The Sanctification of Time
by The Rev’d Canon Stephen C. Scarlett
Rector of St. Matthew’s Church
Advent, Christmas and Epiphany focus on the coming, arrival and revelation of the Messiah. These themes work on two levels. The first level is centered on the Incarnation. We await and prepare for this in Advent. We celebrate it at Christmas. We discover what it means in Epiphany. The second level is centered on the end of time. We are also waiting and preparing for Jesus to “come again in glory to judge the quick and the dead.” This final advent will lead to a more complete epiphany (cf. 1 John 3:2).
From the First Sunday in Advent through the week of the final Sunday after Epiphany, the church experiences time in the light of these truths. God has given the church various feasts and seasons so that our time will be experienced in terms of what God has done, is doing and will do–and not merely in terms of temperature changes and seasonal discounts offered at our favorite store.
God commanded Israel to observe various feasts so that Israel would celebrate the full meaning of time. For example, Passover revealed to Israel that spring was not only about the grain harvest. The grain harvest pointed to the greater things that God had done and promised yet to do. Paganism and nature worship result when people look at the cycles of nature as the ultimate meaning of time; when there is no sense of nature as sacramental, as a sign pointing beyond itself to God.
The feasts and fasts of the church calendar reveal the true meaning of time. For example, Christmas occurs around the time of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, which marks the time when the light will begin to return. The birth of Christ marks the coming of the “the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world” (John 1:9). Spring celebrates fertility, nature coming back to life (although in southern California it never really dies!). This is fulfilled in Easter. The risen Christ bursts from the tomb as the beginning of the new creation.
The calendar redeems the time(Ephesians 5:16) and sanctifies it. It changes time itself into a means of grace. Conversely, when we ignore the calendar we experience time as it is defined by the world. The Advent collect asks for grace to “Cast away the works of darkness and put upon us the armor of light” as we prepare for the coming of Christ as judge. If our preparation for Christmas is informed by the Advent emphasis on repentance and the bearing of new fruit, we are less likely to get caught up in the patently non-Christian aspects of the cultural “holiday season.” Of course, we have to purchase gifts, set up decorations and prepare meals. But when our shopping decorating and cooking is informed by the spirit of Advent and the Incarnation, they are carried out with a greater sense of God’s peace and with a different intention.
The true meaning of time is brought into our daily lives through prayer. On the Lord’s Day, we gather around the altar to remember what time it is. In Advent, the wreath reminds us that the light is coming and the lessons and music call us to get ready. At Christmas, we remember again that God is with us. On Epiphany, Jesus is revealed to be the Son of God. We continue to live in this sanctified time through the discipline of praying the daily offices of Morning and Evening Prayer. The readings, prayers and canticles fill each day with its seasonal meaning. The life of prayer enables us to experience life’s challenges in the light of our redemption in Christ.The calendar brings balance to the Christian life. It covers all of the major themes of our faith in a cycle. Thus, it makes it harder to avoid the things we don’t like or become fixated on minor aspects of the faith. Some Christians don’t like talking about the coming of Christ and judgment. This will be the focus of Advent anyway. Some Christians don’t like to think about fasting and confession. Lent will call us to both every year. Some Christians are always grumpy. Easter will come and there will be joy whether they like it or not!
Churches that reject the church calendar are left with an impoverished and subjective sense of time. Some sort of observe Advent, but it looks and sounds like it is already Christmas. Almost all observe Christmas Day, but give us no twelve day season in which to savor the Incarnation. After that, there is nothing to distinguish time until we get to Easter. Then there is not much after that. The problem is not just that this is a less full and rich way to experienced time. The problem is also that this is less effective in combating the pull of unsanctified time. For if what today is depends upon what I have decided today is, clearly, the meaning of today is up for grabs. I may decide that the meaning of today really is the sale, the big game or any number of eternally inconsequential things.
