My guess is that many of you feel the approach of fall—perhaps because the thermometer hasn’t hit 90 degrees for a while (I am hoping this trend will continue!), but more likely because of the change in activities. The last few weeks of summer are usually a hectic whirlwind as the final moments of vacation-time collide with the beginning of new seasons at school and work. If your house feels like ours, the transition is well underway.
There are lots of moments when the secular calendar is out of sync with the Church’s calendar, and summer is one of them. Summer lands in Pentecost Season every year, and summer is a feast season in our country, even though Pentecost Season isn’t. In the moments when the Church’s calendar and the secular calendar don’t line up, we can feel the tension of being citizens of heaven even though we live in the kingdoms of this world. We are exiles, waiting for the moment we go to our true home. Living under two calendars is actually a fantastic reminder of this!
But in the fall, the secular calendar begins to line up with Pentecost Season, and the tension is relieved (at least until Advent). Pentecost Season, which is often called Ordinary Time, is the long season of ordinary discipleship. It is focused on living our normal lives faithfully by being missionaries at work, at school, and in the home and by participating in the regular rhythm of the Church’s worship and prayer. The Spirit is given to the Church at Pentecost, and what flows out of this is ordinary life, lived faithfully, as God’s witnesses in the world. Going back to “ordinary life” in the secular sense fits the Church’s focus in Ordinary Time.
Over the next couple weeks, you will hear about the ordinary patterns of discipleship that we will be engaging in this fall. Bible studies are being revamped, New Members’ Class begins again, Sunday School restarts, Small Groups kick off—pay attention to emails and announcements! But before those announcements, there is the more important reminder:
Pentecost Season is about living our ordinary lives in the power of the Spirit.
As fall gets underway in your home, don’t lose track of this core element. In the Spirit, our ordinary lives become more than we can imagine. The ordinary activities of each day become acts of worship, discipleship, and mission as we are filled with the presence of God.
Steven+