Why Follow the Christian Calendar? #3 of 3:

Together with all who in every place

call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

(First Corinthians 1:2)

That’s another reason I migrated towards the Christian Calendar—it was a way of identifying with the big church that in all times and all places “calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours” (1Cor 1:2). This big, deep and ancient faith we call “orthodoxy”.

“Orthodoxy” comes from two Greek words: orthos meaning “straight’ as in orthodontist—the one who works at getting our teeth straight; and, doxa meaning “glory” or “glorious”. To be orthodox means we attend to getting the glory right. It’s a worship word—how do we best glorify our glorious God? The Creed and the Calendar serve, and has served for nearly 1,700 years, to help the church glorify God correctly—it straightens us out.

“Glory” has the sense of weight as in the “eternal weight of glory” (1Cor 4:17). True glory is weighty. It has a gravitational pull to it. We can take off on all sorts of lightweight ideas; but, the “weight of glory” has a way of reining us in. The Creed and the Calendrer keep us real and weighty.

Bonus: Watch how the Calendar celebrates the Creed:

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,    = Advent                                                              

        creator of heaven and earth;                           

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord:                                  

        who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,                          

        born of the Virgin Mary,                   = Christmas

        suffered under Pontius Pilate,            = Lent

        was crucified, died, and was buried   = Good Friday

        he descended to the dead.                   = Dark Saturday

        On the third day he rose again;           = Easter Morning

        he ascended into heaven,                     = Ascension Thursday

he is seated at the right hand of the Father,

        and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,                          =Pentecost Sunday                                            

        the holy catholic church,                                   

        the communion of saints,                                                 

        the forgiveness of sins,

        the resurrection of the body,

        and the life everlasting.

AMEN.