The Season of Pentecost

The first Sunday after the Pentecost is a festival day of focus on the Holy Trinity. While volumes of materials have been written about the nature of God, expressed by Christians as the Holy Trinity, that nature and Trinitarian formula remains mysterious and marvelous. As Moses encountered a new God (new to him!) who refused to be named other than with “I am!”, so also we meet, in the Trinity, God who exceeds our comprehension and apprehension.

On Pentecost Day, we celebrate the risen Christ who, having shown himself to the disciples and having ascended into heaven, sent the promised gift of the Spirit to his waiting church. This Spirit gave, and continues to give, the church the power and the gifts to carry the Good News of the resurrection, from Jerusalem to the “ends of the earth.”

The gifts of the Holy Spirit do not manifest themselves primarily in the excited speaking of unusual languages, nor in exciting us for our own sake. Rather, the Spirit comes to us for the sake of the whole world, that we might continue the mission of Jesus Christ.

Christ’s ministry is see primarily in taking to the “nations” Christ’s ministry of healing, feeding, and bringing comfort to all who suffer, the hope of the nearness of the Kingdom of God.

The color of the day of Pentecost is the color of fire, the fire of the Holy Spirit, but the color of the season of Pentecost is green, the color of growth and maturity. The season of Pentecost, the season of the church, lasts through Christ the King Sunday, which is November 1, 2004 on this year’s calendar. We will then start with a new year and the season of Advent.

There are many great celebrations in the season of Pentecost including Holy Trinity Sunday, Reformation Sunday, All Saints Sunday, and Christ the King Sunday. During the season of Pentecost, we do the work of the church.

All Saints’ Day

All Saints’ Day is celebrated on November 1 and if celebrated on that day would be missed by many American Christians who only think of church as a “Sunday thing!” And so we celebrate in on the Sunday following Reformation Sunday.  The two days are not theologically connected but tied together in Lutheran history by Martin Luther who posted his 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenburg castle church. He did this so that the crowds who would attend church the following day, All Saints’ Day, would see the protest. All Saints’ Day is followed in some traditions by All Souls’ Day, a day to remember all the dearly departed. In our local tradition we blend the two claiming sainthood for all those baptized into the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus-- in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The origins of this festival are uncertain.

359 AD Ephraim of Edessa composed a hymn which suggest that a commemoration of all the martyrs (those who died in the “line of duty to the faith”) was held on May 13.

411 AD In Eastern Syria the commemoration of all the martyrs was held on the Friday after Easter, suggesting a parallel with Good Friday: as Christ died on Friday, so those who follow him in death imitate his passion, but in the light of the resurrection.  From a sermon by John Chrysostom it appears that the church at Antioch commemorated all the martyrs on the Sunday after Pentecost. Maximus of Turin preached on all the martyrs also on that Sunday. This is still the day of commemoration of all the saints in the Eastern churches, and it has a logic to it: the birthday of the church, Pentecost, has its parallel in the birthday of the saints--their martyrdom.  In the old maxim, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

600 AD By the 7th century, the feast had been extended to included no-martyrs as well. The Comes of Wuerzburg calls the day “The Sunday of the Birthday of the Saints.” Holiness, we are reminded, is the work of the Holy Spirit.  On May 13, 609 or 610, Boniface IV dedicated the Roman Pantheon to Mary and all the Martyrs. The anniversary of this dedication was kept with great rejoicing--but whether it was because of the martyrs or because of the anniversary of the dedication is unclear. There was a pagan festival to placate the gods (Lemuria) on May 9, 11, and 13; and the Christian celebration on May 13 was probably in part to offset the pagan festival.

xxxAD Gregory III dedicated an oratory in St. Peter’s Basilica to all the saints, but the date is unknown and the chapel is a small one and it principal dedication was to the Virgin Mary.

In England at this time, November 1 is listed as the day of all the Saints. Perhaps Egbert of York, who had been ordained deacon in Rome in 732, carried the celebration of November 1 to England, or the celebration of the day may have originated in Gaul or Ireland. (The Irish often assigned the first day of the month to important feasts, the oldest Irish martyrology list November 1 as the feast of all English and Irish saints, April 20 as  the day of all the saints of Europe, and December 23 as the day of all the saints of Africa.)  Moreover, in Celtic lands the mists and frost of late autumn suggested  the visitation and presence of spirits and made the beginning of November a natural time to remember the departed.

835 AD According to John Beleth (ca. 1165), Gregory IV transferred the feast from May 13 to November 1 after the harvest so that there would be sufficient food in Rome for the pilgrims.

1100 AD In the 12th century the date of May 13 for all saints disappears from the liturgical books.

Luther chose the eve of All Saints’ Day, October 31, to post his 95 Theses in Wittenberg because he wanted the crowds who would come to church on the following day to see them. As the anniversary of the posting of the these came to be observed as Reformation Day, the ancient and universal celebration of all the saints came top be overshadowed in Lutheran churches, although All Saints’ Day was preserved on Lutheran calendars.

1928 The proposed English Book of Common Prayer assigned the octave of All Saints (November 8) to the “Saints, Martyrs, and Doctors of the Church of England.”

1976 The American Draft Proposed Book of Common Prayer listed November 8 as the commemoration of the “Holy Men and Women of the Old Testament,” but he commemoration was not carried into the Proposed Book of Common Prayer (1977).

*from Festivals and Commemorations, Pfatteicher. Augsburg Fortress, 1980, p. 411-413

Christ Our King

This festival is celebration the last Sunday of the church year, the Sunday before the First Sunday in Advent. This festival celebrates the kingly rule of Christ, who was enthroned upon the cross and will return as humankind’s ultimate sovereign and judge.

As a festival of Jesus Christ, the appointed color is white. The Holy Communion liturgy for this day includes the Kyrie, Worthy is Christ, the Nicene Creed, and the proper preface for Sundays after Pentecost.