Show Notes
Episode 79: The Transformative Power of the Christian Calendar
In this rich and reflective episode of Peaceable and Kind, Derek Vreeland explores how the Christian calendar offers a sacred rhythm that forms our lives around Jesus. As we enter the first week of Advent, Derek invites listeners to recover ancient practices that slow us down, reorient our attention, and root us in the ongoing story of Christ.
Rather than fighting culture wars over “Merry Christmas” vs. “Happy Holidays,” Derek reminds us that followers of Jesus are called not to win culture but to make disciples, to become peacemaking servants in a world obsessed with power and control. From Advent to Pentecost to Ordinary Time, the Christian calendar tells and retells the story of Jesus, helping us live our own stories with purpose, hope, and joy.
Derek also shares how practicing the Christian year has transformed his own spiritual life, teaching him humility through tradition, attentiveness through rhythm, and joy through remembrance.
Conversation Themes
Living by a Different Story How the Christian calendar offers an alternative to the frantic pace of modern life and invites us into the life of Jesus.
Advent and Anticipation Why waiting, longing, and hope are essential practices for following Jesus in a distracted world.
Tradition and Transformation Understanding tradition not as lifeless ritual but as the “democracy of the dead,” a way to learn from the wisdom of those who’ve gone before us.
Seasons of Formation Walking through the seasons of the Christian year—from Advent to Christ the King—and how each one shapes our hearts around the gospel.
Practices for Everyday Life Simple, meaningful ways to begin observing the Christian year, especially during Advent.
Key Takeaways
The Christian calendar invites us to live by the story of Jesus rather than the story of consumerism or productivity.
Advent is a time of hopeful waiting. A four-week season of looking at the brokenness of our world and longing for Jesus to come.
Tradition is not the enemy of faith but a means of wisdom, a way to learn from the saints who came before us.
The Christian calendar has transformative power because it:
Forms us through rhythm
Redirects our attention
Roots us in ancient community
Makes the ordinary holy
Keeps Jesus at the center
BULLET
Books Mentioned in This Episode
Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton
Living the Christian Year by Bobby Gross
Scriptures Mentioned in This Episode
John 18:36
Proverbs 15:1
2 Thessalonians 2:15
Mark 7:8
John 1:14
Hebrews 12:2
John 3:17
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Transcript
Narrator: Welcome back. Another episode of Peaceable and Kind, where we talk about following Jesus in a divided and distracted world. And I’m your host, Derek Vreeland. Thank you for joining me for this. episode we are in the first week of Advent and so the holiday season is upon us. And so on this episode, I want to talk about the transformative power of the Christian calendar. People often have questions about this season, the season of Advent, which gets the whole Christian calendar started. So I thought I would take a whole episode to talk about the calendar and how transformative it’s been in my own life. And I think as you enter into the seasons of the Christian calendar. It’ll bring life change for you as well. But before we get into that conversation, I’d love for you to leave a rating or a review. And share this episode or a previous episode with someone that you know who might appreciate this one So it’s the holiday season. No, it’s not Christmas yet. We are in the first week of Advent, but the holidays are here. And by the way, before I get into this whole conversation about the calendar, let me just say that it is not helpful for Christian people to get all upset. when people in the community or in stores say happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas. I know this has become sort of a culture war kind of thing. But just don’t just don’t jump into the argument of should we say Merry Christmas or should we say Happy holidays. I don’t think it helps the mission of the church or the gospel If you go to a store to buy your Christmas gifts and the cashier says happy holidays, I don’t think it does us any good to scold them and say, no, it is not holidays. It’s Christmas. It’s Christmas. You know, the word holiday comes from an Old English word, which means holy days. And for Christmas, well, for Advent and Christmas, this season, these are filled with holy days The other funny thing about Christians who are adamant who insist on saying Mary Christmas It’s not like they’re going to the Christ Mass anyway, but we’ll we’ll set that aside. So I want us to follow Jesus faithfully. without jumping into all these culture wars. You know, you have these Christian culture warriors. who are all anti-Santa Claus. And I understand in your family, if you don’t want to talk about Santa, that’s fine. But