Beginning on Palm Sunday when Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem at the beginning of his last week on earth is commemorated. The following days of Holy Week tie in with the events recorded in the Gospels during this week. The week comes to a climax on Maundy Thursday, the day that Christ celebrated the Last Supper with his disciples and then Good Friday itself which commemorates Christ's crucifixion. Holy Week ends with the Saturday during which Christ was dead and buried in the tomb.
 
Easter

Easter Day is the most important day of the Christian year. It is the Sunday when the whole church celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The dates of most Christian days and seasons are determined in relation to Easter which is a "movable feast" meaning its date varies from year to year. The date of Easter itself is determined by a very complicated method relating to the full moon near the vernal equinox, but it can be any date from 22 March through to 25 April. This means that in the Northern Hemisphere, Easter comes during the spring season when the land changes from the death of winter and new life comes to the world, which makes a striking backdrop to the new life that comes through Christ.

Easter Day marks the beginning of the Eastertide period or "Great Fifty Days" that run from Easter Day through to Pentecost or Whitsunday. Eastertide is a fifty day celebration of the resurrection. The period corresponds to the fifty days in the Gospels and Acts between Christ's resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. It includes Ascension Day which is always on a Thursday, exactly 40 days after Easter.

The teaching themes in this period typically focus on Christ's resurrection and ascension and the implication of these great truths for the people of God.

Pentecost

Pentecost (which means "Fiftieth Day" in Greek as it occurs fifty days or seven weeks after Easter). Pentecost is also known as Whitsunday. It is the day when the church celebrates the coming of the Holy Spirit. Pentecost always occurs in May or June.

Ordinary Time and Kingdomtide

The second period of Ordinary Time begins the day after Pentecost in May or June and runs right through to the day before Advent Sunday in late November or early December.

The first Sunday of this period, a week after Pentecost, is called Trinity Sunday and the church's teaching focuses on the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, that the one true God exists as three persons. Other significant dates within this period include All Saints' Day on 1st November, which, in Protestant terms, marks the unity between all Christians (who are all "saints") and the bond between the church militant on earth and the church triumphant in heaven, and Christ the King Sunday which is the last Sunday of the Christian year and focuses on Christ's lordship over his church and the world.

In some parts of the church, the second half of the Ordinary Time period, from the Sunday nearest 31st August through to Christ the King Sunday is known as Kingdomtide and focuses on the concept of the Kingdom of God and the reign of Christ on earth and heaven with all that is implied by that for the world in spiritual, missional and political terms including the need for social justice in the world. Although Kingdomtide is not commonly observed now as a distinct period, I think there is good reason for reviving this season in the church calendar.

As well as these traditional church days and seasons, many churches also observe a number of other annual events and festivals. Among these would typically be in the UK a focus on international aid during Christian Aid Week in May, Harvest Thanksgiving in September or October, Remembrance Sunday in November. Some Protestant churches also have Bible Sunday on the last Sunday in October or perhaps they may mark the beginning of the Protestant Reformation on 31st October.

Remembrance Sunday

 

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

- from For the Fallen by Laurence Binyon.

Epiphany

Today is widely celebrated in Christianity as "Epiphany" (from the Greek meaning "manifestation" or "sudden appearance") where we reflect on the fact that Jesus came not just for the Jews but for the whole Gentile world also. This was first shown not long after his birth when he was visited by the Magi or wise men in Bethlehem (Matthew 2).

We tend to think of the visit of the wise men as part of the nativity story. But the fact that Jesus was born in a place where animals were kept, but the family were in a house by the time the wise men arrived, strongly suggests that some time had passed between the two events. So perhaps the couple of weeks between Christmas and Epiphany is not so daft.

In the ancient world the division between the science of astronomy and the magical belief of astrology was blurred. The Magi were probably from modern day Iran or Iraq - we don't know if there were three of them - but they must have journeyed a long way and for many months to arrive in Palestine.

The Magi story is one of my favourite passages of Scripture. It tells us so many important things. Most of all it tells us that God's love and God's salvation is for everyone. It's for Gentiles as well as Jews. It's for people whose lifestyle the Scriptures do not approve of (astrology is condemned in the Old Testament as a pagan practice). It's for educated, sophisticated, intellectual people, not just for simple shepherds - the Magi were part of the intellectual elite of Persian culture. And it's for the wealthy as well as the poor - the Magi could afford to present Christ with lavish gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh - very expensive, luxury items of the ancient world.

Christ is for everyone. That's the central message of Epiphany. Isn't that a good reason to celebrate today?