The “green season” is more officially known as The Sundays of Ordinary Time, or, in the old days, The Sundays after Pentecost. That second one, Sundays after Pentecost, was nice, because it kind of, sort of, kept us focused on Pentecost. It kind of, sort of, kept us focused on the Holy Spirit, and on how it is the Holy Spirit, who first descended on the followers of
Jesus at Pentecost, who inspires us and empowers us for service to our neighbor, witnessing to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and being messengers of love and agents of grace. It reminds us that we live in the time when the church, empowered and enlivened by the Holy Spirit, continues the work of Jesus in the world, and when the members of the church become the hands, feet, eyes, voice, and heart of Jesus to the world.
But nowadays, the more common phrase for this “green season” is, Ordinary Time. Not Special Time, but Ordinary Time. And what does that mean, anyway? Ordinary Time. It sounds so, well, ordinary. It sounds common, everyday, humdrum, maybe even boring or dull. Just the same old, same old, the routine, the repetitive, the common, the mundane, the unexciting, the unspectacular, the, ordinary.
How can we get excited about being ordinary? How are we supposed to excite the people, rouse the rabble, make a joyful noise, if this is just, ordinary time? I’d ask what makes ordinary so special, but the answer is, nothing. It isn’t special, it’s ordinary.
But then again, most of our life is, well, ordinary. Most of our life is routine and common and humdrum. We do so many of the same things day after day. Our life consists of so much that is ordinary. It’s what makes the special things special, because those things aren’t ordinary. But ordinary, that’s pretty much what we mostly are, what are day to day lives mostly are.
And the Good News is that in the ordinary things of our lives, in the day to day sameness of our lives, in the humdrum routine of our lives, we find God. God is not just the God of the special days. God is not just the God of Christmas and Easter and Pentecost. God is not just the God of wind and fire. God is not just the God of miracles. God is also the God of the ordinary.
Our God walks with us through all of the times of our lives, the amazing and the ordinary, the special and the mundane, the exceptional and the routine. God is the still, small voice as well as the crash of thunder. God is the God who revels in the ordinary, who delights in the routine, who celebrates the mundane, because for God, every moment with us, God’s beloved children, is a time of love and joy.
And just so, our ordinary time, because it is spent in the presence and company of God, because it is blessed by the love and grace of God, is a time of love and joy for us, as well. Ordinary Time reminds us that God is always with us, even in the ordinary, routine of our day to day reality, especially in the day to day reality of our lives, because our lives, in all their uniqueness and all their ordinariness, are the greatest gift we can give to God. God desires us to offer our whole selves to God, to give God the fullness of who we are and what we are, to say to God, this is me, and I am yours.
Happy Ordinary Time!!! See you in church.
Peace,
Pr. Paul
Download HERE