The Importance of the Christian Calendar

I may lose a little bit of the Baptist points I have accumulated for saying this, but there is something that I think that the Catholic church across the street does better than we do.  Ouch, it hurts just admitting it.  Many times however there is a greater appreciation for the Christian calendar at "high church" settings that I find that go unnoticed in my Baptist tradition.  Today is Fat Tuesday.  And while there is no special religious significance to either the title or to the day itself, it is a crucial day in the life of the church.  It is the day before Ash Wednesday.  Tomorrow marks the beginning of the celebration of lent - the 40 days leading up to Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.  During lent, for centuries people of the Christian faith have found ways to remind themselves of the sacrifice of Christ and have sought to focus their attention upon the work of Christ in a special way during these 40 days.  (Obviously this is a large over-simplification, but for the purposes of the blog today I have less interest in explaining church history and more in the focusing my attention on the death of Christ.)

Like Christmas, we often approach Easter with a very secular attitude.  We shop for candy, decorate eggs and then if we are feeling really spiritual we find some way to connect these secular practices with the church's message about the resurrection of Christ.  We use resurrection eggs to tell the story now.  The sad thing is that the church has at its disposal a very marvelous and unique way to remember and recall and keep in front of our people the events that we celebrate - the calendar.  When we choose to focus our attention on Christ for 40 days throughout lent we are commemorating His death, burial and resurrection.  When we choose to find ways to intentionally focus our thoughts we are accomplishing something that connects us and our children to something far deeper than a resurrection egg filled with candy will ever do. 

Let me be clear that there is nothing magical about the calendar and it is not nearly as important as the events that it recalls that are recorded for us in Scripture.  In fact, this is why we associate the celebrations of the calendar with our catholic neighbors - in some cases the calendar has superseded the Scriptures and this is NOT what we want to do.  Celebrating Lent does not make you a super-Christian or draw you closer to God, only the blood of Christ can draw you close to God.  However, the limitations of something do not make it useless and I believe that using the calendar to focus our attention and reminding us that the events in the life of Christ define our lives help us to remember that our day to day needs to be focused on Christ. 

Tomorrow begins a 40 day celebration and remembrance of the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Whether or not you celebrate Lent, I hope you will celebrate the event that it commemorates - it is an event that we are to proclaim until Christ returns.  I thank God for His dying for me and look forward to celebrating it in the days, and weeks, and years that He chooses to give me.  Soli Deo Gloria.