Keeping the Seasons

For everything these is a season, and a time                    
for every matter under heaven.             

Ecclesiastes 3:1

This past Sunday we began a new church year with the Season of Advent. I like the seasons of the church year. They help to provide a sort of rhythm to my life. I also like the changing season of our annual trip around the sun. I think it would be hard to live in a place closer to the equator that had so much sameness all the time.

I like the cool fresh air of the fall and the crispness of the snow in the heart of winter.  I like the gradual warming of the spring as we move from crocuses and daffodils to forget-me-nots and peonies. I like the long days of summer and the harvests of tomatoes and peppers.

The church year is also seasonal. We move from Advent to Christmas and Epiphany. Then Ash Wednesday ushers in Lent and a time of reflection and discipline. All of this leading toward the culmination of the 50 days of Easter rejoicing and the Holy Spirit’s visitation at Pentecost.

I like and need this pattern. I like and need each season’s peculiarities and challenges. I like and need each season’s separateness from another season. The church seasons help to order my days and keep me centered in the death and resurrection of Christ.

I know that the world’s season our different than the church’s. Our New Year’s Day is Advent I not January 1st. Our Christmas season begins December 24th not the day after Thanksgiving. Our spring starts with Lent (which means “spring”) not March 21st.

And for me, it’s good to know these seasonal differences and celebrations. It helps to center to me in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ – which I also like and need.

In Christ,

Pastor John D. Morris