I think when Christians get public about being anti-Santa Claus, it’s just a bad look. I saw a pastor that I know recently post online. The following. He posts We know we have not won the culture when Santa is bigger than the person the holiday was named after Christmas And then in parentheses, nothing against retailers. When I read that, I I did a literal face palm and just sighed deeply out loud Because we are not called by Jesus to win the culture. We are called to make disciples Jesus didn’t call us to be culture war warriors. He called us to be peacemaking servants. Remember what Jesus said to Pilate? In his trial, this is in John 18, Jesus said, My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews, but as it is, my kingdom is not from here. The kingdom of Jesus is indeed For this world, the kingdom of Jesus comes to transform the world, but God’s kingdom is not from the world. Jesus doesn’t conquer in the way the world does with loud protests and fists clenched, shouting and insulting enemies and demanding that the culture change. All that does is just stir up more arguments and more fighting. Remember Proverbs 15, 1? A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. So the kingdom doesn’t come through angry protests and trading insult for insult. That’s not the way the kingdom of God comes The kingdom is much more like a seed planted that grows slowly. It’s like yeast that subtly causes bread to rise from the inside out So this holiday season, my encouragement to you is to turn your protest signs into welcome signs and beat your rhetorical swords into plowshares. And completely back away from all of these culture wars because Christmas is coming I’ve told my boys as they were growing up that it takes two people to have a fight or to have an argument. Don’t be that second person. With the culture wars, I understand that the algorithms on social media wants to put in your feed You know, what’s the most spicy and the most provocative and controversial statements? And yes, you can go online and argue with everyone you disagree with, but Is that really leading people to Jesus? I mean, are people really changing their minds online? I don’t think so. Christmas is so important for Christians that we have to prepare for it. And the way to prepare is not to fight and have the culture say Merry Christmas. The way to prepare, at least historically for Christmas, is the season of Advent. Advent, marked by the four Sundays before Christmas, is a season of waiting of longing, of building and anticipation for the coming of Jesus. And this is the beginning of the Christian calendar. Also called the Christian year or the church year, it is a sacred calendar that helps us tell and retell the story of Jesus If you’ve ever felt like time begins to blur together, like you move from one busy season to the next, you’re really not alone. I think a lot of people have this experience. My wife and I joke that after July 4th, the countdown to the end of summer begins, and then bam, the kids are back in school, then it’s Thanksgiving, then it’s Christmas, then it’s the end of the year. The Christian calendar offers a different rhythm, and it invites us to live by a different story, the story of Jesus. And observing the Christian calendar, which begins here in the season of Lent, we are invited to slow down and pay attention to what God is doing. Now, some Christians object to the church calendar because it’s not in the Bible. Jesus never tells us to follow this calendar, which is all very true. Observing the Christian calendar isn’t a command. It’s a tradition. It belongs to the great tradition, to the traditions of the Christian faith. Tradition is the collected wisdom of the past, and it’s completely optional. You don’t have to follow any Christian traditions. You can make up your own traditions if you want. Augustine famously said, Love and do what you want. But for me, I have repented of the arrogance of thinking I have this Christian faith figured out all by myself. That I don’t need anybody else, especially people from the past, telling me how I should follow Jesus. I’ve just completely repented of the assumption that I know what’s best for me because I am a modern person I have learned to learn from those who have gone before me. This is tradition. This is paying attention to the collected wisdom of the past. Speaking of raising children, I’ve told my boys over the years that you can learn from two sources You can learn from the wisdom of those who have gone before you, or you can learn from your own suffering I mean, as my boys were growing older, I was not telling them what to do as much as advising them And I was just honest. I’m like, hey, dad’s gone through these things, mom has gone through these things. And so you have two options. You can learn from the wisdom we’re offering. Or you can learn from suffering through your own mistakes. And there are plenty of stories I could tell. of how I’ve had to