Newsletter — June 11, 2023

Over the past three Sundays there have been three different liturgical colors used: red, white, and green. Red was the color used for Pentecost, symbolizing fire as referenced in the “divided tongues as of fire” and the Holy Spirit resting on the apostles. As we read of in Acts 2:3-4. White was used for Trinity Sunday, symbolizing purity and completeness, a fitting color for the One God in Three Persons. This Sunday we enter Ordinary Time, which is represented by green for a season of growth. This does not mean that we are not to be growing as believers throughout the other seasons of the year, but we do begin an extended period where we do not note any particular events related to the coming or ministry of Christ or the work of the Holy Spirit. However, we should not understand ordinary to mean “mundane.” Rather, the reason for the appellation “Ordinary Time” is on account of the fact that the Sundays are not named but designated according to their ordinal numbers: First Sunday, Second Sunday, etc. Of course, it is probably challenging for us not to think of “ordinary” as meaning any other than “non-exciting,” especially since we will only see green between now and the end of October, when red makes another appearance for Reformation Sunday. But as those living on this side of the resurrection and ascension of Christ, as those who have been given the Holy Spirit, there is hardly anything commonplace about the life to which we are called. To be continued.