WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.680 Yeah. 00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:39.600 Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast. 00:00:39.600 --> 00:00:41.600 I am Cory J Mahler. 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:41.840 And 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:44.000 I'm still woe. 00:00:44.000 --> 00:00:46.880 And God said, Let there be lights in the expanse of the 00:00:46.880 --> 00:00:50.000 heavens to separate the day from the night, and let them be 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:53.280 for signs and for seasons, and for days and years. 00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:55.920 And let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to 00:00:55.920 --> 00:00:59.280 give light upon the earth, and it was so. 00:00:59.280 --> 00:01:02.000 And when God smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his 00:01:02.080 --> 00:01:05.280 heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:08.160 the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. 00:01:08.160 --> 00:01:11.040 Neither will I again strike down every living creature as I have 00:01:11.040 --> 00:01:14.960 done, while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, 00:01:14.960 --> 00:01:19.040 summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:23.120 These two readings from Genesis 1 and Genesis 8 from the creation 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:28.960 and after the flood are a reminder to us that seasonality is 00:01:28.960 --> 00:01:30.960 a part of creation. 00:01:30.960 --> 00:01:36.800 The way that God created everything involves seasons and patterns and repetition 00:01:37.280 --> 00:01:42.000 and resonances among those various patterns as they harmonize. 00:01:42.000 --> 00:01:46.080 And so today, as we wrap up the calendar year, as the 00:01:46.080 --> 00:01:50.000 church has just begun the church year in the West, I thought 00:01:50.000 --> 00:01:53.520 that we thought this would be a good opportunity to talk about 00:01:53.520 --> 00:01:58.560 the liturgical calendar, about our liturgical life in the church as we 00:01:58.560 --> 00:02:02.800 are observing all the things that are revealed in scripture that are 00:02:02.800 --> 00:02:05.040 not revealed in creation. 00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:08.640 Because on one hand, you have God's seasons that are shown in 00:02:08.640 --> 00:02:12.240 the stars and in the weather that we have on the earth. 00:02:12.240 --> 00:02:16.000 And on the other hand, you have seasons that are only present 00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:18.560 if you are aware of the Word of God. 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:24.000 And these have been historically observed before Christianity, you know, before Christ, 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:28.560 and then after Christ, and in different forms, because prior to Christ's 00:02:28.560 --> 00:02:35.600 birth, the pattern of life in believers pointed towards his birth and 00:02:35.600 --> 00:02:38.560 all the prophecies that he would fulfill. 00:02:38.560 --> 00:02:41.840 When he was born, when he fulfilled them, when he died and 00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:46.240 was resurrected from the dead, he completed the patterns that had been 00:02:46.240 --> 00:02:46.560 established 00:02:47.520 --> 00:02:50.560 prior to his birth. 00:02:50.560 --> 00:02:54.320 But the church didn't abandon the idea of the repeating patterns that 00:02:54.320 --> 00:02:57.440 are observed in the yearly life of believers. 00:02:57.440 --> 00:02:59.760 And from the earliest days in the church we have examples of 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:04.880 holidays or holy days being observed for the same reason. 00:03:04.880 --> 00:03:10.160 It wasn't necessarily any longer the case that God was specifically commanding 00:03:10.160 --> 00:03:14.240 a particular day to be observed in a particular way, but as 00:03:14.240 --> 00:03:19.200 a means of remembrance, all believers clung to the fulfillment of those 00:03:19.200 --> 00:03:22.240 promises that Christ had fulfilled when he came. 00:03:22.240 --> 00:03:26.480 And so what perhaps in some cases, was once a law, others 00:03:26.480 --> 00:03:30.560 we'll get into in a bit, was also a teaching tool, remains 00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:33.680 to this day a teaching tool of the church to do the 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:36.640 things that have been done in the past in a manner that's 00:03:36.640 --> 00:03:41.200 consistent with scripture in terms of observing what God has revealed to 00:03:41.200 --> 00:03:45.040 us is a great way of teaching everyone the faith and to 00:03:45.040 --> 00:03:46.320 be reminded of it. 00:03:46.320 --> 00:03:51.360 Because one thing that I think Christians don't necessarily take seriously is 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:53.840 you can't you can't hold all this in your head at once. 00:03:53.840 --> 00:03:57.600 You cannot possibly have gall all of God's things in mind all 00:03:57.600 --> 00:03:58.240 the time. 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:00.560 That's you you would be God if you could do that. 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:01.760 Only God does that. 00:04:01.760 --> 00:04:04.400 The rest of us can only do one thing at a time. 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:07.440 And so it's valuable to have seasons to remind us. 00:04:07.440 --> 00:04:11.280 You know, Lent is a season of penitence, Advent is a season 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:16.240 of anticipation, Christmas is a season of Thanksgiving, and then Easter as 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:20.240 well, the greater thanksgiving, that the fulfillment of the birth was even 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:24.960 more greatly fulfilled in his death and then resurrection. 00:04:24.960 --> 00:04:28.400 So as we talk about the calendar today, it's in view of 00:04:29.200 --> 00:04:32.000 you know, again, the church calendar has just begun as we're recording 00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:35.040 this. We're just in the middle of Advent. 00:04:35.040 --> 00:04:37.120 It's also right at the end of the calendar year. 00:04:37.120 --> 00:04:40.560 And just as a very brief housekeeping measure, as I mentioned last 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:42.800 week, we're gonna be taking a couple weeks off. 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:46.160 The next episode back will be January tenth. 00:04:46.160 --> 00:04:49.360 That should be the uh the first week that we're back. 00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:53.680 This week is uh also as we drop this on Friday will 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:56.800 be the winter solstice, which is the shortest day of the year 00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:00.400 in the northern hemisphere because the earth is a globe. 00:05:00.400 --> 00:05:04.480 Spoiler. The earth is a globe, it's tilting on an axis, it's 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:05.840 going around the sun. 00:05:05.840 --> 00:05:10.320 The incidence of the light varies, so it's attenuated at different angles 00:05:10.320 --> 00:05:12.720 as it passes through the atmosphere. 00:05:12.720 --> 00:05:17.280 It has longer and shorter amounts of light being delivered through the 00:05:17.280 --> 00:05:19.840 atmosphere just based on that angle. 00:05:19.840 --> 00:05:20.960 It gets cold. 00:05:20.960 --> 00:05:22.160 That's what happens. 00:05:22.160 --> 00:05:25.360 We have winter in the northern hemisphere because the earth is a 00:05:25.360 --> 00:05:28.240 globe, it's tilted, and it's how God arranged things. 00:05:28.240 --> 00:05:31.280 In the northern hemisphere, it gets cold in the winter and hot 00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:34.320 in the summer, and then the seasons are reversed, you know, in 00:05:34.320 --> 00:05:39.680 Australia. They call it summer and winter f for the weather, but 00:05:39.680 --> 00:05:41.280 not for the time of year. 00:05:41.280 --> 00:05:43.280 And so today as we're talking about calendars. 00:05:43.280 --> 00:05:44.240 That's gonna be part of it. 00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:48.000 It's what what is a calendar to us historically and when does 00:05:48.000 --> 00:05:50.560 it make sense for us to be on the same page? 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:53.520 There are two things I hope that folks will take away from 00:05:53.520 --> 00:05:54.320 this episode. 00:05:54.320 --> 00:05:59.200 One, these calendars are for the harmonization of the Christian life and 00:05:59.200 --> 00:06:01.440 they're for the teaching of Christians. 00:06:01.440 --> 00:06:05.360 Two Two, they're not a law, and we'll make that case especially 00:06:05.360 --> 00:06:06.240 towards the end. 00:06:06.240 --> 00:06:10.160 Nothing that we're saying here is a condemnation of people who use 00:06:10.160 --> 00:06:13.840 a different calendar, who don't observe a calendar at all, who have 00:06:13.920 --> 00:06:18.640 you know wildly different calendars, slightly different calendars, we're not picking a 00:06:18.640 --> 00:06:22.720 winner. What we're saying is that the use of these things as 00:06:22.720 --> 00:06:26.400 they've always been done among believers is salutary. 00:06:26.400 --> 00:06:30.640 And therefore, when someone wants to abandon a salutary practice, the onus 00:06:30.640 --> 00:06:33.760 is on them to say, here's why we're not allowed to do 00:06:33.760 --> 00:06:34.640 this anymore. 00:06:34.640 --> 00:06:37.280 So as we'll make the case towards the end, we are not 00:06:37.280 --> 00:06:39.920 the ones making a law of these things by saying, Hey, this 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:40.560 is a good idea. 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:42.960 People have always done it, it's salutary. 00:06:42.960 --> 00:06:46.160 Others are in fact making a law saying, you can't do that. 00:06:46.160 --> 00:06:46.880 Why are you doing that? 00:06:46.880 --> 00:06:47.520 That's wrong. 00:06:47.520 --> 00:06:49.040 That's not in the Bible. 00:06:49.040 --> 00:06:52.480 We're going to make the case today in part that that's nonsense. 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:55.280 And when we picked the subject, it we didn't intend for it 00:06:55.280 --> 00:06:56.160 to be polemical. 00:06:56.160 --> 00:06:59.520 We just wanted a nice, easy end of the end of the 00:06:59.600 --> 00:07:00.480 year subject. 00:07:00.480 --> 00:07:02.560 But as we started looking at it, it was clear that some 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:04.960 of this is going to have to be polemical because of some 00:07:04.960 --> 00:07:07.600 of the things that happened during and after the Reformation. 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:08.800 They just weren't good. 00:07:08.800 --> 00:07:11.040 Sorry at the end of the year that we're gonna, you know, 00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:12.800 maybe be ruffling a few feathers. 00:07:12.800 --> 00:07:16.080 We didn't intend to, but like this is just part of the 00:07:16.080 --> 00:07:17.200 Christian life. 00:07:17.200 --> 00:07:21.840 And when people get mad at that, that that's it's not good. 00:07:21.840 --> 00:07:22.160 So 00:07:23.200 --> 00:07:25.840 I think one of the first examples I want to just give 00:07:25.840 --> 00:07:27.680 of the teaching value of 00:07:29.440 --> 00:07:33.280 the liturgical calendar goes all the way back to Leviticus. 00:07:33.280 --> 00:07:36.560 And this is a case where this was God's law for the 00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:41.120 Hebrews. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the people of 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:43.760 Israel and say to them, These are the appointed feasts of the 00:07:43.760 --> 00:07:48.320 Lord that you shall proclaim as holy convocations, they are my appointed 00:07:48.320 --> 00:07:52.400 feasts. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh is 00:07:52.400 --> 00:07:55.440 a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. 00:07:55.440 --> 00:07:58.160 You shall do no work, it is a Sabbath to the Lord 00:07:58.160 --> 00:08:00.160 in all your dwelling places. 00:08:00.160 --> 00:08:03.440 These are the appointed feasts of the Lord, the holy convocations which 00:08:03.440 --> 00:08:05.840 you shall proclaim at the time appointed for them. 00:08:05.840 --> 00:08:08.400 In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at 00:08:08.400 --> 00:08:11.120 twilight, is the Lord's Passover. 00:08:11.120 --> 00:08:13.440 And on the fifteenth day of the same month is the feast 00:08:13.520 --> 00:08:15.280 of unleavened bread to the Lord. 00:08:15.280 --> 00:08:18.400 For seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, on the first day 00:08:18.400 --> 00:08:22.400 you shall have a holy convocation, you shall not do any ordinary 00:08:22.400 --> 00:08:24.960 work, but you shall present a food offering to the Lord for 00:08:24.960 --> 00:08:25.840 seven days. 00:08:25.840 --> 00:08:28.320 On the seventh day is a holy convocation. 00:08:28.320 --> 00:08:30.800 You shall not do any ordinary work. 00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:35.040 Now obviously this is a law being given to the Israelites, in 00:08:35.040 --> 00:08:38.320 part to cause them to be focused on God's things and in 00:08:38.320 --> 00:08:40.080 part to separate them from their neighbors. 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:43.840 These were holy days set apart for the Lord. 00:08:43.840 --> 00:08:46.320 And these are things that we are released from. 00:08:46.320 --> 00:08:51.040 Christians should not be celebrating Passover because we have the Paschal Lamb 00:08:51.040 --> 00:08:52.000 on the cross. 00:08:52.000 --> 00:08:53.040 It is finished. 00:08:53.040 --> 00:08:55.280 There's no more Passover for any Christian. 00:08:55.280 --> 00:08:58.960 So all this stuff with Seder meals and crap that is Judaizing. 00:08:58.960 --> 00:09:00.480 Stay away from that stuff. 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:05.200 We are not trying to suggest that anyone should return to observing 00:09:05.200 --> 00:09:08.640 the old forms because God made clear that they were a they 00:09:08.640 --> 00:09:09.840 were finished. 00:09:09.840 --> 00:09:14.240 On the other hand, keep in mind what was going on with 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:15.280 the Passover. 00:09:15.920 --> 00:09:20.960 This was a lamb that was sacrificed in remembrance of God's salvation 00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:24.320 of the Hebrews from captivity in Egypt. 00:09:24.320 --> 00:09:25.600 What was this? 00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:27.920 This was typological of Christ. 00:09:27.920 --> 00:09:33.680 This was pointing forward to the perfect lamb sacrificed on the cross. 00:09:33.680 --> 00:09:38.080 So when Isaiah prophesied in chapter fifty three, he was oppressed and 00:09:38.080 --> 00:09:41.200 he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth, like a lamb 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:43.840 that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before 00:09:43.840 --> 00:09:48.640 its shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth. 00:09:48.640 --> 00:09:52.720 The Passover lamb and the prophecy of Isaiah involving a lamb being 00:09:52.720 --> 00:09:57.840 sacrificed, pointed forward to the perfect sacrifice of the Messiah who was 00:09:57.840 --> 00:09:58.480 to come. 00:09:58.480 --> 00:09:59.680 And what happened? 00:09:59.680 --> 00:10:03.280 When John saw Jesus coming, he said, Behold, the Lamb of God 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:05.040 who takes away the sin of the world. 00:10:05.040 --> 00:10:07.680 And everyone who was around him knew what he was talking about. 00:10:07.680 --> 00:10:09.120 This wasn't a left field. 00:10:09.120 --> 00:10:14.480 They understood that what they had been taught in their Passover celebrations 00:10:14.880 --> 00:10:18.400 was fundamentally pointing towards the Messiah. 00:10:18.400 --> 00:10:21.920 And so when John declares, Behold the Lamb of God who takes 00:10:21.920 --> 00:10:25.440 away the sin of the world, they understood that that was typological. 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:29.200 They understood that the small form that they had observed was being 00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:34.160 fulfilled completely by the birth of the Messiah, and 00:10:35.760 --> 00:10:40.320 this is one of the key elements of a liturgical life of 00:10:40.320 --> 00:10:45.760 observing whatever holy day is appropriate, is it as a teaching tool, 00:10:45.760 --> 00:10:49.760 so there's you reinforce over time this is a thing from God, 00:10:49.760 --> 00:10:51.360 this is important. 00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:54.880 When it is fulfilled, you receive it with thanksgiving. 00:10:54.880 --> 00:10:57.280 Now in the case of the Passover, it was prophetic and it 00:10:57.280 --> 00:10:58.720 was pointing forward in time. 00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:01.040 It is It is no less important for us today where these 00:11:01.040 --> 00:11:03.520 things have been fulfilled to remember them. 00:11:03.520 --> 00:11:06.240 Because Jesus said, do this as often as you drink it in 00:11:06.240 --> 00:11:07.280 remembrance of me. 00:11:07.280 --> 00:11:11.920 There's to be a cyclical nature to the way we interact with 00:11:11.920 --> 00:11:13.120 God's things. 00:11:13.280 --> 00:11:16.720 And it when we look at the calendar, what do we have? 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:18.880 We have a day and a night cycle. 00:11:18.880 --> 00:11:22.160 We have months that are based on a lunar cycle. 00:11:22.160 --> 00:11:27.040 The months are subdivided by four, evenly divisible, into weeks. 00:11:27.040 --> 00:11:31.360 Each week is functionally a season of a month. 00:11:31.360 --> 00:11:35.920 And then you have a year that is subdivided into months and 00:11:35.920 --> 00:11:37.600 then also seasons. 00:11:37.600 --> 00:11:39.760 This is how God arranged things. 00:11:39.760 --> 00:11:40.720 God did that. 00:11:40.720 --> 00:11:42.160 This was not man-made. 00:11:42.160 --> 00:11:46.080 This is not something that guys discovered and did some math on. 00:11:46.080 --> 00:11:49.120 God handed this stuff to us on a silver platter and says, 00:11:49.120 --> 00:11:50.640 here's how it works. 00:11:50.640 --> 00:11:52.480 Live within these constraints. 00:11:52.960 --> 00:11:56.560 Again, for for the Hebrews it was in this particular case it 00:11:56.560 --> 00:11:59.360 was a law to observe a certain thing at a certain time. 