The New Church Year- Living in the Biblical Narrative: Transcending Time and Injustice

September 1st marks the first day of the liturgical year for the Byzantine Church. The Church will take us through the Biblical narrative, the mighty acts of God in Jesus Christ. We will become part of the biblical narrative as we go through the season of Advent and the nativity (incarnation) of our Lord, the Great Lent, Pascha (The Resurrection of our Lord), and the Season of Pentecost, which is the age of the Holy Spirit, the Soul of the Church, Christ’s Body.

We will, through out the Church year, identify with the ministry of Jesus as we read the Sunday gospels. We will honor the Mother of God and all of the other saints on various days on the church calendar, for we have come to “to the spirits of the righteous made perfect (Hebrews 12.23).” We become part of the biblical narrative, and are there in the story with Jesus, Mary, the Apostles, Peter, John, and Paul, as witnesses to Christ and the good news.

Theologians have called the observation of the Church year “the Sanctification of Time.” Just as Christ sanctified the waters and all of creation through his incarnation and baptism, he also sanctified time. Time, though created, is a vehicle for us to encounter the Timeless. He who is outside of Time entered time in the incarnation; and we who are time-bound, can, through the divinization of our human nature, transcend time, and enter Eternity.

The biblical narrative is not something that drops out of the sky, nor is it a dead letter, in ink and paper, frozen in a mere book. Rather, the Word lives in us, and we live in the Word. We live the biblical narrative. We walk with Christ and not only with Him, but with all of the saints through out the ages. We are Christ, his Body, for all the ages. As believers in a postmodern age, we live in, and recreate the biblical narrative, salvation history.

As co-creators, co-redeemers with Christ, we too, bring the good news to the poor, and announce a year of the Lord’s favor, as Christ did:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”- Luke 4.18-19, NRSV

How appropriate that this new Church year begins on Labor Day. What a wonderful way of sanctifying human labor and being in solidarity with the workers. So many people in this world bear the cross, and work in sweatshops and fields, and yet, are poor because of unjust wages. We must announce the good news to them, and to their oppressors as well. We must consider how we might be in solidarity with them, and think about how our consumer choices might affect those who labor very hard to for very little.

Workers in America are also struggling. A recent study done by Rutgers University shows that American Workers are the worst off they have been in years. You can read a report on this study here.

In our participation of the Church year and salvation history, we must announce the overthrow of the older order, with its unjust structures. We must announce the Good News of the Christ, and work for the Reign of God on earth. We must invite the whole world to participate in the biblical narrative of salvation. The Church year should be an occassion to announce a new order: "we wait for new heavens and a new earth, where righteousness is at home." - 2 Peter 3.13, NRSV

At the beginning of this Church year, let us recommit our lives to Christ, in service to Him and to our neighbor, especially the least among us, the poor and the workers, as we once again take part through the liturgy and the Church calendar in the drama that is salvation history.