Have you ever noticed yourself starting to feel at home before you actually make it home? Somewhere between all of our comings and goings, the trees and little idiosyncrasies about our neighbourhoods become familiar. So familiar that you don’t even think about it until you move or find yourself in an unfamiliar part of the city. We may not be inside our homes yet, but we are so close we can almost taste it – we relax (sometimes to our detriment as most accidents happen closer to home), we begin to run through the list of things we are going to do when we get there, and we breath a little bit easier knowing all of our creature comforts are near.
When I was growing up, we drove everywhere. Long road trips to visit family or go on vacation were the norm – we were the family that didn’t bat an eye at sitting in a car for hours at a time (which is extra impressive when you consider that we didn’t have a minivan so the three of us sisters were all in the back of a sedan for all of these trips).
The inevitable thing about going away on a road trip is that you have to drive home. Instead of asking “Are we there yet?”, I learned to look for certain landmarks. “This enroute is 1 hour from home.” “This Tim Hortons means 30 minutes to go!” “This pet store means 15 minutes – so close!” But none of those compared to driving over the overpass and seeing home. On particularly long trips we would cheer when we got closer to home – the excitement building for when we would finally get to stretch our legs, unpack, sleep in our own beds, and finally just be home.
In the church, there is something we can follow called the liturgical calendar. You may be familiar with it, or it may be something completely new to you – I did not attend a church that observed it (outside of a little bit of advent observation and knowing “about” lent) until I was an adult. Many evangelical practices shy away from the practice of liturgy – understandable as the general connotation is that of something that is stale, dusty, and hard to relate to. But I would like to position that, when done well, it is instead an invitation to tune our hearts and lives to an annual rhythm of remembering the life of Christ. There is space for new readings, a reimagining of how a Sunday might look, and spontaneous worship and prayer within the calendar itself while we consider the unique challenges and concerns of today.
Liturgical Calendar by Third Church, https://www.thirdrva.org/blog/telling-time-differently-as-christ-followers
Today as I write it is Palm Sunday. After Ash Wednesday, this is the first major sign point that Easter is coming. It is the beginning of Holy Week, the last week of lent. While many churches will observe Good Friday and Easter Sunday, we have been taking the time to make space in our worship gatherings for confession and encourage the practice of laying something down (i.e. fasting from something) and possibly picking up something else (i.e. a spiritual practice) during lent.
It is often custom to remove the hallelujah from worship during lent – but on Palm Sunday we sing Hosanna! Come, Lord! We remember the triumphal entry and though “Hosanna” is triumphant, it is not “Hallelujah”. Palm Sunday is exciting but it is not Easter. Just like my little reminders for myself on a ride home, it’s a reminder that we are coming home to Easter…but we are not quite there yet.
I sought the Lord, and he answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
Those who look to him are radiant,
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord encamps
around those who fear him, and delivers them.Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Psalm 24: 4-8, ESV
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!
As we journey through these hills and valleys, individually and corporately reflecting on the life of Jesus, we are given glimpses and tastes of what the fullness of celebration and presence of God will be like. When we celebrate Christmas after a season of advent we taste joy a little differently and we can only imagine, as we celebrate God with us, what it will be like when we are with Christ in heaven forever. And as we celebrate Easter after a period of fasting and piety in lent, we can wonder how much more our joy will be when Christ comes again.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.”
John 14:1-3, ESV
In the same way, as we experience these excitements and fullness of celebration on our Sundays and in our observations of the life of Christ, we are reminded that all of these things are but a foretaste of what is still coming. As we participate in the liturgical calendar, we are reminded constantly that as we taste the goodness of God here and celebrate what he has done so far, that there is a greater homecoming for all of us, and it is so exciting.
padigrumae 