THEOLOGICAL CLUE

September 29th marks the celebration of another minor festival, St. Michael and All Angels. The last line of the second reading, Revelation 12: 12, supports the eschatological perspective of Pentecost, because it announces that he (Satan) "knows that his time is short." Without the theological input of the readings for St. Michael and All Angels Day to supplement the readings of the Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost, the eschatological framework of the church year would be almost imperceptible at this point in Pentecost. The readings, during most of the Pentecost Cycle/Season, have to reestablish and support the theological themes of the church year, or they will be completely lost, and "lectionary preachers" may lose their "theological" direction. The lesser festivals t…