suffer through consequences of of making mistakes because I was depending on myself and my own thinking and and not heeding the wisdom of the past These days, I have chosen to learn from Christians who have gone before us, and I’ve just leaned stronger year after year into the great tradition. In his book Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton writes, tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. Orthodoxy by Chesterton is a is a Christian classic, but that’s one of my favorite lines. Him talking about the democracy of the dead. giving votes to our ancestors, our Christian ancestors from the past, and rejecting this uh arrogancy that we who happen to be walking around have it all figured out So tradition is not on the same level as the commands of Jesus, so they are optional, but there is something to be learned from the collected wisdom of the past. And yes, in scripture we see some admonition towards that. Paul in 2 Corinthians writes, So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the traditions that you are taught by us. That’s 2 Corinthians 2. 15. Traditions have a way of giving shape and order to our lives. Now, don’t get me wrong, traditions can lead to dead ritual, to lifeless traditional ism Remember, Jesus said to the Pharisees and the scribes, You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men. So, yes, there are traditions that can lead us away from the path of Jesus, but there’s also traditions that help to reinforce the commandments of Jesus So the question you need to ask of traditions is this. What’s the purpose? What’s the meaning behind the tradition? So in my congregation, as we have introduced traditions like the Christian calendar, people will say, I I’ve searched the Bible. I don’t see the word advent in the Bible. So What does it all mean? And as I begin to explain that the Christian calendar, beginning with Advent, tells and retells the story of Jesus, Then people will get it. It’s like a light bulb goes off. When they understand the meaning, they go, oh, I see. So Advent prepares us for Christmas. Which is the celebration of the birth of Jesus, just like the season of Lent prepares us for Easter, for the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. These two events, the birth of Jesus, that is the incarnation, and the resurrection of Jesus, are the two bookends. to the gospel, to the story of what God is doing through Jesus. So I often say that Advent and Lent, as well as all of the liturgical seasons, are all about Jesus. And traditions are active and living and transformative only when we understand why we practice them. Without attention to the meaning, tradition becomes just an empty ritual. So the Christian calendar Isn’t just about following dates, it’s about focusing our attention on Jesus. And so the calendar tells the story of anticipating the birth of Jesus. That’s Advent And then Christmas, the birth of Jesus, Epiphany, the ministry of Jesus, and the revelation that Jesus is the king not only of the Jews, but of the whole world. And then of course the suffering of Jesus, his death and crucifixion, the resurrection of Jesus, that’s Easter tide, ascension, which is forty days after Easter Sunday And then the first half of the Christian calendar ends with Pentecost, that is the outpouring of the Spirit of Jesus upon the people of Jesus. And this is why I love the calendar so much, is that it helps me, it helps our family, it helps our church, our community focus on the story of Jesus. And it’s our response to the story of Jesus, the gospel, that really transforms us. I gotta jump into this podcast episode to let you know I have a new book that’s out: Incarnation, eight lessons on how God Meets Us is available now. Go order it. Link is in the show notes. One book I have found that has been so helpful is Living the Christian Year by Bobby Gross. And he puts it this way in his book. Gross writes The power that overshadowed Mary and raised Jesus from the dead also guarantees the final redemption of all things in him. That same power is at work in us now, keeping liturgical time, making it sacred. Opens us further to this power as year by year we rehearse the story of God, remembering with gratitude and anticipating with hope So that over time we live more deeply the story of Jesus in our lives That’s what the Christian calendar does. It keeps our lives aligned with the story of Jesus. It’s about remembering and anticipating, it’s about hoping and rejoicing. until our lives begin to reflect his story. We all need a story that we can believe in a story that can shape our hearts and form our identity to give direction to the way we see the world And so we begin right here in the season of Advent. Advent is is about waiting. It’s about reminding ourselves. That we still need a savior to come and rescue us. And because Advent is directly before Christmas, it is even more helpful because December gets busy with all of the Christmas