(Re)-Emerging Seasons

I promised a second installment on Phyllis Tickle and "The Great Emergence." I do have some thoughts on what "Emergence Christianity" might look like at Second B, and I am going to share those more broadly here next week. But since this Sunday is the first Sunday of Lent I want to offer some reflections on how Emergence Christianity is rediscovering ancient spiritual practices like the liturgical seasons.

In his letter to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul was writing to new Gentile Christian converts who were being taught by some unknown Jewish Christians (yes, Jewish Christians!) that they should follow the Jewish laws, rituals, and feast days as part of following the way of the Messiah Jesus. Paul saw this as a limitation being placed upon the Gospel, and if you know anything about Paul you know he did believe in limitations on God's good news. He wrote, "Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to beings that by nature are not gods. Now, however, that you have come to know God . . . how can you turn back again to the weak and beggarly elemental spirits? How can you want to be enslaved to them again? You are observing special days, and months, and seasons, and years. I am afraid that my work for you may have been wasted" (Galatians 4:8-10).

The Church for its part has mostly taken what Paul had to say on matters like these with a grain of salt. A liturgical calendar was created which did set aside certain seasons and days as unique. Advent was a time of preparation for the coming of the Christ at Christmas. Lent was seen as a season of reflection and penitence leading up to Easter. The Church has therefore followed a certain rhythmic liturgical calendar of one sort or another for almost all of its history.

With the appearance of Martin Luther's doctrine of Sola Scriptura, this all changed. The invention of the printing press in the 15th century put the Bible in the hands of the masses and they began to read and interpret it for themselves. Emboldened by Luther, many concluded that the Roman Church had misled them in all manners of things — including the Church calendar. So out went Advent and Lent in a lot of Protestant churches — including all Baptist churches. And our Puritan forbears even went one step further. They did away with Christmas and Easter. For 22 years in Boston there was actually a law banning the celebration of Christmas. To borrow a line from C.S. Lewis, it was "always winter, but never Christmas."

But now "The Great Emergence" is happening. We no longer live in small religious enclaves like the ones our Puritan forebears created in Massachusetts. We Protestants have Catholic neighbors, bosses, sons-in-law, and even a former president. And we are beginning to see that just because it is Catholic does not necessarily mean it is suspect. So most Baptists can now admit that Easter and Christmas are church holidays we received from the Catholic liturgical calendar! ("Honey, did you know that?") And Baptists like Second B have even gone so far as to recognize the place for special seasons like Advent and Lent, where we take time to reflect and observe through spiritual disciplines like prayer, fasting, and service.

So what then do we do with the Apostle Paul? I suspect "Emergence Christianity" will take Paul much like the Church has historically taken him — with a grain of salt. We will heed his warnings not to be enslaved to the merely religious. In other words, we need not be slavish about the way we practice Lent. But we will not be bound to the wooden dogmatism of Paul's words when it comes to slaves obeying their masters or women obeying men or special days, months, or seasons.

For as the wisdom of Ecclesiastes says, "To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose."

-Ash Wednesday 2012