The Christ Centred Cosmic Civilisation

Episode 80 - Future Horizons and Sacred Traditions: Unveiling the Liturgical Year

• Paul

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Unlock the mysteries of the liturgical year and discover how a forward-looking approach transforms Christian traditions. As we embark on this enlightening journey, we'll explore Advent's emphasis on the future and how it serves as a guiding light for the present, contrasting with traditional past-oriented views. The episode takes a deep dive into the significance of Christmas, the 12 days of Christmastide, and the revelations of Epiphany, inviting listeners to reflect on how current practices can sometimes miss the profound essence of these sacred moments.

Candlemas Book - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Candlemas-Through-Church-History-Project/dp/B0DQDPX2T9/

Join us for a fascinating discussion as we unravel the symbolic layers of "The Twelve Days of Christmas," connecting each verse to foundational Christian teachings. With special guest PJ from the Global Church History Project, we delve into how each element of the song reflects aspects of faith including the gospels and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. PJ also introduces us to Candlemas, suggesting a heartwarming extension of the Christmas spirit through February. We'll explore the symbolism behind the ten commandments, the faithful eleven disciples, and the rhythmic echoes of the Apostles' Creed.

The episode journeys through the intimate period following the birth of Jesus, exploring the tradition of "churching" women and contrasting physical rituals with Gnostic perspectives. The narrative weaves through the shared journeys of the two Josephs in the Bible, offering rich stories that often remain untold in sermons, particularly during the Epiphany season. These stories offer profound insights into the broader biblical messages, offering listeners a deeper appreciation of the Christian narrative's complexity and beauty.

The theme music is "Wager with Angels" by Nathan Moore

Speaker 1:

Well, welcome to the next episode of the Christ-Centered Cosmic Civilization. And we're recording this just after Christmas and we are thinking about the liturgical year, the Christian year, which, of course, begins like a month ago from when we're recording, begins, um, like a month ago from when we're recording, with advent, the concept of the coming of god, and, uh, that's how you begin the church year, begin the thought of the coming of god. And really the emphasis in advent is about the second coming of the day of judgment, the day of justice, when everything's put right. And that's a fascinating way to begin, isn't it? To begin from the end, begin from the future, and it's as if, well, that is how the living God runs the universe, like he didn't create the universe until he planned how he wanted it to end. And he runs the universe from the future, in a way, from the end. And it's the marriage feast of the lamb that is the anchor point for the whole universe and it kind of pulls the universe is pulled towards the future rather than the past, and building towards the future. It's the opposite way around. That's how we think of things, really, that like, the past dominates and then the present is a kind of outcome of the past and then the future's the unknown, the uncertain thing. It's almost the opposite way around, um, in it, from the perspective of the living god, which the future, that's the really certain fixed point, the present is being pulled towards, that the present should be determined by the future, and the Bible's constantly telling us to do that, to set our hearts and minds on the future and always look towards that which is not yet seen, because that which is currently seen is not as real as the things we cannot yet see.

Speaker 1:

The future, the priority of the future in that sense, and that, uh. So in that sense, the second coming of christ, the marriage, feast of the lamb, those are the priority things, the primal things, the first things, even though the future and then the past, so often in the Bible it's something to walk away from, not not to hold on to. So it's a fascinating way of orientating history and we and we mentioned that because the church year is begins with saying do that get the future? Let's meditate on the future, and let's meditate on history and how history works and all the prophecies and how they work and the power of prophecies and how they've come true. And so we're being educated and washed our brains, washed in the right way, washed from the depression of a kind of enlightenment view, of an upward climb, and rather we're given this refreshing view of a priority of the future. So all that happens for a month and we have different things to focus on in that period of Advent, and then we hit Christmas, christmas tide, and that's, you know, december the 25th in the Western calendar, and everything. And we'll keep that Western calendar mainly in our minds right now because it's relevant to all that we're going to be thinking about and we think there about the birth of Jesus, and of course it's not the incarnation.

