It was Mother’s Day. We were all gathered around the table, me, my mother, daughter, step-sister, husband, and three dogs. We were looking at old pictures of family events in the past. My daughter said, “I don’t remember much from the years we lived in Charlotte. And I replied, “It was all pretty ordinary- work, school, church, softball, life.”
The church now moves into the season of Ordinary time, and it is a reminder that so much of life is spent doing ordinary things, nothing outstanding, just the regular rhythm of life. Oliver Sacks said, “Ordinary things slip from the memory while the striking and the novel stay longer in the mind.”
In Genesis, God asked Abram to leave his home and follow him to a new land. In the New Testament Jesus called the disciples and asked them to follow him. Following God was an act of faith. But following also involved pretty regular things- packing up, moving out, pitching a tent, sharing a meal with new friends. Following God, responding to a call, meant leaving a known place for another new and different home. That is what we will be asking a new pastor to do. And we will make this journey with them.
So, for all the drama of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, the truth of the matter is that God is the God of Ordinary Time. His presence is with us in all our ordinary, regular, familiar years. The whole of life is a journey. Sometimes we just forget to notice.
Jesus promised, “I will be with you always, even in the ordinary times, til the end of the age.” Matthew 28: 20
(A Beautiful Year, Diana Butler Bass, St. Martin’s Essentials, New York, 2025, p.205- 225)
Reverend Terry Hanna