People rarely slow down to experience their days, and so they feel
rushed through life even as they begin to suspect that life lacks
significance. By introducing (and reintroducing) us to the feasts and
festivals of the Bible, as well as the special celebrations of the
Christian calendar, Moments and Days restores a sacred sense of
time throughout our year, enriching our experience of each “holy day”
and enlivening our experience of even the most “ordinary time.”
Table of Contents
Introduction: Take My Moments and My Days
1 Measuring Time, Being Measured by Time: The Calendar
PART ONE: Jewish Biblical and Historical Feasts
2 In the Beginning: Introduction to the Jewish Calendar
3 Day of Yes, Day of Rest: The Sabbath
4 Into Freedom: Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits
5 Fifty Days and First Fruits: Shavuot
6 May You Be Inscribed in the Book of Life:Rosh Hashanah, Feast of Trumpets
7 Atonement and Mercy: Yom Kippur
8 God with Us, Us with God: Sukkot / Feast of Tabernacles
9 Stones of Remembrance: Jewish History’s Holy Days
PART TWO: The Christian Calendar
10 From Here to There: Introduction to the Christian Calendar
11 Longing for Home: Advent
12 Welcoming the Word Made Flesh: Christmas
13 The Light to the World: Epiphany
14 Ashes to Ashes: Lent
15 Walking Toward the Cross with Jesus: Holy Week
16 Living in Resurrection Time: Easter
17 Signs, Wonders, and New Community: Pentecost
18 Right Here, Right Now: Ordinary Time
Conclusion: It’s About Time
Endorsements
"Where has this book been? Now that we have it, what did the church ever do without it, and can I ever not have it nearby? I am savoring this book like a black iron skillet that gets better with age and will use it to cook up some theological dishes I never thought possible."
---LEONARD SWEET, Author of From Tablet to Table and creator of preachthestory.com
"We lose time, save time, waste time, find time. But what about inhabiting time? That is Michelle Van Loon’s important invitation through her well-studied exploration of the Jewish and Christian calendars. She bids us to keep holy days (not just holidays) and relieve our cultural anxiety that time is running out."
---JEN POLLOCK MICHEL, Author of Teach Us to Want
"One of God’s earliest gifts to Israel after forming them into a covenant people was a calendar to celebrate and to remind Israel of the major moments of God’s redemption. Israel’s year was shaped by those redemptive events so that every major holiday was simultaneously a memorial of God’s gracious redemption. The New Testament era of history was not long enough to form a Christian calendar, and even more the Jewish Christians already had their own calendar—which they were adapting and adjusting in their worship of the Messiah. So it was nothing but Spirit-led wisdom for the church as it spread into the Roman Empire to adapt the Jewish calendar into a Christian calendar. Michelle Van Loon’s wise, readable, and informed study of the two calendars is a gift for all of us. Try one year of using the Christian calendar and you will be reminded, not of our presidents or our heroes, but of God’s redemption in Christ."
---SCOT MCKNIGHT, Julius R. Mantey Chair of New Testament, Northern Seminary, and author of The Jesus Creed
Table of Contents
Introduction: Take My Moments and My Days
1 Measuring Time, Being Measured by Time: The Calendar
PART ONE: Jewish Biblical and Historical Feasts
2 In the Beginning: Introduction to the Jewish Calendar
3 Day of Yes, Day of Rest: The Sabbath
4 Into Freedom: Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits
5 Fifty Days and First Fruits: Shavuot
6 May You Be Inscribed in the Book of Life:Rosh Hashanah, Feast of Trumpets
7 Atonement and Mercy: Yom Kippur
8 God with Us, Us with God: Sukkot / Feast of Tabernacles
9 Stones of Remembrance: Jewish History’s Holy Days
PART TWO: The Christian Calendar
10 From Here to There: Introduction to the Christian Calendar
11 Longing for Home: Advent
12 Welcoming the Word Made Flesh: Christmas
13 The Light to the World: Epiphany
14 Ashes to Ashes: Lent
15 Walking Toward the Cross with Jesus: Holy Week
16 Living in Resurrection Time: Easter
17 Signs, Wonders, and New Community: Pentecost
18 Right Here, Right Now: Ordinary Time
Conclusion: It’s About Time
Endorsements
"Where has this book been? Now that we have it, what did the church ever do without it, and can I ever not have it nearby? I am savoring this book like a black iron skillet that gets better with age and will use it to cook up some theological dishes I never thought possible."
---LEONARD SWEET, Author of From Tablet to Table and creator of preachthestory.com
"We lose time, save time, waste time, find time. But what about inhabiting time? That is Michelle Van Loon’s important invitation through her well-studied exploration of the Jewish and Christian calendars. She bids us to keep holy days (not just holidays) and relieve our cultural anxiety that time is running out."
---JEN POLLOCK MICHEL, Author of Teach Us to Want
"One of God’s earliest gifts to Israel after forming them into a covenant people was a calendar to celebrate and to remind Israel of the major moments of God’s redemption. Israel’s year was shaped by those redemptive events so that every major holiday was simultaneously a memorial of God’s gracious redemption. The New Testament era of history was not long enough to form a Christian calendar, and even more the Jewish Christians already had their own calendar—which they were adapting and adjusting in their worship of the Messiah. So it was nothing but Spirit-led wisdom for the church as it spread into the Roman Empire to adapt the Jewish calendar into a Christian calendar. Michelle Van Loon’s wise, readable, and informed study of the two calendars is a gift for all of us. Try one year of using the Christian calendar and you will be reminded, not of our presidents or our heroes, but of God’s redemption in Christ."
---SCOT MCKNIGHT, Julius R. Mantey Chair of New Testament, Northern Seminary, and author of The Jesus Creed
