Past Sermon

Sermon Title: "The Symphony of the Christian Year"
Date: December 2, 2007
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  Isaiah 2:1-5

[NOTE TO READERS:  This sermon, when delivered, was more “colorful” than it appears here.  It included a display of my various stoles and a description of them at various points in the sermon.  I was unable to duplicate that display and accompanying comments here.]

Sermon request:  “Talk about the different colored stoles you wear around your neck each Sunday.  I’d love to hear.”

I could quite easily just show you the 22 clergy stoles I have in my possession from which to choose each Sunday, but that would really be more of a “show-and-tell” than a sermon.  Rather, I would like to weave together the backgrounds of the liturgical colors of my stoles, those worn by the choir, and hanging from the pulpit and lectern, known as paraments, and even represented today in our Advent candles, and describe how they combine to form the symphony of the Christian year.

The seasons of the church year form a unique rhythm by which Christians can give shape to their faith and live their lives.  This rhythm is further enhanced by a three-year cycle of lectionary readings which establish a sequence of scriptures to take Christians—Roman Catholics and a great number of mainline Protestants—through the liturgical seasons.  These same scripture readings from the lectionary are used here in the United States, in Canada, England, Australia and New Zealand.

The seasons of the church year can be unifying for Christians.  Our Roman Catholic friends at St. Barthlomew’s have banners hung outside their church which match our liturgical colors here.  There is also unity throughout the world.  Even when weather seasons change dramatically from one place to another, there is a profound constancy to the seasons of the church year.  It may be summer in Australia and New Zealand, but their churches are celebrating Advent today with purple paraments.

The four colors traditionally used for liturgical paraments are purple, white, green and red.  The stoles worn by clergy signify that they are ordained.  Some of you with Catholic backgrounds will note that Deacons wear stoles of the same seasonal colors, not around their neck, but diagonally across their side to denote they have a specific role in the church, but are not ordained as clergy. 

The year begins with ADVENT, four Sundays leading up to Christmas Day.  These four weeks invite us to prepare ourselves spiritually for Christmas.  What kind of Messiah are we anticipating?  What kind of changes are we inviting God to make in our world?  What might that mean?  What is our part in all of it?  An additional advantage of beginning the church year with this season is that it intentionally puts the church calendar out of sync with the secular calendar which begins a new year on January 1.  It reminds us that, as Christians, we are challenged to order our lives differently, in response to the life and gospel of Jesus Christ, rather than any other authority.  Purple has traditionally been used to represent penitence or the coming of royalty.  Over the past two decades, come churches have begun to use blue for Advent, representing hope, or to suggest that the penitence of this season is not as strong as that of Lent.

Following Hebrew tradition where a day begins at sundown, the season of CHRISTMAS begins the evening of December 24, and lasts for 12 days. This is a joyous season, celebrating the birth of Jesus through to the arrival of the wise men at the feast of the EPIPHANY (January 6).  White and gold suggest joy and glory.

The time from the Epiphany until the beginning of Lent is the SEASON AFTER THE EPIPHANY, which used to continue with the color white.  In just the last few years, the church has changed this season to ORDINARY TIME.  The color green, for growth and new life, serves as a backdrop for stories of the call of disciples and prophets, and of the beginnings of Jesus’ ministry.  The designation “ordinary time” for this period and the longer season following Pentecost, speaks of the fact that these two seasons are not attached to either of the great festivals of Christmas or Easter.  Yet it is the very ordinariness of these times that gives them their importance.  We are reminded that God is with us not only at the great, celebratory moments of our lives, but in the ordinary, everyday moments that make up the vast majority of time.  In the Season after the Epiphany we are invited to reflect on our own call to ministry and our own place in the scheme of prophetic ministry and discipleship.

Next comes LENT, consisting of the 40 days – not including Sundays – before Easter. Because each Sunday is a little Easter, these days were not included in the counting of days for fasting.  Lent is one of the oldest observances in the church’s history.  In ancient times when baptisms were held annually at Easter, candidates for baptism were required to spend some time in preparation. The 40 days of Lent compared to the 40 days that Jesus spent in the wilderness prior to his ministry. Over time, this period of fasting and reflection prior to Easter became popular for all Christians.  The color purple, first used during Advent, supports a mood of penitence during Lent.

ASH WEDNESDAY, the first day of Lent, invites us to prepare for a season of reflection which can take on many forms.  Knowing the end of the story, we can dare to confront the realities of the death of Jesus and its implications.  Others seek to acquaint themselves more fully with the earthly life of Jesus in this season, or to encounter themes of Hebrew scripture, such as covenant or prophecy. All of this is in anticipation of Holy Week and its re-enactment of many of the last events of Jesus’ life, which the choir and I are going to portray for you here in word and song next Palm Sunday.

After confronting the reality of crucifixion, Christians can exalt in the unbridled joy of resurrection at EASTER.  Not merely one day, this great joyous season goes for 50 days, celebrating that Christ is risen and that powers of evil, fear, death, and destruction do not have the final word.   Just as at Christmas, white or gold are the colors for the Easter season. 

The seven-week Easter season reaches a wonderful conclusion with the feast of PENTECOST, celebrating the presence of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church.  Traditionally, bright reds and oranges light up this day.  It is one of the few days red is worn as a liturgical color, although our choir wears red cassocks whenever the season calls for white.  Red can also be worn on Reformation Sunday in October, or frequently for ecclesiastical functions such as ordinations or installations of a minister.

After the Day of Pentecost we return to ORDINARY TIME, which, in these remaining years of my ministry, I still prefer to count as SUNDAYS AFTER PENTECOST.  In this lengthy season, we remember again the presence of God with us in the everyday; the breathing in and breathing out of each morning and evening.  I euphemistically call it “the long green season”, for it generally covers about half the year.  I have more green stoles than any other color because they are worn so much of the year.

As the 26, 27 or 28 Sundays after Pentecost conclude, it takes us back to today, the first Sunday of Advent where the cycle begins again. 

A variety of other days – Transfiguration, Trinity Sunday, All Saints’, Reign of Christ – have become quite widely accepted and generally observed at common times.  The commemoration of saints and historical events are important in certain traditions and less so in others, providing myriad possibilities for variation and harmony.

Here at Bay Shore Church we have our own traditions we observe on the Sundays nearest the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving, even though they are not liturgical holidays defined on the calendar of the Christian year.

Yet the simple pattern, basically unchanged for some 1500 years, serves its purpose, and we are all invited to take part in this symphony which carries us throughout the Christian year, no matter what color stole I’m wearing!

(Acknowledgement:  The basic shape of this walk through the Christian year was from an article of the same title found in Seasons of the Spirit™ Congregational Life Pentecost 2 for 2007, pp. 103-104.)