activities, right? You have Christmas parties, you have Christmas shopping to do, Christmas cards to send out. The season can get really busy. Well, Advent helps us to slow down, to look at the brokenness of our world. And remind ourselves that, yeah, we need Jesus. We need a savior to come and rescue us So then Advent leads us to Christmas, which is not a one-day celebration, but a 12-day celebration of Emmanuel, God with us, the incarnation. So the old Christmas carol, the twelve days of Christmas, is is rooted in this tradition. We continue to celebrate the birth of Jesus, not just on that one day. but for almost two weeks. And so I encourage people, keep your Christmas tree up, keep your decorations, all your Christmas decorations out, keep the lights on the house. all the way up till January 6th, which is the Epiphany. So the celebration of the birth of Jesus then flows into Epiphany. And this is a season of light and revelation. During Epiphany, we remember the baptism of Jesus We remember the the magi who came to visit. And and sometimes the the wise men or the magi, that story gets more associated with Christmas, which is fine. But traditionally, Epiphany remembers that these Persian kings, these wise men from the East, these non-Jewish people, came to worship the Jewish God. It is the revelation that the work of God through the Jewish people is indeed for the whole world. So during Epiphany we focus on the ministry of Jesus. Which then leads us to Lent. Lent is a season of 40 days. It’s 40 days before Easter, but you don’t count the Sundays during the season of Lent. I know it’s confusing. But it’s 40 days in reflection of Jesus who fasted for 40 days and was tempted by the devil in the wilderness And so for 40 days, we prepare ourselves for Easter by confessing our sins, by repenting, by reflecting on our own fallenness, our own need to grow in grace. And so during the season of Lent, it is very common for people to give something up. That’s a tradition during Lent. You don’t have to give up anything, but it’s helpful to give up something that you really enjoy, like giving up sweets or just giving up dessert or fasting lunch every day during the season of Lent or fasting entire 24-hour periods during Lent. Again, no rules, just lots of traditions. But during Lent, we do small things so that we can identify with the sorrow and suffering of Jesus. And so Lent ends up during Holy Week, which starts on Palm Sunday. And then it’s those days leading up to Good Friday where we remember the death of Jesus. Then there is Holy Saturday, that’s the Saturday before Easter. that as a day to reflect on not just Jesus dying, but Jesus entering into death. Holy Saturday is a is a quiet day. Now it could be busy around your house if you’re making Easter plans. But devotionally, it’s a time to remember that Jesus not only died, but he entered into death. That between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Jesus’ body was lying in a tomb. And then comes Easter, which is the celebration, the ultimate celebration of resurrection. Easter is about. new beginnings and renewal and joy. And what I have found is that you only experience the joy of Easter When you have intentionally entered into the sorrow of Lent. And that contrast, for me, it makes Easter Sunday really pop So if you give up sweets or desserts or whatever during the season of Lent, on Easter, you get to celebrate. So bring on the the chocolate bunnies and the Easter eggs and all of the celebration because On Easter Sunday and through Easter tide, that is the Easter season, we celebrate that Christ is risen and that death has been defeated So our attention during Easter is on Jesus triumphing over death and issuing forth new life and new creation. into God’s good world. As I mentioned earlier, 40 days into the Easter celebration, because remember, Easter is not just one day, but a whole season, a seven-week season. 40 days into that celebration is Ascension Day. It’s always on a Thursday, and that’s when we remember Jesus in his ascension. One way to think about Ascension Day is to imagine Jesus as descending first from heaven to earth. That’s the incarnation. That’s Christmas stuff. Then Jesus descends into suffering humanity. That’s Holy Week. And then ultimately Jesus descends all the way down. into death itself, that’s Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Then Easter is the first step of Jesus’ ascension, because he rises, he ascends out of death conquering and triumphing over death and Satan and the grave itself. Then forty days into the Easter celebration. We mark the time when Jesus ascended to the right hand of the Father. So Jesus starts at the right hand of the Father, descends all the way down into death. And then Jesus is promoted once again to this place of authority at the right hand of the Father. So post ascension we remember that Jesus is ruling and reigning the earth from the control room of heaven, that he is