A Great Blessing and A Challenge
On September 1st the Orthodox Church enters its liturgical year, a new cycle of feasts commemorating specific events in the life of Christ, commemorating many saints who bore witness to the power of Christ in their lives. Essentially, we will start marking time, filling time with the remembrance of God and all that He has done for us. And at the center of this important cycle is Pascha (Easter): everything spiritually and liturgically flows to and from the Resurrection of Christ. The “feast of feasts” is that light which illumines each prayer, each offering, each service in the Orthodox Church.
St. Paul, in both Ephesians and Colossians, says that we are to, "redeem the time, for the days are evil." Archbishop Dmitri, of blessed memory, pointed out that filling time with the remembrance of God through worship is one method by which we redeem time itself, give it ultimate meaning. For a group of Baptist leaders, he even explained St. Paul’s directive to, “pray without ceasing,” in terms of simply remembering God throughout the day in any and all circumstances.
Recognizing September 1st as the start of our liturgical cycle has a long history; its roots even predate the coming of Christ. For the Jews, September was and is the beginning of the new year. As Christianity is the fulfillment of Judaism – the law and prophets all pointing to Jesus – there are many things the Church inherited then baptized from its Jewish roots, including our general approach to measuring time, observing September as a commencement.
Many Orthodox emphasize that the 1st Ecumenical Council (Nicea 325) provided the initial declaration of September 1st as the start of the New Year. And according to one venerable tradition referred to by St. Dimitri of Rostov, it was on that specific day over two thousand years ago, on a Sabbath, that Jesus came into the synagogue and openly announced the start of His ministry. Thus, in Luke's Gospel we are told that Jesus – in the city of Nazareth – in the midst of a gathering, was handed the prophecy of Isaiah and began to read the following:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach, to heal, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the oppressed, and to give sight to the blind, to proclaim the acceptable Year of the Lord...." He then closed the book and said, "Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
Essentially, Jesus announced prophetic signs of the Messiah's coming, proclaimed them in a liturgical context. He then assured His audience that, "The Messiah is here, now; I am the Anointed One, the Promised One; this prophecy is fulfilled with My appearance." Some commentators add that with the words, “an acceptable year of the Lord,” Jesus was indicating the imminent start, with His ministry, of a special time of jubilee in which "the oppressed would be set free."
Our manner of marking time – redeeming time through worship – as received from our forefathers, is a precious inheritance. We need to appreciate it, take advantage of it for our own spiritual well-being. Of course, we do not want “to deify” the religious calendar as some Orthodox Christians tend to do, holding it almost to the level of Scripture. Neither do we want to disregard this sacred rhythm of feasts and fasts. It exists for a reason, as a practical and saving tool. A proper balance is necessary for its full appreciation, to appreciate, in fact, all things inherited and developed by the Church over the centuries.
In the non-Orthodox Christian world there are many people looking for what we have, liturgically, morally, theologically, spiritually. They are also discovering – or we should say rediscovering – the value of a Christian calendar, something that goes beyond the simple observance of Memorial Day, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. For many believers those five days, in a nutshell, constitute their religious calendar. With that in mind, I am often puzzled by the ways in which histories of individual families and nations are given so much more weight by bible-believing Christians in terms of reverence and celebration, than events related to Church history, to occurrences in the life of Christ as recorded in Scripture, and to strong evidence of the divine presence in the lives of the saints. Why would these latter happenings be neglected by so many, clear indicators – past and present – of God “working wonders in the midst of the earth?” That has frequently been a point of confusion, at least for me.
But, very soon our Church Year will start in a big way. On September 8 we will celebrate the birth of the Virgin Mary; on September 14, the Elevation of the Cross. Many parishes will also have liturgies commemorating great saints in September: John the Baptist, for instance (23rd); Sergius of Radonezh (25th) and John the Evangelist (26th). And then, we will be looking ahead to the Christmas Fast, during which we will prepare for Christ's Nativity and Baptism, His self-revelation to the world. I could be wrong, but I think for many inquirers and catechumens the notion of a comprehensive Orthodox Calendar is one of the most difficult practices to adopt as they draw near to the Church, but spiritually it is well worth the effort.
This year, let us rededicate ourselves to the Lord, and continue doing what we do, taking part actively as best we can in the Church’s sacred rhythm of feasts and fasts. Let us not take for granted or ignore the gift of this liturgical cycle, marking time not just by personal triumph's, birthdays, and anniversaries, but marking time preeminently by that which Christ has done for us, His victory over sin and death, so that each day can be truly an offering to Him. (Sermon at St. Barbara’s)