Colors of the Calendar
With the heavy humidity we’ve all experienced over the summer, I think we’re all ready for some cooler
temperatures. I’ve never liked humidity, which is why summer with all of the heat and humidity is
probably my least favorite season. We are now nearing autumn, with some cooler temperatures at
night already beginning to turn some of the leaves on the trees to a different hue. Most of the kids are
now back in school. With the change in seasons come changes in our lives. Charles Swindoll entitled
one of his devotional books The Seasons of Life. Changes in season bring new opportunities for
reflection on where we have been, where we are, and where we are going.
The same holds true for the church calendar, the liturgical calendar. There are seasons in the life of the
church year. “The liturgical cycle divides the year into a series of seasons, each with their own mood,
theological emphases, and modes of prayer, which can be signified by different ways of decorating
churches, colors of paraments and vestments for clergy, scriptural readings, themes for preaching and
even different traditions and practices often observed personally or in the home. In churches that follow
the liturgical year, the scripture passages for each Sunday (and even each day of the year in some
traditions) are specified in a lectionary” (Wikipedia). In our church, the colors of the particular season in
the liturgical calendar is most apparent in the paraments that are draped over the pulpit, lectern, and
communion table. I myself do not generally wear a robe with a stole, but if and when I do, the color of
the stole is coordinated to the season or particular seasonal celebration, or feast as it can be called. I do
sometimes follow the lectionary texts for preaching, particularly during the season of Advent, when the
focus is on preparation for the coming of Jesus, but most other times throughout the year I like to
preach through a book in what the Reformers called lectio continua (reading through a book), so as to
provide more detailed exposition and application of the entire text of a particular book. This helps to
keep the train of thought of the biblical writer and also avoids getting caught up in soapboxes, so to
1
speak, where one might get stuck talking too much about a particular topic, though certainly topical
preaching also has its place.
The liturgical year in the Christian calendar actually begins with Advent, with the anticipation of the
coming of Jesus Christ into the world to save us from our sins. Advent, of course, means coming in Latin.
Just as colors are associated with the different seasons in most geographical areas, so too there are
colors associated with the different seasons of the church calendar. A sequence of colors for the
different seasons of the church year go back at least to the beginning of the 12th century, though the
sequence now in general use in the Western Church is of more recent vintage. The colors for the four
Sundays of Advent are purple, accenting royalty, the coming of the King, Jesus Christ. Christian faith is
fundamentally demarcated by the anticipation of the coming of Christ the first time to save us from our
sins and his coming at the end of the age to judge the living and the dead and establish his kingdom in
its fullness. His coming the first time is that of a lamb to lay down his life for the sins of his elect, yet
even in the one born in the manger came as “the child who has been born king of the Jews,” as the magi
asked when they entered Jerusalem (Matt. 2:1-2). Despite all the amazing miracles and good Jesus did,
the authority with which he taught and the ways that he showed people truly who God is, he was
mocked and scorned by the Jewish religious hierarchy and the Romans, who spat on him and beat him
as they mockingly clothed him in purple and said, “Hail, king of the Jews” (Mark 15:17-19). Each of the
gospels records that there was a placard placed above Jesus as he suffered on the cross which read “The
King of the Jews” in Hebrew, Latin and Greek, so everyone could read it.
The collect, or prayer, for Christmas Eve in the Church of England, reads, “Almighty God, who makest us
glad with the yearly remembrance of the birth of thy only Son Jesus Christ: grant that, as we joyfully
receive him as our redeemer, so we may with sure confidence behold him when he shall come to be our
judge; who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.”
That prayer combines the two ideas of advent, first and second, rightly emphasizing that it is only as we
2
accept Jesus as our Savior that we may stand with confidence when he comes to be our Judge. Jesus
came the first time as the Lamb who takes away the sin of the elect, but he comes the second time in
Scripture as the Lion of the tribe of Judah “in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not
know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will suffer the punishment
of eternal destruction, separated from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2
Thess. 1:8-9). Every knee will one day bow and confess Jesus is Lord. It is better we do so now in
repentance from sin, which is also denoted by the color purple at Lent, than we do so in the torment of
eternal anguish when there is no further opportunity to amend our errant ways and do the will of God.
White is the color used for special days in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ, such as Christmas and
Easter. White is, of course, the color of purity. At Christmas we celebrate the coming of the Holy One
into this world of sin, the light that shined amidst the darkness, the light that brings life to all. As we
sing in the favorite carol “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Son of Righteousness! Light and life to all He brings Ris'n with healing in His wings Mild He lays
His glory by Born that man no more may die Born to raise the sons of earth Born to give them second
birth Hark! The herald angels sing ‘Glory to the newborn King!’” He is our life, as Paul says in Col. 3:4.
He is the way, the truth, and the life, apart from whom no one comes to the Father (John 14:6). He is
the one who clothes us in his purity, in his righteousness, after he has taken our sin upon himself, so
that by faith in him we are reckoned as righteous in God’s sight, only for the righteousness of Christ
which is counted as ours as a gift of grace received through faith. We are “dressed in white robes,” as
the risen Jesus said to the church at Sardis in Rev. 3:4-5.
Red is the color now associated with the Day of Pentecost and is also the color typically used for
ordination services. The apostles were empowered and in a certain sense ordained to their role as the
authorized representatives of the risen Christ on the Day of Pentecost, when they proclaimed the gospel
3
to the people gathered for that Old Testament celebration and each heard the gospel in their own
language as the Holy Spirit empowered the apostles.
What follows Pentecost, as well as what precedes in all other times of the Christian calendar, is the
liturgical color green. Green is a color associated with growth. Christians are called upon, commanded,
to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18). The Pentecostal
church gave us all a powerful example as they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the
fellowship of God’s people in worship, prayer, and sharing together, and in giving to those in need.
Their focus was wholly on the worship and service of their risen Lord, and ours must be, as well. Their
lives were transformed by the risen Christ and his empowering Spirit so that their chief end in life was to
glorify God and enjoy him in praise, worship and service. That is to be our chief end in life, as well, as we
state in the opening of the Westminster Shorter Catechism. As their lives were very evidently devoted
to the worship and service of the Lord Jesus, these Pentecostal Christians grew spiritually, but also
numerically. “And day by day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).
The Christian life is to be one of continual growth. The vast majority of the Christian calendar is
associated with green, with growth. Are you growing in the Lord? Are you closer to Jesus Christ today
than you were last week or last month or last year? Are you moving forward for the Lord, becoming
more knowledgeable of his Word, more devoted in worship, study, prayer, service? As we enter into
this fall season after summer and resume many of the activities that were put on hold for summer, think
about where you might become more engaged in the life of the people of God, the church, so that you
might grow more and that through you God might touch others more with his redeeming grace. In this
season of the church’s life, may we see changes in our own lives and in the life we share together in
Christ that would move us to be more like that Pentecostal church in its enjoyment of God and the favor
of all. Amen.
4