Ordinary Time
by the Rev. Gray Hodsdon
Everything about our lives—food and sleep, work and play, day and night—is shaped by time. So, it is only fitting that in our church, we are equally shaped by time—specifically, liturgical time. Much like our regular calendars are marked by seasons, our liturgical calendars are marked by seasons as well. But what about this long stretch of time in the Summer and Fall often referred to as ordinary time?
The term “ordinary time” originates in the Roman Catholic Church but is often used by Episcopalians to describe the time between the Feast of the Baptism of our Lord and Ash Wednesday as well as the long stretch of time between the Day of Pentecost and the first Sunday of Advent. It is also known as the “green season,” because green is the standard liturgical color for these portions of the Church Year.
The title may lead us to believe that this time is somehow less important than the other seasons; that church goes into “recess” over the summer while many of us go on our vacations. But this time is no less important. In fact, this stretch of time is when we hear much of the life and teachings of Jesus in the Gospels, among other large portions of the Bible.
The church year follows a three-year cycle of readings—years A, B, and C—known as the Revised Common Lectionary. And in this year (year C), the season after Pentecost generally features select passages from Luke in sequential order. All three years culminate with a turn toward God’s kingdom and Jesus’s second coming, known as the eschaton. This turn seamlessly leads us into Advent, in which the annual cycle comes full circle and begins again.
So, while this longest stretch of the Church Year may be widely known as “ordinary,” what we hear in Scripture during this time is anything but.?