Tuesday 13 March 2018

Growing up a spiral staircase



Holy Week beckons with its promise of beauty and depth, and its bombardment of Scriptures and ideas, emotion-laden services and preparation. Sometimes, behind it lies a different but insistent question, “Is it really a year since the last Holy Week?”
         It is indeed a year since this time a year ago, so it can feel like
Groundhog Day — a humorous film about a man destined to endlessly relive the same day — but it isn’t. Much has also changed.
      We can think of the Church Year as being like a loop that starts in Advent and goes via Christmas, Epiphany, Lent and Easter, through Trinity, to Kingdom season. We repeat and return like going round a closed circle. A better analogy is a spiral or spring. Each time we complete a circuit of the year, we return but have climbed a little higher than before. Like climbing a spiral staircase, we are holier than this time last year, closer to God than this time last year, more experienced in the ways of faith, and more ready to face the challenges of loving an infinite, holy God.
That’s the theory. The practice depends on Easter. We grow in faith in proportion that we live Easter lives of resurrection. The yearly cycle of the Church Year assists that growth and sponsors our spiritual renewal.
      So as we approach Easter, try not to treat it as only an annual reminder of Jesus’ resurrection. Rather, ask God to help us die to self and thence resurrect as a new creation, a child of the living God and more Christlike.

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