Church Year

On the final Sunday in Advent, we turn our attention toward the nativity of our Lord. With Mary, we await the coming of the Christ, her Son, conceived in her womb by the Spirit of God.

Heaven and earth rejoice this night because the glory of the holy Triune God is manifested in the human birth of “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

The Festival of the Nativity of our Lord is the traditional way of saying Christmas Day, on which Christians celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus.

While Christmas focuses on the incarnation of our Lord — God becoming flesh — the season of Epiphany emphasizes the manifestation or self-revelation of God in that same flesh of Christ.

In the One-Year Lectionary, Transfiguration is followed by three Sundays of preparation and instruction from Jesus before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.

In the Three-Year Lectionary, the Feast of the Transfiguration is observed on the last Sunday in Epiphany and is three days before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent.

Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent and, if Sundays are omitted, is 40 days before Easter.

The Annunciation commemorates the visit of the angel Gabriel to the blessed Virgin Mary, announcing that the eternal Son of God would take up human flesh in her womb and, in accordance with Isaiah’s prophecy, be born of a virgin.

The Son of David comes in gentle humility, “sitting on a donkey’s colt,” yet as the King of Israel “in the name of the Lord” (John 12:13–15). He comes to be lifted up in glory on the cross in order to cast out “the ruler of this world” and draw all people to Himself (John 12:23–32).

The holy apostles received this New Testament in His blood from the Lord Jesus “on the night when he was betrayed,” and they delivered the same to His Church, which we also now receive in the name and remembrance of Christ (1 Cor. 11:23–26; Matt. 26:26–28).

We remember when Jesus, the Lamb of God, was led to the slaughter of His cross as the Sacrifice of Atonement for the sin of the world.

Christ’s triumph from the grave on Resurrection day is the cause for our rejoicing. His purity before his Father becomes our purity.