By Rev. Jonathan David Faulkner

Since I became a father in 2019, I have learned a lot about the importance of rhythms in the life of a child. From the time my daughter was one day old, my wife had set about creating a routine for her, feeding every two hours, napping in between, tummy time, playing music for her, reading to her. We did not do all these things every day, and as she has grown the routine has been adjusted and reimagined, helping her adjust to new stages of life. To my wife and me it has been a reminder of the benefit of routines as she has flourished under the pattern of life we set out for her.

Before I developed the routine I will describe below, my life was disordered and without rhythm. As a child diagnosed with ADHD, I had decided to stop taking medication and force myself to focus. That didn’t work. Instead, I was failing classes and on academic probation. My friends knew me as erratic and unreliable. This created friction which came to a head during a program I attended in Denver where I could not get along with the community. The head of the program challenged me to spend a week in silence and then to develop a routine and rhythm to help me work through my disordered state. Our group psychologist told the group: “The best way to love Jonathan is to have him go sit under a tree and let God tell him who he is.”

Routine

Many of the psychologists I have known over the years have talked about the importance of ritual and routine. Whether it is setting that tea kettle on the stove for that wonderful cup of Earl Grey or setting up the coffee maker and waiting expectantly for the brew. Douglas Kaine McKelvey has written a book of liturgy for these small moments of routine and ritual. Every Moment Holy helps you find God during the mundane, the ordinary, the routine. These things help you maintain mental health. They ground you in reality, help you focus and transition from waking to breakfast, breakfast to working, and so on. They also help you relax as you approach each task throughout the day.

Starting my junior year of college, I developed a routine that began with prayer and Bible reading in the morning, to get me ready for the day. In effect, I now sit under a tree every morning and allow God to tell me who I am and who he is. Not doing these two things has the effect of leaving me adrift, as if in a snowstorm. Starting out every day in that quiet place, in the presence of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit helps to orient me and refocus me for the day ahead. This pattern is based on Jesus' own; eleven times in the book of Luke alone Jesus goes off to pray, to be with his Father, to receive from his Father. This was also the entire basis of the Old Testament traditions and rhythm of prayer, sacrifice and so on. Drawing the nation of Israel to God, in the presence of God, to receive from God and go from God to serve and bless the nations.

The Year 2020

For many of us, 2020 was a year of disruption, a year when many of us felt as though we were adrift in that very “snowstorm” described above. Days passed by and blurred together; those rituals and routines we loved went by the wayside because we could not do some of them. We could not see friends, go to the theater, or go to that restaurant we love. Many of us suffered alone while loved ones struggled or got sick and died. We lost jobs, friends, family members and any semblance of normality. It can be easy to reset and rebuild our routines after a minor disruption to our schedules, such as a day when the car does not start, or you have an abnormal schedule. But how do we refocus on the macro level, how do we reorient and refocus our entire lives?

The Church Calendar

This year, I have chosen to use the Church Calendar, not only for myself but for my congregation. For those who did not grow up in liturgical settings, or whose churches don't celebrate Advent as part of Christmas, the Church Calendar is a collection of yearly rhythms that the church established over centuries to take us through the life of Jesus and the early Church. This cycle, this rhythm, orients us on the life and work of Christ as it happened in real time and space two thousand some years ago and how it plays out in our own real time and space. This is a historical rhythm, meant to take us all the way through the most important parts of the Christian Life. They help us build a cultural memory, something that Christians in the West so desperately need.

Some traditions include feast days to commemorate our brothers and sisters who have gone before, reminding us that we are part of a greater narrative than ourselves, a grand narrative of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. The Church Calendar orients us both in the history of the narrative and in the present-ness of the narrative. What has happened is still happening, the story is still being played out and we are active participants in it.

During the quarantine this has been essential for me to even ground myself in what day it is. We all know it is easy to get disoriented as the days go by and we struggle to know where we are. I have found that I can look at the Church Calendar and see that it is Easter, or Christ the King Sunday, and I know exactly where I am in the year. Not only that, it gives me a tangible, Christ-centered reminder in how I live out my days in quarantine. For many Christians, the long days have led them to anger and frustration which spill out in social media comments and passive aggressive comments to pastors. Looking at where we are in celebrating the Life of Christ reminds me that my responses to such things should be informed by and tempered by Christ.

Being locked down is frustrating, but Christ is with us in the lockdown, and that should be a potent reminder. I am part of the story, and the way I act in the grand narrative of Church History will reflect Christ, a thought that both amazes and terrifies me.

Reorientation and Centering

Just like in the example of my wife and baby, the ancient Christians understood the value of rhythm and routine, especially rhythm and routine oriented around someone other than ourselves. The beauty of the life of the Church as laid out for us in the Ancient Way of the Church Calendar is that it orients us on Christ and then places us into a community that is all focused on and oriented on the same thing. What we in the West do not understand is that we were never meant to be autonomous individuals; this reorientation, this refocusing on Christ and his life is not just for us. We do reap a blessing from it, but the personal blessing is small compared to the blessing of being part of the greatest story ever lived, year in and year out, with other like-minded individuals. The Church Year is meant to be lived communally with any benefit to the individual being secondary. Bless others and you yourself will be blessed.

There is one final part to all this that I have found encouraging this year: the various colors associated with the seasons. Purple for Advent and Lent, white for Christmas and Easter, and so on. I have found that placing those colors around me during each season has helped me orient and focus my mind on the Bible stories and reality they represent. I am reminded that I am a physical person with a physical body, and the physical space I am in helps orient me to worship. One of the ways I have brought my congregation along in regards to this is by using the colors; I wear a tie that corresponds to the seasonal color and the cross the congregation looks at behind me through the entire service is draped with a corresponding drape. My hope is they see the white and remember the purity of Christ or the reality of the resurrection, helping them worship as their minds are drawn to the things of God.

In closing, the Church Calendar varies from tradition to tradition, but it can be an extremely helpful way to reorient you going into 2021. Not just because of the personal benefits of rhythm and routine, but because of the communal benefits of joining with millions of believers around the world in living the life of Christ as you seek to know him better and be a part of this crazy thing called “the People of God,” even in the midst of a pandemic.

Note:

For examples of the Church Calendar, or Liturgical Calendar, please check out https://episcopalchurch.org/calendar-church-year, or https://www.faithward.org/the-liturgical-calendar/.

Rev. Jonathan David Faulkner is a graduate of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary holding Masters in Divinity and Church History, a pastor, musician and writer. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Christian Education & Administration with a concentration in Urban Ministry. He lives with his wife and daughter in Northern Iowa and seeks to be a part of the project of reconciliation in the local and international church. He is currently serving as the Pastor of First Congregational Church of Buffalo Center.

Website: https://godsheartforthose.com/

The God's Heart Podcast: https://jonfaulknerarl.podbean.com/