Day 215
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Going from a church tradition that has a saturated liturgical calendar (Easter! Good Friday! Ash Wednesday! All Saints' Day! Feast of St. Stanislaus! etc.) to one that emphasises the importance of the Lord's Day (period)...it's interesting. I've swung back and forth between two extremes for the past few year, and I think it's time to stop.
Maybe it's because I can see from where both the stubborn old Catholics and stubborn old RPs come. I want to celebrate Easter in April, but I also want to celebrate Easter every day. I think that saying "He is risen!" once a year is silly. The fact that Christ is risen is a fact that I want on my lips every moment.
posted, with grace and poise, by Jason @ 4/08/2007 08:12:00 PM,
3 Comments:
-
At 9:52 PM,
RVWarren said...
-
It is funny that I struggle with the same thing, especially that I've never been part of a high liturgical tradition. I go back and forth whether we should celebrate Christmas or Easter, especially since they have some roots in pagan tradition.
A liturgical calendar, however, makes a lot of sense to me. We worship a God who has created seasons and times, weekdays and weekends, why shouldn't our lives and our worship move in a similar pattern? (We are, after all, just as much a part of creation as everything else created).
Let's dialogue about this. -
At 10:39 PM,
Chris said...
-
That's definitely a tension i feel as well. I really enjoy the liturgical calendar because I feel that it allows us to focus on certain periods of Christ's life in a way that we wouldn't normally experience.
Apparently, there are some RP pastors who preach about Christ's birth on Easter and His death on Christmas. That just seems juvenile to me.
I think there can be a balance that allows us to both experience those times in a different way than normal, but also not get carried away in only celebrating certain aspects at certain times.
Let me know what you and Russ conclude. -
At 8:06 PM,
Buddy Chamberlain said...
-
I think the variety of traditions allows for expressions of our relationship with Christ that vary along with our personalities and those things we identify with.
For instance, I am inclined to place a lot of value on symbols, order, and formality. I think this is why I enjoy Army life. On the same note, I enjoy the liturgical tradition I've found as an Anglican.
Do I recognize that we ought to celebrate all aspects of our relationship with Christ all of the time? Certainly! And I admit I'm as likely to forget to enjoy ANY aspect of that relationship as anyone! The church calendar at least helps give me focus, as my mind often slips away.
But all the same, I can see how tradition can lead to hollowness, or even the mistaken idea that it is the action that proves our love, sort of like a man who thinks that buying roses is just as good for his wife as paying attention to her.
So I think, liturgical or not, we ought to check ourselves often. We ought to seek to embrace our Lord, expressing our love for Him in our lives and in our pursuit of Him. He loves us whether we get a good workout at church (kneel, stand, kneel, stand, walk forward, walk back, kneel again), or we set aside every Sunday as a special day for us and our families, or we occasionally feel too busy to even show our faces in a place of worship regularly.
Fact is, He loves us. Period. We ought to strive to return it, and rejoice together as we feel best expresses that love.
(sorry if that doesn't settle any sort of "debate" you were hoping to have. Hahaha.)
