Order in the Church

I knew Advent was coming, but somehow it did not dawn on me that today was Christ the King Sunday until the preacher wearing his white stole of celebration announced it to us.  Christ the King Sunday is the last Sunday of the Christian year,  Advent which begins next Sunday marks the beginning of the new calendar year for the church.  Of course, not everyone in every church notes these two Sundays in such a way which is alright as folks are different.   

I happen to be one of those who finds meaning in the liturgical calendar with its seasons of Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost.  Each season enables the church to focus on a different dimension of  the gospel from Incarnation to Resurrection and beyond.  Along with the liturgical calendar, I always found a great resource for preaching in the Common Lectionary, a series of orderly readings from the Old and New Testament, the Psalms, and the Epistles.  The Lectionary features a three year cycle which means that Matthew is the focus for one year with Mark and Luke getting individual focus in the other two.  The gospel of John gets blended into the mix over the three year cycle.  

Certainly, the church calendar and lectionary readings are not for everyone, but it does provide an orderly and systematic discipline to guide the church as it seeks to proclaim the whole of the gospel.  For me the biggest plus was that it kept my preaching rooted in the Scripture which is where I have always believed to be God's planned source for all preaching.