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:02.000 But for all of us, we're creatures. 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.560 We live in a world that has seasons, that has days and 00:12:04.560 --> 00:12:06.240 nights, that has years. 00:12:06.240 --> 00:12:10.400 We're all subject to these natural forces for our good. 00:12:10.400 --> 00:12:15.280 And so it's only natural that also within the church the same 00:12:15.280 --> 00:12:19.760 sort of cyclical nature Would be observed as we live out the 00:12:19.760 --> 00:12:24.480 Christian life in parallel to the normal everyday life that we have 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:25.280 in the world. 00:12:25.280 --> 00:12:28.400 So whether the calendar is the same or different, we should have 00:12:28.400 --> 00:12:32.480 observances that repeat year after year because that's the sort of order 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:34.000 that God has given to us. 00:12:34.320 --> 00:12:38.160 When we look at the Old Testament, it's very easy to recognize 00:12:38.480 --> 00:12:43.440 that there are certain feasts, certain organizations of the church year. 00:12:43.440 --> 00:12:46.720 The church year is and I do mean to use church because 00:12:46.720 --> 00:12:50.720 this is for believers in the Old Testament, for the true Israel. 00:12:50.720 --> 00:12:54.240 The church year of the Old Testament is broken up into these 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:55.840 seasons, these observances 00:12:56.800 --> 00:13:00.720 But we need to focus on why are they commanded to observe 00:13:00.720 --> 00:13:01.520 these things. 00:13:01.520 --> 00:13:05.760 And it's not just in Exodus or Leviticus or these various other 00:13:05.760 --> 00:13:09.840 places in scripture where specifics are given, where they are specifically commanded 00:13:09.840 --> 00:13:14.800 to observe the feast of booths or unleavened bread, whatever it happens 00:13:14.800 --> 00:13:15.760 to be. 00:13:15.760 --> 00:13:19.920 All of the places where God commands them to remember something that 00:13:19.920 --> 00:13:25.200 God has done for them are commandments from God to observe a 00:13:25.200 --> 00:13:27.280 form of liturgy. 00:13:27.280 --> 00:13:30.640 And that's what all of these major feasts are, of course. 00:13:30.640 --> 00:13:37.120 Because when you remember, say, the Passover, you're remembering the deliverance from 00:13:37.120 --> 00:13:40.880 death in Egypt, and you're looking forward, of course, to the deliverance 00:13:40.880 --> 00:13:47.040 from the second death, that is Christ's death and resurrection. 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:52.800 But God throughout the pages of Scripture commands the Israelites, and by 00:13:52.800 --> 00:13:57.280 virtue of that he is commanding his church, his true Israel, to 00:13:57.280 --> 00:14:02.080 observe the remembrance of certain things that God has done for us. 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:09.120 And ultimately, in addition to teaching and unity and good order, the 00:14:09.120 --> 00:14:12.960 purpose of the church year, the purpose of the feasts and the 00:14:12.960 --> 00:14:18.000 festivals and the commemorations, is to remember all of these things that 00:14:18.000 --> 00:14:20.320 God has done for us. 00:14:20.320 --> 00:14:25.920 And if you look at the observances in the modern church calendar, 00:14:25.920 --> 00:14:30.880 in the modern church year, you can look at those and compare 00:14:30.880 --> 00:14:35.040 them to what was observed in the Old Testament, because they are 00:14:35.040 --> 00:14:37.920 the fulfillment of those observances. 00:14:37.920 --> 00:14:40.960 We won't go through those in detail because it's not the purpose 00:14:40.960 --> 00:14:41.600 of the episode. 00:14:41.600 --> 00:14:43.040 You can find charts for that. 00:14:43.040 --> 00:14:45.520 There are plenty of comparisons. 00:14:45.520 --> 00:14:48.720 The most obvious, of course, is Passover and Easter. 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:53.520 But when you look at the church year, what God is doing, 00:14:53.520 --> 00:14:58.320 because this is something God has created, I'm not saying that exactly 00:14:58.320 --> 00:15:01.360 what we have today was handed to us by God. 00:15:01.360 --> 00:15:03.200 That's not what happened. 00:15:03.200 --> 00:15:09.360 Because the modern church calendar is a creation of Christendom, of Christians. 00:15:09.360 --> 00:15:12.320 As we've already mentioned, it's adiaphoron. 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:14.160 It is not absolutely required. 00:15:14.160 --> 00:15:19.440 But the central point, the remembrance of these things that God has 00:15:19.440 --> 00:15:23.280 done for us, that God has done for his church, that remembrance 00:15:23.280 --> 00:15:27.040 is commanded in scripture, that is required of Christians. 00:15:27.040 --> 00:15:32.640 And that is the central point around which the church calendar orbits, 00:15:32.640 --> 00:15:35.520 around which this cycle occurs. 00:15:35.520 --> 00:15:38.880 Because if you look at the church calendar, how does it begin? 00:15:38.880 --> 00:15:42.400 It begins with Advent, which is the season in which we are 00:15:42.400 --> 00:15:43.120 recording this. 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:45.600 This is the third week of Advent. 00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:49.600 Advent is preparing us for the coming of the Messiah, for the 00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:53.680 incarnation. So it revolves around Christ's life. 00:15:53.680 --> 00:15:57.920 It revolves around really the central point of what it means to 00:15:57.920 --> 00:16:01.600 be a Christian and of Christianity, it revolves around Christ. 00:16:01.600 --> 00:16:04.960 You have Advent, which is looking forward to his birth, you have 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:10.240 Christmas, which is his birth as incarnation, and you proceed through the 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:15.440 calendar as you are proceeding through Christ's life here on earth. 00:16:15.440 --> 00:16:19.520 And then yes, we also have about half the year, sometimes more 00:16:19.520 --> 00:16:22.400 than half, because there's an issue of m movable feasts. 00:16:22.400 --> 00:16:25.520 Not all of the feasts of the church take place on the 00:16:25.520 --> 00:16:29.520 exact same calendar day every year, and there are reasons for that. 00:16:29.520 --> 00:16:32.480 But we have about half the year, which is the season of 00:16:32.480 --> 00:16:36.960 Pentecost, or the season after Pentecost, or the season of Trinity, depending 00:16:36.960 --> 00:16:41.440 on how you name it in your church tradition. 00:16:41.440 --> 00:16:44.560 And when you look at what that is, what that is as 00:16:44.560 --> 00:16:50.640 a teaching tool, you have ordinary time as it is called, in 00:16:50.640 --> 00:16:54.560 a way this represents the church age, the age in which we 00:16:54.560 --> 00:16:59.840 are currently living, because we are living in that time after Pentecost, 00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:03.760 and so it can be used as a teaching aid to highlight 00:17:04.080 --> 00:17:07.280 not just the history of the church because you have half the 00:17:07.280 --> 00:17:11.600 year that is retelling Christ's life, that is retelling that history, you 00:17:11.600 --> 00:17:13.840 have the other half the year that is 00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:18.720 Directly tied to how we are living here and now today in 00:17:18.720 --> 00:17:21.200 the church age. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:26.560 And again, the teaching aspect of the church calendar of this cycle 00:17:26.720 --> 00:17:28.400 is incredibly important. 00:17:28.400 --> 00:17:33.040 As we've mentioned in previous episodes, one of the ways that human 00:17:33.040 --> 00:17:36.960 beings actually learn something and remember it, which is obviously important if 00:17:36.960 --> 00:17:40.880 you're learning something, is repetition. 00:17:40.880 --> 00:17:45.120 And what does the church calendar, what does the liturgical year afford? 00:17:45.120 --> 00:17:47.200 It affords repetition. 00:17:47.200 --> 00:17:52.160 Because every year, you go through looking forward to Christ, the birth, 00:17:52.160 --> 00:17:54.240 death, and resurrection of Christ. 00:17:54.240 --> 00:17:55.360 You go through these same 00:17:56.240 --> 00:18:02.160 stories, through these same lessons, every single year, and that way you 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:03.600 remember them. 00:18:03.600 --> 00:18:10.000 And just as an aside, but an important one, for those pastors 00:18:10.240 --> 00:18:16.880 who have been in a liturgical tradition for many years, undoubtedly they 00:18:16.880 --> 00:18:19.680 have dealt with a number of deaths in their congregations. 00:18:19.680 --> 00:18:22.800 That is, again, part of the cycle of human life. 00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:25.840 Not in the next world, but in this one. 00:18:25.840 --> 00:18:30.320 Near the end, many people start to have memory and other issues. 00:18:30.320 --> 00:18:34.080 That is simply one of the facts of getting old in these 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:36.240 fallen bodies. 00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:38.880 It may be that you start to forget things. 00:18:38.880 --> 00:18:40.720 It may be it gets to the point where you forget how 00:18:40.720 --> 00:18:43.040 to tie your own shoes. 00:18:43.040 --> 00:18:47.520 But if you talk to pastors in liturgical tradition, they will tell 00:18:47.520 --> 00:18:51.680 you that those who have spent their lives in these churches will 00:18:51.680 --> 00:18:53.760 remember the liturgy. 00:18:53.760 --> 00:18:57.760 Now they may have forgotten certain things, they may have forgotten many 00:18:57.760 --> 00:18:59.760 things. Again, you may forget how to tie your own shoes. 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:03.280 That's up to God how that goes at the end of our 00:19:03.280 --> 00:19:08.800 lives. But these people, even that close to the end, will still 00:19:08.800 --> 00:19:11.280 remember the blessing of the liturgy. 00:19:11.280 --> 00:19:16.080 Now, I'm obviously conflating a little bit liturgy in the sense of 00:19:16.080 --> 00:19:20.080 order of the church worship and order of the church year, but 00:19:20.080 --> 00:19:21.680 they are comparable. 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:25.760 Because you have liturgy on the grand sense of the church calendar, 00:19:25.760 --> 00:19:30.480 this cycle of lessons and remembrance, of thanking God for the things 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:32.400 that He has done for us and the things that He will 00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:34.640 do for us, the things He promises us. 00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:38.000 And you have that playing out as well in the church service 00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:42.960 itself. And that repetition affords you comfort at the end of your 00:19:42.960 --> 00:19:45.440 life. And it's not just comfort for the person who remembers it, 00:19:45.440 --> 00:19:49.040 obviously it is, but it's also comforting for all the people around 00:19:49.040 --> 00:19:50.160 that person. 00:19:50.160 --> 00:19:53.040 Because you can look and see that even at the end of 00:19:53.040 --> 00:19:57.760 life, where many things are trending downward, God has not abandoned that 00:19:57.760 --> 00:20:01.120 person. You've trained up that child, because that's a child of God, 00:20:01.120 --> 00:20:03.280 you've trained up that child in the way that he or she 00:20:03.280 --> 00:20:05.920 should go, and when he's old, he has not departed from it. 00:20:05.920 --> 00:20:07.440 That is a blessing from God. 00:20:07.440 --> 00:20:09.040 And we should be thankful for 00:20:09.040 --> 00:20:13.360 that. This is something that I witnessed firsthand when my dad was 00:20:13.360 --> 00:20:16.480 doing his vicarage at the Lutheran home in Fort Wayne. 00:20:16.480 --> 00:20:20.720 For one year, my family attended church services every Sunday at an 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:21.920 old people's home. 00:20:21.920 --> 00:20:25.280 And it was a a full service retirement community. 00:20:25.280 --> 00:20:29.520 They had everything from independent living to basically intensive care. 00:20:29.520 --> 00:20:33.360 And it was probably three-quarters Lutherans there, but a lot of people 00:20:33.840 --> 00:20:35.680 would come down for the Sunday services. 00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:38.320 I think there were a couple of them, if I remember correctly. 00:20:38.320 --> 00:20:42.320 And something I was a teenager, I think, at that time. 00:20:42.320 --> 00:20:46.400 One thing that stuck with me from witnessing that for a year 00:20:46.400 --> 00:20:49.280 was exactly exactly what Corey just said. 00:20:49.280 --> 00:20:52.960 There were people there who were in advanced states of decay. 00:20:52.960 --> 00:20:55.520 Men and women, mostly women, because you know a lot of them 00:20:55.520 --> 00:20:58.400 were in their 90s, some were in their hundreds, who 00:20:59.360 --> 00:21:02.000 some of them were pretty close to vegetative. 00:21:02.000 --> 00:21:06.960 Yeah, they were they were basically non-communicative in most cases. 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:12.080 And yet when they were wheeled into the church service, they could 00:21:12.080 --> 00:21:16.080 say many of the prayers, they could participate with some in some 00:21:16.080 --> 00:21:20.400 cases almost all the liturgy, they remembered some of the hymns. 00:21:20.400 --> 00:21:23.440 That was still a part of them, even when they didn't remember 00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:24.240 their own name. 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:26.320 They may now remember their family names. 00:21:26.320 --> 00:21:30.320 They still remembered God's things because they'd done the same thing their 00:21:30.320 --> 00:21:31.680 entire lives. 00:21:31.680 --> 00:21:34.480 So this sort of treasure that we just we look at it 00:21:34.480 --> 00:21:39.920 today as bland and repetitive as though that's a bad thing. 00:21:39.920 --> 00:21:44.080 It is a blessing that you don't realize until you begin to 00:21:44.080 --> 00:21:45.440 lose your senses. 00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:49.520 You know, when these churches that put everything up on screens and 00:21:49.520 --> 00:21:53.440 it's different every week, what's gonna happen to someone who loses their 00:21:53.440 --> 00:21:57.120 sight? They're no longer going to have access to what's ever going 00:21:57.120 --> 00:22:00.640 on. And if what's going on is novel every week every week, 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:04.160 if you have new hymns every week, new words, whatever you're doing, 00:22:04.160 --> 00:22:08.320 if it's always new, you are excluding the oldest people at the 00:22:08.320 --> 00:22:09.440 end of their lives. 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:12.000 And some of them are going to end up in places where 00:22:12.000 --> 00:22:14.480 maybe the only thing that they have is some sort of continuity 00:22:15.120 --> 00:22:17.440 with a liturgy that they can still remember. 00:22:17.440 --> 00:22:20.640 So as Corey said, it's not that this is a law. 00:22:20.640 --> 00:22:24.160 This is not you must do this or you are sinning. 00:22:24.160 --> 00:22:25.840 This is a teaching tool. 00:22:25.840 --> 00:22:29.760 And when it is omitted, when it is deprived of people for 00:22:29.760 --> 00:22:35.360 whatever reason, you're not simply depriving them of something man-made. 00:22:35.360 --> 00:22:38.880 Because you know the the liturgy, you know, in the case of 00:22:39.040 --> 00:22:43.040 the Western liturgy, the one that the Lutherans use is basically the 00:22:43.040 --> 00:22:47.280 same in large parts to the ones the Roman Catholics use. 00:22:47.280 --> 00:22:50.080 It's mostly just quotes from scripture. 00:22:50.080 --> 00:22:53.840 One of the great things that the most recent Lutheran hymnal has 00:22:53.840 --> 00:22:56.960 done, is putting Bible verses next to all the parts of the 00:22:56.960 --> 00:23:01.040 liturgy that are Bible verses, and it's virtually the entire thing. 00:23:01.040 --> 00:23:07.040 Almost every word that is said or sung or chanted is scripture. 00:23:07.280 --> 00:23:10.800 So what some people look at as some sort of formal man-made 00:23:10.960 --> 00:23:13.200 right, it's actually just God's words. 00:23:13.200 --> 00:23:16.640 We're saying back to him what he's given to us. 00:23:16.640 --> 00:23:21.920 And that sort of repetition of God's things is the greatest blessing 00:23:21.920 --> 00:23:22.880 you can have. 00:23:23.120 --> 00:23:25.760 I think one of the things that we talked a little bit 00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:30.000 about meditation recently when we did the episode on the Eastern Orthodox, 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:32.160 meditation in a good sense is precisely 00:23:33.040 --> 00:23:38.160 this. It's focusing on a certain element of the Christian faith at 00:23:38.160 --> 00:23:41.760 a certain point, maybe in your day, maybe in your week, maybe 00:23:41.760 --> 00:23:42.960 in the calendar year. 00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:47.040 So when you have a penitential season like Lent, that is a 00:23:47.040 --> 00:23:52.080 time specifically to focus on penitence, on acknowledging your sins in a 00:23:52.080 --> 00:23:54.880 way that perhaps most of the year they don't get as much 00:23:54.880 --> 00:23:59.600 attention. If nothing else, once a year for a number of weeks, 00:23:59.600 --> 00:24:04.560 you're going to have a reminder baked into the calendar that you 00:24:04.560 --> 00:24:07.840 are a sinner and that the Christ who is crucified on Good 00:24:07.840 --> 00:24:10.480 Friday, that was for you and for yourself. 00:24:11.360 --> 00:24:16.320 And our repentance, our turning away from the evil that caused God 00:24:16.320 --> 00:24:20.160 to have to sacrifice Himself, is a part of the Christian life. 00:24:20.160 --> 00:24:25.440 Acknowledging our sins, confessing them, and then acknowledging our Savior and confessing 00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:27.520 him. It's cyclical. 00:24:27.520 --> 00:24:30.480 But as I said earlier, you can't if if you spend every 00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:33.440 minute of every day just dwelling on how terrible you are, that's 00:24:33.440 --> 00:24:34.880 gonna fracture and break you. 00:24:34.880 --> 00:24:36.560 And God doesn't want that either. 00:24:36.560 --> 00:24:38.880 So we're given these times 00:24:39.840 --> 00:24:44.480 according to God's time so that we can not skip anything, so 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:48.400 that God's word is preached in its fullness, and so that the 00:24:48.400 --> 00:24:51.120 various aspects of everything He's revealed to us are 00:24:52.000 --> 00:24:54.400 in our minds at various times. 