Dear People of Christ Church,
This Sunday, we continue our long sojourn in what the church year calls “ordinary time.” Get used to the color green-you’ll be seeing a lot of it. We don’t call it ordinary time in the bulletin-instead we count Sundays after Pentecost (also: “ordinary”=counted after Pentecost, not just plain). Sunday, after Sunday, after Sunday, all the way to Advent. We mix it up in our liturgy somewhat-we switch the service music (the fixed parts we sing every Sunday, like the opening hymn of praise, the Sanctus, Holy, Holy, Holy, and the short piece of music we sing at the breaking of bread at communion) in the fall, for a bit of variety-but otherwise what you see this Sunday is what you’ll get.
For the last two baptism Sundays, I’ve made the same comment about how all major Christian holidays, from Christmas to Pentecost, are a story of God coming close to us. The church year starts with Advent, with our preparing for the birth of Christ. We continue with Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, and Pentecost. In each of these, there is an aspect of God’s overture to come near; to be born with us, to be in the desert with us, to die with us, to overcome death with us. The Sundays of Pentecost don’t quite have that magic. If the actual feast of Pentecost-that rush of wind and riot of language-is the romantic union of a soul with its maker, then these days of Pentecost are the next day, when the cat pees on your meditation cushion and you forgot to get vegetables for dinner. You know in your mind that God is no less present at those times, but wouldn’t it be nice to have a little of that Easter magic again. You might even settle for Epiphany.
Last week I went to an interfaith Buddhist celebration and was reminded, again, of how I become a better Christian when I engage with those of other faiths. I spent half my senior year of college in India and spent a little time at a Hindu ashram when I was there, and remembered the amazing discipline of Eastern monasticism. Just the visual image of the monastic robe and bowl raises the question-how am I being faithful, day after long day, Sunday after green Sunday? It’s easy to believe in God in the magic of Christmas. It’s even pretty easy, (if not always pleasant) to believe during Lent, when we confess our sins and try to amend our lives. Easter? Piece of cake! But in July? In mid-October? Have you every wished someone a happy nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost?
This is not a scolding go-to-church-over-the-summer message. The Gospel is sweet and joyful news, not sour and condemning. We heard on Sunday how God created us and all of creation and named it good, and God rested. We need to rest, too. But what I wonder about the invitation that the Buddhists I met last week seem to honor so well is that there’s an ease in the discipline of their faith. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, but that there’s some sweet spot of vocation where who they are meets what they’re doing. I wrote about vocation in this space last week-and I think something there is the invitation of these neverending green Sundays. God doesn’t always have to meet us in flashy explosive moments, and we don’t have to try so very, very hard all the time either.
Instead of inviting you, readers, into some big new adventure or challenge, for a change, this week my question for you is this: what’s easy right now? What does that joy tell you about God’s desire for your life and where you’re headed?
Blessings,
Sara+