Pastor Chris
If you like to keep track of our church calendar to gain a sense of what season we’re in, you may have noticed we are in a time often called the “Season after Pentecost.” If you’ve been really paying attention, you’ll recall that Pentecost was quite awhile ago. In fact, this coming Sunday is referred to as the 18th Sunday after Pentecost. Another term for this particular portion of the church calendar – when we aren’t in the preparation of Advent or participating in the wonder of Christmas or the penitence of Lent, to give a few examples – is “ordinary time.” Right now in the church, we are in ordinary time.
But just because this is considered “ordinary time” in the church doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of ministry happening. In fact, because so much of our church year is actually spent in ordinary time, much of what we do isn’t attached to special seasons and moments in time. We do them not because “it’s Christmas,” or “it’s a time for sacrifice in Lent.” We do them because we are the Church. It’s what we’re called to do. The work of feeding the hungry and welcoming the stranger doesn’t end after high holy seasons. The work continues in the ordinary time. The same is true for us in our personal lives as well.
I wonder how many of us find that we’re doing God’s work in small ways that we would consider “insignificant” nearly every day? It doesn’t necessarily come in the grand gesture. Sometimes it truly does come in the small things, like taking an extra couple minutes when talking with a friend, so that they know there is another person out there who cares for them. Sometimes those couple minutes reveal a new aspect of the conversation or friendship where the Holy Spirit can truly continue to work. Sometimes it’s the simple, kind gesture of holding a door for someone who has their hands full, or maybe realizing it’s OK if you aren’t the first one through that four-way stop when three cars stopped at almost the exact same moment.
One thing I know to be true, however, is oftentimes we don’t realize the difference we are making in this world during these “ordinary times.” We don’t usually seek or ask for praise when we’re just doing the things that “normal people should do.” But it’s the accumulation of these little ordinary things that sometimes makes a huge impact over the course of a lifetime. These small things we do matter. And I am hopeful that we continue to pay attention to the mundane, ordinary things that we do that truly do make small differences for the good of our neighbor. As church together and church in our world, know that both at Esperanza and in our daily lives, extraordinary things do happen during ordinary moments.
Pastor Chris