00:24:54.400 --> 00:24:57.120 And the more that is built up in your heart, in your 00:24:57.120 --> 00:25:00.800 mind, when you're young, when you're healthy, as you get older, this 00:25:00.800 --> 00:25:03.360 stuff is gonna matter to you more if you remain in the 00:25:03.360 --> 00:25:06.240 faith. As your body starts to fail, as your mind starts to 00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:09.680 fail, when you can have confidence that God's things are still there 00:25:09.680 --> 00:25:13.520 for you, that is a tremendous comfort because you realize it is 00:25:13.520 --> 00:25:14.400 not your doing. 00:25:14.400 --> 00:25:16.800 It's that God has been there for you all along. 00:25:16.800 --> 00:25:21.200 And so this sort of cyclical repetition, where I'm going to keep 00:25:21.200 --> 00:25:24.800 repeating that because it that's what it is: the over and over 00:25:25.120 --> 00:25:29.680 of weekly and seasonal and and annual observances of these things. 00:25:29.680 --> 00:25:33.280 It's not men making a law and imposing it. 00:25:33.280 --> 00:25:36.080 It's us returning again and again to the gifts that God has 00:25:36.080 --> 00:25:37.840 given us in Scripture. 00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:38.320 In 00:25:38.320 --> 00:25:43.520 a very real sense, it's extremely odd that any Christian would object 00:25:43.520 --> 00:25:47.280 to the idea of doing the same thing over and over and 00:25:47.280 --> 00:25:49.920 over, of repeating things. 00:25:49.920 --> 00:25:52.960 For one, it is a blessing from God if your life is 00:25:53.520 --> 00:25:56.400 such that you get to repeat things over and over and over 00:25:56.800 --> 00:25:59.600 because novelty is often not good. 00:25:59.600 --> 00:26:04.480 We're not saying novelty is always bad, but novelty is often bad. 00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:09.680 In a very real way, our lives are lives of repetition. 00:26:09.680 --> 00:26:12.560 Just the 24-hour cycle. 00:26:12.560 --> 00:26:17.440 You wake up, eat, go about your day, eat, go to sleep, 00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:18.880 and then you do it again. 00:26:19.040 --> 00:26:22.720 And every day you do that is a blessing from God. 00:26:22.720 --> 00:26:25.040 Deviations from that are typically not good. 00:26:25.040 --> 00:26:28.160 If you don't get to sleep, you generally don't feel very good 00:26:28.160 --> 00:26:29.520 the next day. 00:26:29.520 --> 00:26:31.680 Now that's going to be much worse if you're saying your forties 00:26:31.760 --> 00:26:34.400 or your fifties versus your twenties, so for the listeners in their 00:26:34.480 --> 00:26:37.520 20s, it's coming for you too. 00:26:37.520 --> 00:26:40.160 But this repetition is part of human life. 00:26:40.160 --> 00:26:43.280 You have the daily cycle, you have the weekly cycle, the monthly, 00:26:43.280 --> 00:26:46.480 the yearly, you have the seasons that repeat every year as God 00:26:46.880 --> 00:26:49.840 promised as well read at the beginning of the episode. 00:26:49.840 --> 00:26:55.840 These are blessings from God, and even beyond that, we are commanded 00:26:55.840 --> 00:26:58.080 to be daily in the scriptures. 00:26:58.080 --> 00:26:59.840 That is repetition. 00:26:59.840 --> 00:27:04.640 That is repeating the same thing every single day for your entire 00:27:04.640 --> 00:27:09.920 life. Reading the same book every day until you die. 00:27:09.920 --> 00:27:12.160 That's part of the Christian life. 00:27:12.160 --> 00:27:14.720 Repetition Repetition is a good thing. 00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:18.560 Anyone who has learned a second language knows that the only way 00:27:18.560 --> 00:27:22.720 you can learn a second language is repetition. 00:27:22.720 --> 00:27:26.720 Spaced repetition is one of the best ways, but generally, it is 00:27:26.720 --> 00:27:30.560 repeating those words, it is using those words, it's using the language 00:27:30.640 --> 00:27:32.240 that is how you learn it. 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:35.520 The same thing for scripture, how you learn the things of God 00:27:35.760 --> 00:27:39.760 is reading the book that He gave us, is learning them. 00:27:40.080 --> 00:27:44.720 Part of that learning, as we are commanded in the third commandment, 00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:49.200 is observing the Sabbath, part of that is going to church, is 00:27:49.200 --> 00:27:52.880 not forsaking the gathering together of the saints, and how that is 00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:57.040 organized is around the life of Christ, the life of the church, 00:27:57.040 --> 00:28:02.160 the life together as Christians, and we have this cycle of lessons 00:28:02.160 --> 00:28:06.720 and teaching so that we can make Christians, so that people can 00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:11.520 remain Christians, so that those who are Christian can become stronger Christians. 00:28:11.520 --> 00:28:16.320 Don't forget, just because you are in the church service and you 00:28:16.320 --> 00:28:18.320 know every single word that's going to be said. 00:28:18.320 --> 00:28:18.960 That's a good thing. 00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:20.400 That's a blessing from God. 00:28:20.400 --> 00:28:23.600 And you will remember that when you grow old. 00:28:23.600 --> 00:28:26.640 But don't forget the young and the old are also there. 00:28:26.640 --> 00:28:30.640 There are those who are just beginning to learn the things of 00:28:30.640 --> 00:28:32.400 God, and they need this. 00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:34.320 And there are those who are at the end of their lives, 00:28:34.320 --> 00:28:38.400 as we mentioned, who still remember these things because they went through 00:28:38.400 --> 00:28:41.760 it when they were young during the prime of their life and 00:28:41.760 --> 00:28:44.640 then in their old age. 00:28:44.640 --> 00:28:49.440 We do these things to teach the next generation of Christians, but 00:28:49.440 --> 00:28:52.480 also to make the current generation stronger. 00:28:52.480 --> 00:28:56.080 This is part of life as a Christian. 00:28:56.080 --> 00:28:57.680 And it is a blessing from God. 00:28:57.680 --> 00:29:00.880 So we shouldn't look down on repetition. 00:29:00.880 --> 00:29:04.000 We shouldn't try to seek out novelty. 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:07.600 This drive to look for things that are always new, always different 00:29:07.760 --> 00:29:11.680 is very much a part of modernity and it would be entirely 00:29:11.680 --> 00:29:14.320 alien to our forefathers in the faith. 00:29:14.320 --> 00:29:18.000 That is not something that would have driven them, either culturally or 00:29:18.000 --> 00:29:22.160 religiously. It would have been, again, totally alien to them. 00:29:22.560 --> 00:29:25.600 This repetition is a blessing from God. 00:29:25.600 --> 00:29:29.440 Each day when you wake up and have a normal day, that 00:29:29.440 --> 00:29:31.840 is a great blessing from God, and you should thank him at 00:29:31.840 --> 00:29:34.800 the close of the day in your evening prayers If you have 00:29:34.800 --> 00:29:39.200 a day that is entirely novel, seldom is that good. 00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:42.000 Now, there are days where you can have some novelty that's good. 00:29:42.000 --> 00:29:44.800 If you get married, that's a novel day for you. 00:29:44.800 --> 00:29:46.960 That's different from the rest of your life. 00:29:46.960 --> 00:29:51.280 But following that, you want every day after that to be roughly 00:29:51.280 --> 00:29:52.160 the same. 00:29:52.160 --> 00:29:55.200 Yes, you have the mile markers in life as it were, you 00:29:55.200 --> 00:29:59.040 have the birth of your first child, and you have various points 00:29:59.040 --> 00:30:02.720 where you move from one part of life to the next. 00:30:02.720 --> 00:30:06.240 But by and large, and these are really seasonal parts of life, 00:30:06.240 --> 00:30:09.680 so you can compare the seasons in the grand sense of things, 00:30:09.680 --> 00:30:12.800 the way the earth experiences them, and then the seasons of a 00:30:12.800 --> 00:30:14.880 human life. 00:30:14.880 --> 00:30:19.600 But really within those seasons, you want each day to be roughly 00:30:19.600 --> 00:30:22.000 the same as the last, and you want the next one to 00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:25.280 be roughly the same as the day you're currently experiencing. 00:30:25.280 --> 00:30:28.720 Because again, that is a blessing from God. 00:30:28.720 --> 00:30:32.880 Just as Scripture says that God gives to his beloved sleep, that 00:30:32.880 --> 00:30:35.200 is a blessing from God at the end of the day, that 00:30:35.200 --> 00:30:38.560 you get to sleep, that you have restful slumber. 00:30:38.560 --> 00:30:42.960 All of these repetitions, all of these parts of life, and it 00:30:43.280 --> 00:30:46.720 it is a human life, it is really the core of our 00:30:46.720 --> 00:30:53.280 life, when you have each successive day being comparable to the last. 00:30:53.280 --> 00:30:54.160 That is a blessing. 00:30:54.160 --> 00:30:55.760 That is a good thing. 00:30:55.760 --> 00:30:59.360 This comes from God, and we as Christians should recognize that. 00:30:59.360 --> 00:31:02.880 And we should want the same thing in our churches. 00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:05.440 We should want the same sort of blessings as God gives us 00:31:05.440 --> 00:31:05.840 in our lives 00:31:07.280 --> 00:31:10.640 also to occur in the church, because then we can lead the 00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:16.320 young into the faith, we can strengthen those who are either young 00:31:16.320 --> 00:31:18.480 in the faith or in the prime of their life, and we 00:31:18.480 --> 00:31:21.440 can retain those who are at the end of their lives. 00:31:21.440 --> 00:31:23.520 We shouldn't look down on these things. 00:31:23.520 --> 00:31:28.240 These are blessings that were given to us by our ancestors, passed 00:31:28.240 --> 00:31:33.520 down through generations of faithful Christians, and preserved in the church. 00:31:33.520 --> 00:31:36.240 Ultimately they are blessings from God. 00:31:36.240 --> 00:31:39.360 But we should not look down on what has been given to 00:31:39.360 --> 00:31:45.200 us by our forefathers, particularly when you look at those forefathers, look 00:31:45.200 --> 00:31:48.720 at the lives they lived, look at the societies they built. 00:31:48.720 --> 00:31:51.600 Were they more Christian or less Christian than we are today? 00:31:51.600 --> 00:31:55.200 Or put another way, are we more Christian or are we less 00:31:55.200 --> 00:31:56.080 Christian? 00:31:56.960 --> 00:32:01.200 When we look back to the very earliest days of the church, 00:32:01.200 --> 00:32:06.160 we find already in the second century accounts of Christmas and Easter 00:32:06.160 --> 00:32:07.680 being observed. 00:32:07.680 --> 00:32:11.200 And I think it's important when we're thinking about these things, especially 00:32:11.200 --> 00:32:14.720 if you want to delve in to the history of the way 00:32:15.040 --> 00:32:18.320 certain holidays or holy days, it's the same thing. 00:32:18.320 --> 00:32:21.600 You know, it's when someone says to you happy holidays or writes 00:32:21.760 --> 00:32:28.400 merry Xmas, usually they're trying to deny Christ, but they can't because 00:32:28.400 --> 00:32:32.320 holiday literally means a day set apart and consecrated for a holy 00:32:32.320 --> 00:32:34.160 purpose, is a holy day. 00:32:34.160 --> 00:32:38.240 And Xmas, the X is the first character of Christ, so it's 00:32:38.160 --> 00:32:40.240 a Christian abbreviation too. 00:32:40.240 --> 00:32:44.560 There's no way to remove the reason for the season from it. 00:32:44.560 --> 00:32:46.480 All they do is make fools of themselves. 00:32:46.480 --> 00:32:51.760 So it's right to get aggravated when they're deliberately besmirching and blaspheming 00:32:51.760 --> 00:32:52.800 something holy. 00:32:52.800 --> 00:32:54.480 On the other hand, they're losers. 00:32:54.480 --> 00:32:55.440 They can't. 00:32:55.440 --> 00:32:57.440 That this is God's stuff. 00:32:57.440 --> 00:33:00.720 Other people don't get to mess with it. 00:33:00.720 --> 00:33:05.040 Back from the very beginning of recorded history, of recorded Christian church 00:33:05.040 --> 00:33:10.640 history, we find accounts of these celebrations being held. 00:33:11.120 --> 00:33:14.240 I think one of the things that we mistake when we look 00:33:14.240 --> 00:33:18.400 back through time is to try to pinpoint which council or which 00:33:18.400 --> 00:33:21.600 father first said, yes, this is an official thing, and then here's 00:33:21.600 --> 00:33:25.440 the date on the calendar, and now it's official, now it's Christian. 00:33:25.440 --> 00:33:31.040 Imagine if you lived in 40 AD, in you know, the Jerusalem 00:33:31.200 --> 00:33:35.040 area, and you were a believer, you have a follower of the 00:33:35.040 --> 00:33:39.680 way. You knew the Christ was born, he died, he was resurrected, 00:33:39.680 --> 00:33:41.440 he ascended to heaven. 00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:43.520 You were a Christian. 00:33:43.520 --> 00:33:46.800 Do you think that seven years, give or take, you know, depending 00:33:46.800 --> 00:33:48.480 on which calendar you want to hew to 00:33:49.520 --> 00:33:53.040 seven years after Christ ascended into heaven, do you think that it 00:33:53.040 --> 00:33:57.840 might have occurred to people who were witnesses to that of event 00:33:58.160 --> 00:34:02.880 on the anniversaries of such events might have said to themselves, hey, 00:34:02.880 --> 00:34:04.480 we should remember this. 00:34:04.480 --> 00:34:08.240 We have the historic pattern of things like Passover, where we have 00:34:08.240 --> 00:34:12.640 annual celebrations in remembrance of these important events. 00:34:12.640 --> 00:34:16.240 Are there any more important events in the way of the Christian 00:34:16.240 --> 00:34:21.280 than the birth, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. 00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:23.040 I think the answer is clearly no. 00:34:23.040 --> 00:34:25.440 That should be the answer to to all of us today should 00:34:25.440 --> 00:34:26.160 be no. 00:34:26.160 --> 00:34:30.560 That is the most important thing that has happened in history. 00:34:30.560 --> 00:34:35.040 Those events are paramount in all of human history. 00:34:35.040 --> 00:34:38.640 So when you're looking at what the first people were doing, don't 00:34:38.640 --> 00:34:43.440 focus on the councils that ratified, like, here's a good time for 00:34:43.440 --> 00:34:47.120 us to establish a norm for all believers to do it. 00:34:47.120 --> 00:34:49.920 Because remember what transpired between you know A.D. 00:34:50.080 --> 00:34:51.280 40 and A.D. 00:34:51.440 --> 00:34:57.920 340. You had the church going from being this tiny, nascent, in 00:34:57.920 --> 00:35:04.080 many ways persecuted fringe thing to becoming an official state church in 00:35:04.080 --> 00:35:05.200 some nations. 00:35:05.200 --> 00:35:10.480 And so as the number of believers grew, the unity of practice 00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:12.240 became more important. 00:35:12.400 --> 00:35:15.520 We talked, I think, last week about how Americans tend to clap 00:35:15.760 --> 00:35:16.960 completely differently. 00:35:16.960 --> 00:35:19.200 Everyone else tends to clap on the same beat. 00:35:19.200 --> 00:35:23.760 And when you're just spontaneously clapping, most people tend to converge. 00:35:23.760 --> 00:35:25.120 We don't. 00:35:25.120 --> 00:35:28.800 There's a natural tendency among people to try to converge on similar 00:35:28.800 --> 00:35:31.760 patterns. You want to do something similar to your neighbor. 00:35:31.760 --> 00:35:34.480 It's abnormal to try to fight your neighbor and try to be 00:35:34.480 --> 00:35:38.000 different just for the sake of doing your doing your own thing. 00:35:38.000 --> 00:35:41.360 And so of course it would make sense that the early believers 00:35:41.360 --> 00:35:42.720 would remember Easter. 00:35:42.720 --> 00:35:46.240 They would remember the day that Christ rose from the dead. 00:35:46.240 --> 00:35:47.920 That's a pretty big deal. 00:35:47.920 --> 00:35:51.040 Seven years after it happened, one year after it happened, on the 00:35:51.040 --> 00:35:52.240 one year anniversary. 00:35:52.240 --> 00:35:53.600 Do you think they forgot? 00:35:53.600 --> 00:35:55.120 These people had calendars. 00:35:55.120 --> 00:35:57.600 Calendars have been around forever. 00:35:58.000 --> 00:36:02.880 Astrology was one of the oldest disciplines in humanity. 00:36:02.880 --> 00:36:07.120 You know, today we think of astrology as this pagan practice, and 00:36:07.120 --> 00:36:12.480 it is today, but the way that God revealed himself in the 00:36:12.480 --> 00:36:14.240 stars has been lost to us. 00:36:14.240 --> 00:36:15.200 I don't think it's recoverable. 00:36:15.200 --> 00:36:16.640 I don't think we need it. 00:36:16.640 --> 00:36:22.000 But the fact that we find astrology in every single old civilization 00:36:22.240 --> 00:36:25.440 is more than just they've liked looking up a lot. 00:36:25.440 --> 00:36:28.000 There's a lot of very sophisticated math and a lot of tremendous 00:36:28.480 --> 00:36:31.520 achievements for them to be able to figure that stuff out on 00:36:31.520 --> 00:36:32.480 their own. 00:36:32.480 --> 00:36:35.920 What they were looking for were the very portents that God recorded 00:36:35.920 --> 00:36:38.960 in Genesis 1 that He was putting there. 00:36:38.960 --> 00:36:42.320 So of course, one year after Christ is raised raised from the 00:36:42.320 --> 00:36:45.920 dead, Christians are gonna remember and gonna celebrate it. 00:36:45.920 --> 00:36:49.760 Now, does that mean that Easter when it was first formalized as 00:36:49.760 --> 00:36:54.000 a celebration on a particular day of a calendar was the exact 00:36:54.000 --> 00:36:56.080 day. No, does it matter? 00:36:56.080 --> 00:36:56.720 I don't think so. 00:36:56.720 --> 00:36:59.120 I think we should try to get it as close as possible. 00:36:59.120 --> 00:37:03.920 But it doesn't matter if it's exactly the day, because consecrating a 00:37:03.920 --> 00:37:09.200 day as a holy remembrance is itself what what God says is 00:37:09.200 --> 00:37:12.800 important. And we'll get to some passages about that later. 00:37:12.800 --> 00:37:16.240 But again, when you're looking back through time and and you see 00:37:16.240 --> 00:37:19.680 these debates about calendars and who's got the you know the right 00:37:19.680 --> 00:37:21.840 date or the right offsets for these things? 00:37:21.840 --> 00:37:26.000 You know, there are changeovers between one style of calendar and another. 00:37:26.000 --> 00:37:27.280 None of that matters. 00:37:27.280 --> 00:37:30.880 We're not saying you must use this particular calendar in this particular 00:37:30.880 --> 00:37:37.840 way. On the other hand, a calendar is functionally a local thing. 