quite literally the King of all Kings and the Lord of all Lords. Then the season of Easter ends with Pentecost, Sunday, when we are focused on God the Holy Spirit The outpouring of the Spirit on the church. And the Holy Spirit comes to glorify Jesus, to remind us of what Jesus taught, and to form us in the way of Jesus. Now, from Advent to Pentecost Sunday is about six months. The rest of the church calendar is what we call ordinary time. So we’re telling the story of Jesus for six months, and then we’re living the story of Jesus as the spirit-filled people. in ordinary time because it’s a reminder that God is with us, not just in our celebration and our acts of worship and prayer, but God is with us in our ordinary days. And the end of ordinary time is Christ the King Sunday. So we are proclaiming that That King Jesus is the Lord over all creation. And then that leads us back into Advent, and we start all over again. Each season has a different focus and emphasis, but the subject is always the same. Each season on the church calendar is a way to focus on Jesus. So, why is this so important? Why does this matter? How does this adherence to the calendar have such power to transform us? Couple of thoughts. First, it forms us through rhythm. Our habits shape our hearts I mean, physically, we are what we eat, right? You’ve heard that before. And I would add to that that spiritually we are what we practice. So the calendar forms us by repeating the gospel story year after year until it gets down in us and becomes an instinct. Secondly, the calendar is transformative because it redirects our attention. And you know, I don’t have to convince you, we live in a world of endless distraction Right? Screens and noise and breaking news. And in contrast to that, the Christian calendar is a gentle invitation to return to the story of Jesus In Hebrews 12. 2, it says, fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. And paying attention to the church calendar, it redirects our attention to Jesus. Third thing I would say is that it roots us in an ancient community. Tradition becomes a connection to the ancient and historic Christian faith And for me, that has meant so much to realize that following Jesus is difficult. The Christian way is not the easy way. It’s It’s a narrow, constricted way that leads to life. It’s not the broad road that leads to destruction. It’s hard. And there are people for 2,000 years who have walked this same road. So the calendar connects us to the greater community. And it also it makes the ordinary holy. By keeping time with Jesus, which is what the Christian calendar does, even the most ordinary moments can become sacred. The calendar teaches us that all of life is a part of God’s story. Our work, our rest, our play, our relationships, all of these are opportunities. For us to reflect the life of Jesus. And not only does the calendar redirect our attention to Jesus, it keeps Jesus at the center of everything we do. So here in the season of Advent, you might be wondering, okay, so so what am I supposed to do? And I say start small. You don’t have to do everything Some people have an Advent wreath in their home where they light a candle each Sunday during the season of Advent. Other people use Advent devotionals on a previous episode. I interviewed my friend Rich Velotis. He has a new Advent devotional out waiting for Jesus. Some people will pick up an Advent devotional to kind of focus their reading time, their prayer time around the themes of anticipation and waiting. But during the season of Advent, keep asking why during this season When you practice any tradition, ask, how does this point me to Jesus? Those type of questions, that will keep the rhythm alive. And don’t forget to bring the story into the ordinary, your workday, your commute, your conversations with people. Again, the goal of this tradition is not just to mark time, but to enter into the story of Jesus As followers of Jesus, you know, we we live surrounded by competing stories. I mean, we all need stories, and there are stories out there in the world, stories of Consumerism, stories of productivity, stories of success. But the Christian calendar invites us into a different story. One that begins with longing and anticipation and then climaxes with resurrection and then ends with the renewal of all things. So as we move through this first week of Advent, I’m praying that our attention stays focused on Jesus. He is the Savior who is to come To save us and the world. In John 3. 17, the verse after John 3. 16, the most famous verse of them all. Says God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world. Jesus is our peace. He’s our hope. He is the joy of our salvation. And paying attention to the Christian calendar will keep you focused on Jesus. Well, that’s all that I have for this episode. Thank you for joining me.
Derek Vreeland: Go in peace and be kind.
This transcript was generated with AI and may contain errors.