Happy New Year!
“For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” Colossians 2:9-10
The title is not a typo. For many years I’ve been trying to reorient my life around the Christian calendar. Historically, a calendar is an essential building block for most cultures. A calendar orients a society of people around what is important to them. It causes us to remember and reflect on what helped to shape our identity and form our culture. It creates a rhythm to the year that distinguishes one society from another.
Think about the American calendar. What does our calendar tell us is important to us as a nation? We remember our founding and independence, those who fought in wars to make that happen, and a few key milestone events along the journey. Think of milestones such as achieving fair labor standards (a.k.a. Labor Day), efforts to end Jim Crow, discrimination, inequality and racism (a.k.a. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day), key historical/political figures (a.k.a. President’s Day), and other important reminders of our values (a.k.a. Mother’s and Father’s Day, Christmas, etc). How does the American calendar orient us? We are loyal nationalists who fought hard for our country and believe in freedom and family.
I’m not going to spend time critiquing the American calendar other than to say that certainly not all of those “aspirations/ideals” of American identity have been realized by everyone. I only offer it as a contrasting example to the Christian calendar. The Christian calendar was established many centuries ago to develop the same kind of identity you might find with any nation-state. The early church believed with all their heart that God had ushered in an alternative Kingdom through the incarnation of His son, Jesus Christ. The early church was not content to orient their life around Roman, or even strictly Jewish customs any longer. They committed to live according to the new Kingdom of God. That Kingdom would need to be oriented around their supreme authority, Jesus Christ. The rhythm that was created was designed to help everyone who joined in that Kingdom movement to run through a pattern of remembrance each year based on the historic markers of that movement.
The Christian calendar starts with Advent in the month of December because it starts with the incarnation. “The “fullness of God” came to earth to dwell in Jesus Christ and be with us (Col. 2:9). Everything for the fledgling new believers changed with the resurrection, but they knew it all started with the birth of Jesus. All the promises, and prophecies ever spoken about a coming Messiah were fulfilled in the life of the little baby born to the virgin Mary. The early church knew that Jesus changed everything, start to finish, and they wanted to develop a rhythm that reflected His impact on our lives. The remainder of the Christian Calendar is built around the revelation of Jesus to the world; His life, miracles, relationships, power, humility, fulfillment, and ultimately his journey to the Cross. Then, it yields into the resurrection, and the remainder of the year becomes a journey of exploration into the fullness of what it means for us to live life under the power and authority of a resurrected King. We do not belong to this world, but now represent the Kingdom of God.
It all begins again right now - December - during the increasingly consumeristic holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas on America’s calendar. It’s Advent according to the Christian calendar. We, a peculiar people, a small and distinct band of believers that are committed to following a God who showed up in a ghetto on the outskirts of mainstream society in an unbelievable display of humility, vulnerability, love, and power. We believe that everything he stood for fundamentally changed the way we understand life, our purpose, and ultimately our destiny. And because we are so committed, we created our own unique culture, eventually becoming known as “The Way” and “Atheists” and now “Christians” because of our identity with Christ.
It has always been important for cultures to build an identity. No less so for the community that serves Jesus Christ. If you’ve typically struggled to find your identity with the Christian calendar, maybe this is your year. Don’t worry if it’s not. It took me a lot of years to really come to terms with being set apart and trying to live according to a different calendar. I’m a work in progress letting go of my nationalistic ties in favor of full alignment with the Kingdom of God. But the Christian calendar is helping me frame this process. Maybe it will help you along the way too.
There is much more to say about Advent. I’d strongly recommend listening to our opening Sunday sermon when Dr. Jeff McPherson laid out the fundamental tensions inherent in Advent (the message begins around the 40.30 timestamp). It’s the “already and not yet” paradox of the Kingdom of God that confounds many and leaves us in a state of confusion. Dr. Jeff shares that rather than despair over the “not yet”, which sometimes yields to hopelessness and in other cases presumption, we are called in these days to inward holiness and expressions of justice and righteousness in the world around us. We wait and seek the welfare of our current location (read “city” in the prophet Jeremiah’s terms) even while we long for the day when all will be made right. Advent must be experienced, and the Christian life in general, with the help and support of others; in Free Methodist terms through cross-cultural collaboration.
In the coming weeks, we will explore the other values of the FMC through the lens of Advent. It will be both our retrospective on the year having spent considerable time exploring our identity as a church, and our foundation for a new year in which we will dig deeper into a spiritual identity rooted in Christ alone. We invite you along on the journey and we encourage you to bring someone along with you.
As part of this journey, we’ll be making available over the next few weeks a small book written by Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin. It is called “Is Christmas Unbelievable?” (click for a quick 1.45 min video explanation) We want you to read this book, but we will also give you one extra (or more if you think of others who will benefit from it) to share with someone at work, or a friend, or a skeptical family member. We are praying it will bear fruit in someone’s heart who has been on the fence, or struggling with understanding the significance of Christmas. This is our gift to you, and our desire to see those who are on the margins finally take that final step toward Christ.
We’ll begin handing those out this coming Sunday in church. Make sure to ask about it if you are not handed one directly. And then invite someone to one of our services. Or send them to one of our online saved broadcasts. I know there are people looking for a new church home. There are people longing for a community of people they can bind to and build trust with and explore the complexities of life. Don't underestimate the power of your personal invitation to that person that the Lord lays on your heart.
May God help us all to grow deeper in our identity with Him and His church. May we all learn to love Him more and more, and allow His mystery and His revelation to spur us onward in our love of others and His creation. May we all remain pliable and yet deeply rooted in His revelation. The incarnation is a fantastic starting point. Immanuel - God with us!
It's Advent!
Happy New Year!
Pastor Scott