What Sunday Is This?
The Covenant Companion, November 1996
by Brad Boydston

  “Why do you always put this thing in the bulletin about whatever Sunday after Pentecost it is?” One of our junior high school students was pointing to the date on the front of the weekly bulletin and asking me to explain the seemingly cryptic coding system we use to keep track of time.

   It's a good question. Why do we mark time in such a peculiar manner—especially in a church like ours? For ours is not exactly a traditional church. Less than five years old, Community Church of the Mid-Cities is striving to present the gospel in a contemporary fashion. Much of what we sing was written after 1980 and is accompanied by keyboard and guitar.  We attempt to communicate in modern vernacular with as few “thees” and “thous” as possible. We worship in the relaxed and informal atmosphere of a remodeled office building. Yet we also include an emphasis on the Christian year—a system which has its roots in centuries-old tradition. This emphasis comes out through the use of seasonal music, art work in our bulletin, and banners.

   This apparent contradiction didn't make sense to some in our congregation. Many have no church background at all and were baffled by the strange assortment of seasons and holidays about which we periodically talk—Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, and Pentecost. Some thought that anything older than yesterday is irrelevant—unless it is specifically spelled out in the Bible. Others, like myself, grew up in congregations which didn't place much emphasis on the Christian year and had the notion that following all of the “churchy” holidays was the beginning of the slide into dead formalism. Obviously, I've changed my mind and so have many others as they realized the advantages of communicating the gospel through the calendar.

   The Christian year is a way of tracking time while emphasizing the major points of the gospel. When the junior higher asked the question of why we put “whatever Sunday after Pentecost it is” in the bulletin, I answered, “So you'll ask me why it's there.” I went on to explain that before the calendar was secularized it was common to keep track of time by remembering the major events in the life of Christ.

   Advent is the season of preparing for the coming of the Lord. Christmas is the season when we focus on the joy of the incarnation—that God became a man. Epiphany is the season that draws our attention to the fact that Christ came for the salvation of the entire world. Readiness for Good Friday and Easter is the aim of the six-week period called Lent. During Lent we stop to consider the renewal that needs to take place in our lives.

   Holy Week, including Maundy Thursday and Good Friday, is an opportunity to enter into and reflect upon the pivotal event of our salvation—the death of Christ. Easter is our celebration of Jesus' resurrection and the defeat of Satan. About fifty days after Easter is Pentecost—a time to reopen ourselves to the outpouring and work of the Holy Spirit.  The season following Pentecost naturally flows into Advent, when we again focus on the coming of Christ—the first time in humility, the second in triumphal glory.

   Along the way there are several other days that are often marked in the life of the church—days such as the Transfiguration, Palm Sunday, Ascension Day, and Trinity Sunday. These holidays (“holy days”) all direct our attention to some theological truth or significant dimension of Christ's ministry to the world. 

   The calendar has become a giant gospel object lesson—an object lesson in which we are not just observers but participants. As participants we are drawn into a fuller understanding of faith. That is, if we pay attention to the calendar we are forced to deal with aspects of the gospel we might otherwise ignore.  Most everyone can get excited about Christmas or Easter but those who ignore Advent or Lent are going to end up with a distorted experience of the gospel. 

   Furthermore, the calendar is not subject to personality fluctuations and mood swings. I might never feel like reading a book, or even the scripture, on the Ascension but as it comes up on the calendar I'm drawn into its significance. I'm reminded on an annual basis that there is more to the gospel than Christmas and Easter. In this way the calendar prods me on toward depth and maturity.

   This was certainly on God's mind when he dictated seasons and festivals for Old Testament believers. Passover was designed to draw post-exodus Jews into their collective experience of salvation from Egyptian bondage. We see now that it also pointed them toward the salvation from human bondage that would be accomplished through the Messiah. The Feast of Weeks (or Firstfruits) reminded Jews of the Lord's material provision. Of course, the most important Jewish feast was the weekly Sabbath, which celebrated the creative activity of God and the importance of resting in him.

   From early on the calendar has served as a outstanding tool reinforcing the activity of God in history and in our own lives. Yet, in an era shaped primarily by a secular view of time many Christians are squeamish about setting aside seasons and days to remember the fundamental and defining events of salvation. This means that we are letting the prevailing culture, rather than the church, define what will be important in our lives.

   Our somewhat non-traditional congregation and many other churches as well, are responding to this overly-secularized view of time with a renewed emphasis on the ancient Christian calendar. It's more than just a cryptic coding system that causes junior high students to ask, “Why do you always put this thing in the bulletin about whatever Sunday after Pentecost it is?” It's a radically Christian way of looking at time and communicating the good news.