May 29, 2024
The “Season of Special Sundays” has found its close. Mother’s Day, Pentecost, Graduates, Trinity Sunday, the blessing of John Narruhn’s preaching – now we enter the portion of the Church year known simply as “the Sundays after Pentecost.” It’s hardly a title to provoke enthusiasm.
Until a few years ago, it was called something different, and if anything less exciting. These Sundays between Pentecost and Advent were “Ordinary Time.”
Our altar and pulpit cloths will go to a steady, unrelieved green. We will have some important days to acknowledge, but most of those come from the secular world, not religious. Father’s Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day – even though some have deep spiritual meaning, they were not created as religious observances. All Saints Sunday is the exception.
Personally, I rather like Ordinary Time. I also like green, even if it’s not easy being green. Ordinary Time emphasizes in its quiet, unassuming way that the grace of God is extravagantly spread throughout Creation.
Green itself is a miraculous color. It’s the color with which living things derive sustenance from sunlight. It happens every day, but the fact that it’s common doesn’t make it unextraordinary. “Look at this,” our banners will proclaim. “I’m the same color as life abundant. Isn’t that a miracle?”
The ordinary world teems with miracles, from the affection that unites individuals into couples, families, clans, communities, and nations, to the tenderness we can and do bring to complete strangers whose needs come before us. The sun streams down; the waves wash the shore, the birds sing, the flowers bloom.
Through it all God shares a love that overcomes rejection, sin, and even death.
How wondrous is this Ordinary Time!
In peace,
Pastor Eric
