We are in a not-so-Ordinary Time

These mid-summer days are often the source of confusion in the church. I am talking about the way the church designates this time in the Christian Year.

 
The significance of time in the church
The world has a calendar that begins on January first, and that it divides into twelve months. The church reckons time in a different way. Its year begins with Advent which can fall as early as November 27 and as late as December 3. This season begins four Sundays before Christmas day and runs through December 24. The calendar progresses with the Season After Epiphany, Lent and Easter. These things are fairly cut-and-dried, though there are a couple of wrinkles that we will examine on another date.

Where did the confusion come from?
On the day after Pentecost (May 23) we entered a time that has gone by several names in recent history. The United Methodist Church (along with a few other Christian groups) made the decision in 1937 to divide its observance of the time between Pentecost and Advent into two seasons. The days from Pentecost through the end of August comprised the Season of Pentecost. The liturgical color was red, reminding us of the tongues of fire that appeared over those early Christians who were gathered together when the Holy Spirit descended on them. The church then designated the time from September 1 through the end of the season as the season of Kingdomtide. The color for the paraments, clergy stoles and other appointments was green – a color reminding the church of the eternal life promised by the gospel. This practice continued until 1992. At that time, the United Methodist Church was the only denomination still clinging to observing Kingdomtide.,

In that year, The United Methodist Church released its new United Methodist Book of Worship. In that book the church adopted the title of The Season After Pentecost for these days. For a while there was a parenthetical (United Methodist Kingdomtide) addition to some documents, but that cumbersome title soon fell by the wayside. It was a painful reminder that only our denomination clung to a label that set it apart from the rest of Christianity, rather than affirming our oneness as the Body of Christ.

So, what is “Ordinary Time?”
The church also refers to this latter portion of the year as Ordinary Time. Some people mistakenly interpret this to mean “common” or “unremarkable.” They argue that the first part of the liturgical calendar contains Advent, Christmas, Epiphany Day, the Baptism of the Lord, the Transfiguration, Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost. From that last even until the last Sunday of the year (Christ the King), we observe few festive days.

But that is not the meaning of Ordinary Time. The description refers rather to the way in which we reckon time in this season. It is a way of signifying that we designate these Sundays not with cardinal numbers (one, two, three…) but with ordinals (first, second third…). The coming Sunday, for instance is the Eleventh Sunday After Pentecost. The remaining days of the week are counted from the Sunday with which the week begins.

These assigned numbers are not absolutely constant. That is, the Sunday on or nearest August 8 is not the Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost each year. The key to that puzzle comes much earlier in the year. While Christmas is always December 25 and Epiphany is always January 6, the next great observance comes with a less consistent date. The way the church counts the remainder of the year depends on the date of Easter. This gets a little involved, to be sure. Easter is related to the calendaring of the Jewish Passover. The Jewish religious year follows a lunar calendar rather than a solar one. So, Easter will occur on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the vernal equinox. That means that Easter comes between March 22 and April 25. So, Pentecost (fifty days later) may fall from May 10 to June 13. So, the first Sunday After Pentecost can occur any time from May 17 to June 20. Subsequent Sundays receive their ordinal according to when that first Sunday appears on the calendar.

The designated color for the season is green, again referring to new life, abundant life eternal life as the New Testament describes it. The days in the season devote much attention to the teachings of Jesus, just as the first half of the year emphasizes many of the events in the life of Christ. It is a time of digging deeper into the significance of our commitment and discipleship.

So, while our present Time is Ordinary, there is nothing commonplace about it.