The Pulpit and the Christian Calendar: Preaching on Significant Days

Our Christian calendar year is trinitarian; hence, we have New Year with its suggestions of "beginnings," and God the Father as Creator and Originator of all things. Then we have the Lenten period, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday with its reminders of God the Son as Redeemer and risen Lord. This is followed by Whitsun (or Pentecost) when we think of God the Holy Spirit in all the wonder of his power and blessing. Finally, we come to Christmas with its emphasis on the incarnation and the glory of our Immanuel. In between these periods we have, in our American culture, Sundays that honor mothers, fathers, labor, veterans, and so on. While our ministry cannot be bound by or restricted to these seasonal occasions, we must use what Olford has called "sanctified sensitivity" and adapt accordingly.