2018 to Begin, Says Gregorian Calendar

In the News None of us was around in 1582, of course, but had we been, we might have been disconcerted by the sudden loss of 10 days. Specifically, after going to bed on October 4th, we would have awoken the next morning to discover that it was October 15th. Actually, no days were lopped off from anybody's lifespan, but the date gap occurred nonetheless. It was the result of a papal bull issued by Pope Gregory XIII to reform the Julian calendar then in use to make it match events of the solar and lunar cycles necessary for calculating the date of Easter each year. Gregory's calendar did that primarily by setting the day count so that the vernal equinox was always near March 21, where it had been during the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325. This adjustment required removing 10 days of "drift" that had accumulated in the years since (because a Julian year, at 365.25 days, was slightly longer than an actual year). Gregory also reworked the calendar so that the tabular 14th day of the moon would correspond to the actual full moon. Initially, the new Gregorian calendar held sway only in the Catholic Church and the Papal States, but gradually, it was adopted almost universally for practical reasons, including international communication, transportation and commerce, and we remain on the Gregorian calendar to this day. But even the Gregorian calendar isn't truly accurate, and probably no calendar can be developed that accounts for the fact that a year, calculated on the time it takes for the earth to make one revolution around the sun, is 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes and 12 seconds. This odd figure cannot be evenly divided by any of the other time units: days, weeks, months, hours, minutes or seconds. There is always time left over after any attempt to divide the flow of history into equal units. This creates the need to make periodic adjustments. The Gregorian calendar we use today fiddles with the odd hours by setting 11 months of the year to have either 30 or 31 days, while the second month, February, has only 28 days during the common year. However, nearly every four years is a leap year, when one extra day, is added -- February 29 -- making the leap year 366 days long. Except, we don't have a leap year for century years that are not divisible by 400.

Simple, right? Older calendars, such as the one used by the Babylonians, compensated for discrepancies by periodically throwing an extra month into years when the calendar got too far out of sync with the seasons. The Romans, who had a similarly inaccurate calendar, had to insert an extra month approximately every other year. Their calendar became hopelessly confused when the officials who were charged with deciding when an extra day or month was needed, abused their authority to prolong their terms of office, or to hasten or delay elections. (Imagine being able to delay the April 15 tax-paying deadline until you were ready to pay!) The British adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, but because they not been on it since its beginning, they had to do a little time-tinkering of their own. They corrected an 11-day discrepancy that had accumulated over the previous 170 years by declaring the day after September 2, 1752, to be September 14. Although the Gregorian calendar is named after Pope Gregory XIII, it was actually designed by Luigi Lilio (aka Aloysius Lilius), who was an Italian doctor, astronomer and philosopher. He died in 1576, six years before his calendar was officially introduced. The beginning of a new year always brings with it the truism that "time marches on," only now we know that how fast to count its march depends on whose calendar we're using. The Bible, by the way, reminds us that God's calendar is different from ours: "But do not ignore this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day" (2 Peter 3:8).

More on this story can be found at these links: The Gregorian Calendar. Timeanddate.com Gregorian Calendar. Wikipedia Time. Wikipedia

The Big Questions Here are some of the questions we will discuss in class: 1. When does time seem to be a source of pressure and/or stress for you? When does time seem to be a blessing? When does time seem to be moving too slowly? When have you felt forced into wasting time? How do you find God in each of those settings? 2. Regarding time, the Bible speaks of four dimensions: past, present, future and eternity. From your reading of the Bible, which one does it emphasize the most? Why do you think that is?

3. From your experience, what is the difference between "clock time" and "an opportune time"? 4. What is meant by "downtime"? How do you think God views it? Why? Are you good at taking downtime? Do others have to encourage you to take time off?

5. How is time related to the call of God upon us? Confronting the News With Scripture and Hope We will look at selected verses from these Scripture texts. You may wish to read these in advance for background:

Psalm 77:4-20 Philippians 3:2-16 James 4:13-17 2 Corinthians 4:16--5:10 Matthew 2:1-12 2 Corinthians 5:16--6:2