00:37:37.840 --> 00:37:41.120 So there's a difference between the calendars in the East and the 00:37:41.120 --> 00:37:42.320 West today. 00:37:42.320 --> 00:37:48.800 Because historically, if my ancestors lived in England and somebody else's ancestors 00:37:48.800 --> 00:37:52.640 lived in Russia 2,000 years ago, did it matter if their calendars 00:37:52.640 --> 00:37:53.440 were the same? 00:37:53.440 --> 00:37:54.400 Absolutely not. 00:37:54.400 --> 00:37:57.600 They're gonna have the same seasons, they're gonna have the same years, 00:37:57.600 --> 00:38:01.760 but are they gonna recognize exactly the same months and dates? 00:38:01.760 --> 00:38:02.640 Who cares? 00:38:02.640 --> 00:38:04.800 They're never going to meet each other, never going to have any 00:38:04.800 --> 00:38:10.320 commerce. So agreement across vast distances on calendars is irrelevant. 00:38:10.560 --> 00:38:12.080 It's trivia. 00:38:12.080 --> 00:38:16.160 As As empires spread and as there was more commerce among various 00:38:16.160 --> 00:38:21.760 nations, it became more important for calendars to be unified. 00:38:21.760 --> 00:38:23.840 It just became it gets easier. 00:38:23.840 --> 00:38:28.640 And today, time is one of the most important things in the 00:38:28.640 --> 00:38:34.240 world for for GPS, for ATMs, for computers. 00:38:34.240 --> 00:38:36.960 Everything relies on incredibly precise time. 00:38:36.960 --> 00:38:40.640 So it's it's not enough just to have like the same days. 00:38:40.640 --> 00:38:43.840 You need to have the same milliseconds when you get down to 00:38:43.840 --> 00:38:46.880 certain levels in order for everything just to work. 00:38:46.880 --> 00:38:49.280 That's how interconnected we are today. 00:38:49.280 --> 00:38:54.480 So, yes, today there is a need for a single unified calendar, 00:38:54.480 --> 00:38:59.680 and the d divergence from that is usually crazy. 00:38:59.680 --> 00:39:02.640 Like there are historical reasons why there are disagreements, but we eventually 00:39:02.640 --> 00:39:04.080 had to get on the same page. 00:39:04.080 --> 00:39:05.360 And it really didn't matter who went. 00:39:06.240 --> 00:39:07.360 It didn't matter. 00:39:07.360 --> 00:39:10.960 It just mattered that we would agree on a common form of 00:39:10.960 --> 00:39:11.920 the thing. 00:39:11.920 --> 00:39:17.520 Because again, the Sabbath observance doesn't need to be on Saturday or 00:39:17.520 --> 00:39:23.120 Sunday. Sunday was chosen because it was a confession of Christ's resurrection. 00:39:23.120 --> 00:39:25.920 It was the eighth day of creation. 00:39:25.920 --> 00:39:28.000 But it's not a law. 00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:32.400 On the other hand, if Christians where you live are gathering on 00:39:32.400 --> 00:39:35.520 Sunday and you come along and say, Well, that's not a law, 00:39:35.520 --> 00:39:37.760 I don't have to do that, I'm gonna worship on some other 00:39:37.760 --> 00:39:40.240 day because I'm not beholden to that. 00:39:40.240 --> 00:39:44.800 It's not that you are exercising Christian freedom to despise what your 00:39:44.800 --> 00:39:48.160 believing neighbors are doing is that you're being a jerk. 00:39:48.160 --> 00:39:51.600 You're saying, I don't care what anyone other brothers and believers in 00:39:51.600 --> 00:39:53.920 Christ do, I'm gonna go my own way. 00:39:54.240 --> 00:39:55.680 This is how judges ended up. 00:39:55.680 --> 00:39:58.400 The very last passages and everyone did what was right in his 00:39:58.480 --> 00:39:59.200 own eyes. 00:39:59.200 --> 00:40:02.080 That's not a happy ending for that book. 00:40:02.080 --> 00:40:05.200 This is kind of where some people are spiritually today. 00:40:05.200 --> 00:40:08.880 They think that if there's not an explicit command from God They 00:40:08.880 --> 00:40:10.480 can just do whatever they want. 00:40:10.480 --> 00:40:14.080 And so one of the points of this episode is that that's 00:40:14.000 --> 00:40:17.520 not the case, not because the calendar is a law. 00:40:17.520 --> 00:40:19.440 Again, pick whatever calendar you want. 00:40:19.440 --> 00:40:23.440 You know, Eastern Orthodox and some others use a different church calendar, 00:40:23.440 --> 00:40:26.480 so they celebrate Christmas a couple weeks after us. 00:40:26.480 --> 00:40:27.760 I'm not mad at 'em. 00:40:27.760 --> 00:40:31.200 I think it's a little weird, especially in the West, for someone 00:40:31.200 --> 00:40:35.520 to be celebrating such an important holiday on a different day than 00:40:35.520 --> 00:40:39.920 everyone around him, but that is far less important a question than 00:40:39.920 --> 00:40:42.160 whether or not he's celebrating Christmas at all. 00:40:42.160 --> 00:40:46.720 The fact that someone using a different calendar is still celebrating Christmas 00:40:46.720 --> 00:40:48.080 is the important part. 00:40:48.080 --> 00:40:49.680 That's the big ticket item. 00:40:49.680 --> 00:40:52.800 I think if we got rid of the other doctrinal disagreements, we'd 00:40:52.800 --> 00:40:54.080 all be on the same calendar. 00:40:54.080 --> 00:40:55.920 But the calendar is not the concern. 00:40:56.080 --> 00:40:57.600 I hope that's coming through here. 00:40:57.600 --> 00:41:02.000 It's not you must use this particular calendar with this particular set 00:41:02.000 --> 00:41:03.040 of dates. 00:41:03.040 --> 00:41:04.240 Who cares? 00:41:04.240 --> 00:41:09.680 The observance, the regular observance in faithfulness to remember God's gifts is 00:41:09.680 --> 00:41:10.960 the important part. 00:41:10.960 --> 00:41:13.680 And then when you live in a certain place where where all 00:41:13.680 --> 00:41:17.120 believers are doing the same thing, you should do what they do. 00:41:17.120 --> 00:41:20.800 Not because God commands you to be on a certain calendar, but 00:41:20.800 --> 00:41:23.280 he commands the faithful to gather together. 00:41:23.280 --> 00:41:26.800 And so if everybody in your neighborhood, everyone in your community is 00:41:26.800 --> 00:41:29.120 a church on one day and you're like, I'm gonna go a 00:41:29.120 --> 00:41:29.680 different day. 00:41:29.680 --> 00:41:31.520 I'm not gonna celebrate that Christmas. 00:41:31.520 --> 00:41:33.600 I'm gonna celebrate my own that's different. 00:41:33.600 --> 00:41:34.720 What are you doing? 00:41:34.720 --> 00:41:37.680 You're separating yourself from the body of Christ. 00:41:37.680 --> 00:41:39.520 And we're members of one body. 00:41:39.520 --> 00:41:40.720 We're not individuals. 00:41:40.720 --> 00:41:44.240 We're not we're not solo agents in this thing. 00:41:44.240 --> 00:41:48.160 We are members of something that's been going on for thousands of 00:41:48.160 --> 00:41:53.120 years. One of the great advent hymns in anticipation of Christmas, as 00:41:53.280 --> 00:41:55.120 Savior of the Nations Come. 00:41:55.360 --> 00:41:57.600 This is a I think one of the great things about this 00:41:57.600 --> 00:42:01.280 hymn not only is it beautiful, but it's a hymn that's been 00:42:01.280 --> 00:42:04.800 sung continuously among Christians for sixteen hundred years. 00:42:04.800 --> 00:42:08.640 It was written by Ambrose of Milan over sixteen hundred years ago, 00:42:08.640 --> 00:42:11.520 and Christians have been singing it ever since. 00:42:11.520 --> 00:42:16.080 So when you have some churches that have the new hymns up 00:42:16.080 --> 00:42:19.600 on the on the projectors every week, you know, the whatever garbage 00:42:20.160 --> 00:42:24.320 stuff is being produced by pop vocalists, versus the churches that are 00:42:24.320 --> 00:42:28.800 singing the same hymn that's been sung for sixteen hundred years, I 00:42:28.800 --> 00:42:31.760 I think that's a fundamentally different experience. 00:42:31.760 --> 00:42:34.720 And again, we're not saying this one is sin and this one 00:42:34.720 --> 00:42:35.680 is not sin. 00:42:35.680 --> 00:42:39.360 We're saying that this one is a continuation of the faith that 00:42:39.360 --> 00:42:41.360 we inherited from our fathers. 00:42:41.360 --> 00:42:45.040 Why on earth would anyone take a sixteen hundred year old beautiful 00:42:45.040 --> 00:42:47.120 hymn and say, I'm not gonna do that? 00:42:47.120 --> 00:42:48.080 We got this new thing. 00:42:48.080 --> 00:42:50.160 It's got drums, it's great. 00:42:50.160 --> 00:42:54.080 Seriously? Why do you not want to join with all of the 00:42:54.080 --> 00:42:58.320 saints in heaven in worshiping the way they worshipped as much as 00:42:58.320 --> 00:43:01.680 possible. And so in a minute we're gonna get into the Reformation, 00:43:01.680 --> 00:43:05.200 but just keep in mind that when Luther in particular and the 00:43:05.200 --> 00:43:09.360 Lutherans looked at what Rome was doing, they did not want to 00:43:09.360 --> 00:43:10.480 sever all ties. 00:43:10.480 --> 00:43:11.760 They didn't want to sever any ties. 00:43:11.760 --> 00:43:14.560 They just wanted to clean up some indoctrinal errors. 00:43:14.560 --> 00:43:20.400 And so as they altered aspects of the liturgy and altered aspects 00:43:20.400 --> 00:43:24.080 of the calendar, it was not for the sake of discussion. 00:43:24.080 --> 00:43:27.840 It was simply to remove things that they believed were false teachings. 00:43:27.840 --> 00:43:33.440 Because your calendar is necessarily a function of whatever you teach. 00:43:33.440 --> 00:43:35.280 And that's a good thing. 00:43:35.280 --> 00:43:40.720 Whatever doctrines your church teaches should be reflected in your church's liturgy 00:43:40.720 --> 00:43:42.560 and its liturgical practices. 00:43:42.560 --> 00:43:48.080 And if your church, frankly, despises all historic norms, that's also a 00:43:48.080 --> 00:43:53.120 confession. The show art for this episode is an excerpt from Owen 00:43:53.120 --> 00:43:57.680 Cyclops on Twitter, his full year liturgical calendar. 00:43:57.680 --> 00:44:00.000 It's beautiful, it's done in his style of art. 00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:02.720 If you like it, it's it's a great example. 00:44:02.720 --> 00:44:06.480 I think it's a particularly good illustration of this point because he's 00:44:06.400 --> 00:44:10.000 a Roman Catholic and the calendar is a Roman Catholic calendar. 00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:13.120 So the inset that we used for the art is something that 00:44:13.120 --> 00:44:15.120 I think we all pretty much agree on in the West. 00:44:15.120 --> 00:44:19.040 It's we're looking at the the Advent period of the calendar. 00:44:19.040 --> 00:44:23.280 If you zoom out, once it gets into Pentecost, fully a quarter 00:44:23.280 --> 00:44:29.360 of Owen's calendar is dedicated to various observances for the Blessed Virgin 00:44:29.360 --> 00:44:36.400 Mary. And they're almost all doctrines that are evolutions in Rome that 00:44:36.400 --> 00:44:38.640 are not shared among some other churches. 00:44:38.640 --> 00:44:41.840 In fact, some of them were ratified very late. 00:44:41.840 --> 00:44:43.280 That's fine. 00:44:43.280 --> 00:44:47.520 I disagree with the doctrine that's represented in that portion of the 00:44:47.520 --> 00:44:50.160 calendar, but I think it's a very good thing that it's on 00:44:50.160 --> 00:44:55.840 the calendar because that is the liturgical confession of his denomination. 00:44:55.840 --> 00:44:57.200 That's the way it should be. 00:44:57.200 --> 00:45:00.720 Your church calendar should teach your doctrine because that's exactly what it's 00:45:00.720 --> 00:45:01.200 going to do. 00:45:01.200 --> 00:45:06.320 Whatever you're repeating, whatever you're visiting is going to be teaching people. 00:45:06.320 --> 00:45:08.560 So I look at that and I think it's beautiful. 00:45:08.560 --> 00:45:10.960 I I look at the part that has some things that I 00:45:10.960 --> 00:45:12.720 don't agree with doctrinally. 00:45:12.720 --> 00:45:14.160 I'm not mad at the calendar. 00:45:14.160 --> 00:45:15.440 I'm not mad at him. 00:45:15.440 --> 00:45:20.000 I just think that a different theology would be reflected differently on 00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:20.720 the calendar. 00:45:20.960 --> 00:45:24.240 So we'll link in the show notes his poster if you are 00:45:24.240 --> 00:45:25.840 Roman Catholic, check it out. 00:45:25.840 --> 00:45:26.880 Like everyone should check it out. 00:45:26.880 --> 00:45:28.960 If you're Roman Catholic, you should buy it. 00:45:28.960 --> 00:45:33.840 If you're not Roman Catholic, I think it's also an important illustration 00:45:33.840 --> 00:45:38.000 that when you look at that and see the historic claims of 00:45:38.000 --> 00:45:41.280 Rome, some of which are very true, some of which get increasingly 00:45:41.280 --> 00:45:47.840 tenuous, one of the arguments that we see today against church calendars, 00:45:47.840 --> 00:45:51.280 against the liturgical calendar, is that that's popish. 00:45:51.280 --> 00:45:52.320 That's papist. 00:45:52.320 --> 00:45:54.160 That's what those guys in Rome are doing. 00:45:54.160 --> 00:45:55.440 I want nothing to do with that. 00:45:55.440 --> 00:45:57.600 Pope bad, it's all bad. 00:45:57.600 --> 00:46:00.000 That's simply not true. 00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:01.600 That's not Christian. 00:46:01.600 --> 00:46:06.400 Because Rome inherited many of the things on that calendar. 00:46:06.400 --> 00:46:08.160 It's not a Romish calendar. 00:46:08.160 --> 00:46:10.400 It is the Western Christian calendar. 00:46:10.400 --> 00:46:14.080 And there are things on it that are particular to Rome. 00:46:14.080 --> 00:46:17.840 There a lot of the calendar is shared by Lutherans and Anglicans 00:46:17.840 --> 00:46:19.280 and and a number of others. 00:46:19.280 --> 00:46:20.320 That's a good thing. 00:46:20.320 --> 00:46:22.800 And wherever we have agreement, we should celebrate it. 00:46:22.800 --> 00:46:26.160 And it's a tremendous blessing that we all go to church on 00:46:26.160 --> 00:46:29.360 the same day, you know, not only every week, you know, in 00:46:29.360 --> 00:46:33.440 that weekly cycle, but seasonally when we all go to church on 00:46:33.440 --> 00:46:36.800 the same day for Christmas and for Easter and the other important 00:46:36.800 --> 00:46:39.600 days that are shared across Christendom. 00:46:39.600 --> 00:46:40.560 That's valuable. 00:46:40.560 --> 00:46:44.880 It's a reminder that regardless of some disagreements, we hope that we 00:46:44.880 --> 00:46:47.600 still have the same God and we're using the same book and 00:46:47.600 --> 00:46:52.080 we're pointing towards the same immutable true facts that are written in 00:46:52.080 --> 00:46:55.360 time and in eternity because God did them for us. 00:46:55.360 --> 00:46:58.560 So if you look at that, don't think, oh man, I'm really 00:46:58.560 --> 00:47:00.400 missing out because I'm not Roman Catholic. 00:47:00.400 --> 00:47:01.760 I don't want that to be your conclusion. 00:47:01.760 --> 00:47:05.600 I want you to think, I wish that my church had a 00:47:05.600 --> 00:47:08.400 liturgical calendar that reflected our beliefs. 00:47:08.400 --> 00:47:12.880 And if your belief calendar is empty, think about that. 00:47:12.880 --> 00:47:16.480 Think about why it is that your that your church body has 00:47:16.480 --> 00:47:21.360 abandoned something that has been done for thousands of years? 00:47:21.360 --> 00:47:22.480 That's an important question. 00:47:22.480 --> 00:47:24.560 Like you said at the beginning, we didn't tend for this to 00:47:24.560 --> 00:47:25.360 be polemical. 00:47:25.360 --> 00:47:29.120 Like I I naively had forgotten that this was a huge matter 00:47:29.120 --> 00:47:30.640 of dispute. 00:47:30.640 --> 00:47:34.720 There was a I'm off Twitter for until we start recording again. 00:47:34.720 --> 00:47:37.600 So like I'm not doing any DMs or anything for a few 00:47:37.600 --> 00:47:40.400 weeks. I'm not going to read when I get back because even 00:47:40.400 --> 00:47:42.640 the podcast is a job, or responding to DMs is not a 00:47:42.640 --> 00:47:46.000 job. So please just wait for me to get back. 00:47:46.000 --> 00:47:49.600 I did happen to look just this morning briefly at Twitter, and 00:47:49.600 --> 00:47:53.840 the one thing that I'm glad I caught was somebody yesterday had 00:47:53.840 --> 00:47:58.000 posted about the liturgical calendar and said, Hey, this is a great 00:47:58.000 --> 00:47:58.720 teaching tool. 00:47:58.720 --> 00:48:02.000 You know, pastors consider using this as part of how you teach 00:48:02.000 --> 00:48:04.000 your parishioners throughout the year. 00:48:04.000 --> 00:48:07.280 And most of the comments to him were nasty. 00:48:07.280 --> 00:48:13.200 They were mean and they were hateful comments, despising a Christian calendar 00:48:13.200 --> 00:48:15.360 with Christian holy days on it. 00:48:15.360 --> 00:48:18.480 Why? Because it's too popish, because it's not in the Bible. 00:48:18.480 --> 00:48:20.320 And so that's an argument. 00:48:20.320 --> 00:48:25.360 If the inheritance of our forefathers was to do certain things in 00:48:25.360 --> 00:48:28.320 certain ways, we don't get to just torch it. 00:48:28.320 --> 00:48:31.040 You know, it's in the in the generations episode we talked about 00:48:31.040 --> 00:48:33.840 how that's kind of the approach the boomers have to everything else. 00:48:33.840 --> 00:48:36.640 You know, they they'll buy a property and chop down all the 00:48:36.640 --> 00:48:40.320 trees and sod the lawn and just have this you know just 00:48:40.320 --> 00:48:45.680 carpet of green where there used to be beautiful lush plants. 00:48:45.680 --> 00:48:48.640 This is what people have done in other places like the church 00:48:48.640 --> 00:48:53.280 calendar. It's the same energy, it's the same rebellious destruction to come 00:48:53.280 --> 00:48:56.160 in and find something beautiful and say, I'm going to remake all 00:48:56.160 --> 00:48:57.680 this in my image. 00:48:57.760 --> 00:48:58.080 So 00:48:59.600 --> 00:49:02.880 looking at these Looking at these things, if it's causing you to 00:49:02.880 --> 00:49:06.400 be angry, it's you're in the wrong. 00:49:06.400 --> 00:49:09.520 And so it's not that the calendar is a matter of law, 00:49:09.520 --> 00:49:15.840 but despising it, despising other Christians for their sincerely held observation of 00:49:15.840 --> 00:49:19.120 what they believe to be holy days is wrong. 00:49:19.120 --> 00:49:23.920 I disagree with the Roman Catholics who observe things like the Annunciation 00:49:23.920 --> 00:49:27.200 or the all the various aspects of Mary, you know, ascending into 00:49:27.200 --> 00:49:30.160 heaven and stuff that are not scriptural, but I'm not going to 00:49:30.160 --> 00:49:33.120 be mad at them for observing them on the calendar. 00:49:33.120 --> 00:49:35.600 They're doing that according to their conscience. 00:49:35.600 --> 00:49:38.800 I wish that their conscience were differently formed, but I'm never gonna 00:49:38.800 --> 00:49:43.280 get mad at the practice because the practice itself is 00:49:44.560 --> 00:49:47.360 intended to be proper worship. 00:49:47.360 --> 00:49:50.000 And the fact that there's doctrine behind it that I would disagree 00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:51.760 with is a separable matter. 