The Presence and Action of God in Our Lives
December Epistle Article by the Rev. Wallace Adams-Riley, Rector
As of the First Sunday in Advent, a new year in the life of the Church year is underway. We begin this year, as we do every year in the life of the Church, by getting ready for Christmas. Of course, however, what it means for the Church to get ready for Christmas is not the same thing as what it means for the culture to get ready for Christmas. Indeed, Advent is one of those times when we are perhaps most aware of a certain dissonance between the Church’s calendar and the secular calendar. All of which presents us with as good a time as any to consider the following: Why do we have a Church calendar?
On the simplest level, the Church calendar is a way to memorialize, in an orderly and regular way, the events of the life of Christ, from expectancy through birth, through life and ministry, suffering and death, and, finally, through to the Resurrection and the Ascension. However, memorializing the life of Christ is only the beginning.
Through the course of the Church year, with all of its seasons and fast days and feast days, we are not only remembering, honoring, and celebrating what happened in the earthly life of Jesus, two millennia ago, we are meanwhile, hoping that, through reflection on the life of Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we would become yet more deeply attuned to the presence and action of God in our own lives now. Yes, the Church year is about the life of Christ that was, but the Church year is also about the life of Christ that is:
O holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend to us, we pray;
cast out our sin, and enter in,
be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
the great glad tidings tell;
o come to us, abide with us,
our Lord Emmanuel!
What this means, then, is that every Advent and Christmas, we the Church ask God to help us know yet more fully what it means to prepare to receive God into our lives, and what it means for God to be incarnated, manifested, born, into our midst, in very real ways: as Bishop Brooks wrote, “be born in us today.”
Of course Jesus was born in Bethlehem only once; however, if the Gospel means anything to us, then the divine dynamics of Jesus’ life must play out in our own lives. That is, the rhythms of Jesus’ life must become the rhythms of our lives. And this is equally true for us as a parish as it is for us as individuals.
Through this Advent we are indeed preparing for Christ to be born anew in us. We are pregnant with expectation and hope. Our Such Great Heights visioning process recently concluded; and thoughtful, conscientious work is underway to make sure that our shared discernment bears the fruit for which we have worked and prayed. And, meanwhile, a search committee is doing important work in preparation for the calling of a new Minister of Music sometime in coming weeks. And, simultaneously, God is at work in countless other ways in our lives, both as individuals and as a community of faith, bringing in a birth, a new hope.
Again, the coming of Advent and Christmas reminds us once more of, yes, the Christ that was, but, as importantly, Advent and Christmas remind us of the Christ that is, today, in our lives, mine and yours.
Thanks be to God,
your brother in Christ,
Wallace+
