Ordinary Times
Today is the 10th Sunday in Ordinary Time within the Liturgical Calendar of the United Methodist Church. Growing up as a Baptist, I had little knowledge of the liturgical calendar. I am not sure how much of that was because of my age and how much was that it was not emphasized by my church.
For the first 40 years of our married life, Mary Lou and I were blessed to be a part of the Presbyterian Church USA. I became more aware of the outward trappings of the church year, primarily due to the various colors of the stoles worn by the choir and the minister.
We wore red for Pentecost, purple during Advent and Lent, white on Easter, Christmas, and on days when the sacraments, baptism and communion, were performed.
For most of the rest of the year, green was the color of Ordinary Time, that period between Christmas and Lent, and between Easter and Advent. I do not recall the term “ordinary time” being used most of those years. Instead, the colors were shown on a full year calendar that was posted in the choir room which everyone checked each Sunday.
As United Methodists since our retirement to Auburn, we have become more aware of other elements of the liturgical calendar. We can continue to learn throughout our faith journey, while still appreciating the denominational differences that have been part of our lives.
As I become more comfortable with my own beliefs during these most uncomfortable of times, I realize that scripture does address many of the issues that we confront today. These include the environment, poverty, peacemaking, health care, immigration, and race relations. Other current issues addressed in scripture include taxes, debt relief, just court systems, prisons, hunger and fair wages. Sound familiar?
As partisan politics looks to use religion to justify their own positions on social and justice issues, I challenge you to seek a scriptural reference to any of the items mentioned above. For instance, what does scripture say about a just court system? Find your own answers and forgo the endless news programming and social media podcasts that make millions off our discord.
The calendars of the world’s religions all differ. The Christian religions have differences, even within their own denominations. However, I am always comforted by the similarity of certain beliefs of different faiths. Unfortunately, the focus always seems to be on how different we are; how wrong they are; how right we are. This dissension does not dovetail very easily with the teachings of Jesus, whom I happen to follow.
The weeks of Ordinary Time only refer to the “ordinal numbers” which mark the orderly, day-to-day progression of the church year. Having said that, I must confess that I occasionally long for a return to a more ordinary definition of “ordinary times”. Perhaps a period of time with things being normal, routine and just plain average would do us all good.
o0o
Dan Ponder can be reached at [email protected]