00:49:51.760 --> 00:49:55.440 I think it's important for us to separate doctrines that are observed 00:49:55.600 --> 00:49:58.160 and the act of the observation itself. 00:49:58.160 --> 00:50:03.200 Because again, if this is for teaching, then whatever your calendar teaches 00:50:03.200 --> 00:50:06.480 is a reflection of what your church body should teach. 00:50:06.640 --> 00:50:10.400 And if there's no overlap, you're missing out. 00:50:10.960 --> 00:50:16.400 We should be careful to note here that the Western church calendar 00:50:16.400 --> 00:50:19.520 has a core on which we all agree. 00:50:19.520 --> 00:50:23.200 And we've already gone over part of that obviously of Advent, Christmas, 00:50:23.200 --> 00:50:26.640 Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost. 00:50:26.640 --> 00:50:30.160 We agree on the core of the calendar, and incidentally the East 00:50:30.160 --> 00:50:31.520 agrees as well. 00:50:31.840 --> 00:50:35.840 The East disagrees on the dates, but as mentioned, that doesn't matter 00:50:35.840 --> 00:50:37.200 that much. 00:50:37.200 --> 00:50:43.680 When it comes to the specific inclusions or removals from the calendar, 00:50:43.680 --> 00:50:47.120 if you look at the church in, say, the year one thousand 00:50:47.200 --> 00:50:50.960 and then compare the calendar currently used by Rome to that, it's 00:50:50.960 --> 00:50:54.640 different. The same is true for the Lutherans. 00:50:54.640 --> 00:50:58.320 There is no Christian group that is using the exact same calendar 00:50:58.640 --> 00:51:02.080 that was used a thousand years ago, fifteen hundred years ago. 00:51:02.080 --> 00:51:04.160 That's not the point. 00:51:04.160 --> 00:51:07.520 It may be that there will be observances that get added or 00:51:07.520 --> 00:51:12.640 removed over the centuries, the core remains the same, that teaching function 00:51:12.640 --> 00:51:20.320 remains. We in the Lutheran Church, for instance, have Reformation Sunday, 00:51:20.320 --> 00:51:23.040 which is celebrated immediately before all saints. 00:51:23.840 --> 00:51:28.640 We have that on our calendar because we consider the Reformation to 00:51:28.640 --> 00:51:34.160 have been a vitally important restoration of right doctrine to the church, 00:51:34.160 --> 00:51:37.200 and so we celebrate that as a gift from God. 00:51:37.520 --> 00:51:42.320 Obviously, Rome is not going to have that on its calendar. 00:51:42.640 --> 00:51:45.920 We do not have the Marian dogmas on our calendar. 00:51:45.920 --> 00:51:48.640 Rome has added those to its calendar. 00:51:48.640 --> 00:51:51.920 You are going to have these distinctions, these differences, as Woe said, 00:51:51.920 --> 00:51:55.280 this is going to flow from your teaching, from your doctrine, from 00:51:55.280 --> 00:51:57.520 your theology. 00:51:57.520 --> 00:52:01.200 But just to make certain that we are absolutely clear on what 00:52:01.200 --> 00:52:05.440 Lutherans hold, on what we are saying about what the calendar is 00:52:05.440 --> 00:52:09.520 and what the calendar is not, what these practices are in the 00:52:09.520 --> 00:52:11.840 church and what these practices are not. 00:52:11.840 --> 00:52:15.520 I want to read Article fifteen from our confession because it lays 00:52:15.520 --> 00:52:16.960 out exactly what we believe. 00:52:16.960 --> 00:52:19.760 I will also link to this and some other parts of the 00:52:19.760 --> 00:52:21.920 Book of Concord in the show notes that go over it in 00:52:21.920 --> 00:52:22.720 greater length. 00:52:22.720 --> 00:52:25.840 This article is quite short. 00:52:25.840 --> 00:52:30.080 Of usages, and by usages it means practices, in the church they 00:52:30.080 --> 00:52:33.920 teach, which is saying we teach, that those ought to be observed, 00:52:33.920 --> 00:52:38.400 which may be observed without sin, and which are profitable unto tranquility 00:52:38.400 --> 00:52:43.280 and good order in the church, as particular holy days, festivals, and 00:52:43.280 --> 00:52:44.240 the like. 00:52:44.240 --> 00:52:49.680 Nevertheless, concerning such things men are admonished that consciences are not to 00:52:49.680 --> 00:52:54.640 be burdened, as though such observances were necessary to salvation. 00:52:54.800 --> 00:52:59.440 They are admonished also that human traditions instituted to propitiate God, to 00:52:59.440 --> 00:53:03.520 merit grace, and to make satisfaction for sins, are opposed to the 00:53:03.520 --> 00:53:05.680 gospel and the doctrine of faith. 00:53:05.680 --> 00:53:10.880 Wherefore vows and traditions concerning meets and days, etc., instituted to merit 00:53:10.880 --> 00:53:15.600 grace, and to make satisfaction for sins, are useless and contrary to 00:53:15.600 --> 00:53:17.520 the gospel. 00:53:17.520 --> 00:53:21.200 And so in sum, in short, the Lutheran position is that we 00:53:21.200 --> 00:53:24.160 should maintain those things that are good. 00:53:24.160 --> 00:53:27.040 You keep the things that were handed down from your far your 00:53:27.040 --> 00:53:31.120 forefathers, when they are good, when they are profitable, when they are 00:53:31.120 --> 00:53:36.080 useful Now, we have to be very careful what we mean by 00:53:36.080 --> 00:53:40.000 this, because there are some who attempt to turn this argument around 00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:43.760 and say, unless you can show me exactly why we must do 00:53:43.760 --> 00:53:45.280 this, I'm going to get rid of it. 00:53:45.280 --> 00:53:46.320 That's not the standard. 00:53:47.200 --> 00:53:52.800 The standard is if you want to remove something from church practice, 00:53:52.800 --> 00:53:56.960 the burden is on you to show why it should be removed. 00:53:56.960 --> 00:54:03.520 With the Reformation, we showed amply, abundantly why we removed certain practices, 00:54:03.520 --> 00:54:07.440 why we changed certain things, why we got rid of things that 00:54:07.440 --> 00:54:10.880 had crept into the church over the centuries. 00:54:10.880 --> 00:54:12.720 There are others who did not do that. 00:54:12.720 --> 00:54:16.720 There are others who basically said, Whatever looks like Rome, smells like 00:54:16.720 --> 00:54:18.400 Rome, we have to get rid of it. 00:54:18.400 --> 00:54:20.880 And so we'll get rid of the candles, we'll get rid of 00:54:20.880 --> 00:54:23.120 the incense, we'll get rid of the artwork, we'll get rid of 00:54:23.120 --> 00:54:25.600 the hymns, we'll get rid of and the list goes on and 00:54:25.600 --> 00:54:29.600 on, and they just jettisoned practically the totality of the Christian faith. 00:54:29.600 --> 00:54:32.880 They retained nothing of Christian praxis. 00:54:32.880 --> 00:54:34.640 That is not what we advocate. 00:54:34.640 --> 00:54:36.880 That is not what Christians advocate. 00:54:36.880 --> 00:54:40.560 You retain the things that are good, and so And so, in 00:54:40.560 --> 00:54:43.840 so far as these things have been handed down from our forefathers 00:54:44.080 --> 00:54:49.040 and do not conflict with the faith, they should be maintained. 00:54:49.040 --> 00:54:53.840 We don't have to make some sort of particularly compelling argument. 00:54:53.840 --> 00:54:56.480 And we are, of course, making the argument, but it is not 00:54:56.480 --> 00:55:01.200 incumbent on us to make the argument that these things are necessary 00:55:01.520 --> 00:55:03.760 or that these things are. 00:55:03.920 --> 00:55:08.400 somehow the pinnacle of praxis in the church. 00:55:08.400 --> 00:55:12.560 The standard is if they do not conflict with the faith and 00:55:12.560 --> 00:55:16.400 they have been passed down to us by our forefathers, they should 00:55:16.400 --> 00:55:17.600 be maintained. 00:55:17.600 --> 00:55:20.480 And that is what we see in this article, if they are 00:55:20.480 --> 00:55:25.280 profitable unto tranquility and good order in the church, and particularly singled 00:55:25.280 --> 00:55:28.240 out, holy days, festivals, and the like. 00:55:28.240 --> 00:55:31.280 That is what we're talking about with the church calendar. 00:55:31.280 --> 00:55:35.760 We maintain this cycle because it is profitable for teaching, it is 00:55:35.760 --> 00:55:37.680 profitable for good order. 00:55:37.680 --> 00:55:40.960 And it's not just profitable for good order within a specific church, 00:55:40.960 --> 00:55:44.480 within a national church or a denomination or tradition. 00:55:44.480 --> 00:55:50.720 This also aids with unity across all of Christendom. 00:55:50.720 --> 00:55:56.000 Even if we disagree on the dates specifically, we all still celebrate 00:55:56.000 --> 00:55:59.680 Christmas. We all still celebrate Easter. 00:55:59.680 --> 00:56:06.800 This leads to an international unity, a universal, a Catholic unity 00:56:07.040 --> 00:56:09.600 amongst all Christians, and that is a good thing. 00:56:09.920 --> 00:56:13.520 We don't have to have the same specific rites, the same specific 00:56:13.520 --> 00:56:18.080 traditions, all these other things across national churches. 00:56:18.080 --> 00:56:21.120 You're going to have a different church in Germany than you're going 00:56:21.120 --> 00:56:24.800 to have in Uganda or Japan or even France. 00:56:24.800 --> 00:56:26.800 That's fine, that's good. 00:56:26.800 --> 00:56:31.680 To some degree, praxis in the church should be a reflection of 00:56:31.680 --> 00:56:36.160 that church, of that nation, of the people who constitute that physical 00:56:36.160 --> 00:56:37.520 church at that time. 00:56:37.920 --> 00:56:42.240 However, in so far as we can agree on these matters, on 00:56:42.240 --> 00:56:45.680 these overarching matters, that is good, that's profitable. 00:56:45.680 --> 00:56:50.720 It shows us that we have Christian brothers in other countries, and 00:56:50.720 --> 00:56:52.640 we should recognize them as Christian brothers. 00:56:52.640 --> 00:56:54.640 Yes, they're Christian brothers over there. 00:56:54.640 --> 00:56:56.320 They are not my neighbor. 00:56:56.320 --> 00:56:57.920 But they are still Christian brothers. 00:56:57.920 --> 00:57:04.000 They are Christians who also celebrate these major holidays, these holy days, 00:57:04.000 --> 00:57:07.840 who recognize the history of salvation in the church and the work 00:57:07.840 --> 00:57:09.840 of Christ. 00:57:09.840 --> 00:57:13.040 And in order to have that unity, we have to have something 00:57:13.600 --> 00:57:15.280 upon which we are unified. 00:57:15.280 --> 00:57:19.840 Yes, ultimately our unity is in Christ, is on the gospel. 00:57:19.840 --> 00:57:23.840 But to have the unity in praxis, the unity with regard to 00:57:23.840 --> 00:57:26.640 observances, is incredibly profitable. 00:57:26.640 --> 00:57:31.360 It helps us to view other Christians in other places as our 00:57:31.360 --> 00:57:33.120 brothers in Christ. 00:57:33.440 --> 00:57:39.120 So it's important to note that while the emergence of specific festivals 00:57:39.120 --> 00:57:43.200 and holidays is the function of men saying, hey, it would be 00:57:43.200 --> 00:57:45.200 a good idea if we did X. 00:57:45.600 --> 00:57:47.520 that's undoubtedly the origin of them. 00:57:47.520 --> 00:57:50.880 Even the very first Easter and the very first Christmas was undoubtedly 00:57:51.760 --> 00:57:55.520 believers saying, hey, let's make sure we remember that. 00:57:55.520 --> 00:57:59.840 That does not make them man-made in the sense that other things 00:57:59.840 --> 00:58:00.960 are man-made. 00:58:00.960 --> 00:58:04.080 Because when they said those things, they weren't saying, it is now 00:58:04.080 --> 00:58:06.880 the law and you go to hell unless you do it just 00:58:06.880 --> 00:58:07.520 like this. 00:58:07.520 --> 00:58:11.680 They're saying wouldn't this be profitable for all Christians? 00:58:11.680 --> 00:58:14.960 As Corey said, it has always been the case and it is 00:58:14.960 --> 00:58:20.240 entirely permissible, and in fact it's necessary for for the observed liturgical 00:58:20.240 --> 00:58:26.800 calendar to evolve over time, because God continues to operate in time. 00:58:26.800 --> 00:58:30.720 The ordinary time period of the calendar in Pentecost, that's about half 00:58:30.720 --> 00:58:32.400 of the church year, where 00:58:33.680 --> 00:58:36.800 it's it's focused on the church, the time of the church. 00:58:36.800 --> 00:58:42.480 It's focused on what happened from Acts forward unto the last days. 00:58:42.480 --> 00:58:46.400 In fact, the very last Sundays observed in at the very end 00:58:46.800 --> 00:58:51.120 of the church here, just prior to Advent, are specifically focused on 00:58:51.120 --> 00:58:55.040 the actual end times, which frankly is one of my favorite parts 00:58:55.040 --> 00:58:58.800 of the church here just before getting back into Advent, looking forward 00:58:58.800 --> 00:59:03.040 to the birth of Christ, is that recognition of the end of 00:59:03.040 --> 00:59:08.000 all things, of thy kingdom come finally being answered, of being fulfilled 00:59:08.000 --> 00:59:08.640 by God. 00:59:08.640 --> 00:59:09.920 He is going to come. 00:59:09.920 --> 00:59:11.280 And it will be terrifying. 00:59:11.680 --> 00:59:14.480 God says we're all gonna hide in caves and and pray for 00:59:14.480 --> 00:59:15.520 it to be over. 00:59:15.520 --> 00:59:18.880 I'm not sitting here thinking well the end of the world's gonna 00:59:18.880 --> 00:59:21.200 be a lot of fun, but it's promised by God and He 00:59:21.200 --> 00:59:22.800 says it's what He's going to do. 00:59:22.800 --> 00:59:26.320 So that's something for Christians to look forward to. 00:59:26.320 --> 00:59:30.960 And the prophecies of the end time are they're also cyclical. 00:59:31.600 --> 00:59:35.680 God, when Jesus was giving the parables about the virgins and the 00:59:35.680 --> 00:59:41.280 various other ones that pointed towards the end times, he was promoting 00:59:41.280 --> 00:59:45.520 an awareness and a watchfulness, and what better way to keep watch 00:59:45.760 --> 00:59:50.240 than by having regular observations to keep those things in mind I 00:59:50.560 --> 00:59:55.440 think that it's not for nothing that some church bodies, some even 00:59:55.600 --> 00:59:58.400 call themselves bodies, but there are certain 00:59:59.280 --> 01:00:03.760 Christian sects that will go close to, if not over the line, 01:00:03.760 --> 01:00:06.320 of actually rejecting Christmas and Easter. 01:00:06.320 --> 01:00:10.080 They're the most basic Christian holidays. 01:00:10.080 --> 01:00:16.640 It's not for nothing that that sort of rejection invariably follows rejection 01:00:16.640 --> 01:00:18.000 of the creeds. 01:00:18.000 --> 01:00:20.160 Because they'll say, Well, those are man-made too. 01:00:20.160 --> 01:00:22.800 Well, as we've talked about in past episodes, no they're not. 01:00:22.800 --> 01:00:26.560 The Nicene Creed is a collection of quotations from scripture. 01:00:26.560 --> 01:00:32.400 Just like the Lutheran liturgy is a collection of quotations from Scripture, 01:00:32.400 --> 01:00:38.240 is a creed or the liturgy inspired by God not according to 01:00:38.240 --> 01:00:42.000 itself, but insofar as every word of it is stray from God's 01:00:42.000 --> 01:00:43.440 mouth, it's all good. 01:00:43.440 --> 01:00:44.560 It's all profitable. 01:00:44.560 --> 01:00:48.960 It's things that we should be remembering and bringing to mind and 01:00:48.960 --> 01:00:52.080 confessing publicly. 01:00:52.080 --> 01:00:56.400 One of the good examples I think of the church calendar evolving 01:00:56.400 --> 01:00:58.880 over time is Trinity Sunday. 01:00:58.880 --> 01:01:01.360 This is a Western observance. 01:01:01.360 --> 01:01:04.240 I I think the East also has a form of it, that 01:01:04.240 --> 01:01:09.680 is fairly late in church development, but it's interesting for the reason 01:01:09.680 --> 01:01:16.000 that the Trinity Sunday observance began not with the clergy, but with 01:01:16.000 --> 01:01:22.880 Christians. It began with Christian observances forcing the clergy to recognize what 01:01:22.880 --> 01:01:24.640 became Trinity Sunday. 01:01:24.640 --> 01:01:27.120 And this was this was before the Reformation. 01:01:27.120 --> 01:01:30.560 So initially Rome sort of fought it, but it was salutary, so 01:01:30.560 --> 01:01:31.920 they they permitted it. 01:01:31.920 --> 01:01:36.960 And then eventually after a couple centuries, it became formalized. 01:01:36.960 --> 01:01:40.000 I think it's a good example of something where, you know, do 01:01:40.000 --> 01:01:41.600 you have to have Trinity Sunday? 01:01:41.600 --> 01:01:43.840 No. It's clearly not a law. 01:01:43.840 --> 01:01:46.480 You know, for for over a thousand years, Christians had no such 01:01:46.480 --> 01:01:49.920 thing. And then one day someone said, you know what, it'd be 01:01:49.920 --> 01:01:53.840 a good idea to devote one of these special days specifically to 01:01:53.840 --> 01:01:55.680 the doctrines of the Trinity. 01:01:55.680 --> 01:01:57.040 And others agreed. 01:01:57.040 --> 01:02:00.080 Frankly, it was mostly the Christians and the pews who agreed, and 01:02:00.080 --> 01:02:02.800 then eventually the church capitulated. 01:02:02.800 --> 01:02:04.880 That's a good thing. 01:02:04.880 --> 01:02:08.720 The one of the great things that I really enjoy on Trinity 01:02:08.720 --> 01:02:12.800 Sunday is the recitation of the Athanasian Creed. 01:02:12.800 --> 01:02:16.480 Because it's something, it's an important creed from antiquity that doesn't get 01:02:16.480 --> 01:02:17.600 much play today. 01:02:17.600 --> 01:02:22.000 But it's very important just for revealing everything that we can faithful 01:02:22.160 --> 01:02:26.000 well, almost everything that we can faithfully say about the Trinity in 01:02:26.000 --> 01:02:29.760 such a way that is understandable to the extent that it's it's 01:02:29.760 --> 01:02:33.520 plain language, but you start to get a sense from reading it 01:02:33.840 --> 01:02:38.160 how inscrutable God is in ways that are omitted from the Nicene 01:02:38.320 --> 01:02:41.760 and the Apostles' Creed, because they were solving different problems. 01:02:41.760 --> 01:02:47.760 So Trinity Sunday became an occasion for Christians in numerous denominations to 01:02:47.760 --> 01:02:50.160 recite the Athanasian Creed at least once a year. 01:02:50.160 --> 01:02:51.360 I think that's a good thing. 01:02:51.360 --> 01:02:52.240 It's profitable. 01:02:52.240 --> 01:02:53.120 Is it law? 01:02:53.120 --> 01:02:55.520 No. Are you going to hell if you don't do it? 01:02:55.520 --> 01:02:56.720 No, of course not. 01:02:56.720 --> 01:02:59.520 On the other hand, if it's a good thing that's been going 01:02:59.520 --> 01:03:02.640 on for at this point close to a thousand years in in 01:03:02.640 --> 01:03:06.880 varying degrees of observance, why would you get rid of it? 01:03:06.880 --> 01:03:10.160 Yeah, it's i i it's kind of a a jerk question that 01:03:10.160 --> 01:03:13.520 some people ask that's not necessarily sincere, but I almost wonder what 01:03:13.520 --> 01:03:15.120 are you afraid of? 01:03:15.840 --> 01:03:19.760 what is it about having a Trinity Sunday that might make certain 01:03:19.760 --> 01:03:21.440 preachers nervous? 01:03:21.440 --> 01:03:24.240 Because as we've said and we were talking about the creeds in 01:03:24.240 --> 01:03:29.840 past episodes, when you bookend the preaching with one of the creeds, 01:03:30.160 --> 01:03:33.840 it provides a contrast with whatever the preacher is saying. 