Speaker 1:

The incarnation happened nine months previously, uh, in a day I think it's called ladies day or something, uh like that. So in a sense, that's that's something. The incarnation itself happened much earlier, but the birth of Jesus at Christmas, and then you have these 12 days of Christmas tide. So some people pack away all the Christmas stuff by the time they get to New Year because they're like, well, that's that we're done, whereas, no, if we're serious, uh, about working through all the things that need to be thought about and meditated on and enjoyed, there's 12 days of that and, uh, the punctuated by the circumcision of Jesus on the eighth day, and that works out. So you've got New Year's Day, so you've got seven days, and then you've got the New Year's Day and that's the feast of the circumcision of Jesus on the eighth day, and there's a lot to think about on that. And then, on like 12th day, you've got epiphany, where the magi roll up and jesus then is like 12 days old by the time the magi arrive. They're a little bit late perhaps, although so you know, maybe they were there before that, but that's when we think about them, so they're there within two weeks, but uh, there's epiphany, so that's 12 days Now.

Speaker 1:

Like the 12 Days of Christmas song that many of us know, you'll probably be like all kinds of variations of the 12 Days of Christmas, and that song's good because it's reminding us of how long Christmas tide is supposed to last. I remember when we'd kind of packed away all the Christmas stuff this is years ago and then going into Liverpool and then going to the Catholic Cathedral there in early January, and it was like January 5th or something, and then we went into a service that was happening there and it was still full-on Christmas. Everything was still full-on Christmas, christmas tree up, carols going, everything, and it suddenly shocked me to realise, yeah, we're not serious about Christmas and that's the way to do it, the proper way to fully enjoy all the things that are to be meditated on and dealt with throughout the 12 days of Christmas. And the song, the 12 days of Christmas. There's loads of variations of it around the world and the different elements of each day are varied, and there's all kinds of discussion about where did the song originate from. I'd heard that it may have originated in Newcastle-upon-Tyne a few hundred years ago, but there's all sorts of debate about the origin of it.

Speaker 1:

But some of you will know that there's an idea that, incorporated into it, is a kind of little summary of the entire Christian faith. You know a partridge in a pear tree that's Jesus on the cross, maybe Some would say a partridge in a pear tree, and the idea of the partridge is that is a bird that will die to protect its young and there's jesus nailed up on the cross, doing being like that, or two turtle doves, the old and the new testament, and the notion of the, these doves, this work of the spirit in both the old testament and the new testament, or three French hens. Some people think that's the Trinity. I tend to think, yeah, let's have it. It's the Trinity, but sometimes it's been thought of as faith, hope and love, but I don't know. I'm more persuaded by the that it's primarily the trinity.

Speaker 1:

The four calling birds is fun like birds that are announcing, calling, shouting, and then you think what could? Well, of course, that's got to be the gospels, doesn't it? Matthew, mark, luke and John. They're calling out this story of Jesus. And then five gold rings. Gold rings is perhaps my favourite books of the Bible, which is the five books of Moses, the Torah, the Pentateuch. Five gold rings, these are the golden foundation.

Speaker 1:

Really, six geese are laying is good, think about that. These geese that are being productive and creative and producing the eggs, kind of thing. So what? What are the six creative things? And then you think what is the six days of creation in it? Yeah, that's it, you know. Day one heavens and the earth, then the sky and seas, then the land and the plants, then populating those three areas. Day four populate the heavens and the earth with the sun, moon and stars. Day five populate the sky and the seas with fish and birds. And then, uh, day six populate the land and the plants, with land, animals, and then humanity, and in that sense humanity is associated with the seed-bearing plants.

Speaker 1:

Death and resurrection. There's so much going on for us to meditate on. There, day seven seven swans are swimming. So again it's something to do with, like this idea of what it like, water, what water and flowing water, living water, is this symbol of the holy spirit. So it's the seven things that are are swimming in the flow of the spirit. So it's the seven gifts of the spirit, you know, uh, that are listed in, or the seven it could be like. Well, because sometimes when you get into what are the gifts and the fruit of the spirit and there's different lists of them, so we won't necessarily list them out, but that's the idea there. The eight maids are milking and again this idea of extracting goodness or blessing from the cow, and there's ideas in that. But those are the blessings of the Beatitudes.

