1. Return to Forever - Living inside the Liturgical Year - Fr. Michael Flowers 12.01.24

St. Aidan's Anglican Church, Kansas City - weekly talks

In his Confessions, Augustine dedicates the book's final section to reflecting on time. How do Christians live within time yet still live towards eternity, the telos of all time, the appointed time? Many Christians live in the past, bound by their memories, regrets and accomplishments, while others live in a state of anticipation, living in the future. But the past is past, never to return, and the future never exists in itself. We can get lost in the memory of—or anticipation of—non-existence. Rather than getting lost in time, Augustine explains how all time can be brought to immediate awareness in three different aspects. He writes: “The present considering the past is the memory, the present considering the present is immediate awareness, the present considering the future is expectation.” The only proper place for human attention is the present moment which ever presents itself. But this awareness must be “merged into” or brought before God Himself. The means that there is a need for humans to bring our existence in time to the eternal presence of God. We worship our way towards eternity. Our lives aim not to amass a hoard of things but to encounter God through sacred moments. Therefore, how we face time matters immensely. Christians sanctify or redeem time by bringing God’s eternal reality into their present moment. The Church trains her sons and daughters to do this through the Sacraments in which God’s own life is offered by grace. Through the sacraments the Church enters eternity, and most specially, the Holy Eucharist brings the faithful into the eternal moment of worship through the once for all sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Christians also encounter God through sacred moments as they follow the Church’s calendar by dedicating the seasons and weeks to the life of Christ and his saints. Living according to the calendar of the Church helps Christians realize that eternity is not some future reality after death but the ever present and commanding reality in which time unfolds. These events marked history as such to influence the naming of two epochs, B.C. and A.D. – Before Christ and In the year of our Lord. How shall we engage with time? Redeeming time (KJV): Ephesians 5:15-20 Sanctifying time: Genesis 2:1-3 Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. 2 And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done.3 So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. OK, God didn’t rest because He was tired! Shabat is mainly used as “to cease, to stop.” All done! Instead of God doing more, He ceased from doing. And that’s the idea of the 7th day … a pattern for us to cease from doing and “be” still (cease from striving) and know (wonder, contemplate, imagine, exalt) … that I am God. So God sanctified time sort of like we sanctify food … we approach food sometimes like it’s something to be crammed and flushed out our bodies! Sanctifying creation: I Timothy 4:4-5 4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, 5 for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer. We make created things holy by the word of God and prayer. Holy time, Holy water, holy oil, holy communion, holy food, and so forth! Holy? To set apart with thanksgiving to the one who created it and gifted it to us! This is a call to live in a sacramental universe. To be a royal priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices until the Lord returns.