01:03:33.840 --> 01:03:36.720 And so a faithful preacher is never going to say anything that's 01:03:36.720 --> 01:03:38.640 going to contradict the creeds. 01:03:38.640 --> 01:03:42.560 An unfaithful preacher, if he's messing with some of those core doctrines, 01:03:42.560 --> 01:03:45.440 there's going to be a contrast that even a typical Christian in 01:03:45.440 --> 01:03:48.080 the pews is probably gonna be able to pick up on. 01:03:48.080 --> 01:03:51.120 Say, you know, I Pastor, I you said this in the sermon, 01:03:51.120 --> 01:03:52.160 but the creed says this. 01:03:52.160 --> 01:03:56.320 I'm can you help me understand why there seems to be a 01:03:56.320 --> 01:03:58.480 disconnect. Am I misunderstanding something? 01:03:58.480 --> 01:03:59.520 And hopefully that's the case. 01:03:59.520 --> 01:04:01.760 You know, most of the time that should be the case. 01:04:01.760 --> 01:04:04.800 If you have a faithless pastor or one who's simply confused and 01:04:04.800 --> 01:04:09.520 erroneous, then the creed has acted as an ancient bulwark against false 01:04:10.160 --> 01:04:13.920 teaching. Now, is that man-made? 01:04:13.920 --> 01:04:15.520 At some point it doesn't matter. 01:04:15.520 --> 01:04:18.080 The question is is it true and is it salutary? 01:04:18.080 --> 01:04:21.280 If it is, let's keep it around because it's going to be 01:04:21.280 --> 01:04:25.440 beneficial. It's certainly going to be far more beneficial than whatever crap 01:04:25.440 --> 01:04:27.680 is going up on the projectors every Sunday. 01:04:27.680 --> 01:04:29.520 Because that stuff is all ephemeral. 01:04:29.520 --> 01:04:31.040 That stuff is not going to stick. 01:04:31.040 --> 01:04:32.800 It's in one ear and out the other. 01:04:32.800 --> 01:04:35.760 And in you've you've forgotten by the time you get home, never 01:04:35.760 --> 01:04:37.280 mind when you're ninety. 01:04:37.280 --> 01:04:39.760 The things that we're talking about, the things that are important in 01:04:39.760 --> 01:04:44.160 the church life, in the liturgical life, are ones that reinforce and 01:04:44.160 --> 01:04:47.360 build up the faith, that keep us focused on God's promises and 01:04:47.360 --> 01:04:52.080 on his things and give us a reassurance that we are part 01:04:52.080 --> 01:04:56.080 of the whole body of Christ, not simply one denomination, but part 01:04:56.080 --> 01:04:58.560 of the entire church writ large. 01:04:58.560 --> 01:05:01.440 And these major marks are marks of the church. 01:05:01.440 --> 01:05:03.840 And so when someone comes along is like I don't need any 01:05:03.840 --> 01:05:08.800 of that stuff, the more they say that, the more in danger 01:05:08.800 --> 01:05:12.000 they are of rejecting things that are actually fundamental that are That 01:05:12.000 --> 01:05:13.760 are actually matters of sin. 01:05:13.760 --> 01:05:17.360 And so it's not that these are necessarily all guardrails, but when 01:05:17.360 --> 01:05:21.200 they're good affirmative teaching tools and you get rid of them, you're 01:05:21.200 --> 01:05:26.080 necessarily getting rid of whatever teaching is going to have been in 01:05:26.400 --> 01:05:28.720 enforced by that sort of repetition. 01:05:28.720 --> 01:05:32.160 It's just it's a natural way that humans work. 01:05:32.160 --> 01:05:34.320 You do the same thing over and over enough times. 01:05:34.320 --> 01:05:35.760 You get really good at it. 01:05:35.760 --> 01:05:37.760 That's a that's a beneficial thing. 01:05:37.760 --> 01:05:39.120 That's not a matter of boredom. 01:05:39.440 --> 01:05:42.960 It should be a matter, you know, most occasions of pride. 01:05:42.960 --> 01:05:45.840 I don't know that there's necessarily the occasion for pride in the 01:05:45.840 --> 01:05:50.240 in the church service, but there's certainly the occasion for giving thanks 01:05:50.240 --> 01:05:54.080 to be part of something as much as possible that's ancient. 01:05:54.320 --> 01:06:00.800 It's ironic that although Lutherans split from the Roman Catholic Church, today 01:06:00.960 --> 01:06:04.640 some of the liturgical practices that are closest to what you used 01:06:04.640 --> 01:06:10.160 to be Roman practice are found among some LCMS congregations that have 01:06:10.160 --> 01:06:14.320 preserved many of the rites, many of the forms, apart from those 01:06:14.320 --> 01:06:18.720 things where we doctrinally disagree, with what pre-Vatican II churches had. 01:06:18.880 --> 01:06:24.240 So I've had Catholics see streams of LCMS services and say, Man, 01:06:24.240 --> 01:06:27.280 I wish my local parish were like that, because it was more 01:06:27.280 --> 01:06:29.680 Catholic than what they have now. 01:06:29.680 --> 01:06:32.400 The reason for that is that we didn't despise the things that 01:06:32.400 --> 01:06:34.240 were good by themselves. 01:06:34.240 --> 01:06:37.040 One of the really cool things in the video I've we've linked 01:06:37.040 --> 01:06:40.800 a few times from Matt Whitman with the 10 minute Bible hour, 01:06:40.800 --> 01:06:45.040 when he visited the Lutheran church, the LCMS church, at the end 01:06:45.040 --> 01:06:47.600 of the very first video, he said something I always suck with 01:06:47.760 --> 01:06:49.760 me because it was such a great quote. 01:06:49.760 --> 01:06:53.360 He said, When he went to that church, he expected something that 01:06:53.360 --> 01:06:55.440 would be very 1600s. 01:06:55.440 --> 01:06:58.640 What he found was something that was all two thousand years of 01:06:58.640 --> 01:06:59.680 church at once. 01:06:59.680 --> 01:07:02.720 And he sort of paused and reflected and said, I have a 01:07:02.720 --> 01:07:03.760 lot more to think about. 01:07:03.760 --> 01:07:06.720 It was clear that it really made an impression on him that 01:07:06.720 --> 01:07:09.120 he was a reformed guy of some stripe. 01:07:09.120 --> 01:07:12.880 And so the doctrine that was taught in that one service he 01:07:12.880 --> 01:07:14.320 was at was very familiar. 01:07:14.320 --> 01:07:15.120 That was his words. 01:07:15.280 --> 01:07:19.680 Like, I get all the doctrine, but the practice was very distinctly 01:07:19.840 --> 01:07:22.720 to his eyes and ears, it seemed very Roman Catholic. 01:07:22.720 --> 01:07:25.600 But when he looked at it analytically, he's like, no, that's just 01:07:25.840 --> 01:07:27.760 he realized that it was just Christian. 01:07:27.760 --> 01:07:32.080 Like it was it was the Western Christian Church without the stuff 01:07:32.160 --> 01:07:36.560 the stuff that was specific to Rome, which was Luther's entire goal. 01:07:36.560 --> 01:07:38.080 Like that was that was a purpose. 01:07:38.080 --> 01:07:39.120 It wasn't revolution. 01:07:39.120 --> 01:07:42.400 It wasn't to throw away everything that had ever been done. 01:07:42.400 --> 01:07:45.520 It was just to clean up a mess because it was the 01:07:45.520 --> 01:07:47.600 Rome had become a depreciating asset. 01:07:47.600 --> 01:07:52.160 They had some deferred maintenance that needed to be it needed some 01:07:52.160 --> 01:07:54.720 upkeep, needed some doctrinal upkeep. 01:07:54.720 --> 01:07:58.880 And when that attempt was rejected, we had to go in our 01:07:58.880 --> 01:07:59.600 own direction. 01:07:59.600 --> 01:08:01.280 But it was never the desire. 01:08:01.280 --> 01:08:03.920 And so we preserved as much as we could because it was 01:08:03.920 --> 01:08:06.160 good. The things that were good were kept. 01:08:06.160 --> 01:08:09.840 And so we continue to do things that you know, singing hymns 01:08:09.840 --> 01:08:13.440 that were sung sixteen hundred years ago, using liturgical forms that in 01:08:13.440 --> 01:08:15.440 some cases are even older than that. 01:08:15.440 --> 01:08:16.880 That's a good thing. 01:08:16.880 --> 01:08:18.800 Personally I take comfort in that. 01:08:18.800 --> 01:08:22.160 And the fact that I'm not standing there every Sunday doing something 01:08:22.160 --> 01:08:26.080 entirely new, that I'm part of something that's been going on for 01:08:26.080 --> 01:08:29.040 hundreds and thousands of years. 01:08:30.480 --> 01:08:32.960 that's part of what it means to be Christian. 01:08:32.960 --> 01:08:36.000 You're not solo, you're not by yourself doing your own thing. 01:08:36.000 --> 01:08:38.720 It's not what every man thinks is right in his own eyes. 01:08:38.720 --> 01:08:42.960 It's what Christians have agreed on is a good thing. 01:08:43.360 --> 01:08:44.240 it's a blessing. 01:08:44.240 --> 01:08:45.200 And that's what this is about. 01:08:45.200 --> 01:08:49.360 Again, this is these are about blessings from God's things preserved through 01:08:49.360 --> 01:08:52.000 time. As tradition, these are not laws. 01:08:52.000 --> 01:08:54.080 These are not matters of damnation. 01:08:54.080 --> 01:08:58.000 But when you start throwing them away and saying, well, I can 01:08:58.000 --> 01:09:00.400 do better, turns out no one ever does. 01:09:00.400 --> 01:09:02.640 No one has ever improved on any of the things that they've 01:09:02.640 --> 01:09:03.440 thrown away. 01:09:03.440 --> 01:09:07.760 They've only ever ended up with worse either shoddy or they're an 01:09:07.760 --> 01:09:11.920 imitation that's crummy or just ripped it out entirely and done something 01:09:11.920 --> 01:09:15.600 that is demonstrably poorer for it. 01:09:15.600 --> 01:09:15.920 And 01:09:17.120 --> 01:09:20.880 in this modern modern age where there's so many men who are 01:09:20.880 --> 01:09:23.440 looking for something that feels traditional. 01:09:23.440 --> 01:09:26.960 They don't understand doctrine, they don't understand the historical stuff. 01:09:26.960 --> 01:09:30.400 They just want something that seems a bit more atemporal because they 01:09:30.400 --> 01:09:35.120 understand that where they are today is a hellscape and is terrible. 01:09:35.120 --> 01:09:39.360 Churches, including Rome, yet the Latin Mass in particular and the East, 01:09:39.360 --> 01:09:42.000 frankly, one of the appeals of the East is that it feels 01:09:42.000 --> 01:09:43.920 old. It feels atemporal. 01:09:43.920 --> 01:09:45.600 Latin Mass, the same thing. 01:09:45.600 --> 01:09:49.120 The liturgical forms feel old because they are. 01:09:49.120 --> 01:09:50.320 And everyone senses it. 01:09:50.320 --> 01:09:52.960 You come in and you're like this is some people think it's 01:09:52.880 --> 01:09:56.480 anachronistic. I think that what Matt said was correct. 01:09:56.800 --> 01:09:59.040 it's all two thousand years of church at once. 01:09:59.040 --> 01:10:03.280 It's not an anachronism, it's that it has been preserved throughout time 01:10:03.280 --> 01:10:05.760 because God's things are eternal. 01:10:05.760 --> 01:10:07.200 God's word is eternal. 01:10:07.200 --> 01:10:10.320 And so where when it comes to us in the liturgy, it 01:10:10.320 --> 01:10:12.240 should feel a bit like that too. 01:10:12.240 --> 01:10:14.000 It shouldn't be a laser light show. 01:10:14.000 --> 01:10:17.440 It should be something that would be recognized in other centuries as 01:10:17.600 --> 01:10:21.520 familiar. that's part of being a participant in the body of Christ. 01:10:21.520 --> 01:10:24.160 And it's we as Lutherans think that that's a beneficial. 01:10:24.160 --> 01:10:25.520 It's a good thing. 01:10:26.000 --> 01:10:29.920 Part of the core of the cycle of the church year is 01:10:29.920 --> 01:10:33.360 alternating fast and feast. 01:10:33.360 --> 01:10:37.920 And that is both a technical term, but it is also literal 01:10:38.160 --> 01:10:42.560 because fasting again is part of the Christian life and yes it's 01:10:42.480 --> 01:10:46.720 fallen by the wayside for most modern Christians but it is something 01:10:46.720 --> 01:10:50.480 that we should be doing because it does not say if you 01:10:50.480 --> 01:10:54.560 fast, it says when you fast. 01:10:54.560 --> 01:10:58.800 But each Sunday is a feast day, so even during penitential seasons, 01:10:58.800 --> 01:10:59.440 you have 01:11:00.320 --> 01:11:03.920 the punctuation of the joy of a church service, you have the 01:11:03.920 --> 01:11:09.440 feast day that is the divine service, that is the Gottesdienst. 01:11:10.080 --> 01:11:12.080 But there's another aspect to 01:11:13.360 --> 01:11:18.320 having a liturgical calendar, having a church year that I think is 01:11:18.320 --> 01:11:22.960 often neglected, but I want to highlight it specifically, and that is 01:11:23.600 --> 01:11:30.240 there's a delayed gratification built into the church year. 01:11:30.240 --> 01:11:33.760 We know this when it comes to cyclical readings. 01:11:33.760 --> 01:11:36.720 If you have a particular part of scripture that you like and 01:11:36.720 --> 01:11:40.080 you're following a lectionary, you'll eventually get to that book that you 01:11:40.080 --> 01:11:42.320 really like and you'll very much enjoy that. 01:11:42.320 --> 01:11:45.680 And we've mentioned books we like before. 01:11:45.680 --> 01:11:51.040 The same thing happens with the church year, with the calendar, because 01:11:51.040 --> 01:11:53.120 there'll be, for instance, certain hymns 01:11:54.080 --> 01:11:59.440 There will be certain hymns that are sung on certain days in 01:11:59.440 --> 01:12:00.720 the church year. 01:12:00.720 --> 01:12:04.320 And so, for instance, you may really like for all the saints, 01:12:04.320 --> 01:12:07.680 and that's sung on all saints' day, so you have to wait 01:12:07.760 --> 01:12:11.200 for November for that one to come back around. 01:12:11.200 --> 01:12:12.480 And I think that's a good thing. 01:12:12.480 --> 01:12:16.800 I think that churches should reserve certain hymns for certain days. 01:12:16.800 --> 01:12:20.800 It's good to have that expectation to look forward to that. 01:12:20.800 --> 01:12:25.600 And you have that if you have this liturgical worship. 01:12:25.600 --> 01:12:29.280 If you just go to your church service and it's whatever the 01:12:29.280 --> 01:12:33.520 worship leader feels like singing that Sunday, there's no looking forward to 01:12:33.520 --> 01:12:34.000 these things. 01:12:34.000 --> 01:12:35.680 There's no expectation of 01:12:36.880 --> 01:12:40.160 we'll have this part of this service on this day and I 01:12:40.160 --> 01:12:42.880 can look forward to that and I know it's coming. 01:12:42.880 --> 01:12:45.760 And part of the Christian life is expectation. 01:12:45.760 --> 01:12:48.880 It is looking forward because ultimately, of course, we're looking forward to 01:12:48.880 --> 01:12:52.160 paradise. But you look forward to the blessings of God. 01:12:52.160 --> 01:12:54.640 If you are married, you look forward to the blessings of children. 01:12:54.640 --> 01:12:58.640 There are all these blessings, this expectation built into the Christian life, 01:12:58.640 --> 01:13:00.560 and you have that in the calendar. 01:13:00.560 --> 01:13:04.320 If you don't have the calendar, you're missing out on these things. 01:13:04.320 --> 01:13:08.800 And so you won't get to look forward to Reformation Sunday and 01:13:08.800 --> 01:13:11.840 singing a mighty fortress, although that one is used other times in 01:13:11.840 --> 01:13:16.560 the church here as well Or if you like, thy strong word, 01:13:16.560 --> 01:13:21.680 which is used as part of our music for this podcast. 01:13:21.680 --> 01:13:26.160 You have these things that are blessings from God and pictures of 01:13:26.160 --> 01:13:27.120 the Christian life. 01:13:27.120 --> 01:13:31.600 Again, these are teaching, but you have them only if you keep 01:13:31.600 --> 01:13:35.520 the good things that were passed down to us by our forefathers, 01:13:35.520 --> 01:13:38.720 instead of jettisoning them because well I don't see the reason why 01:13:38.720 --> 01:13:41.200 we should have to have these. 01:13:41.200 --> 01:13:45.680 They had very good reasons for maintaining them, and the men who 01:13:45.680 --> 01:13:49.600 instituted them originally had very good reasons for doing so. 01:13:49.600 --> 01:13:54.000 And unless we have even more compelling reasons for altering them we 01:13:54.000 --> 01:13:55.440 should not. 01:13:55.440 --> 01:13:59.040 Because we lose out on part of the Christian life, on part 01:13:59.040 --> 01:14:02.880 of Christian practice, if we do not have these things. 01:14:02.880 --> 01:14:06.800 And as has been the case with so many other episodes of 01:14:06.800 --> 01:14:11.600 this podcast, we're not speaking of things that are absolutely required for 01:14:11.600 --> 01:14:13.360 a Christian. 01:14:13.360 --> 01:14:16.320 The issue of baptism comes to mind. 01:14:16.320 --> 01:14:20.320 Must you absolutely be baptized in order to be saved? 01:14:20.320 --> 01:14:24.640 No. That is the position of Scripture, quite frankly, but it is 01:14:24.640 --> 01:14:25.920 the Lutheran position. 01:14:25.920 --> 01:14:27.840 That is what we believe. 01:14:27.840 --> 01:14:29.360 Should you be baptized? 01:14:29.360 --> 01:14:31.440 Absolutely. Is it a blessing from God? 01:14:31.440 --> 01:14:32.800 Of course. 01:14:32.800 --> 01:14:35.360 That is the case with so many of these things. 01:14:35.360 --> 01:14:40.080 What we are saying, the thing for which we are advocating, is 01:14:40.080 --> 01:14:44.080 that you have the fullness of the of the Christian doctrine, the 01:14:44.080 --> 01:14:47.520 fullness of the Christian life, not the minimum. 01:14:47.520 --> 01:14:51.600 Yes, you could go ahead and live your life as a minimal 01:14:51.600 --> 01:14:55.040 Christian, with a minimum of God's blessings, with a minimum of the 01:14:55.040 --> 01:14:59.200 blessings passed down to you from the historic church, and you may 01:14:59.200 --> 01:15:00.720 very well still be a Christian. 01:15:00.720 --> 01:15:02.480 That is entirely possible. 01:15:02.480 --> 01:15:04.720 But why would you want that? 01:15:04.720 --> 01:15:08.720 If God is offering you this wealth of blessings, why would you 01:15:08.720 --> 01:15:11.120 say no I'll just have the appetizer? 01:15:11.120 --> 01:15:12.080 Don't do that. 01:15:12.080 --> 01:15:13.760 That's not the Christian life. 01:15:13.760 --> 01:15:17.360 The Christian life is receiving the fullness of God's blessings. 01:15:17.360 --> 01:15:21.600 Whatever blessing God wants to give you, say, by all means, and 01:15:21.600 --> 01:15:23.600 more. That is the response. 01:15:23.600 --> 01:15:25.200 That is part of what prayer is. 01:15:25.200 --> 01:15:27.920 Prayer is asking God for things. 01:15:27.920 --> 01:15:33.280 Yes, there's a returning of thanksgiving as well, but the greatest worship 01:15:33.280 --> 01:15:35.520 of God is turning to him, looking to him in the day 01:15:35.520 --> 01:15:38.240 of trouble and expecting good from him. 01:15:38.240 --> 01:15:41.760 And we see that in all aspects of the Christian life. 01:15:41.760 --> 01:15:44.320 The sacraments are a blessing from God. 01:15:44.320 --> 01:15:46.800 If you don't have the sacraments in your church, can you still 01:15:46.800 --> 01:15:48.320 be Christian? 01:15:48.320 --> 01:15:51.040 You can still be Christian, but you're missing out. 01:15:51.040 --> 01:15:54.240 You've rejected some of the good things of God. 01:15:54.240 --> 01:15:59.440 If you have a pastor who focuses only on, say, the synoptic 01:15:59.440 --> 01:16:01.280 gospels and reads nothing else from scripture. 