From the Daily Lectionary for Friday and Saturday in the Seventh Week of Easter
Ephesians 5:1-2, 6-14
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes on those who are disobedient. Therefore do not be associated with them. For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light—for the fruit of the light is found in all that is good and right and true. Try to find out what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what such people do secretly; but everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for everything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, ‘Sleeper, awake! Rise from the dead, and Christ will shine in you.”
Matthew 9:14-17
Then the disciples of John came to him, saying, “Why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “The wedding guests cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.”
As we near the end of Easter, a little reminder about the seasons of the Episcopal Church is in order. Remember that Jesus ascended on the 40th day after Easter Day, and tomorrow (Saturday) is the 7th day of the 7th week (the 49th day) of the Easter Season, that period of time also known as “The Pentecost.” The Great Fifty Days of Easter comes to an end on Sunday, the “Day of Pentecost,” also called Whitsunday. The Day of Pentecost is thus both the principal feast of the Holy Spirit and the capstone of Great Easter (By the way, do you know where the derivation of the term Whitsunday comes from? If not don’t feel bad. Nobody else does either! One interesting proposal is that it is derived from the idea that the Holy Spirit’s power descending upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost gave them their “whits,” i.e., “wits,” which is to say that it was on this day that the disciples finally “caught on,” or perhaps better put, “caught It.” Pretty clever idea don’t you think?). Anyway, then begins the time after Pentecost, also called Ordinary Time, that long “green” season which begins with the slower pace and more peaceful quality of summer, moves into the flurry of activity of the fall, and ends on the First Sunday of Advent. The “time after Pentecost” is often (some say improperly) called the “Season of (or after) Pentecost.” Since Easter Day in our church varies from year to year—always on the Sunday after the first full moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox of March 21st—the length of the time after Pentecost also varies. It is the time between the two great cycles of the church year: the Lent-Easter-Pentecost cycle and the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany cycle. It is not really a season, in that this time does not have a single common focus.
Liturgical scholar Leonel Mitchell calls this “the time in which we actually live—the period between the Pentecost and the Second Advent.” In the words of Episcopal deacon and author Vicki Black it is more of a “growing season, nourishing the seeds planted at Easter and putting down roots in our faith.”
Celebration of these phases of the church seasons provides us with a rhythm to our lives in faith, and provides an opportunity to both remember the life of Christ and to grow into and be transformed by it, year after year. It is this time after Pentecost that I’d like to focus on today. A short review: God has entered world history in the birth of Jesus at Christmas, and has been manifested and revealed to us in Epiphany and in the weeks following. We have prepared for the paschal mystery in Lent, and have experienced with Jesus his passion and celebrated his resurrection on Easter Sunday. Jesus has ascended to the Father, but before ascending left us with the Holy Spirit. We have now entered into the time after Pentecost: as stated above, the time in which we live, growing and putting down roots to nourish our faith, in hopeful waiting for the return of Jesus. It is an “in between” time, full of hope and possibility. It is a time to be transformed in our daily lives into followers of The Way of Jesus.
These themes of growth and transformation are well expressed in our lectionary readings this week from Ephesians and the gospel of Matthew. The author of Ephesians is appealing to the Gentiles for a changed way of life. “For once you were darkness, but now in the Lord you are light. Live as children of light.” (Eph. 5:8), and “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and live in love, as Christ loved us” (Eph. 5:1-2) He is asking that they put away their previous ways of living outside the Kingdom which Christ offers, and providing them with the armor/strength they will need in the spiritual battles they will face. (Eph. 6:10-20) He is appealing to them to be transformed into Christ. Jesus too gets at these themes of growth and transformation when he explains to disciples of John that they must be changed to accept the “new wine” that Christ will provide: “Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.” (Matt. 9:17) In the reflection last week on John’s gospel we talked about how during his Final Discourse Jesus provides comfort to his disciples when he tells them that he must leave them to be with the Father, but will also leave them with the Advocate—the Holy Spirit—to guide them. This is similar to what Jesus is doing here in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus is preparing his followers for the time after he is gone, saying “The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them…” (Matt. 9:15). This is for us the time after Pentecost, when having received the Holy Spirit we grow into Christ, becoming transformed into fresh wineskins that can receive the wine of Jesus so that both are preserved.
Herein lies the hope, that through the Holy Spirit we will grow more deeply and become transformed more completely into the Christ who is in the midst of all of creation, the heart of the web of life of which we are all a part, one body. May we see in this time after Pentecost such an opportunity and such hope.
Bob Donnell
Prayer for the Human Family (BCP p. 815)
O God, you made us in your own image and redeemed us through Jesus your Son: Look with compassion on the whole human family; take away the arrogance and hatred which infect our hearts; break down the walls that separate us; unite us in bonds of love; and work through our struggle and confusion to accomplish your purposes on earth; that, in your good time, all nations and races may serve you in harmony around your heavenly throne; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