Speaker 1:

From the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount, jesus has these eight blessings Poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungry and thirsty for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, persecution. The eight blessings there, nine ladies dancing Now. These are the fruit of the spirit. The dancing of the like, that joyful exuberance, that comes the joy of the spirit, and that joy of the spirit is shown in the joy of the spirit and that joy of the spirit is shown in the fruit of the spirit. If you're filled with the spirit, to dance with the power of the spirit means you manifest love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. That is the life of the dance of of the spirit. To have all that going on in your life. And the 10 lords are leaping lords. They sort of have authority to judge and command. So the 10 lords are leaping, of course, the 10 commandments, and again, to be able that's those are 10 commandments, or 10 promises, 10 that we can live that way when we're filled with the Spirit and following Jesus.

Speaker 1:

11, pipers piping. Now, who are 11 people in the Bible who are pipers piping? That's again that idea when we thought about the birds calling, and here the pipers piping, they're blowing, making a great sound, a joyful sound to be heard. Well, the eleven who took it out? It should be twelve, wasn't it? But Judas betrayed Jesus and so they were down to 11. So it's 11 faithful disciples, and we know who they are. Matthias, of course, is the 12th who makes them up, but this is just focusing on those original 11.

Speaker 1:

And then, finally, 12 drummers drumming, and the concept of drummers drumming is that kind of the regular beat drumming, and the concept of drummers drumming is that kind of the regular beat, the regular beat that gives rhythm and consistency and the pattern to life. Um, and those are the 12 points of doctrine in the apostles creed, and the idea is you just constantly keep that as the drum beat at the heart of you the creedal truths. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son, our Lord. That's two of them. And then the third one, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and so on, and there's 12 of these things that are the drumbeat of our faith.

Speaker 1:

So we've said a lot about those, but I like the idea, though, that if we were doing the 12 days of Christmas, you could actually meditate on each of those things on each of the days, not to mention day eight on the circumcision, and day 12, when we get to epiphany and moving into epiphany type. Now, then, all of that that we've just said is just kind of limbering us up for a more expanded view of our liturgical year and the concept of time and measuring it with feasts and festivals. So maybe what we'll do first because we've got with us one of the key contributors of the Global Church History Project we've got PJ with us and he's written a fabulous book about something called Candlemas down through church history and it's only recently come out, and Candlemas is a whole is kind of a way of keeping Christmas going through to February, through to February, and it's really like. So sometimes people pack away all the kind of Christmas. The birth and childhood of Jesus is all packed away, even before the end of the year. But really we should be carrying on with this kind of Christmas kind of celebration stuff through to February. If we're serious, if we're really Christmas-minded people.

Speaker 1:

Now, some people love Christmas and they get decorations out, some of them in November. I know someone who even started in October. Well, if you're that sort of a person and that's surely a good thing I suppose you ought to be keeping it going to February because of this thing called Candlemas. So we've got the 12 days of Christmas that we thought about taking us up to Epiphany, and then there's a thing called Epiphany Tide and then that runs into this thing called Candle and candlemas tide, which is a variable length. So first of all, let's ask PJ to explain to us this movement of what happens in epiphany tide and that leads up to this thing called candlemas tide. We'll ask him to just explain what is epiphany tide and then really we need to know what is this candlemas tide and what is to be celebrated and meditated on in this period of time which is kind of like a month. Isn't it epiphany tide and candlemas tide? There's a, there's like a good month there. What is going on with epiphany tide and candlemas time?

Speaker 2:

yeah. So the key idea of it is that when you're reading through the gospel stories, what we see in the gospel of luke is he keeps the story kind of going for another 40 days until this purification or the what for most people would be this like presentation or ransom of a child. But Luke doesn't mention a ransom, and so we'll think about that. And this is at Canopus, so that's 40 days later after Christmas you get Canopus. So there's this period in between in which the wise men visit, and all of this.

Speaker 1:

So Epiphany Tide is really just thinking about the wise men.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but then also this kind of time when it's just like kind of Jesus and Mary kind of together. So there's right, you get this period in the law of Moses where, like a lot of the expectations that women would have and everything they can kind of like avoid it just to focus on her and her child for a period of 40 days, basically right. And so mary has this time where she just gets to spend it totally focused on jesus. Um, but then also, because she does that, whenever christians and then you know kind of jews in the old testament looking forward to jesus being incarnated and us looking back at Jesus being incarnated, if we ever do a churching because Moses talks about that that they kind of aren't in the congregation or the church is the literal word, isn't it ecclesia that the women will be excluded from the church and then they get churched in when they're ritually purified and Christians throughout most of Christian history Women kept doing this Ritual of, or this sacramental Of their churching.

