Understanding our church seasons

Pentecost is the time when the church celebrates its birthday. It is the anniversary of the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples. Christ has now completed his work on Earth, and his promise to send the Holy Spirit is fulfilled. For the first half of the year, from Advent to Pentecost, we concentrate on the life of Christ. For the rest of the year, we look at the life of the church through the work, gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit.

The Trinity is ‘one God in three persons – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’. The Trinity (God is three persons in one) is a great mystery of our faith. This can be difficult to understand and explain. We use metaphors to help, but they all have limitations when dealing with this complex subject.

One metaphor to help explain is using the properties of an apple. An apple has three parts: seeds, flesh and skin. If you cut an apple in half, you can see that these three parts differ. The seeds look different from the flesh, which, in turn, looks different from the skin. Each serves a very different purpose, but they are all equally an apple.

Lutheran Tract Mission (LTM) has many resources to help you understand our God and the seasons of the church year. We have seasonal devotionals for you and your family to read, talk, discover and understand aspects of our faith and the God we love. Read the devotionals each season and grow in knowledge of our Saviour and God.

Visit the LTM website at www.ltm.org.au and see what you can use to help you understand your faith. Search for Growing Together as Family, Pentecost and Trinity.

‘… the Spirit makes you God’s children, and by the Spirit’s power we cry out to God, “Father! My Father!” God’s Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children. Since we are his children, we will possess the blessings he keeps for his people, and we will also possess with Christ what God has kept for him; for if we share Christ’s suffering, we will also share his glory’ (Romans 8:15b–17).

Anne Hansen is Lutheran Tract Mission’s Tract Development Officer.