Fifty Days and Counting

What's with these numbers? When we were children, Ascension was celebrated forty days after Easter. It was on a Thursday to match it up with Easter, which obviously was always on a Sunday. And just around the weekly corner Pentecost comes this Sunday, seven days after Ascension and fifty days after Easter.

How often you hear this writer in preaching remind the congregation that numbers in the scriptures are important, but not for counting. Luke, in his writing of the Acts of the Apostles, does indeed tell us that the risen Lord appeared to the believers during these forty days.

Pentecost which we celebrate today is also described in the Acts of the Apostles. The Christian celebration of Pentecost derives its thematic from the Jewish celebration of the harvest, which happens seven weeks after the start of the grain harvest. In the Jewish scriptures it is variously described as a Sabbath celebration of rest. (Again those numbers of the seven day week!) As Passover and the grain harvest are pulled together in the calendar, Pentecost occurs on the fiftieth day after Passover.

Our Christian observance of Pentecost takes its theme from a later Jewish understanding of the day as a celebration of the giving of the Law to Moses and a covenant renewal. Luke's telling of the Pentecost story in the Acts starts with a celebration of the New Law which is Christ and signed by the actions of the Spirit. It is set fifty days after Easter.

Numbers, Numbers
Seven in scriptural writing is often a number of fullness and plenty. The Sabbath occurs on the seventh day as the crown of God's creation. The invitation on the seventh day was to enjoy the blessings of God's creation. The early Christian Church referred to Sunday as the Eight Day - which was the beginning of a new epoch begun with Jesus' rising from the dead. The time following the resurrection is presented as the new creation, made new in Christ by the power of the Spirit.

Pentecost
Just as in the Jewish scriptures, fifty days crown creation in the giving of the Law to Moses, and in

the community being renewed in the covenantal love of the God. The community took on new life and hope. It became a new creation.

The Acts recounts the Church as living in the era of the New Law which is Christ dead and risen from the dead. By this action of the Spirit, the Christian community basks in the New Law. The gospel is preached as the new relationship with the Father in Christ. The telling of the death and rising story of Jesus becomes life-giving. The then Jewish-Christian community is seen to overflow to all the nations and peoples. The gospel is understood in this new age of the Spirit. "Each heard in their own tongue."

Covenant renewal is seen in the invitation to baptism into the death and rising of the Lord. The community becomes alive with new members and new enthusiasm. The Spirit is experienced in the outpouring with the manifestations of power and new life, wind, fire, and the speaking in tongues. Babel's Tower is reversed in that one gospel brings faith to all.

Liturgical Signs
The Easter Season explodes with Pentecost. The white of Easter joy and praise is replaced by bold red colors. Red summarizes the Christ mystery of death to life. Red is witness to the fire, blood, and the Spirit-filled water. That mystery overflows in human history. A new era is begun. The fifty days introduce the preaching and living of the gospel as an action of the Spirit. Wind, fire, and prophetic speaking are the language of theophany where God shows himself within the community.

The various numbers and counting of days and times is clearly understood in John's Gospel where in the mature reflection of the early Church, the Christ mystery is one. Jesus appears on Easter night, on the very day of resurrection, he breathes on the disciples his Spirit of peace, and he returns to the Father. Easter, Pentecost, and Ascension are the whole mystery of the Christ.

Our newly initiated members of the community tell the same story. They are believers who have passed from death to life in baptism. They walk in the Spirit through anointing and the laying-on of hands. They celebrate Christ's victory at the Eucharistic Table. They and we become preachers and sharers of that Christ story.

CDH