The calendar of the church year is very different from the calendar we use day to day. The Gregorian calendar that we use to mark days and months and seasons is built around our experience of day to day life, with seasons marked out to remind us how the weather will change, solstices that tell us when the days will be long and short, and equinoxes to mark the halfway points between the longest and shortest days. In these ways the calendar reminds us that we live in a physical world that has patterns and rhythms to guide our work and our lives.
The Church calendar is similar, but it is built to help us see patterns and rhythms to our spiritual lives. Special days are marked out as holy observances, calling us to remember spiritual truths. Lives of saints point us to the challenges and sufferings of this life of faith we share in Christ, for in Him we share a life of faith not only with one another today, but with all the faithful throughout the millennia. We see that our struggles to remain faithful and the challenges we face as well as the times we live in are very much like those who were found faithful before us. These are meant to encourage us in our faith and guide us forward in the same Christ both we and they serve.
We are now entering a very special time in the church year, that of the Holy Days, or as you’ve heard it more often the Holidays. October gives us Reformation Day to remind us that we can always turn back and be found faithful in a time where faithfulness is in decline even in the Church. This is an important observance because we live in a time where the Holy Scriptures are forsaken by whole church bodies and synods for the sake of making faith acceptable to those who do not believe. To stand firm, always turning to Jesus is our heritage, and our path as God’s people. We must turn our backs to all that pull us from faithfully following Jesus just as our forefathers did. As if to put an exclamation point on this Reformation Day is followed by All Saints Day, which calls us to remember that this life of faith is a matter of life and death both now and in eternity. To be found faithful in Christ Jesus is to live forever, for He alone gives eternal life to all the faithful. At the end of this month we will celebrate the faithful among us at Trinity who have passed on from life to life in Christ this past year, people we loved, respected, and admired. But we celebrate that though they die, yet they live! We look upon them and remember, but the occasion calls us to remember that they look upon us as well. They cheer us on, and plead God’s mercy on our behalf before God’s throne. These Holy Days, and those that come after such as Christmas are marked out to draw our attention away from the day to day marked out on our calendars to the eternal time to come that is your inheritance in Christ! So look, have eyes to see and ears to hear the promises of God’s mercy, grace, and salvation in these Holy Days to come, and everyday.
May God draw you to Himself in Christ Jesus,
