Church Calendar and/or Word Fitly Spoken?

 

This is based on my research. The Christian practice of having a church calendar was said to have developed fully in 600 AD. This is the splitting the 12-month period into church seasons. Many church practices we know today would usually originate in one local section of the Church and then gets adopted by the other region in the Church. Then it becomes a practice of the many groups in Christianity as a standard.

Part of the church calendar are the readings which revolve about the life of the Lord, his teachings, and the life of the people of God. Thus, we call them lessons for the day. These readings were used by Christian leaders as part of discipleship training for believers who mostly have no access, obviously, to the text of Scripture and mostly could not read. It is no wonder why icons and statues were used to remind believers of characters that relates to their faith. Praise the Lord for the printing press, we now have Bibles all over the place and many can read or can learn to read.

Having a set of readings for the pastor to preach on is good but it can be a ritual performance too. The pastor can say, he has done his job, he spoke on the text even though there is no exposition of the text and as if he was preaching to kids. The job of the pastor is to feel the heart of his people, to know their spiritual needs and find a way to apply the text to their needs.

The sheep needs food. Jesus said to Peter, John 21:15-19, “if you love me, feed my sheep”. The pastor, if he is true to his calling, should have concern for the nourishment of his sheep. He would know or try to learn at least, what spiritual diet the sheep should receive.

This is where ritualized sermons are not so helpful. It becomes going-through-the-motion event on a Sunday.

This is why I admire, the pastor who once invited me to preach in his congregation. He said, you know we have these readings for that Sunday, but you do not have to preach on them. We can read them, but take your text anywhere you feel the HS is leading you for what we need. This I did.

In Proverbs 25: 11 A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

The Word of God fitly spoken, appropriate for the need, for the present hunger becomes food for the soul, producing faith and edification.