Doug Pagitt makes an interesting comment on his blog regarding the tyranny of the holiday season in influencing our thoughts on Jesus ( PAGITTblog), that is after he finishes his rant on phone messages.
Doug suggests that the emphasis by churches on the high holy days of Christmas and Easter limits our focus in such away that we ignore the daily life and teachings of Jesus. I agree with him in some ways, but would suggest that this is one of the justifications by traditional, liturgical types for observing the lectionary and the Christian year. This observance walks us through the entire life and teaching of Christ during a given year. However, far too often (as Doug suggests) we put so little energy into the non-holy days that our folks have little understanding of how the lectionary/calendar works.
After all, what do we call the times between Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter? Ordinary time. In our language, we somehow imply that the life between birth and death, the mundane realities of existance, is less sacred. And yet, if we were to instead help our folks understand that Ordinary Time is the most likely place to find God, we would be coming closer to God’s ideal.
Only Wonder Understands 