Time and Faith

Posted by on December 6, 2009 under Sermons

Christmas

  • Is it biblical?
  • Is it historical?
  • When did it become religious?
  • How did it become traditional?
  • What is the significance of it?

Romans 14:5

  • One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike.

Genesis 1:14

  • Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years …

Seasons and Feasts

  • These are the LORD’s appointed feasts, the sacred assemblies you are to proclaim at their appointed times. – Leviticus 23:4

TIME

  • Is it sacred or secular?
  • How do we order our time?
  • How do we use it?
  • What about memory and growth?
  • What is the Sabbath?

“Christian Calendar”

The Lord’s Day

  • 1 Corinthians 16:2
  • Acts 20:7-11
  • Revelation 1:10
  • Didache
  • “We all hold this common gathering on Sunday . . .” – Justin Martyr

Make it Official

    “All judges, city people, and craftsmen shall rest on the venerable day of the Sun. But countrymen may without hindrance attend to agriculture.” – Constantine, 321 AD

#1. Easter

  • Passover was the most important date in Jewish year
  • 1 Corinthians 5:7-8
  • Baptism ceremonies (2nd – 3rd centuries)
  • Fixed on Sunday
  • Jerusalem pilgrimages

Travels of Egeria

  • Wrote about “the Great Week” in Jerusalem
  • Special services for each day
  • Following the course of Jesus’ life

Two Seasons

  • Lent – Preparing the learners for baptism
  • Easter/Pentecost season – Fifty days after Easter
  • Easter was more important than Lent to the ancients

#2 Pentecost

  • Leviticus 23:16 – The giving of the Law on Sinai
  • 2 Corinthians 3:7-8, Acts 2
  • The day of Christ’s ascension into heaven
  • The arrival of the Holy Spirit
  • [Ascension is later separated from Pentecost]

#3 Epiphany

  • Focus on the Incarnation
  • January 6 – Follows nine months after April 6
  • Feast of the Magi
  • Twelve Days of Christmas

Christmas?

  • Gregory of Nazianzus
  • Sermon of December 25, 380
  • East prefers January 6 as the date of birth
  • West prefers December 25