Ordering Our Lives around Christ's Life & Teaching
The Season after epiphany
From Epiphany until Lent, we observe a part of the Christian year called Ordinary Time, which we count as weeks following Epiphany. During this time we continue with Epiphany’s theme and consider Jesus’ manifestation of himself as God. We see this manifestation especially in Jesus’ Baptism, his presentation in the temple, and his transfiguration. Focusing on Jesus’ identity in this way helps us learn how to go about living out our extraordinary faith, with its extraordinary history, in the worship of an extraordinary God, in our normal, every day, ordinary lives.
The Season After Pentecost
We also observe a second season of Ordinary Time from Pentecost until Advent, which we count as weeks following Pentecost. During this time we especially remember the lives and actions of Jesus’ followers. We think about how the first Christians lived their lives, and how we should live ours today.
This season of Ordinary Time takes up half the year and it doesn’t offer big exciting festivals such as Christmas or Easter. As a result, as one Sunday follows another, this season can begin to feel, well, ordinary.
There’s a good reason for this. The believers who developed our Christian calendar knew that following Jesus isn’t always a big party. Sometimes it’s long, hard, and even mundane. But they wanted to remind us that God still works in our lives during the regular times. After all, how ordinary is ordinary when God is in it?
This is the season that helps us figure out how to go about living out our extraordinary faith, with its extraordinary history, in the worship of an extraordinary God, in our normal, every day, ordinary lives.