Faithful Rhythms in Ordinary Time

At the time of writing this, it is Monday morning, the sun is shining, and the waves are firing (I think an afternoon surf is in my future). It feels like an ordinary Monday. Piles of work await me on my desk, the joys of the past weekend are now a mirage in my rearview, and the inevitable hankering for coffee grows if I have any hope of staying awake through the afternoon.

But this Monday feels quite ordinary for another reason. It rests in the shadow of yesterday's notoriety. For those unfamiliar with the Christian liturgical calendar, yesterday was Pentecost Sunday. It is the 50th day (and the seventh Sunday) following Easter Sunday, commemorating the coming of the Holy Spirit 10 days after Jesus' ascension. The presence of God, as one of my mentors says, is “the reward of redemptive history and the way God secures this reward for us.”[1]

Pentecost Sunday is a day where this reward is at the forefront of our minds and hearts. We read the stories of Acts, imagine what it must have been like in that upper room, and recognize that God's Spirit is still present and moving among us. A time of wonder and excitement, the presence of God palatable and potent, a time that is—extraordinary.

“Rhythm and order are not synonymous with monotony. Far from it. Rhythm is the backbone of music. Entire scores rise and fall on the beat of the drum.”

But as the wind and the flame of Sunday fade, and the Monday fog comes, we enter into a different part of the Christian calendar. “It's too early for Christmas.” you might be thinking (you are correct in this assumption), “and we’re past Easter and Pentecost.” (once again, you’re correct). What could be so extraordinary to fill the boots of Pentecost Sunday?

Ordinary Time.

Yes, you read that correctly. Today we start the longest season of observance held in the Christian calendar. It is a time known as Ordinary Time. After an extraordinary time of celebrating Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, the coming of the Spirit, and the promise of Christ’s return, we step into a season of Ordinary Time. For the next six months, Sundays hold no special titles and no major holiday but are simply ordinary.

A bit of etymological work reveals that what is now meant by ordinary is not identical to the original Latin ordinarius, meaning 'orderly' or 'numbered'. This season is a time to outwork an orderly rhythm quite contrary to the hurried rhythms of our world. (If you don't believe me, check out The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer).

The rhythmic movement of this Ordinary Time is essential to the life of a believer, and we should engage it faithfully. During the season of Ordinary Time, we live between Pentecost and Christ's coming. Thus, Ordinary Time is symbolically significant. "It places us in the story between the Garden of Eden and the city of the eschaton," writes Bobby Gross.[2] It teaches us to live faithfully in the tension of the Kingdom that is already but not yet.

But what of this? Am I entailing that we should live ordinarily? Yes and no.

Yes, in that we should implement orderly thinking and practices to orient ourselves towards faithfulness. Our days should be ordered so that we make the best use of our time since the days are evil (Eph. 5:16). No, in that ordinary does not mean austere and dull. Rhythm and order are not synonymous with monotony. Far from it. Rhythm is the backbone of music. Entire scores rise and fall on the beat of the drum. A symphony can only accentuate its extraordinariness through rhythm. Rhythm’s purpose is not its own exceptionality but its ability to emphasize the extraordinariness of the symphony through order. In contrast, when we become lost in the rhythm of Ordinary Time, we are like a drum that plays only to spotlight its own exceptionality. Its rhythm becomes the end rather than the means to the ultimate end (underlining the symphony's beauty).

“Simple rhythms of faith are born from the expectation that God is with us, for us, and coming soon”

What are we to do about this? How do we embody rhythms of faithfulness yet avoid their idolization? As mentioned earlier, Ordinary Time sits between Pentecost and Advent. Pentecost commemorates the coming of God's animating Spirit and the evidence that God is still working in and through His people. Advent celebrates the Word becoming flesh and the expectancy that Christ will come again in glory so we may also appear with him in glory (Col. 3:4). Simple rhythms of faith are born from the expectation that God is with us, for us, and coming soon. 

Ordinary Time is the season that God’s extraordinary love and grace are lived out by His people, most often in simple rhythms of faith. The simple faithfulness of opening the Scriptures daily, giving thanks for daily bread, humbling your heart and renouncing control, showing up at church with ears tuned to change, or faithfully praying for your neighbor’s salvation, the one whose dog won’t stay out of your yard. The ordering of our lives is how we express this good news and outwork God’s redemption throughout our days. Rhythms of feasting and fasting, giving and receiving, working hard and resting well. These are not the ends but only means to the eternal hopes that underlie them. These ordered rhythms of faithfulness are ways God’s people embody his extraordinary love and grace and plant seeds that will bloom into eternity.

[1] J. Ryan Lister, The Presence of God: Its Place in the Storyline of Scripture and the Story of Our Lives, Crossway, 2015, Chapter 2.

[2] Bobby Gross, Living the Christian Year - Time to Inhabit the Story of God: An Introduction Penguin books ltd, 2009, 234.