I wouldn’t make it an either/or necessarily. But I do believe that as Christians, we believe in the God of Time. We know from the Old Testament that there was a certain rhythm to the Jewish way of life. The early Christians also latched onto this.

I am not saying that care for the earth is not a biblical mandate. The hypothetical situation I proposed was simply a way of asking, “Who is ordering our time?” Are we taking our cues from the culture? Or should we think through the questions about how to best order our church life together?

I agree that Christianity should never be simply about maintaining a calendar. You are absolutely right. But at the same time, I think you will agree that what we celebrate, how we celebrate, and when we celebrate certain events are rhythms that do form us as people. For example, the juxtaposition of Thanksgiving a month before Christmas has given birth to “The Christmas Season” in the United States. Celebrating Thanksgiving in November kicks off a holiday season that influences how we spend our money, view our time, restore old friendships, etc.

In the same way, how the church orders its time will have an effect on the life and direction of the people. It’s unavoidable.

So I am not advocating that we maintain a calendar for its own sake. But I do think we need to think through how our ordering of time forms us as the people of God.

Again, the question is not IF we will have a church calendar, but WHOSE calendar we will adopt? And at this point, I think it’s safe to say in the United States, we have pretty much let the culture set the agenda and have dismissed the wisdom of the ancient church.

i have some questions to your assumptions.. why is it an either/or? I know this is simply a hypothetical situation where earthday takes over easter but i don’t really think it is a reasonable fear. I could equally envision the church celebrating both.

second.. why is care for the earth an issue of culture over gospel? seems pretty clearly to be part of God’s mandate, so I’m not sure it is at odds with a christian expression.

third.. if christianity becomes simply a way to maintain a certain calendar then it is a useless religion which we need to be prophetically called out of and back to god.

thanks for stimulating the conversation, trevin.

david

Great thoughts, as usual. I’m wondering if you’ve considered the “Common Good” issues here, though, stemming from Jesus’ “whoever is not against us is with us” mentality, a la Mark 9:40 and Luke 9:50. When it comes to Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, etc., I hear you and I’m with you. But if we think about, say, the issue of Easter and Earth Day coinciding in 2068, I wonder if we shouldn’t resist the knee-jerk reaction and consider more deeply how we might embrace that convergence, not for celebrating one and forgetting the other, but for celebrating both in terms of one another. I mean, what better news for the Earth than “He is risen!,” “New Creation has begun!”

Grace and Peace,
Raffi