When I said those words, she leaned forward and touched the bruises on my face and asked, "What grace is there in these?"
Without thought, I replied, "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."
Romans 8:28 popped into my head, even as tears slipped down my cheeks at her touch.
I was as surprised at my words as she. I believe them, even if my emotions do not seem to follow. I do believe them.
If I could have, I would have quoted the end of the Pastor P's comments on the Church year I posted yesterday:
We need to be careful about connecting one Sunday to the Sunday to come and to its Sunday past as links in the chain of a people who wait upon the Lord, who are busy during the wait with His purpose and mission, and who live each day trusting in Him whose promise is fulfilled in Christ, whose grace is sufficient for the day, and whose mercy is glimpsed even in sorrow and struggle, trial and tragedy. We wait upon the Lord...
I will admit that I have viewed my own pastor's comments on the Church year with a measure of ambivalence. I find it confusing and complex...and foreign. I think, in the back of my mind, I classified it as something that was not all that important to faith, to even the Lutheran confession. I was wrong.
We do not direct the pulse of history toward its destiny, God does.
This, too, has stuck with me. My comments, my feelings, about Christmas sort of align with this, although Pastor P was talking about the Church year as a whole, not merely one season of it. We have changed Christmas at a fundamental level and yet the Church as a whole, at least the Church I have experienced, has not really blinked an eyelash. Yes, there are Christmas sermons and Christmas services and Christmas performances (parades/pageants/plays/concerts). But I have never known Christians who do not essentially have as their focus feasting and presents and parties. The Christ part of it is just that. Part. A fair amount of greed and gluttony take center stage. After all, the world absconded Christmas and twisted it to conform to its own likeness. In my opinion, we Christians uttered nary a protest, following along like the sheep we are.
When I read through the Advent booklet as I was setting it into my design, I kept thinking about how I never knew anyone who spent the four Sundays of Advent and their following weeks in remembrance of the coming of the Lord, in waiting on Him. Nor, for that matter, did I know anyone who celebrated Christmas for 12 days. Or even the Epiphany, the revelation of Christ as God. Why celebrate that?
When Pastor first explained how the Church year was a way for early Christians, who did not have the bible, to learn about Christ, about how the Church year takes us through the life of Christ to show us God's plan and His Work, I thought, Oh, that's a good idea. Before the Gutenberg press, most people did not have a copy of the bible. Even then, they didn't have one in their own language. Many people today do not.
But I do. And I know God's work. I was certain that I didn't really need to know about the Church year, to follow it. Other than learning something about the Church year so that I can follow the lectionary without having to ask someone all the time what week it was, I just didn't think it was...for me.
Today, I read a homily that referred to Christ Mass. Boy, did I like that! Again...a different perspective. To me, I think the Church year is just that, a perspective...one that really is counter culture to this world. Are we not aliens? Are we not to live in the world but be not of it? Did Jesus not say the world would not understand His message, that it would appear foolish? Did He not say the world would hate us?
To me, following the Church year, having it form my schedule, frame my days, would be the perspective that I crave, rather than that which I abhor.
But what does it really mean to follow the Church year?
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I just found a mistake in the Advent booklet. SIGH.
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