Welcome to Ordinary Time

Last post, I wrote about Christmastide, the liturgical season that comes between Christmas and Epiphany. This time, I write about the season that comes next, Ordinary Time. Ordinary? Like plain vanilla, unadorned, nothing special ordinary time? Not quite.

The season of Ordinary Time gets its name from the Latin word ordinalis, which refers to numbers in a series such as first, second, third and so on. In English, these are called ordinals. This is also where we get the word order. Ordinary Time then is the ordered life of the Church.

Ordinary Time is referred to in the Lutheran Book of Worship as the Sundays after Epiphany and the Sundays after Pentecost. It starts on the Monday after the First Sunday after January 6 which is Epiphany. It ends the first Sunday in Advent.

Ordinary Time, however, takes a time out for the Seasons of Lent, Easter, and Pentecost, and picks up where it left off with the Sundays after Pentecost. Epiphany's message of Christ's revelation to the Gentiles along with the season's traditional emphasis on extending Christ's kingdom through missions, calls for the use of green, a color that reminds us of growth.

The Sundays after Pentecost, which we observe as "the time of the church," share a similar theme as that of Epiphany. Sometimes referred to as the season of the "green meadow," these Sundays also emphasize the subject of growth.

So when you see the green alter paraments and see the Sundays numbered, think order, a time to come to order, a time to get our houses in order, a time that is anything but ordinary.