Ordinary Time

The liturgical year begins at Advent, and, through Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter we rehearse the saving acts of God through the life, death,and resurrection of Jesus. On Pentecost Sunday we remember the gift of the Holy Spirit, poured out on the church for the sake of both inner transformation and mission to the world. Last week we celebrated Trinity Sunday—we know the one, true God, finally, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Now we enter what the Book of Common Prayer calls The Season After Pentecost (the older Prayer Books often refer to Sundays of this season as “Sundays after Trinity”), which lasts until the first Sunday of Advent (December 2, this year). Roman Catholics refer to this season as Ordinary Time. I find this description of the season helpful, in the sense that, in this season, we focus on the nature of what it means to follow Jesus faithfully in the midst of the world that he loves yet that remains deeply broken. This dynamic of allowing the Holy Spirit to work on the broken places in our hearts and, through us, in the broken place of our world, is the ordinary Christian life.

So often we associate ordinary with mundane, and even boring. It’s true that the rhythm of our day-to-day lives will no doubt include moments that could be described like this, and learning to meet God in those moments is an important discipline. However, the life of following Jesus, which includes the inner work of the Spirit and mission to the world, is anything but boring. I believe that God is always open to working in and through us, that we might experience and know more and more of him and his kingdom. It’s a matter of creating space in our lives for this work to happen.

Summer is often a time during which we are able to take more time and space to slow down. As we move into summer, into this “ordinary” time, my hope and prayer is that we’ would discover more and more of the life God has for each one of us, as we experience his deep love for us and the world around us.

Peace,

Chris