Rev. Valerie's Reveille

This Sunday we “celebrate” Trinity Sunday.   I say “celebrate” because it is not really a holiday like Christmas or even Pentecost.   It is one of two holy days in our Church calendar that emphasizes a theological idea rather than an event. (The other one is “Christ the King Sunday” at the end of the season after Pentecost.) While there is ample evidence of the unique nature of our Triune God in Scripture, it is still a topic that most wise preachers avoid because it is difficult to talk about or make any worthwhile comments in 15 minutes or less (we are Episcopalians after all – no hour long sermons for us, though in this case, I don’t that would help any way!). Father, Son, Holy Spirit Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer Lover, Beloved, Love Holy Speaker, Incarnate Word, Divine Breath While the feminist in me likes having alternative images beyond the classic male-centric terms, the basic reality of the inherent mystery remains constant no matter what terms I use to n...

Just in case you don’t know, this coming Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, the day we commemorate receiving Jesus Christ’ gift of the Holy Spirit – or at least that is the Christian tradition of Pentecost.   As with many Christian holy days, Pentecost finds its roots in the Jewish faith.   The word “Pentecost” comes from the Greek meaning “the fiftieth” and originally it was 50 days after Passover.   The Hebrew Scriptures never mention Pentecost.   (The Greek term became popular with the spread of the Greek language as the common language in the Middle East.)   In the Hebrew Scriptures (what we call the “Old Testament”), the celebration is call the “Festival of Weeks” or “Shavout” (Exodus 34:22; Numbers 28:26-31; Leviticus 23:15-21) . This festival was observed 7 weeks from the second day of Passover, on which an offering of barley sheaf was given. All adult males were required to travel to the sanctuary to take part. The Feast of Weeks was observed after ...