Introduction

The calendar is a book written to give a deeper insight into what the concept of time means from a theological perspective. Besides this, the book brings a greater understanding of the Christian faith where God is spoken of in Trinity with each branch explained.  The detailed ideas make it simple to understand all that pertains to the heavenly tasks and thinking. This is in other words, a suitable book for clergies to use in teaching the church on the true meaning of the Christian faith from a timely perspective. In this case, the essay will focus on evaluating chapters one and two of the Calendar: Christ’s Time for the Church to get the general message of the two chapters.

Chapter 1

The main message or theme for this chapter is time. The author explains that humanity is centered on time and eternity. However, many a time people fail to realize how valuable time is because they get pressure from the worldly things. The details of life, as well as the hiddenness of God, creates a negative result in the sense that time negatively impacts on the eternity factor. This is the reason why Christ came to keep track of time in various ways amongst the people through God the father. For instance, there is a day explicitly set to rest from everyday chores to worship God (Saturday or Sunday). Other days include the Easter, the Pentecost, Christmas, advent, lent, epiphany among others. All of these days are set aside to remember the good works of Christ while still with the people on earth. Looking at eternity, the author makes it clear that Christians have a role of observing seasons, hours or even days that are evident to make eternal exist among the people through understanding how timekeeping help organize a person’s life and experience. To validate how precious time is, the author considers those that have been deprived of the joy of time by being imprisoned. He uses an example of Terry Waite who was imprisoned for four days and could not be told what time was.

Arguably, the author explains the concept of time through aspects of the past, present, and future. The three are aspects of time, and as many may look at them as separate containers, they indeed have a relationship in understanding what time is in greater depth. For instance, looking at the past, we get an understanding of time through events that at one time happened or in other words, historical events. This is a time that at one point existed, but it has been replaced with the present or the current time being experienced today. By contrast, the future, in this case, is that time that will later exist when people have done away with the present. This is why the Bible speaks of end times, a time that is expected to mark the end of the world. For the believers of the gospel, the future together with the past shapes the present. Only this can, however, be understood by religious thinkers or rather Christians. The concept of time and eternity are also evident in the Cross where there came a time when Christ had to be humiliated as a result receive exaltation.

Chapter Two

The chapter further elaborates on the concept of time through the resurrection of Christ which is believed to transform believers in how they perceive time in aspects of past, present, and future. The human sin had ruined the first creation due to their rebellious characters, but through the resurrection of Christ, there was a renewal as marked in the Easter event. Anew era of time had been created, and the Creator had redeemed the world through Christ. It is for this reason that the early believers assembled on the first day of every week to celebrate the resurrection of Christ as written in Acts 20:7 as well as 1corintians 16:2. A further look at time as proposed in chapter one is the model that explains the continuous moving of time between the past and the future is evident in the Lord’s Day. The believers or the church in the present time understanding much about the past through anamnesis the Lord’s resurrection and its preparation, as well as the future evident in the fulfillment of God’s reign. In other words, what the author is trying to explain is that both the past and the future through the resurrection makes it easy for the people to live in the present by experiencing the resurrection power in their lives thus begin living in the ways of the future. This implies that the experiences in today’s life has an impact in the future either positively or negatively and thus the need to embrace Christ as the center of all things. Arguably, the Lord’s Day is considered to determine the calendar (the liturgical year). Due to liturgical celebrations, it is vital that Christians have to hold a weekly feast as this is a good way of appreciating the humiliation-exaltation Christ went through to liberate humanity. It does not mean that the annual festivals are wrong and does not appreciate the Christly sacrifice, but the weekly observance is a tone that makes greater commercial potential. The Easter day, for instance, represents the entire fifty days season inclusive of the Pentecost day.

On the other hand, Lent is a preparation of the annual resurrection observance, derived from the day of Easter. In light of this fact, the Lent-Easter cycle is viewed under the Advent-Christmas cycle as being a representation of the first half of the solar year balanced by the second half mostly referred to as Ordinary time.  In other words, both chapter one and two explain time through the events that are defined in the death and resurrection of Christ.

Questions

Given the fact that the first and the eighth day are considered the same, is it conclusive that a week starts on Sunday and not Monday?

People go to church on Saturday while others on Sunday, which is the rightful day?

With this confusion whether Saturday or Sunday is the rightful day, is it conclusive that the important thing is the same God is worshipped?

Conclusion

In considering the strange nature of time, Sookey reveals in chapters one and two that past, present, and future are all linked together. This is further explained through the event that takes place in the life of Christ from his crucifixion to the resurrection that brings exaltation. In this case, the life that people live must be emulated from the transformation of Jesus Christ from being humiliated to being glorified.

Do you need high quality Custom Essay Writing Services?