Lection: 2 Samuel 23

November 25, 2018

2 Samuel 23:1-7
Psalm 132:1-12
Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37

“Thy Kingdom Come on Earth”

Today is the last day of the year – not in the Gregorian calendar that we follow along with the most of the world, running from January 1st through to December 31st. But today is the last day in the Church Year – the special calendar that many Christian Churches began to follow as part of the liturgical reform of the last 30-40 years.

The Church Year begins with Advent, four Sundays leading up to our celebration of the Birth of Jesus at Christmas. Then there is a short Christmas season, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and ordinary time which comes in between.

The Church Year is the reason that we mark different Sundays and seasons with symbolic colours like purple for Lent, red for Pentecost, and white for Easter and Christmas. And the Church Year provides the framework for the lectionary cycle of Scripture readings that we read and reflect on Sunday-by-Sunday.

The special Sunday that we mark today is called “Reign of Christ” or “Christ the King” Sunday, and it is the culmination of the Church Year before we begin a New Year with the Season of Advent next week.

It was Pope Pius … Read more »

November 25, 2012

2 Samuel 23:1-7
Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37

Over tea and homemade pie yesterday afternoon, a church member asked me about the church’s celebration of Christmas. He remembered that when he was growing up in Scotland there were no special church services for Christmas, and gifts were exchanged at New Year’s rather than on December 25th. Indeed, Christmas didn’t become a national holiday in Scotland until fairly recently.

Unfortunately, I didn’t know when Canadian Presbyterians or other Protestants began celebrating Christmas, nor did I know when Canada made Christmas Day into a statutory holiday. I could point out that all the Churches have gone through some significant liturgical reform over the last 30 or 40 years. One significant reform is the celebration of the Church Year in most of the mainline Churches. The Church Year includes not only special Christmas services, but also special seasons like Advent to anticipate and prepare for our Christmas celebrations.

Growing up in a Canadian Presbyterian Church in the 1980’s, we were already lighting Advent Candles on the Sundays leading up to Christmas, and I think it was a fairly long standing tradition to gather for worship on Christmas Eve for a service of lessons and carols that was one of … Read more »