May 24, 2024

Half Time Adjustments

Some sports divide their game into halves, with a “Half Time” in-between. It is in half time when teams make adjustments to try to ensure a victory, or at least improve their chances. Sometimes a second half will play our very differently from the first half. Sometimes a game is won or lost by the fine tunings a team makes or doesn’t make at half time.

We are now entering the second half of our liturgical year. The church calendar is divided into halves. The first half is the Christ cycle. The second half is the Church cycle. We began the year on December 3 of last year, the First Sunday of Advent. For four Sundays we reflected on God’s people waiting for the Messiah, even as we await that Messiah’s return. Of course, this leads to the celebration of the incarnation in Christmastide, and then on to the revelation of Jesus as the Christ through his ministry in Galilee in the season of Epiphany. On the last Sunday in Epiphany, we reflected on the mystery of Christ’s Transfiguration, which is the transition to Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. That journey of Jesus and his disciples defines our season of Lent. Lent ends with Holy Week, where we meditate on Jesus’ last week in Jerusalem which ended with our Lord’s crucifixion. But death does not have the last word, as Easter Sunday begins our celebration of Christ’s resurrection and the forty days he revealed his resurrected life to his followers. This ends at our Lord’s Ascension, which anticipates the giving of the Spirit as was promised. The outpouring of the Spirit that fulfilled that promise is Pentecost which is the last Sunday in Easter and the end of the first half of the liturgical year.

But, of course, this is not news to you. In fact, this is obvious to you as you just lived through it. Each season has its narrative story and its theological themes. And each season’s distinctions are made evident by each season’s ritual practices that are particular to each season. But with the season of Pentecost—the Sundays that follow Pentecost Sunday until the next year begins with Advent—some of the distinctives to this season are easily missed. The one practice I would like to highlight is our sung benediction. Pentecost, the outpouring of God’s Spirit which empowers the Church to be the Body of Christ in the world. We have been “Christ-ed” (or christened), anointed by God’s Spirit to do Christ’s work in the world. To reinforce that grace of God’s gifts to us, as individuals and as a community, during the season of Pentecost, we will offer God’s blessing to each other by singing the benediction to one another other. For half of the year we celebrate the priesthood of all believers through the gift of the Spirit to all of Christ’s followers.

The worship of God is one of the most formative spiritual practices God has given us. By worshipping through the seasons of the church year we have a chance to focus on a variety of spiritual practices reflected in each season, giving us a more fully formed understanding of God, as well as our understanding of our relationship to God and to one another through God’s Spirit. From now until the end of November we will be reminded each Sunday of the gift God has given us through the Spirit to embody the ministry of Christ in the world.

May we encourage one another to do just that. That encouragement might just be the extra advantage we need in the upcoming second half.

With joy and hope in the Spirit,

~ Pastor Todd