Speaker 2:

So that does enable Women to just really focus For a lot of time on just their baby and it helps us Also engage so like if you were a little baby, you were like that, you know. So everyone in the fully christian society would kind of go through this because everyone would have been a baby. But then mothers would have this especially and they'd get to participate in something like mary did, mary and jesus. They get to recreate something of what that life was like. And so in this period we just think about what that was like when it was just kind of Mary and Jesus together. And then Joseph then is having to help out around maybe more than he usually would have done, and that's some fun traditions around the world will have that that like the husband over this period will have to do more house jobs and stuff like that.

Speaker 1:

So that is like a 40 day period that runs from Christmas then for 40 days, and that's according to the law, according to the scriptures. There's a 40 day period which is really defined as this period where the mother, like in the law, there's a mother who is to be confined and relieved from all normal duties and requirements upon her and she's protected to have time with her newborn child, and in that period then it's really always thinking about mary and jesus. That's why these laws were given the long time ago, and so in the church year there is this recognition of this 40-day period where it's mary with jesus and then joseph having to do all the wash it up and the meal preparation and everything. Um, and it's a tie. It's kind of like an intimate time of the holy family. Is that right really?

Speaker 2:

epiphany tide yeah, and so in a lot of stories about the three wise men, they do focus on like joseph trying to control all these crowds coming in to see jesus because he's like it's important, they're all coming to fulfill some prophecies. But there's also, as we thought about the requirements of the law, which is that mary and jesus need this time off together. So there's a some quite a lot of stories about joseph then trying to say all right, we've got to make sure it's not becoming like a burden or like a duty for like m Mary, that she's still got this basically time off that's required of the law and that notion of time um, a protected time for a mother and a newborn, and then there's a time where she is reintroduced into church life.

Speaker 1:

All that's in the law and the the time of the cleansing at the end of that. All that's in the law and the time of the cleansing at the end of that time. That's in the law of Moses and, as you rightly say, that was part of Christian tradition Right the way up. It still is in the Book of Common Prayer the churching of women, the thanksgiving of women after childbirth, and I know mums who had this service, who wanted this service as a recognition of this period of time. And it's really a time of thanksgiving for coming through the period of pregnancy and the deliverance of the baby and there's powerful prayers in it. It's well worth looking at if you've got a book of common prayer and have a look at that and it's full of scriptures all bound together to do with this idea of being coming through this testing time of childbirth and asking for the Lord's presence and how she, the mother, puts her trust in the Lord and so on. It's a powerful little service and it's a way of acknowledging birth and those initial weeks afterwards. Now, some people don't like that kind of thing because they go all that stuff in the law is kind of Not, not spiritual. So there is a kind of Gnostic Christianity that regards anything to do with our physical life, our eating, drinking, children, anything to do with our real human life, they go, no, that's not spiritual. Nothing like we shouldn't actually have anything to do with being physical creatures like church is the opposite of that, and so for them, the their aspiration is to like, even like, even though the church building they meet in is entirely physical because you can't meet in a non-physical way. Physical because you can't meet in a non-physical way. But they kind of believe, like, if we have a room that is as burr and stark as possible and we refuse to acknowledge anything to do with the passage of time or anything to do with physical life or human life, and try to abstract ourselves to mental things only, that is more spiritual. Now, that, of course, is a.

Speaker 1:

There's a long tradition of that in paganism. Pagan gnostic thought of, and plato, of course, was like let's get away from physical things and let's just try to only have mental things. And again, you're like, even our mental things are kind of physical products of our brains. But nevertheless there's that, there's that long pagan tradition and it has seeped into a whole form of christianity. That kind of kind of reject tries to say we don't want anything physical, we don't want anything visible, we don't want to eat anything, we don't want to drink anything and don't want anything visible. We don't want to eat anything, we don't want to drink anything and all that. You know nothing. Church should be just purely mental and only thinking, as if that isn't anything to do with physical. You know all of that. So we kind of think oh, that's bad, isn't it? And it's better that our.

