Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
We are once again in the time of year we call “Ordinary Time”. Which, let’s be honest, always comes with a chuckle. We hear the idea that we are once again, in the midst of Ordinary and it always strikes us someone’s sarcastic joke. The times almost never feel ordinary.
This is even more true because it always arrives right about at the end of school and when life just gets different. Even those without kids start to make plans—either for their own getaways or how they deal with others’. For just about everyone, it is a season of possibility. Ordinary feels like the completely wrong word.
Of course, the prospect of something feeling like normal, or perhaps the return of something situationally normal, like summer routines or regular visits, is a welcome sight. A joy that feels like a welcome ordinary.
I suspect, though, that we often make too much of such thoughts. Particularly as Jesus has such precious little to say to encourage such meanderings. Instead, his measure is far more geared toward making the possible more ordinary. He never encourages us to “return to normal” but frequently encourages us to make God’s dream our normal.
A dream that involves Sabbath and Shalom: Rest and Peace. Not because we are back in Ordinary Time, but because even these days we bring more love and justice to our community.
With love,
Drew