For centuries, Christians have ordered their lives around the church calendar. We do this because it gives us the opportunity over the course of a year to walk through the life of Jesus as its revealed in Scripture—his coming and ministry, his suffering and resurrection, and finally the pentecostal blessing of Jesus in sending the Holy Spirit.

With Pentecost we finish considering the story of Jesus and turn to the story of God’s people. Now in the season of Ordinary Time—the entire period between Pentecost and Advent—we take all the joys and promises given to us in Jesus and turn our hearts and our lives toward the ordinary work of living into his mission in this world—whether in times of prosperity or pandemic—in anticipation of the restoration of all things upon Christ’s return (Rev. 21:5-6).

On the one hand, Ordinary Time is a return to our own ordinary journeys in this world. Our journeys that we all have here, as you know, are marked by weakness and strength, by families and foes, by light and darkness. They are journeys where we feel at home and never really at home. 

And yet, we interpret our pilgrim lives in light of a shalom that will come, and that will not disappoint. The peace and joy of the Holy Spirit is at work, and as the body of Jesus in the world our lives are most fully lived in light of this coming reality: that Jesus will return and make all things new. This means not only that we wait in hope for him to return, but that we seek to reflect the reality of the new world right now. We preach the gospel to all peoples because in the new world people from every tribe and tongue will know and worship God; we strive for personal holiness because in the new world our glory will be restored; we love our neighbours because in the new world neighbours will be loved; we pursue justice because in the new world justice will role down like mighty waters.

Jesus’s life reminds us as the church what kind of a community we are meant to be: Jesus with us, for us, and in us as we strive, by the Spirit, to make his life our own and share that life to the world. This Sunday we will begin a new sermon series for this season of Ordinary Time in the book of Acts called “The Church in Movement” where we will consider together the mission of the Church and our own mission in Ladner.