01:16:01.280 --> 01:16:02.560 Can you still be a Christian? 01:16:02.560 --> 01:16:04.960 Sure. You're missing out. 01:16:04.960 --> 01:16:07.440 The same thing with the church calendar. 01:16:07.440 --> 01:16:12.000 If you jettison these good things, you are missing out on blessings 01:16:12.000 --> 01:16:13.680 that are freely available to you. 01:16:13.920 --> 01:16:16.240 And there's no reason to do that. 01:16:16.240 --> 01:16:20.640 You are limiting your Christian life, you are limiting the blessings from 01:16:20.640 --> 01:16:23.360 God for no reason. 01:16:23.360 --> 01:16:25.680 And so no, it's not required of Christians. 01:16:25.680 --> 01:16:26.960 You don't have to have a church calendar 01:16:28.000 --> 01:16:32.160 you could have a Christian church service where you did the exact 01:16:32.160 --> 01:16:37.120 same thing, sung the exact same hymns, never deviated from that whatsoever, 01:16:37.120 --> 01:16:40.800 didn't change with the seasons, didn't recognize Christmas officially. 01:16:40.800 --> 01:16:43.680 Obviously, you have to believe in Christmas, but you didn't change at 01:16:43.680 --> 01:16:45.680 all for the seasons of the church and you could still be 01:16:45.680 --> 01:16:50.080 Christian. But why would you do that to your children and why 01:16:50.080 --> 01:16:53.520 would you deprive yourself of all of these blessings that have been 01:16:53.520 --> 01:16:55.840 passed down to us. 01:16:56.080 --> 01:17:00.160 Again, to be explicit, to make sure we are absolutely clear, these 01:17:00.160 --> 01:17:03.280 things are not required, but they are good. 01:17:03.280 --> 01:17:06.080 They are good for unity, they are good for order, they are 01:17:06.080 --> 01:17:09.760 good for teaching, and they are quite frankly also good for your 01:17:09.760 --> 01:17:10.560 soul. 01:17:11.040 --> 01:17:15.920 One of the passages that often gets used against those who would 01:17:16.000 --> 01:17:20.560 advocate for some form of Formality and worship like using a calendar, 01:17:20.560 --> 01:17:24.080 a shared calendar in particular, is Romans 14. 01:17:24.080 --> 01:17:28.320 I want to read this long passage because as I was taking 01:17:28.320 --> 01:17:31.840 a look at it again today in light of that Twitter thread 01:17:32.000 --> 01:17:37.200 that I mentioned earlier where a guy just made a very neutral, 01:17:37.520 --> 01:17:42.560 inoffensive comment saying, Hey, the liturgical calendar is beneficial for teaching in 01:17:42.560 --> 01:17:44.480 churches. And he was attacked. 01:17:44.480 --> 01:17:48.000 He was dogpiled by people who called themselves Christians. 01:17:48.000 --> 01:17:51.520 And so when I then looked at this passage in Romans fourteen, 01:17:51.520 --> 01:17:55.040 I realized that it was not a condemnation of what he was 01:17:55.040 --> 01:17:58.880 saying. It was actually a condemnation of those who used use the 01:17:58.880 --> 01:18:03.920 so called regulative principle as a tammer against Christians? 01:18:03.920 --> 01:18:06.320 I'm going to read this whole thing here and talk about it 01:18:06.320 --> 01:18:07.280 for a minute. 01:18:07.280 --> 01:18:10.000 As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but 01:18:10.000 --> 01:18:12.080 do not quarrel over opinions. 01:18:12.080 --> 01:18:15.760 One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats 01:18:15.760 --> 01:18:16.880 only vegetables. 01:18:16.880 --> 01:18:20.160 Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and 01:18:20.160 --> 01:18:23.040 let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who 01:18:23.040 --> 01:18:25.680 eats. For God has welcomed him. 01:18:25.680 --> 01:18:28.720 Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? 01:18:28.720 --> 01:18:31.840 It is before his own master that he stands or falls, and 01:18:31.840 --> 01:18:34.720 he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him 01:18:34.720 --> 01:18:40.000 stand. One person esteems one day as better than another, while another 01:18:40.000 --> 01:18:41.680 esteems all days alike. 01:18:41.680 --> 01:18:45.200 Each one should fully be convinced in his own mind. 01:18:45.200 --> 01:18:48.640 The one who observes the day observes it in honor of the 01:18:48.640 --> 01:18:52.080 Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since 01:18:52.080 --> 01:18:54.880 he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains abstains in 01:18:54.880 --> 01:18:57.040 honor of the Lord, and gives thanks to God. 01:18:57.040 --> 01:18:59.600 For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies 01:18:59.600 --> 01:19:00.320 to himself. 01:19:00.320 --> 01:19:02.640 For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we 01:19:02.640 --> 01:19:04.160 die, we die to the Lord. 01:19:04.160 --> 01:19:07.040 So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the 01:19:07.040 --> 01:19:10.560 Lords. To this end Christ died and lived again, the he may 01:19:10.560 --> 01:19:12.880 be the Lord for both the dead and the living. 01:19:12.880 --> 01:19:14.720 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? 01:19:14.720 --> 01:19:17.200 Or you, why do you despise your brother? 01:19:17.200 --> 01:19:20.320 For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God, for 01:19:20.320 --> 01:19:23.520 as it is written, As I live, says the Lord, every knee 01:19:23.520 --> 01:19:26.720 shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. 01:19:26.720 --> 01:19:29.840 So then each of us will give an account of himself to 01:19:29.840 --> 01:19:35.680 God. Now this passage specifically deals with one man esteeming all days 01:19:35.680 --> 01:19:39.200 alike, and another man esteeming one day is better than another. 01:19:39.200 --> 01:19:41.520 And this is generally one of the key proof texts that's used 01:19:42.320 --> 01:19:46.640 to attack any form of liturgical calendar. 01:19:46.640 --> 01:19:49.840 I think a crucial thing to acknowledge when you're looking at this 01:19:49.840 --> 01:19:52.240 passage is to whom was Paul writing? 01:19:52.240 --> 01:19:53.840 Obviously he's writing to all of us. 01:19:53.840 --> 01:19:57.440 I'm not trying to pluck this from its context so we can 01:19:57.440 --> 01:19:59.280 say that doesn't apply to us. 01:19:59.280 --> 01:20:02.800 But when you specifically look at the church in Rome, when Paul 01:20:02.800 --> 01:20:06.240 was writing, he was addressing a nascent church. 01:20:06.240 --> 01:20:09.280 I don't think it's clear that anyone had actually visited there before 01:20:09.360 --> 01:20:10.480 any apostles. 01:20:10.480 --> 01:20:12.960 I'm not sure if it's recorded. 01:20:12.960 --> 01:20:17.360 So what we can infer from from the historical context is that 01:20:17.360 --> 01:20:20.480 it would have probably been a large number of Jews who had 01:20:20.480 --> 01:20:25.200 converted to Christianity or had fleshed out their Jewishness as Christians and 01:20:25.200 --> 01:20:30.480 believing in the Messiah, along with Roman converts to Christianity. 01:20:30.480 --> 01:20:34.240 Because remember, they had the Septuagint there, they'd been primed. 01:20:34.240 --> 01:20:36.240 Some of them may have already been believers. 01:20:36.240 --> 01:20:41.120 When the Messiah came, there was an influx of men saying, I 01:20:41.120 --> 01:20:42.560 want to be part of the way. 01:20:42.560 --> 01:20:45.440 And so they would have been gathering together Jews and Jews and 01:20:45.440 --> 01:20:49.440 Gentiles alike in the same place, probably in synagogues at this point, 01:20:49.440 --> 01:20:52.720 and some of the things that Paul was addressing in that place 01:20:52.720 --> 01:20:57.200 were disputes among them, because the very first heresy that emerged in 01:20:57.200 --> 01:20:59.200 the early church was Judaizing. 01:20:59.200 --> 01:21:06.560 It was those Jews who had been practicing when they recognized 01:21:06.560 --> 01:21:10.880 that the Messiah had come, they still didn't fully understand what that 01:21:10.880 --> 01:21:14.480 meant. Even Peter himself, God had to come to him in a 01:21:14.480 --> 01:21:19.120 vision multiple times with the animals on the sheet coming down from 01:21:19.120 --> 01:21:22.560 heaven, and God said take and eat, and he said, Lord, nothing 01:21:22.560 --> 01:21:24.240 unclean has ever touched my lips. 01:21:24.240 --> 01:21:26.560 And God said kill and eat, eat it. 01:21:26.960 --> 01:21:29.360 Anything that I have made is not unclean. 01:21:29.360 --> 01:21:34.640 Peter specifically needed to be told that the old separations were set 01:21:34.640 --> 01:21:40.800 aside, and that Jesus completing the old covenant meant that it was 01:21:40.800 --> 01:21:43.520 no longer restricted for these things to occur. 01:21:43.520 --> 01:21:46.640 And so it's inevitable that in this day where you have Jews 01:21:46.640 --> 01:21:50.560 and Gentiles gathering together in a synagogue, there would have been Judaizing 01:21:50.560 --> 01:21:51.520 naturally occurring. 01:21:51.760 --> 01:21:54.240 Because frankly at that point a lot of the Jews didn't know 01:21:54.240 --> 01:21:54.960 any better. 01:21:54.960 --> 01:21:59.280 And so a number of Paul's epistles were specifically saying, look, you 01:21:59.280 --> 01:22:02.560 guys are believers in Christ, you have received the faith that the 01:22:02.560 --> 01:22:04.240 Messiah came. 01:22:04.240 --> 01:22:07.760 Now stop holding others to the old law. 01:22:07.760 --> 01:22:11.120 You don't tell someone who's a convert to be circumcised. 01:22:11.120 --> 01:22:14.160 You don't tell them to observe the specific patterns of feasts and 01:22:14.160 --> 01:22:18.480 festivals. You don't tell them not to eat certain things, all of 01:22:18.480 --> 01:22:21.280 that is completed in Christ. 01:22:21.280 --> 01:22:24.640 And this was certainly one of the disputes that he was addressing 01:22:24.640 --> 01:22:29.120 here. So when Paul says to them, One person esteems one day 01:22:29.120 --> 01:22:31.840 is better than another while another esteems all days alike. 01:22:31.840 --> 01:22:34.800 In that context, that's absolutely what he's talking about. 01:22:34.800 --> 01:22:38.400 The Gentiles who were coming in, they didn't have the baggage of 01:22:38.400 --> 01:22:40.400 the old ceremonial system. 01:22:40.400 --> 01:22:42.560 Now again, I'm not trying to say this only applies to them 01:22:42.800 --> 01:22:45.840 and it doesn't apply to us, but I'm saying when you specifically 01:22:45.840 --> 01:22:48.880 look at what was going on there, I think it's frankly kind 01:22:48.880 --> 01:22:53.360 of the opposite of what the regular principle guys say today. 01:22:53.360 --> 01:22:57.040 Because what's happening today when someone posts or says something like we're 01:22:57.040 --> 01:23:01.520 saying here that the church calendar is good actually, and it inevitably 01:23:01.520 --> 01:23:04.480 will make a bunch of guys angry for saying that's not a 01:23:04.480 --> 01:23:06.240 law, you're making that a law. 01:23:06.240 --> 01:23:10.560 Well, I'm telling you guys, you are violating Romans 14. 01:23:10.560 --> 01:23:15.200 You are sinning by condemning someone for observing a church calendar. 01:23:15.200 --> 01:23:16.160 Full stop. 01:23:16.160 --> 01:23:18.080 That's what this passage is saying. 01:23:18.080 --> 01:23:21.600 You are the ones who are prohibiting someone for practicing in such 01:23:21.600 --> 01:23:22.640 a manner. 01:23:22.640 --> 01:23:24.240 You're saying that's not Christian. 01:23:24.240 --> 01:23:25.280 No Christian would do that. 01:23:25.280 --> 01:23:28.000 Well, you are condemned by Romans 14. 01:23:28.000 --> 01:23:30.880 Period. Now, as I said earlier, we didn't want this to be 01:23:30.880 --> 01:23:31.920 a polemical episode. 01:23:31.920 --> 01:23:33.280 I don't want to beat up on you guys. 01:23:33.280 --> 01:23:35.280 I want to have a break and come back and everyone'd be 01:23:35.280 --> 01:23:36.560 happy and everyone getting along. 01:23:36.560 --> 01:23:39.200 Hopefully it'll be just one church, maybe Jesus will come back and 01:23:39.200 --> 01:23:42.880 none of this crap will matter anymore. 01:23:43.120 --> 01:23:46.560 It's not okay for us to be at each other's throats over 01:23:46.560 --> 01:23:49.760 those things, which is from the very moment that we began this 01:23:49.760 --> 01:23:52.320 episode, the spirit of what we're trying to say. 01:23:52.320 --> 01:23:54.080 I'm going to go back to the very first thing. 01:23:54.080 --> 01:23:56.480 As for one who is weak in the faith, welcome him, but 01:23:56.480 --> 01:23:58.800 do not quarrel over opinions. 01:23:58.960 --> 01:24:02.640 Church calendar is absolutely an opinion, it is not something to quarrel 01:24:03.360 --> 01:24:06.480 over. I'm not going to argue with the ortho guy who wants 01:24:06.480 --> 01:24:08.880 to celebrate Christmas two weeks after I do. 01:24:08.880 --> 01:24:11.040 Whatever. I'm glad he's celebrating Christmas. 01:24:11.040 --> 01:24:12.720 That's a good thing. 01:24:12.720 --> 01:24:15.840 The fact that there are differences in calendars, that there are differences 01:24:15.840 --> 01:24:20.080 in the specific observations, some of that's just natural. 01:24:20.240 --> 01:24:22.960 If you're separated by space and time, of course they're gonna be 01:24:22.960 --> 01:24:23.920 different traditions. 01:24:23.920 --> 01:24:24.880 That's okay. 01:24:24.880 --> 01:24:30.080 It will be quarreling over opinions to condemn them for those practices. 01:24:30.080 --> 01:24:33.600 And again, even the practices where I would condemn some of the 01:24:33.600 --> 01:24:38.320 things on the Roman Catholic calendar, it's not that they're observing the 01:24:38.320 --> 01:24:41.920 wrong feasts, it's that I think that the doctrine underlying it is 01:24:41.920 --> 01:24:44.000 not substantiated by scripture. 01:24:44.000 --> 01:24:45.280 So that's my concern. 01:24:45.280 --> 01:24:48.160 And that ceases to be a matter of opinion because it's a 01:24:48.160 --> 01:24:51.360 matter of doctrinal correctness, which they would agree as well, just in 01:24:51.280 --> 01:24:55.040 the opposite direction, because the Pope dogmatized some of those things. 01:24:55.200 --> 01:24:57.440 It was one of the few areas where there were ex cathedra 01:24:57.600 --> 01:25:01.920 pronouncements specifically dealing with some of the Marian stuff. 01:25:02.080 --> 01:25:04.560 Those cease to be matters of opinion when they go to such 01:25:04.880 --> 01:25:06.400 strongly held beliefs. 01:25:06.400 --> 01:25:09.680 And this is also the case with the guys who will swoop 01:25:09.680 --> 01:25:13.200 in and condemn someone for saying, hey, the church calendar is good 01:25:13.280 --> 01:25:18.080 actually. To condemn that is to functionally act as a Judaizer. 01:25:18.080 --> 01:25:21.680 You may not condemn a man for observing a calendar because you're 01:25:21.680 --> 01:25:24.000 the one who's quarreling over opinions. 01:25:24.000 --> 01:25:28.080 And separately, in the rest of this conversation today is about the 01:25:28.080 --> 01:25:30.800 fact that this is a salutary opinion. 01:25:30.800 --> 01:25:34.960 Yes, somebody came up with Christmas, somebody came up with Easter as 01:25:34.960 --> 01:25:38.400 the idea that hey, let's remember what happened last year, let's remember 01:25:38.400 --> 01:25:41.840 what happened a hundred years ago, remember what happened two thousand years 01:25:41.840 --> 01:25:47.440 ago. That's a man's opinion only insofar as it's a rational recognition 01:25:47.440 --> 01:25:48.080 of something. 01:25:48.080 --> 01:25:49.680 It's absolutely true. 01:25:49.680 --> 01:25:53.600 And again, when we look to the the cyclical nature of history 01:25:53.600 --> 01:25:59.520 itself, of creation itself, and of how church practice going back to 01:25:59.600 --> 01:26:02.880 you know the Levitical days, it's always been the case that these 01:26:02.960 --> 01:26:04.400 there were observances. 01:26:04.400 --> 01:26:07.760 Do you do you think that the same God who told them 01:26:07.760 --> 01:26:11.280 to observe the Passover and those other things. 01:26:11.280 --> 01:26:13.840 Do you think that he stopped caring about observances? 01:26:13.840 --> 01:26:16.160 Do you think that he said like it doesn't matter, Amy, you 01:26:16.160 --> 01:26:16.960 just forget about it. 01:26:16.960 --> 01:26:21.040 As Corey said earlier, that's that's it's explicitly not the case. 01:26:21.040 --> 01:26:23.840 It is not a law which day you do it, but there 01:26:23.840 --> 01:26:26.320 are certain things that you must confess. 01:26:26.320 --> 01:26:31.760 You must confess Christmas as Christ was incarnate, that's in the creeds. 01:26:31.760 --> 01:26:33.840 You must confess that he died. 01:26:33.840 --> 01:26:35.200 That's Good Friday. 01:26:35.200 --> 01:26:37.520 You must confess that he was resurrected. 01:26:37.520 --> 01:26:38.720 That's Easter. 01:26:38.720 --> 01:26:41.920 If you confess those things, why would you then not remember the 01:26:41.920 --> 01:26:44.240 days as days of commemoration? 01:26:44.240 --> 01:26:49.040 So see, we're not turning a calendar into a law, but if 01:26:49.440 --> 01:26:54.000 your calendar is not a reflection of your confession, what is it 01:26:54.000 --> 01:26:55.760 that you're really confessing? 01:26:55.760 --> 01:26:59.920 To confess that Christ was resurrected from the dead is to confess 01:26:59.920 --> 01:27:03.600 that there's an Easter-sized hole missing in your calendar if you don't 01:27:03.600 --> 01:27:04.320 observe it. 01:27:04.320 --> 01:27:05.520 So observe it. 01:27:05.520 --> 01:27:06.480 Is that a law? 01:27:06.480 --> 01:27:08.960 No. But it's consistent with your confession. 01:27:08.960 --> 01:27:13.600 It's the Christian life being aligned with the Christian confession. 01:27:13.600 --> 01:27:16.320 And that's really where the rubber meets the road with this stuff. 01:27:16.320 --> 01:27:19.120 It's not making a law to say we should have a calendar 01:27:19.120 --> 01:27:21.680 and we should use it consistently. 01:27:21.680 --> 01:27:24.400 But when you start chipping away and say, I don't believe this, 01:27:24.400 --> 01:27:25.760 I'm not going to do that, I'm not going to do the 01:27:25.760 --> 01:27:28.880 other thing, you very rapidly get to the heart of the Christian 01:27:28.880 --> 01:27:29.600 faith itself. 01:27:29.600 --> 01:27:31.440 And that's where it really becomes an issue. 01:27:31.440 --> 01:27:36.640 And again, Romans 14 expressly condemns anyone who would attack a man 01:27:36.640 --> 01:27:38.320 for observing a calendar. 01:27:38.320 --> 01:27:40.400 We are not attacking those who don't observe it. 01:27:40.400 --> 01:27:42.480 We're saying you guys are missing out. 01:27:42.480 --> 01:27:46.640 There's a treasure from the church, from Christians going back thousands of 01:27:46.640 --> 01:27:48.640 years that you're missing out on. 01:27:48.640 --> 01:27:52.880 Please join us in enjoying these treasures of the church collectively. 01:27:52.880 --> 01:27:54.320 This is for all of our benefit. 01:27:54.400 --> 01:27:56.720 It Doesn't belong to Lutherans, just like it doesn't belong to the 01:27:56.720 --> 01:28:01.680 Pope. That's why we were not shy about taking whatever was preservable 01:28:01.680 --> 01:28:03.280 from what Rome had. 01:28:03.280 --> 01:28:05.760 If it was good, we kept it, because it's Christian. 