Day of Pentecost
"Pentecost" comes from a Greek word meaning fiftieth day. On this day, the Holy Spirit came with wind and flame, empowering the disciples to proclaim the good news of the risen Lord to all people. Falling on the fiftieth day of the season of Easter, Pentecost represents the culmination of the church's seven-week celebration of Christ's resurrection. As the Lord's Day is sometimes called the "eighth day" of creation, Pentecost is a day of new creation - all things transformed and made new by the Word and Breath of the living God. On the Day of Pentecost we give particular thanks for the gift of God's Holy Spirit, who gathers the church as the body of Christ and sends us to share in Christ's mission throughout the world.
The notion of Easter as a season of fifty days is patterned after the ancient Jewish period of seven weeks that extended from the beginning of the barley harvest, after Passover, to the end of the wheat harvest at the Festival of Weeks (in Hebrew, Shavuot). In Jewish tradition, Shavuot also marks the giving of the law to Moses at Sinai, a connection that may inform Paul's discussion of the law and the Spirit.
COLOR: red
- from the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship (2018)
The notion of Easter as a season of fifty days is patterned after the ancient Jewish period of seven weeks that extended from the beginning of the barley harvest, after Passover, to the end of the wheat harvest at the Festival of Weeks (in Hebrew, Shavuot). In Jewish tradition, Shavuot also marks the giving of the law to Moses at Sinai, a connection that may inform Paul's discussion of the law and the Spirit.
COLOR: red
- from the Presbyterian Book of Common Worship (2018)