The first Sunday after Pentecost is called Trinity Sunday, but until Advent begins, every subsequent Sunday is numbered as āThe [Nth] Sunday after Pentecost.ā This season is sometimes even called āOrdinary Time.ā Its feasts are few; the Transfiguration and All Saintsā Day are the only major holy days of the season. Consequently, the Sundays after Pentecost can feel āemptied.ā Some saints, including several apostles, are remembered during these months, but Jesus Christ is the prism of Christian self-understanding. What should we meditate upon when the tangibility of Jesusā own life seems so far removed?
The Christian life is lived between two realities. This is clearly heard in Jesusā words to Pontius Pilate: āMy kingdom is not of this worldā (John 18:36). A kingdom is a vivid image, but Jesusā kingdom cannot be described with the political metaphors of our world. In speaking of a kingdom, Jesus speaks of something that is; in speaking of a kingdom ānot of this world,ā Jesus speaks of something that will be but is not yet. Jesusā words fuse presence and absence together because they intimate something which we do not fully apprehend.
The Sundays after Pentecost do the same. During his ministry, Jesus said, āYou will not always have meā (John 12:8) ā and yet he also promised his disciples, āI am with you always, even unto the end of the worldā (Matt. 28:20). The Sundays after Pentecost are defined by a seeming absence in which the teachings and deeds of Jesus are firmly rooted in the past ā and yet we are present here and now, living in the presence of a promise. This season is not empty. Every moment may be set apart and consecrated to God through acts of Christian service and devotion. What else is the Christian life but this? In and as the Church, we are always suspended between what was and what is to come ā and thus the Sundays after Pentecost are also the Sundays before Advent.
This meditation was originally written for Trinity Episcopal Church in Lawrence, Kansas.