CRAFT: We need to have a New Years Day Party. We will have to connect this up with the lesson, which will explain the church calendar. I think a piñata noise makers, (especially those popper things) and whatever else would happen at a party.
SNACK: Sparkling apple juice, muffins, (party food!?)
LESSON PLAN: We will use today to explain the church year to the children. It will have to be a rather big overview because there are numbers of adults who don't get it. I have included some materials to help. Have them put in the liturgical colors in the sheet with the circles.
MEMORY WORK: Romans 5:2 We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God
We will learn that God fulfilled our redemption and promises that Christ will return in glory on the Last Day to take all believers to live with Him in eternal glory.
We will understand and find gladness in the Loving promise as we overcome the anxieties and tribulations of the world mired in sin.
We will thank God that we have the hope of a better tomorrow as we await the coming of Christ.
Preliminary considerations: The overall theme for today is celebration. The Introit is the Palm Sunday party event of the parade into Jerusalem. The Collect asks God to stir us up in His power. The Old Testament Lesson proclaims hope in the midst of judgment. There is gloom because the world is trying to overcome the faithful. However the joy of God will come with the Savior. The Gradual is a repeat of the Palm Sunday parade, the party in celebration of the Advent of our Savior. The Epistle Lesson gives us confidence as we cling to the promise of Christ's future return, His second Advent. The Gospel Lesson presents the way in which Christ's second Advent always means Good News to His faithful people.
THE OLD TESTAMENT LESSON: Jeremiah 33:14-16
Jeremiah was commissioned to preach not only Law (which he does with a passion) but also the Gospel. The contrast is apparent in our text where the Law is followed by a Gospel promise. The days promised by Jeremiah were fulfilled in the first advent of Christ. It perhaps doesn't appear to be so, because we still suffer here on earth, but in the Advent of the Savior, in His birth we have been guaranteed that all the promises of the Old Testament, including Salvation, have been fulfilled. We are called Christians. We are called by the Name of the Son of Righteousness. And for that we celebrate.
THE EPISTLE LESSON: 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Paul, for all the suffering and trouble in his attempts to proclaim the Gospel, finds the time to exclaim his joy. Paul's joy in God is the same joy he exclaims for the wonder of God. The Thessalonians have been established as blameless in holiness before God as a result of their being caused by Him to abound in love for one another. God accepts us as blameless. Now we respond in joy and wonder. We bend our life to accommodate our blameless designation, as we celebrate with all the saints while waiting for Christ to return and take us to live with Him forever.
THE GOSPEL LESSON: Luke 21:25-36
The emphasis is clearly the second coming (second Advent) of Christ. (The alternate text for today is the Palm Sunday account, which accords with the Introit and Gradual.) Jesus gives us three Advent directives. He tells us to be careful, to be on the watch and to pray. There are many perils in this world that can frighten Christians and keep us from being joyful. Jesus tells us that these are the kinds of things that happen in the world in which we live. We are not to be weighted down by the troubles of this life, but always to keep our hearts and minds on the Second Advent of Christ. No matter how weighed down we might become we can celebrate because we watch and pray. As we watch and pray we celebrate because the Word of God will be fulfilled. It was fulfilled in Christ in His first Advent and the truth of His Word will come true when He comes again.
STUDY SHEET
The church year is an astonishing thing. Some of the lessons we use are as Old as the very earliest of people gathered under the Word of God. Some of the lessons we use have only been added to our reading schedule in the past 10 years or so.
There is also a church year that follows an ecclesiastical calendar of events. Advent is the beginning, then the birth of Christ, the Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Trinity and the Pentecost Season make up the calendar. We repeat this pattern every year. The colors associated with these seasons have also come to us over the years with their own significance and meaning.
For our purposes, Advent, is the season of split attention. We are getting prepared for the celebration of the first Advent of Christ when He came as a child, born in Bethlehem at the same time we are preparing ourselves for the second Advent of Christ when He will come again to take us to live in Heaven eternally.
The church year is represented as a circle because it will continue to roll until the second Advent of Christ.
The first half of the church year is known as the festival half because of the many festivals that are celebrated. The second half is known as the nonfestival half. In the first half we celebrate the many events of the life of Christ. In the second half we listen and watch the growth of the church.
It is possible to present the church year in terms of the secular calendar (New Years, Spring, Summer and winter) but they don't exactly line up with what is happening in the church year. Over time we have changed some of the names. There used to be a pre-Lent period of three Sundays that have been absorbed by Epiphany. We also used to call the time after Pentecost and Trinity Sunday, the Sundays After Trinity. We changed that to Sundays After Pentecost to better represent the idea of the growth of the church.
1. What are the purpose of the signs of the second Advent of Christ?
2. What does Paul say is the manner we should conduct our daily lives as we wait for the second Advent?
3. Why are we able to be joyful as we wait for the second Advent of Christ?
4. What is the value of a constant (therefore predictable) church calendar?
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