This Sunday marks the Last Sunday after Trinity, bringing us towards the end of the Church’s long season known as Ordinary Time.
And I’ve always thought that was a rather curious name. After all, what exactly is ordinary about following Jesus?
We tend to think of the Church’s year in terms of its great celebrations. Christmas, with its wonder and joy. Easter, with its astonishing promise of resurrection. Pentecost, with the coming of the Holy Spirit. But Ordinary Time occupies much more of the calendar. Week after week, we gather, pray, listen to Scripture, share communion, and return to our everyday lives.
It all sounds rather unremarkable. Except, of course, it isn’t.
The word ‘ordinary’ doesn’t actually mean commonplace or unimportant in this context. It comes from the practice of numbering the weeks, giving them an order.
But I rather like the misunderstanding, because it points us towards something important about our Christian faith.
In his letter to the Colossians, St Paul writes: “Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.” (Colossians 3:17)
Paul doesn’t say ‘whatever you do in church, or whenever you’re praying, or when you’re doing something particularly holy’.
He says ‘whatever you do’.
It’s an understanding of faith which refuses to divide our lives into sacred and ordinary compartments.
And it’s entirely consistent with the ministry of Jesus himself.
So much of Jesus’ ministry happened in seemingly mundane and ordinary circumstances. Around dinner tables. Walking along dusty roads. In conversations with people going about their daily business.
It was in those ordinary moments that lives were changed.
Perhaps we need reminding that holiness isn’t confined to churches, Sundays, or occasions when we feel particularly prayerful. It can be found in making someone a cup of tea, listening when we’re busy, offering forgiveness when we’d rather hold a grudge, or noticing someone everybody else has overlooked.
These things rarely make headlines, but they can be extraordinary expressions of God’s love.
As Ordinary Time draws to a close, we’re approaching Advent, when the Church begins preparing once again for the coming of Christ. But before we turn towards the wonders of Christmas, perhaps there’s something worth celebrating about these quieter weeks.
They remind us that God doesn’t wait for special occasions to meet us. His presence isn’t reserved for the spectacular, and his love isn’t dependent upon our lives being particularly impressive.
Maybe that’s the real challenge of Ordinary Time: not to make our lives more extraordinary, but to recognise the extraordinary God already present within them.
Because with God, nothing is ever just ordinary.