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Nothing “Ordinary” about Sundays in Summer

Beginning in June, we'll all notice that the green paraments once again adorn the chancel, the pulpit and the lectern. The next time we change the liturgical colors will be when our next class of confirmands publicly give witness to their baptismal faith in October.

Most of us know that the liturgical colors we see are based on the liturgical calendar which provides a context to our corporate worship life. Time in the liturgical calendar is designated as “Festival” or “Ordinary”. In June, we again enter, “Ordinary Time.” Unfortunately, to our ears, “Ordinary Time” in the church sounds boring and mundane.

When we use the word “ordinary” in reference to these Sundays of the church year, we are not saying they are boring or mundane. The term simply indicates we are marking time using ordinal numbers – that is, we are counting the Sundays.

After we have seen the bulletin headings of the “10th Sunday after Pentecost,” the “11th Sunday after Pentecost,” or the “23rd Sunday after Pentecost,” we wonder if there will ever be anything “exciting” happening at church, like there is during the Festival seasons when we hear of the great works of God in human history (Christmas, Easter, the Advent and 2nd Coming of Christ, etc.). What we fail to recognize is that each Sunday we gather God is working mightily in human history.

The “Ordinary time” of the church calendar helps us to focus on the fact that our lives are part of the unfolding of the history of salvation that we celebrate during the festival season of the church year. During this extended period after the festival of Pentecost, we focus on how His mighty acts impact us and our lives here and now and for eternity. We move away from recalling the historical acts by which He saved “mankind” and we celebrate God's continuing action in human history through the Word and the Sacraments by which He saves us. Through His continuing action, God continues to build and sustain His Church throughout the ages until Christ's return to gather us to Himself.

“Ordinary time” is marked by the number of Sundays after our celebration of Pentecost. On that day, the Apostles were given power from on high when the Lord poured out His Holy Spirit upon them and they went out and began proclaiming repentance and forgiveness in the Name of Jesus. Through their preaching, the Lord added 3,000 members to the Church on that one day. Their teaching and preaching continues in the Church of God today as the Word of God is proclaimed.

Through that same Word and the Sacraments that Christ entrusted to His Apostles, God continues to work in EXTRA-ordinary ways to bring people to the knowledge and deepening trust in all that He has done to save us from sin and death, all that He continues to do to protect and preserve our physical life and all that He does to strengthen and keep us in the Christian faith that we would live and reign with Him for all eternity.

While we mark the time with ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd. . . ), these are no “ordinary” times. During these Sundays, God continues to work in extraordinary ways calling us to faith and washing us clean again and again in the waters of our baptism as we hear the words of absolution. He continues to teach us through His Word, and feed us with His body and blood through the Sacrament.

God continues to pour out His extra-ordinary gifts upon us each and every week. And therefore, even during these “Ordinary” Sundays which we count, God is doing extra-ordinary things to give us eternal life with Him.

To God alone be the Glory!

Pastor Dent

Happy Birthday to the Christian Church!

This month, we will celebrate yet another "birthday" of sorts. When Christ ascended into heaven, He told His disciples, that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father. Jesus said, "Truly, John baptized with water; but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." (Acts 1:5).

This baptism with the Holy Ghost occurred on Pentecost, fifty days after Christ's resurrection and ten days after His ascension. When we celebrate the day of Pentecost, we are celebrating not only the fulfillment of this promise, but in a real sense, we are celebrating the birth of the Christian Church. It is then that the marks of the church, the preaching of the Word and the administration of the Sacraments begins when Peter stands among those assembled for the feast in Jerusalem and preaches Christ Crucified and Risen as the long promised Messiah and three thousand are reborn by water and the word as they are baptized by the Apostles. And there and then the Christian Church was born.

Prior to that there was certainly faith, hope and trust in the promises of God! As Scripture says, "Abraham believed God and it was credited to Him for righteousness." (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:2) Thus, saving faith existed prior to the birth of the Christian Church and our father in the faith Abraham, and all our brothers and sisters who were born and lived before Pentecost and died with the hope and trust that God would keep this promise will also receive eternal life through Christ.

But with Pentecost comes a clearer understanding of that promise. Their faith awaited a coming Messiah. The Christian Church points to Jesus, a specific man born in space and time, as the anointed Christ who has come. This is the message of the Church - that our Redeemer has come into the world and has saved us. How? He has suffered and died in our place, having taken upon Himself the punishment for our rebellion and disobedience. Why? Because God the Father sent Him into the world for this very purpose. (John 3:16)

The Church spreads this news far and wide through her preaching, administering the sacraments, and through the life of her members in the community at large.

Pentecost, then, is when we celebrate the birth of the corporate body of believers. It is when Christ Jesus poured out His Holy Spirit began knitting us together as His body - His flesh and His bones (Ephesians 5:30). The liturgical color we use is red to remind us of the tongues of fire that appeared over the heads of the Apostles that day.

So, make it a special point to join in our worship on May 23rd when we remember how Christ sent forth His Spirit to give birth to the Church that He continues to grow and sustain through Word and Sacrament! And when you come, consider wearing red as we recall how the Holy Spirit is poured out upon us through these means.

- Pastor Dent

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