Speaker 2:

It was much healthier when our christian ancestors were much more holistic and much more aware of the whole of the bible, old testament and new testament and there was a very interesting kind of feature in medieval life where for each of these kind of sacrament things, so there's this idea that these sacraments were meant to be kind of these like timeless and like kind of based in a historical moment and everything. But then there was also what they call like sacramentals, which were like all about the present. And there was a very interesting bit of art this one person found, where there were two depictions of the presentation of christ when jesus is taken into the temple and mary is churched. One of them was for candlemas and it it showed Jesus and it showed Simeon in that very Jewish outfit and very historical and that's meant to be. That was like Candlemas. Then there's another one for churching, which is the same thing, but it's all in what was then modern clothes, so he's got medieval stuff on and he looks like because this was Scandinavian, so then he looks like a Nord rather than very Jewish and all of this.

Speaker 2:

And so there's this idea that churching is like taking these kind of ideas and everything we can think about.

Speaker 2:

So it's good to think about ideas, but then it's like applying it and saying, look, here is a moment that is like Mary and Jesus, and we've got to bring you know that perspective in and make it real and personal.

Speaker 2:

And so for a lot of like medieval, particularly catholic, but I think in other denominations as well like there was a sense in which women were like priests over these sacramental things. So they often had charge over relics and the stories of like people trying to reach relics of like um saint ursula, and then if a man tried to like take charge of it, he would be like obliterated because like no, this is where this is what women are in charge of, of like the kind of the present and the immediate and like making it kind of practical and everything. And medievals often had an idea that like men could like get away with their thoughts and then kind of lose touch with the reality, of like pontificating a bit too much, and then like women would be much better at saying, all right, here's how it's actually kind of useful, uh, so whether or not we buy into that to in the modern day, it's interesting that they notice these kind of things.

Speaker 1:

Where there's this idea, you know, like sometimes there's the historical story and that's like, uh, there's, this is what actually happened long ago in a different culture, at a different time, and they can recognize all right, that's the historical origin and something to meditate about the original happening. But how are we going to experience that kind of theological truth or that spiritual reality now? And then, that way you take that incident and it has an expression in church life. Now, I like that. So there's Simeon, here's what he might have actually looked like and what may have actually happened at the time. But now let's have Simeon as if he's part of our church today and we're continuing to have a Simeon encounter with Jesus today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and it was interesting just reading that gender dynamic as well whether or not we totally think that's how it should be done today. But then because when you read it you see mary is doing like a priestly sort of thing, where she's offering up jesus as this like presentation, as a sacrifice sort of thing, whereas in the old testament obviously the priests the ironic priests are all like men, but then all of Israel are called to be a kingdom of priests, and so we see Mary doing this. She's offering up Jesus in this like priestly way and so all these kind of priestly function she does. But it's all this very immediate thing. It's like there's this person, she's actually got God in her hands in this like very literal way and not just like a sheaf of grain that represents God or something it's like he's actually there in the present and in that.

Speaker 2:

So the that particular. It does seem that Candlemason churching brought out those ideas in a lot of kind of artists and things in medieval times.

Speaker 1:

Um. So epiphany tide then is this 40 day period where it's there's a lot of emphasis on mary, there's quite a bit about the wise men, uh, and what they were up to come in and, uh, their involvement in that period of time because they're giving stuff for that little family, the holy family, and joseph. He gets a bit of time then in epiphany time because this is uh and there's. It's funny really. I found that like, there's a lot about joseph in christian history and things and in the bible of course, like joseph is like I was always shocked because, um, be like in Protestantism, the whole kind of infancy of Jesus is like run away from cause. It's like, no, like Mary and Joseph, holy family, let's leave all that stuff, cause that belongs to Catholics and stuff, and so there's very little deep meditation.

Speaker 1:

But once you do start to pay attention to all that the Bible has to say, and you've got this Joseph figure, joseph who goes to Egypt and he has dreams, and then you're like, but there's this other Joseph in the Bible who goes to Egypt and has dreams, and like, the Bible's trying to tell us a lot about Joseph, and it's like I, you, you, I can't remember ever hearing a sermon on Joseph. It's very rare, and yet you think there's lots of Bible material. The expectation is that we would regularly preach on him as part of this, so epiphany time would be a good time to preach on Joseph. But all of that is leading up to Candlemas and our time's run out for this episode, so do tune into our next episode, and that's when we're going to find out what Candlemass actually is.