Especially two different passages from St. Luke’s Divinely-inspired Gospel account make clear that the God-man Jesus Christ came to seek and to save lost sheep and sinners like each and every one of us (Isaiah 53:6). First, in Luke 15:3-7, which we hear on the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost, and which seems to be primarily told to lead the Pharisees and scribes to repent of their sin and rejoice over the tax collectors and notorious sinners who were repenting, Jesus nevertheless can be taken as describing Himself as the Good Shepherd who might even leave 99 of His sheep in search of the one that is lost (confer Ezekiel 34:11-24 and Matthew 18:12-14). Second, in Luke 19:1-10, which we normally would have heard on November 3rd, and which tells of the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus, Jesus specifically says of Himself, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Lost apart from God, we would surely perish not only in time but also in eternity. However, God seeks us out and enables us to repent of our sin and trust Him to forgive our sin by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. In Christ He rescues us from wherever we have wandered and brings us into the sheepfold of His Church, where He calls us by name in Holy Baptism and otherwise pastures us on His Word read and preached and applied to us individually in Holy Absolution and the Sacrament of the Altar.

That Luke 15 passage and other passages from St. Luke’s Gospel account are heard at Pilgrim on the Sundays after Pentecost this year. The last day of the Easter Season, the Day of Pentecost is also a feast day in and of itself, in the Old Testament and the New Testament, and for the New Testament Church the Sundays after Pentecost are their own season that comprises the longest portion of the Church Year, its non-festival “half” that focuses on the life of Christ in His Church, the Holy Spirit’s through the Church continuing what Jesus began to teach and to do during His earthly ministry (Acts 1:1). So, the growth of the Church that occurred in great number on the Day of Pentecost as a result of the pure preaching of God’s Word and the right administration of His Sacraments (Acts 2:41) continues still today even in small numbers, as God creates faith when and where He pleases in those who hear the Gospel that we have a gracious God  by the merit of Christ when we believe this (Augsburg Confession, V:2-3). Most of the Sundays after Pentecost use green paraments on the chancel furnishings and pastor’s stole; green is the color of growth, leaves, foliage, fruit, and life appropriate for a time of spiritual if not also numerical growth.

The following are the Sundays after Pentecost in 2019 and their Gospel Readings (appointed by Lutheran Service Book’s three-year lectionary series C).

  • The Holy Trinity (06/16): Jesus teaches about the glory of the Trinity (John 8:48-59)
  • Second Sunday (06/23): Jesus casts out demons into a herd of pigs (Luke 8:26-39)
  • Third Sunday (06/30): Jesus sets His face to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51-62)
  • Fourth Sunday (07/07): Jesus sends out seventy-two others (Luke 10:1-20)
  • Fifth Sunday (07/14): Jesus teaches about a good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)
  • Sixth Sunday (07/21): Jesus is welcomed by Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42)
  • Seventh Sunday (07/28): Jesus teaches about prayer (Luke 11:1-13)
  • Eighth Sunday (08/04): Jesus tells the Parable of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:13-21)
  • Ninth Sunday (08/11): Jesus calls us to seek His kingdom (Luke 12:22-40)
  • Tenth Sunday (08/18): Jesus comes not for peace but division (Luke 12:49-56)
  • Eleventh Sunday (08/25): Jesus says to strive to enter the narrow door (Luke 13:22-30)
  • Twelfth Sunday (09/01): Jesus heals and teaches about banqueting (Luke 14:1-14)
  • Thirteenth Sunday (09/08): Jesus tells how we will bear our own crosses (Luke 14:25-35)
  • Fourteenth Sunday (09/15): Jesus teaches two “lost” parables (Luke 15:1-10)
  • Fifteenth Sunday (09/22): Jesus tells a Parable of a Dishonest Manager (Luke 16:1-15)
  • St. Michael and All Angels (09/29): Jesus saw Satan fall from heaven (Luke 10:17-20)
  • Seventeenth Sunday (10/06): Jesus teaches about tempting and forgiving (Luke 17:1-10)
  • Eighteenth Sunday (10/13): Jesus cleanses ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19)
  • Nineteenth Sunday (10/20): Jesus tells of a Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8)
  • Twentieth Sunday (10/27): Jesus teaches of worship and justification (Luke 18:9-17)
  • All Saints’ Day (observed 11/03): Jesus describes the blessed saints (Matthew 5:1-12)
  • Twenty-second Sunday (11/10): Jesus teaches about the resurrection (Luke 20:27-40)
  • Twenty- third Sunday (11/17): Jesus gives signs of the end (Luke 21:5-36)
  • Last Sunday of the Church Year (11/24): Jesus warns of the last days (Luke 23:27-43)

You may have noticed that, instead of ordinary Sundays after Pentecost, on three dates in 2019 we have special Sunday observances. The First Sunday after Pentecost is observed as the Feast of the Holy Trinity, which celebrates not the teaching about God but our God Himself, Who actually is three Blessed Persons in one Divine Substance. (This Sunday observance includes the singing of much-loved hymns and what turns out to be our annual use of the Athanasian Creed, which confesses the mystery of the Trinity about as clearly and concisely as we might imagine is possible.) What would otherwise be the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost is instead observed as the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, continuing a tradition from early times. And, instead of observing the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, we transfer our observance of All Saints’ Day to November 3rd, including what is for us the usual Commemoration of the Faithful Departed since the last All Saints’ Day. White is the color for these observances, with its associations including joy, celebration, gladness, light, purity, and innocence.

In addition to the Sundays after Pentecost and other Sunday observances listed above, the season after Pentecost in 2019 includes one midweek observance. We observe Reformation Day on Thursday, October 31, with a special Divine Service at 7:00 p.m. (at which service the Gospel Reading will be either John 8:31-36 or Matthew 11:12-19, and the Setting of the Divine Service will be our contemporary one modeled on The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther’s German and Latin orders of Divine Service. The color red symbolizes fire and blood and is appropriate for festivals of renewal in the Spirit like Reformation.

You may read and hear the sermons at Pilgrim from the Sundays after Pentecost and from every season of the Church Year here.

The banner graphic at the top of this page and in the slider on the front page utilizes a portion of the image of award-winning representational artist Jeremy Sams’ painting found here.