Ordinary Time/Extraordinary Events

Ordinary Time/Extraordinary Events

John 21:20-25

            Many Christian churches (including mine) follow the Liturgical Year.  It begins four Sundays before Christmas with the Season of Advent.  This is followed by the Season of Christmas (Christmas Eve through January 5), then Epiphany (January 6).  The time from January 7 to Ash Wednesday (the beginning of the Season of Lent) is called Ordinary Time.  We joke about it being “just old ordinary time,” but that’s not what it means.  Instead of “just the same old same old,” this ordinary derives from the word ordered.  (For those of you who like completeness, Lent lasts until Easter, which lasts 50 days until Pentecost, then Ordinary Time again until the next Advent.)

            These two seasons of Ordinary Time are not just long periods of waiting with nothing to do.  Instead they are times when we consider all the events of Jesus’ life between his birth (and the preparation for it) and death (the preparation for it and the events after).  And there is much to focus on.  The gospels are full of the things Jesus said, the things Jesus did, and the reactions of many people to him.  We read of healings—physical, emotional and spiritual.  We hear him as he calls people back to the spirit of Torah Law, instead of just the letter.  In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus repeats several times the words “You have heard it said…, but I say…,” each time completing the first half of the statement with an old interpretation of the Torah followed by his interpretation in the second half.

            Repeatedly we see Jesus favoring the poor, the dispossessed, the disenfranchised, and the oppressed.  He doesn’t have much good to say about the rich unless they are willing to give their surplus wealth (which is greater in Jesus’ eyes than in their own) to help those in need.  God’s kingdom, the coming of which is a focus of his teaching and his mission, is reserved for those who love God with everything they have, and demonstrate their love for God by the depth of their love for their neighbors.  Jesus defines neighbors as anyone who has a need we can meet.

            There is enough of this material to fill Ordinary Time three times over and then some.  John says it best in the final verse of his gospel: “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did.  Were every one of them to be written, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

            Hyperbole?  Probably—and yet there is truth in the statement.  John’s conception of the world was much smaller than ours.  For him the world consisted of the Middle East—and only part of that.  We who have seen the earth from outer space (albeit only in pictures) know just how large our planet is.  Surely it is large enough to contain all the books written about the life of Jesus, even if every single event were recorded.

            But what about since then?  We know that Jesus has never stopped being active in this world.  Yes, there are many times when it seems Jesus is far removed from the world, but in our hearts we know that’s not true.  Many of us have experienced his presence in our own lives, and we can testify to God’s work in us and in those around us.  Sometimes Jesus works in us directly, and we can feel the power of his love and grace filling us, changing us, and calling us to deeper love and higher service. Often Jesus works through others to bring about changes in us.  We experience him through those who serve us, through those who encourage us, through those who show us where we need to grow.

            If we were to write down every thing that Jesus has done to affect so many people since his resurrection, John’s statement might well be true.  There would not be enough bookshelves on this planet to hold all those writings—and isn’t that amazing!