It is introduced by an explosion of colors.  Red, white, and green usher in and sustain a season of magic and life.  Bursting with spiritual significance, the season calls us to our God, and invites us to remember what he has done for us and in us.  The Spirit speaks to our souls in the beauty of nature and reminds us of the God who has lavishly and unreservedly painted this canvas we live our lives upon, as a reminder of his heart for us.  And many if not most of us are completely unaware of the summons.

I am not talking about the Christmas season, or even Easter.  I am referring to the Season of Pentecost.  Once recognized alongside the aforementioned holidays as one of the most important seasons on the Calendar, its significance has been lost to most of us.  In truth, I myself discovered in writing this piece for the newsletter how woefully uneducated I am on this important time.  So, what is the Season of Pentecost, and what does it mean to us?

You may ask what could possibly be so special about the season, which occurs at a time referred to by much of the Church as “Ordinary Time.”  After all, secular culture has not even bothered to hijack the season and commercialize it.   There are no Holy Spirit Marshmallow Peeps.  Santa does not make a spring time run.  I promise you in my time at Wal-Mart, I have not once had to order a massive feature of crackers to ensure there could be communion for Corpus Christi.  And I have never found myself sorting through the religious candles trying to locate the one with a representation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus while a customer waited with fingers crossed.    But that is all the more reason for us to recognize and remember; to take joy and to receive the Gift of God anew.  It is still uniquely ours, if we will only claim it.

This brings me back to that explosion of color: radiating reds, glistening whites, and life giving greens.  Just as the Church was birthed through the Spirit’s flames, the Season of Pentecost is ushered in by Pentecost Sunday, and the liturgical color of red, which represents that same fire.   This is the fire without which, the story we have joined ourselves to would have been trapped in anti-climax.  Jesus dies, and the disciples despair.  Jesus is raised and the elation of Easter is overpowering.  And then, as Chris has so eloquently put it on a number of occasions, “Poof.  He’s gone.”

You can hear the disciples wondering, “Where do we go from here?  We will go to Jerusalem, Jesus.  But what awaits us there?  What are we supposed to do with all that has happened?”  I can imagine that as they readied for the feasts, it all must have felt a little too familiar.  For three years they had lived on the edge.  They had been revolutionaries.  But now they were going back to the same routine.  And then, in a flaming burst of red, it all changed.  The Spirit of God showed up and the Church was born.

And breaking through the sea of red, setting it off brilliantly, are the flashes of glowing white; the robes of newcomers to the faith, cleansed by the Spirit’s fire, as John the Baptist had foretold.    Three thousand joined on that day, and millions have followed them in the two thousand years since, earning it the name “Whitsunday,” in many traditions.

Also joining those new converts in white are the catechumens acknowledging the faith they have been given as a gift of God; a beautiful picture of God’s faithfulness for the parents, friends, and family who have entrusted their beloved to God.  Altogether, it is hard to imagine a more joyous, unordinary event.

From this beginning, the season of Pentecost, which stretches from Pentecost Sunday all the way to Advent, flows into a lively green which is symbolic of growth in the Spirit.  For after all, what does new life do, but grow?  And so as the flowers bloom, the trees blossom, and the birds return to sing their songs, we should not find it difficult to be reminded that this is for us to be a time of grow taller, stronger, and closer together.

Again, what is Pentecost Sunday, and what does it mean to us?  It is no “ordinary time.”  It is anything but drab and dull.  Pentecost is not merely time that must be endured or a space holder between major holidays punctuated by a few barbecues.  Pentecost is a Season to be Lived.  It is a time to embrace the Spirit’s work and the Life of Christ and of his Body.  If Christmas is a time to look back to what God has done, and Easter is a time to remember what God will do, then Pentecost is the time for the Church to be focused on the Present work of God’s Spirit in the world; a time to as one of my co-workers used to implore us, “put your hands on something.”  Get dirty.  Do some gardening.  Join the adventure.  Go on a quest.  Pick a battle.  Bleed a little.  Write another chapter into the story.  Add to the beauty.  Grow.    Live.  All the courage, boldness, comfort, and power you need is alive in you right now.

by Michael Wilson

Some Sites that helped:

http://www.stpaulskingsville.org/pentecost.htm; http://www.thisischurch.com/christian_teaching/lectionary_bible_notes/lectionarybiblenotesyearb/pentecost_08Jun03.htm; http://www.christianitysite.com/calendar.htm; http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/calendar/seasons.html; www.wikipedia.com;