I have always had sympathy for pastors of churches that do not observe the calendar. Other than Christmas and Easter (and maybe one or two other days) the meaning of each Sunday depends upon them. There are actually worship committees that get together and create the meaning of the coming Sunday out of whole cloth. I remember a seminary class taught by a Presbyterian pastor. The coming Sunday was both Pentecost and Mother’s Day. A student asked him which one his church was going to observe. He said that this year they were going to observe Mother’s Day–and not observe Pentecost. Now, there is nothing wrong with giving honor to mother’s in church on Mother’s Day, even when it coincides with Pentecost However, the day in question was Pentecost, whether that Presbyterian church liked it or not.
In contrast, those of us who live in the sanctified time of the church cannot create meaning for a Sunday. Each Sunday has its own intrinsic meaning. I can choose to preach on a particular aspect of the lessons or on a seasonal them. On Pentecost, I can choose to preach about mothers–hopefully with some connection to the descent of the Spirit. Our organist-choirmaster can draw out and highlight the meaning of the day of season with particular tunes, words melodies and harmonies. But the day is what the day is. We cannot change that. You may even say that God gave us the calendar and the tradition to save the people from overly adventurous and inventive preachers and musicians. Thanks be to God.
The calendar promotes spiritual depth. As we rehearse the drama of our redemption in an annual cycle, we return to themes we have heard and experienced before. Yet, each year we experience them in new and deeper ways. We grow in our sense of what it means to get ready for Christ to come. We gain a deeper appreciation for the Incarnation and how it touches all of life. Christ is revealed to us in new ways. Each season is like a precious stone with many facets. Each time we enter into a season again, we see something that we did not see before; or, we see the same things but are in a different place and are able to see them with greater clarity.
The calendar also provides a pattern for Bible reading. This is one of the geniuses of the Book of Common Prayer. Anglican faith is a biblical faith, which means nothing if it is not a Bible reading faith. The Prayer Book lectionary orders the reading of Scripture so that it draws out the themes of the liturgical seasons. We can cite a few examples. Various parts of Isaiah are apportioned to Advent, Christmas and Epiphany to highlight each season’s theme. Advent give us Revelation, which underscores the call to repent because “He is coming with clouds” (1:7). Christmas gives us 1 John and his emphasis on Jesus having “come in the flesh.” Epiphany season gives us Ephesians and John’s gospel, both of which focus on the revelation of the mystery of Christ.
The Prayer Book lectionary is not the only way to read Scripture with the seasons, but it is a very good way. Our Prayer Book lectionary was revised in 1940. The revisers did a good job for the most part. Other traditions may use another scheme. But two things are essential. First, the person who wants to live in the sanctified time of the church must in some way connect Bible reading to the calendar so that our biblical meditations match the mood and theme of the season. Two, the reading pattern must be common for the whole church so that we are all “on the same page.” For sanctified time is necessarily communal. It is experienced most powerfully when the whole church fasts, feasts, prays and reads together through the year. These two principles of reading are the foundation for the Prayer Book lectionary (BCP x-xli).
The calendar is also filled with the feasts of the saints, the great cloud of witnesses, with whom we are bound in the Communion of the Saints. Sometimes these are propitiously matched with a season, as with St. John (December 27) and Christmas. It is helpful to have at hand a dictionary of the saints or some other book that tells about their lives so that, as we remember them in our daily prayers, we know something about who they are. A Google (or other) search will typical yield at least a few sites with helpful (and reasonably accurate) information on any given saint. It is also good to know something about the saint after whom we were each named–even if the naming was not purposeful. It may have been in God’s larger plan.
We don’t live merely through winter, spring, summer and fall. We live through Advent, Christmas and Epiphany, which give way to Lent and Easter, which lead to Ascension and Pentecost, which all culminate in the great feast of Trinity, which leads us into the long Trinity season of general teaching, after which come again to the end, and the beginning, in Advent. Time is not an endless cycle of nature, harvests, sales at the mall or sports seasons. Time is a cycle that continually moves forward and points us to the end. Sanctified time looks backward to what God had done and forward to what God will do and enables us to experience both in the present moment–in memory and in anticipation–as we wait for the author of time to appear and bring time as we know it to his intended conclusion.
