Today
is the first Sunday in the new Church Year. It is the time of year again where
we recount the life of Jesus. This makes good sense since He is our life. The
cycles of the year should revolve around the events of the life of Jesus and
subsequently, the important events in our lives.
For the last several years, we have
made note of the days of the Church Year on our church bulletins. We want you
to be aware of these important cycles as you structure your lives. This is
especially important as the culture around us either ignores the Church Year
altogether or trivializes it in a dramatic fashion. We live in an age in which
the commercialization of everything makes everything seem like just another
excuse to have a party.
Well, we like to party. We are looking for a good excuse, too! But where
is our heart? Our desire is to glorify God in all that we do. The Church Year
gives us many reasons for celebration and rejoicing in the goodness of God
through Christ. It is not just a reason to party but it is the best reason to
party in the right way and for the right reason.
Advent is the four Sundays before
Christmas and marks our preparation for the coming of the Christ. In the Roman
Catholic Church this is a penitential season of confession and repentance. We
have not practiced Advent in this way and we have our reasons why we are
opposed to penitential seasons in the
church year. Regular repentance? Yes. We
do this every week in our Covenant Renewal Worship service. Repenting for weeks
or doing penance, as such? No. But I do
think it is appropriate to examine ourselves regularly asking the Lord to
reveal sins, so that we are eager to see and receive Jesus when He comes in
power.
The arrival of John Baptist in a
miraculous way was the precursor to the arrival of Jesus. His arrival as well
as the arrival of the Christ were prophesied in the last Old Testament book,
Malachi. In that book, we get a sense of the sorts of sins we should be aware
of that brought both judgment and silence from God. These are the sins that
brought reproach on Israel.
The four weeks of Advent are said to
represent the four thousand years from Adam to Christ. But there is another way
to look at the four weeks. Thinking of Malachi, we see that the Lord had been
silent among the prophets for four hundred years. John Baptist arises as an Old
Testament prophet, the one spoken of in Malachi that will be the forerunner of
the Christ. We can take each week as a reminder of one hundred years of silence
from God due to Israel’s sin. This gives us an intense craving for the coming of
the forerunner of Christ and the Messiah, Himself, as God once again speaks to
and redeems His people.
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