ordinary time
In simultaneous release, here and in the September 2011 Joyful Servant Lutheran Church "Servants' Quarters" Newsletter!
("Ooooooh...")
As those of you who are liturgical-calendar-inclined will note, it’s now roughly the 342nd Sunday after Pentecost, or in “Ordinary Time,” depending upon your phrase of preference. It’s that loooooooong section of the Christian calendar that is undistinguished by special festivities and sorely tests Pastor Tom’s ability to find enough green shirts to cover the season.
For some of us, the start of a new school year inserts a secular distinguishing mark into this season; for others, the year continues on more or less apace, with shortening days and freshening winds providing only the barest of hints that autumn is on its way.
One of the critiques I have of some Christian movements is the emphasis they place on excitement. To hear some of these folks tell it, life was one long, miserable slog until bang!—they were saved!—and everything’s been rainbows and butterflies and one big party ever since! Praise God!
Much as I wish rainbows, butterflies and parties upon you all, I can say from personal experience—and I lead a very blessed life—that most of my days are somewhat less than a constant whirlwind of exuberant excitement. I have to load the dishwasher and go grocery shopping. The cat needs fed, so does the kid, and in all the places we have lived, I have yet to find a self-cleaning bathroom.
The truth of salvation is that it is God’s gift to us in our lives—not a ticket out. We live our lives secure in the assurance that God’s promise to us is true. We have been given the gift of salvation. It’s free. It’s nothing we can earn. It sees us through the ups, the downs and the everyday routines of our lives. Life in grace, well practiced, can grant us the endurance we need to live lives of faith until the day we join our Savior.
Here is the gift of Ordinary Time: it reminds us that what we are called to above all is a life of everyday service. Some of us will do Amazing and Exciting Things in our lives, and that’s great (please send the rest of us a postcard!). Others will live lives of tremendous grace simply by going about our day-to-day business in the spirit of joy and love that comes only from knowing that the bozo in front of you in the post office is a child of God, too.
One more thing to remember: after all this Ordinary Time, we enter the season of Advent, where we wait for the Greatest Gift of All. What a reward for our perseverance!
Out hiking with my husband the other day I saw a little tree seedling sticking out of the side of a hardened lava flow, sparkling with obsidian. Not exactly a place of rainbows and butterflies and parties in the tree world… and yet it grew. And continues to grow. And someday, as its roots continue to roil and grind and turn that solid rock to dust, it will no doubt grow into all its tree-ly potential.
The God who created that tree created us. Like it, we too can persevere, safe in our knowledge of the gift that awaits us in the midst of our Ordinary Times.
And that is worth a big Praise God!
("Ooooooh...")
As those of you who are liturgical-calendar-inclined will note, it’s now roughly the 342nd Sunday after Pentecost, or in “Ordinary Time,” depending upon your phrase of preference. It’s that loooooooong section of the Christian calendar that is undistinguished by special festivities and sorely tests Pastor Tom’s ability to find enough green shirts to cover the season.
For some of us, the start of a new school year inserts a secular distinguishing mark into this season; for others, the year continues on more or less apace, with shortening days and freshening winds providing only the barest of hints that autumn is on its way.
One of the critiques I have of some Christian movements is the emphasis they place on excitement. To hear some of these folks tell it, life was one long, miserable slog until bang!—they were saved!—and everything’s been rainbows and butterflies and one big party ever since! Praise God!
Much as I wish rainbows, butterflies and parties upon you all, I can say from personal experience—and I lead a very blessed life—that most of my days are somewhat less than a constant whirlwind of exuberant excitement. I have to load the dishwasher and go grocery shopping. The cat needs fed, so does the kid, and in all the places we have lived, I have yet to find a self-cleaning bathroom.
The truth of salvation is that it is God’s gift to us in our lives—not a ticket out. We live our lives secure in the assurance that God’s promise to us is true. We have been given the gift of salvation. It’s free. It’s nothing we can earn. It sees us through the ups, the downs and the everyday routines of our lives. Life in grace, well practiced, can grant us the endurance we need to live lives of faith until the day we join our Savior.
Here is the gift of Ordinary Time: it reminds us that what we are called to above all is a life of everyday service. Some of us will do Amazing and Exciting Things in our lives, and that’s great (please send the rest of us a postcard!). Others will live lives of tremendous grace simply by going about our day-to-day business in the spirit of joy and love that comes only from knowing that the bozo in front of you in the post office is a child of God, too.
One more thing to remember: after all this Ordinary Time, we enter the season of Advent, where we wait for the Greatest Gift of All. What a reward for our perseverance!
Out hiking with my husband the other day I saw a little tree seedling sticking out of the side of a hardened lava flow, sparkling with obsidian. Not exactly a place of rainbows and butterflies and parties in the tree world… and yet it grew. And continues to grow. And someday, as its roots continue to roil and grind and turn that solid rock to dust, it will no doubt grow into all its tree-ly potential.
The God who created that tree created us. Like it, we too can persevere, safe in our knowledge of the gift that awaits us in the midst of our Ordinary Times.
And that is worth a big Praise God!
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