I invite you to watch this YouTube video as we enter into the Advent Season.
I live in the south of England. One of the things I love here are all the old churches with their beautiful architecture, art, and traditions. I love the artwork reflecting the story of Jesus. I know this story; I have known it all my life. Recently though I had been hearing how many Christians practiced and observed the church calendar and I wasn’t quite sure what that meant.
I decided to learn about the church calendar with my colleagues in the Centre for Christian Formation and Discipleship. Learning about the church calendar was a gift, I soon realized, though not just a gift from this group and not even just for people from this day and time. It was a gift from a huge communion of worshipping Christians, saints from many lands, places and times; people whose faith was placed in the life of Jesus Christ.
When my colleagues and I read the story of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke I began to visualize myself in Bible times being in the crowds of people, in the lives of the people there, in the culture. As I looked at people’s faces and watched them, I found myself crying with them, laughing and celebrating with them. As I looked at Jesus, I saw Him look at me. I saw how He loved me, cared about me, and I even saw how He identified with me in my hurts, betrayals, humiliation, and shame. I saw His tears.
I was no longer just hearing the story of Jesus or studying a story about Jesus. Instead, the story surrounded me. I had entered into the story and I was participating in His story. I was there. I was experiencing the story and because of that, I have seen changes in my life.
One of the churches I visited in England often had readings, other than from Scripture, in their worship times. I enjoyed this very much as it created an atmosphere of freedom where I could reflect deeper and relive God’s story throughout church calendar. I began to understand more about the art, the icons, and the traditions and they became much more meaningful to me. During this season of Advent, as we wait for the arrival of baby Jesus, I would like to invite you to also enter into His story, not just this month but throughout the entire year.
Below is a poem I heard at church at the beginning of the Advent season.
Sounding the Seasons
By Malcolm Guite
Tangled in time, we go by hints and guesses,
Turning the wheel of each returning year.
But in the midst of failures and successes
We sometimes glimpse the love that casts out fear.
Sometimes the heart remembers its own reasons
And beats a Sanctus as we sing our story,
Tracing the threads of grace, sounding the seasons
That lead at last through time to timeless glory.
From the first yearning for a Saviour’s birth
To the full joy of knowing sins forgiven,
We start our journey here on God’s good earth
To catch an echo of the choirs of heaven.
I send these out, returning what was lent,
turning to praise each ‘moment’s monument’.