The Big Christian Moments

The Christian seasons are often fronted by big key moments. Granted, we are not - in a Baptist Church, held in any shape by liturgical colours, but we mark the seasons rightly: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter,  Ascension, Pentecost, Harvest, and then back again. Churches with a more detailed liturgical calendar have a lot more to fill in between my list. And it was certainly the charge of my college Principal, who lectured us in worship, to make sure we marked the key seasonal moments. These are not "just another service", but significant moments to be experienced and journeyed through, not just by the minority, but by all in the church family.

It might be a struggle for you to put them in to an order of importance. Which would be top of your list? Would you put at the top the one beginning with "C" or would it be the one beginning with "E"? Would Pentecost feature highly because without the power of the Holy Spirit we are doomed in today's church? I actually love Advent and especially the whole season of it, and it really grates with me that in the secular world, Advent has been dropped and "C" seems to begin at best in late October and at worst it's already been enticed to you in a retail outlet that you regularly use. Or would you, plain and simply come down and say, "it's got to be Easter at the top, because without Easter, Jesus is still dead in the tomb!"

I'll leave you to argue and decide which is your order.

But here's my challenge: why are some staying away from these key Sundays when they are surely big moments in the Christian family year? Surely these big festival days are the moments when we should make greater effort to gather and join with our brothers and sisters in Christ and to hear the scriptures, sing the hymns and songs and celebrate together? We certainly live in more transient days and attendance at Sunday worship is perceived by some as more "take it or leave it". I understand that it's not possible to attend absolutely every Sunday, and there's visitors, or events, or recovery, and chores, or exhaustion etc etc, but the big festival days surely require a more intentional and committed approach?

Take Harvest, for a moment. Great harvest hymns to sing and to mark this moment of thankfulness for the Lord's provision, but the turn-out was somewhat measured frankly. Where were you? And Harvest is indeed changing, with less and less being displayed than the traditional harvest spreads of the past, even though ours was wonderful and beautiful - well done! But harvest is becoming harder and tighter. I forsee a time when we might struggle to display a harvest. Do we stop gathering for harvest worship and giving our thanks to God, because "frankly folks, harvest is just no longer viable anymore!"?

And would we do the same for some of the other seasons and "big Sundays" too?

No! Marking and worshipping through the Christian seasons is vital for our spiritual growth. And we send a message to the youth that these are vital and important, not optional.