01:28:05.760 --> 01:28:06.960 It's not his. 01:28:06.960 --> 01:28:09.840 And so this for someone today to say that's the Pope's stuff. 01:28:09.840 --> 01:28:10.560 No, it isn't. 01:28:10.560 --> 01:28:11.440 It's my stuff. 01:28:11.440 --> 01:28:12.480 It's your stuff. 01:28:12.480 --> 01:28:15.440 It is your inheritance as a Western Christian. 01:28:15.440 --> 01:28:19.040 And if you despise it, you're not despising the Pope. 01:28:19.040 --> 01:28:21.360 You're despising your fathers and the faith. 01:28:21.360 --> 01:28:24.240 And frankly, you're you're despising your children too. 01:28:24.240 --> 01:28:27.840 Because if you take away something that was an inheritance and you 01:28:27.840 --> 01:28:31.760 refuse to pass it on, you're breaking a chain that God has 01:28:31.760 --> 01:28:36.240 established through time because the faith is transmitted through time from man 01:28:36.240 --> 01:28:39.520 to man, and when you start picking away and tearing pieces out 01:28:39.520 --> 01:28:42.000 of it, you're doing real harm. 01:28:42.000 --> 01:28:47.120 So this continuity is not a law, but as a matter of 01:28:47.120 --> 01:28:50.080 human wisdom, why would you remove that which is good? 01:28:50.080 --> 01:28:51.600 It's fundamentally what it's about. 01:28:51.600 --> 01:28:53.760 I'm not saying you're going to hell if you don't do it. 01:28:53.760 --> 01:28:55.760 We're saying you're missing out if you don't do it. 01:28:55.760 --> 01:28:58.880 And if you say we're sinning by doing it, you are clearly 01:28:58.880 --> 01:29:00.880 sinning. I wish that weren't the case. 01:29:00.880 --> 01:29:03.280 I wish we again the same page about this stuff. 01:29:03.280 --> 01:29:07.360 But as a bare minimum, we cannot quarrel over opinions. 01:29:07.360 --> 01:29:09.840 And emphatically, that's not what we are doing 01:29:09.840 --> 01:29:10.960 here You 01:29:10.960 --> 01:29:14.720 can tell very clearly that we're not quarrelling over opinions because it's 01:29:14.720 --> 01:29:17.840 Advent and we haven't said which color you should use for your 01:29:17.840 --> 01:29:21.840 candles as that is one of the the minor points over which 01:29:21.840 --> 01:29:24.080 people will quarrel during the season of Advent. 01:29:24.080 --> 01:29:29.520 Completely ridiculous For historical reasons, some churches use blue, some other churches 01:29:29.520 --> 01:29:33.440 use purple, or they'll call them sarum and violet, depending on what 01:29:33.440 --> 01:29:35.120 you want to call the colors. 01:29:35.120 --> 01:29:37.520 Use whichever one matches your pyramids. 01:29:37.520 --> 01:29:38.880 That's probably the best advice. 01:29:38.880 --> 01:29:41.360 I have one set of each. 01:29:41.360 --> 01:29:44.080 These are the minor things that don't matter. 01:29:44.080 --> 01:29:48.560 These are the little things over which you can squabble that ultimately 01:29:49.200 --> 01:29:52.000 it's a matter of Matter of preference when it comes to some 01:29:52.000 --> 01:29:52.560 of these matters. 01:29:52.560 --> 01:29:58.000 Which color candles you use is largely a matter of preference. 01:29:58.000 --> 01:30:02.960 Yes, there is a meaning to the colors established as historic precedent 01:30:02.960 --> 01:30:06.720 in the church, and yes, it is good in some way to 01:30:06.880 --> 01:30:11.520 follow some of these and so for instance using black paramets on 01:30:11.520 --> 01:30:15.920 Ash Wednesday and Good Friday and Holy Saturday is good as a 01:30:15.920 --> 01:30:21.600 teaching tool to remember the point of these days in the church 01:30:21.600 --> 01:30:26.000 year. And incidentally, I think it's worth noting that Ash Wednesday is 01:30:26.000 --> 01:30:28.800 a great example of what I said earlier where you can look 01:30:28.800 --> 01:30:31.760 forward to something in the church here and maybe it ties into 01:30:31.760 --> 01:30:35.040 the fact that we both like the book of Job. 01:30:35.040 --> 01:30:38.800 But I think it is important to hear at least once a 01:30:38.800 --> 01:30:42.400 year the words of Genesis three, and you we hear these on 01:30:42.400 --> 01:30:47.920 ash Wednesday in those churches that recognize, that observe Ash Wednesday, for 01:30:47.920 --> 01:30:51.760 dost thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 01:30:51.760 --> 01:30:54.320 That is a vitally important thing for the Christian to hear To 01:30:54.320 --> 01:30:58.160 hear and to remember, it gives you the context of not just 01:30:58.160 --> 01:31:04.240 the reality of human life, but it gives you that necessary foundation 01:31:04.240 --> 01:31:05.200 to understand 01:31:06.160 --> 01:31:10.800 what Christ did, the meaning of Christ's sacrifice, the meaning of that 01:31:10.800 --> 01:31:16.880 redemption of creation, what happens to us in this life and how 01:31:16.880 --> 01:31:20.080 it would have been an ultimate fate without Christ. 01:31:20.080 --> 01:31:24.400 And so you have that reminder in the church calendar, something you 01:31:24.400 --> 01:31:28.240 can look forward to as part of the cycle of your year 01:31:28.240 --> 01:31:31.280 in the church. 01:31:31.280 --> 01:31:34.320 But the matter of these minor things 01:31:35.520 --> 01:31:38.880 we are not going to squabble over those and Christians shouldn't squabble 01:31:38.880 --> 01:31:39.360 over those. 01:31:39.360 --> 01:31:41.280 That doesn't mean you can't discuss them. 01:31:41.280 --> 01:31:44.320 You can have a civilized discussion of whether you want to have 01:31:44.320 --> 01:31:46.000 purple or blue candles, that's fine. 01:31:46.720 --> 01:31:49.680 You don't start a fight over it. 01:31:49.680 --> 01:31:54.960 The church should not be divided over minor matters. 01:31:54.960 --> 01:32:01.760 Now division over doctrine and disagreeing on the sacraments, these things, those 01:32:01.760 --> 01:32:05.520 are reasons to be in separate church bodies, because if you do 01:32:05.520 --> 01:32:10.320 not agree on the core matters, you're not in communion. 01:32:10.320 --> 01:32:15.520 And then you can't have communion because part of that is discerning 01:32:15.520 --> 01:32:16.400 the body and blood. 01:32:16.400 --> 01:32:19.600 It's not just discerning the body and blood in the literal sense 01:32:19.680 --> 01:32:22.720 there, it is also discerning that you are part of the greater 01:32:22.960 --> 01:32:26.240 body. And that means that you have to have these agreements in 01:32:26.240 --> 01:32:31.120 doctrine, agreements on the grand issues, but you can have disagreements on 01:32:31.120 --> 01:32:34.480 the color of the parents. 01:32:34.480 --> 01:32:37.920 There are matters that require division, and there are matters that do 01:32:37.920 --> 01:32:41.120 not require division. 01:32:41.120 --> 01:32:45.360 On the issue of matters that do not require division, those who 01:32:45.360 --> 01:32:50.560 have rejected things, that were inherited from our forefathers, that were good, 01:32:51.120 --> 01:32:54.480 that should not have been rejected, for which there was no sufficient 01:32:54.480 --> 01:33:00.320 reason to reject them, that is an impermissible division. 01:33:00.320 --> 01:33:03.760 And those who have left the church over those issues should not 01:33:03.760 --> 01:33:07.040 have done so, it was sin to do that. 01:33:07.040 --> 01:33:09.600 Schism is not always sinful. 01:33:09.600 --> 01:33:12.320 It depends upon the reason why. 01:33:12.320 --> 01:33:16.320 If it is again over doctrine or theology, then you are required 01:33:16.320 --> 01:33:20.640 to separate from a body that is teaching falsely. 01:33:20.640 --> 01:33:26.320 But if it is over atiaphora, you are not permitted to separate. 01:33:26.320 --> 01:33:29.520 Just because you again, it may seem trivial, but there are people 01:33:29.520 --> 01:33:31.600 who people who take this this seriously. 01:33:31.600 --> 01:33:34.240 Just because you do not like the color of the candles does 01:33:34.240 --> 01:33:37.200 not mean that you need to find a new church. 01:33:37.200 --> 01:33:40.080 It means that you need to just deal with it. 01:33:40.080 --> 01:33:42.400 Ignore the color of the candles. 01:33:42.400 --> 01:33:46.880 Or, learn why, this other colour is used, because it is probably 01:33:46.880 --> 01:33:50.560 profitable to learn the teaching you can derive from that. 01:33:50.560 --> 01:33:54.400 And so, if you like the purple candles, which typically represent royalty, 01:33:54.400 --> 01:33:59.680 its representation of Christ's royalty Of his incarnation descended from the line 01:33:59.680 --> 01:34:00.640 of David. 01:34:00.640 --> 01:34:02.800 Well, maybe you should look into why they use the blue. 01:34:02.800 --> 01:34:05.760 It's a reminder of the night sky and many of the teachings 01:34:05.760 --> 01:34:10.320 surrounding the nativity, the angels appearing in the night sky. 01:34:10.400 --> 01:34:12.960 they have reasons for using these things. 01:34:12.960 --> 01:34:17.280 And so don't separate over these minor issues. 01:34:17.280 --> 01:34:21.840 One of the goals of the Christian Church should be unity amongst 01:34:21.840 --> 01:34:25.200 those who believe. 01:34:25.200 --> 01:34:28.880 And the calendar is actually beneficial to that. 01:34:28.880 --> 01:34:32.560 And again, as I said earlier, I'll repeat it now, one of 01:34:32.560 --> 01:34:36.720 the reasons the calendar is beneficial for the purpose of unity is 01:34:36.720 --> 01:34:41.520 that it reminds us across church bodies that we all believe these 01:34:41.520 --> 01:34:47.200 core matters, that we all affirm the promises concerning the coming of 01:34:47.200 --> 01:34:49.200 Christ, Advent looks forward to that. 01:34:49.520 --> 01:34:51.440 We all affirm the incarnation. 01:34:51.440 --> 01:34:54.080 That is why we have the season of Christmas. 01:34:54.080 --> 01:34:59.680 We all affirm that Christ came to redeem the nations, that it 01:34:59.680 --> 01:35:03.920 is available to all human beings, all sons and daughters of Adam 01:35:03.920 --> 01:35:07.120 and Eve, and so we observe epiphany. 01:35:07.440 --> 01:35:11.040 We affirm that we should be sorry for our sins, that we 01:35:11.040 --> 01:35:14.880 should repent, that we should recognize the fullness of our sin in 01:35:14.880 --> 01:35:18.640 order to recognize the fullness of Christ's sacrifice, and so we observe 01:35:18.640 --> 01:35:20.560 the season of Lent. 01:35:20.560 --> 01:35:25.600 We recognize that it was Christ's perfect life, death, and resurrection, by 01:35:25.600 --> 01:35:28.880 which we can be saved in faith, and so we recognize the 01:35:28.880 --> 01:35:30.400 season of Easter. 01:35:30.400 --> 01:35:34.800 And we recognize the church, we recognize the communion of the saints, 01:35:34.800 --> 01:35:38.320 we recognize that this is the mystical body of Christ that exists 01:35:38.320 --> 01:35:42.000 throughout all time and is comprised of all of all believers, from 01:35:42.000 --> 01:35:45.840 Adam all the way until whatever unfortunate man is the last one 01:35:45.840 --> 01:35:47.200 left on this earth. 01:35:47.200 --> 01:35:51.760 And so we recognize the season of Pentecost. 01:35:51.760 --> 01:35:54.640 I just went through the entirety of the church calendar. 01:35:55.520 --> 01:35:59.920 No Christian can disagree with any of those things, because these are 01:35:59.920 --> 01:36:01.920 core parts of the Christian faith. 01:36:01.920 --> 01:36:04.560 And so there's no reason to reject this. 01:36:04.560 --> 01:36:07.920 It is a teaching tool, it is good for order. 01:36:07.920 --> 01:36:13.200 It not only creates but it highlights the unity across Christian groups. 01:36:13.200 --> 01:36:16.480 And that which is good for order and is good for unity 01:36:16.640 --> 01:36:21.440 and informs Christians, teaches them, brings them up in the faith, solidifies 01:36:21.440 --> 01:36:22.480 them in the faith. 01:36:22.480 --> 01:36:25.520 These things are good and should be preserved, and when they have 01:36:25.520 --> 01:36:29.680 been handed down to us by our forefathers, we should not squander 01:36:29.680 --> 01:36:30.640 that inheritance. 01:36:30.640 --> 01:36:33.840 It is a good thing that was preserved for us not just 01:36:33.840 --> 01:36:37.440 by those men who came before us, but by God preserving his 01:36:37.600 --> 01:36:38.720 church. 01:36:39.360 --> 01:36:42.960 Again, we will put in the show notes a link to Owen's 01:36:42.960 --> 01:36:47.520 church calendar that has the his very artistic version of the Roman 01:36:47.520 --> 01:36:48.640 Catholic calendar. 01:36:48.640 --> 01:36:50.000 He's selling copies of that. 01:36:50.000 --> 01:36:50.720 It's beautiful. 01:36:50.720 --> 01:36:53.680 If you're Roman Catholic, you should probably buy a copy. 01:36:53.680 --> 01:36:55.520 If you're not, you should enjoy it. 01:36:55.520 --> 01:37:01.760 We'll also link to another website that shows the Lutheran uh liturgical 01:37:01.760 --> 01:37:06.720 calendar. They're also selling less fancy but still uh very nice posters 01:37:06.720 --> 01:37:08.880 of the entire church here. 01:37:08.880 --> 01:37:13.680 Just as a good reminder of what we go through as we're 01:37:13.680 --> 01:37:17.040 enjoying God's gifts week after week in church. 01:37:17.040 --> 01:37:21.360 Because if your church is observing the seasons and using the lectionary, 01:37:21.360 --> 01:37:25.280 it's going to have readings that reflect whatever's going on at that 01:37:25.280 --> 01:37:27.440 particular time of the year. 01:37:27.440 --> 01:37:32.320 On the subject of lectionary, Corey has another podcast that's just him 01:37:32.320 --> 01:37:36.560 reading from the daily lectionary every day, and then on Sunday in 01:37:36.560 --> 01:37:40.080 particular their readings are appointed for each day. 01:37:40.080 --> 01:37:42.800 And so we'll link that in the show notes as well when 01:37:42.800 --> 01:37:44.480 we're on our brief hiatus. 01:37:44.480 --> 01:37:46.240 It's something you should be listening to anyway. 01:37:46.240 --> 01:37:47.680 Again, not because Corey's doing it. 01:37:47.680 --> 01:37:50.640 He's a very good narrator and reader, he has a great voice 01:37:50.640 --> 01:37:51.360 for that. 01:37:51.360 --> 01:37:55.120 But if you do nothing else devotionally, if all you do is 01:37:55.120 --> 01:37:58.880 listen to 15 minutes of scripture every day, you're in better shape 01:37:58.880 --> 01:38:00.240 than most people. 01:38:00.240 --> 01:38:04.640 Maybe things get screwy and that's all you have time to do. 01:38:04.640 --> 01:38:05.040 You know, 01:38:06.000 --> 01:38:08.560 you're not able to focus and do more than that. 01:38:08.560 --> 01:38:10.000 It's still salutary. 01:38:10.000 --> 01:38:13.680 If you can spend 15 minutes a day listening to scripture, you 01:38:13.680 --> 01:38:16.720 know, while you're getting ready for work in the morning. 01:38:16.720 --> 01:38:18.160 That is a great thing. 01:38:18.160 --> 01:38:21.680 And in particular, the lectionary is going to work through the entire 01:38:21.680 --> 01:38:26.560 church calendar so the readings will reflect what's going on seasonally. 01:38:26.560 --> 01:38:28.800 And they're going to cover all the various stories. 01:38:28.800 --> 01:38:31.760 The lectionary and the liturgy go hand to hand. 01:38:31.760 --> 01:38:35.280 And on the subject of opinions, there are a bunch of different 01:38:35.280 --> 01:38:36.720 lectionaries too. 01:38:36.720 --> 01:38:39.680 I personally despise the arguing over them. 01:38:39.680 --> 01:38:40.720 I don't care. 01:38:40.720 --> 01:38:44.160 For you to say that somebody's reading the Bible wrong, that makes 01:38:44.160 --> 01:38:45.120 me angry. 01:38:45.120 --> 01:38:47.440 Use whatever lectionary you're going to use. 01:38:47.440 --> 01:38:49.680 Just read the Bible regularly. 01:38:49.680 --> 01:38:52.640 So while we're gone for a couple weeks, go back and listen 01:38:52.640 --> 01:38:56.800 to the back catalog, subscribe to Corey's Confident Faith podcast where he 01:38:56.800 --> 01:39:00.160 does the daily lectionary readings and just start enjoying them because that 01:39:00.160 --> 01:39:01.680 is part of the church calendar as well. 01:39:01.680 --> 01:39:03.360 Like it's not it's not super over. 01:39:03.360 --> 01:39:04.720 He mentions it every day. 01:39:04.720 --> 01:39:07.120 Here's you know the time of the season. 01:39:07.120 --> 01:39:12.240 But those readings are just it's it's God's word and it's his 01:39:12.320 --> 01:39:13.840 gifts being poured out to us. 01:39:13.840 --> 01:39:18.560 And because faith comes by hearing, frankly, I think in some cases 01:39:18.720 --> 01:39:22.880 it's almost more profitable to hear someone reading something than reading it 01:39:22.880 --> 01:39:26.240 yourself. It's there's just something about the way our brains work the 01:39:26.240 --> 01:39:27.520 bot God understood. 01:39:27.520 --> 01:39:29.920 So that's how he's given these things to us. 01:39:29.920 --> 01:39:33.040 So be sure to check out the show notes this week because 01:39:33.040 --> 01:39:35.840 there's some good stuff in there that'll be interesting. 01:39:35.840 --> 01:39:38.480 It's not homework, but it's it's beneficial for you. 01:39:38.480 --> 01:39:40.080 That's the purpose of all this. 01:39:40.080 --> 01:39:40.880 It's not homework. 01:39:40.880 --> 01:39:42.240 It's not making laws. 01:39:42.240 --> 01:39:44.160 It's just look at these blessings. 01:39:44.160 --> 01:39:47.840 Look at these good things that God has preserved in time through 01:39:47.840 --> 01:39:48.560 the church. 01:39:48.560 --> 01:39:49.920 Let's enjoy them together. 01:39:49.920 --> 01:39:54.560 That that's my entire hope for all of this for everyone. 01:39:54.640 --> 01:39:59.040 And so we will end this week's episode with a short reading 01:39:59.040 --> 01:40:06.080 from Ecclesiastes three, something for you to ponder in the remaining week, 01:40:06.080 --> 01:40:09.840 less than a week leading up to Christmas Day. 01:40:09.840 --> 01:40:14.800 And of course this is the fourth Sunday in Advent this coming 01:40:14.800 --> 01:40:20.480 Sunday. But our reading to end this episode, Ecclesiastes three. 01:40:20.480 --> 01:40:23.760 For everything there is a season and a time for every matter 01:40:23.760 --> 01:40:27.760 under heaven, a time to be born, and a time to die, 01:40:27.760 --> 01:40:30.640 a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is 01:40:30.640 --> 01:40:35.120 planted, a time to kill, and a time to heal, a time 01:40:35.120 --> 01:40:38.800 to break down, and a time to build up, a time to 01:40:38.800 --> 01:40:42.880 weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a 01:40:42.880 --> 01:40:47.120 time to dance, a time to cast away stones, and a time 01:40:47.120 --> 01:40:50.800 to gather stones together, a time to embrace, and a time to 01:40:51.360 --> 01:40:56.160 refrain from embracing, a time to seek and a time to lose, 01:40:56.160 --> 01:41:00.000 a time to keep and a time to cast away, a time 01:41:00.000 --> 01:41:03.600 to tear and a time to sow, a time to keep silence 01:41:03.600 --> 01:41:04.000 and a time 01:41:04.960 --> 01:41:09.360 to speak, a time to love, and a time to hate, a 01:41:09.360 --> 01:41:13.120 time for war, and a time for peace.