When can you officially start celebrating Christmas? That question brings a varied amount of opinions on the time to put up the tree, listen to Christmas music, and purchase your peppermint mocha.
I’m coming to appreciate the Liturgical Calendar for the church more each year. Technically, Advent begins Sunday, December 2nd leading us into the Christmas season. Our church has provided the Jesus Storybook Bible Advent Guide by Sally Lloyd-Jones for my wife, daughter, and I to go through together. We have started cutting out the ornaments and laminating them.
Ordinary Time refers to the season in the Liturgical Calendar prior to Advent or specific seasons like Lent and Easter. Often, Thanksgiving on Thursday moves us directly into the first Sunday of Advent. This year, we encounter a week of Ordinary Time between Thanksgiving and Advent (Thanksgiving on November 22, 2018, & Advent Sunday, December 2, 2018).
Kate Bowler in Everything Happens for a Reason shares about her wrestling with cancer, the gospel, and dealing with what people have advised her. She says this about Ordinary Time in her life presently with cancer:
If I were to invent a sin to describe what that was—for how I lived—I would not say it was simply that I didn’t stop to smell the roses. It was the sin of arrogance, of becoming impervious to life itself. I failed to love what was present and decided to love what was possible instead. I must learn to live in ordinary time, but I don’t know how.
Do you live in Ordinary Time? This week between Thanksgiving and Advent invites us to pause. We find ourselves driving the nostalgia and energy of the Christmas season while seemingly missing the present.
On the other hand, the Christmas season has become difficult for some of us. We will face the grief of missing a loved one for the first holiday. The financial stress and expectations will haunt us. I have heard people share that the dysfunction of their family becomes acutely felt.
The week of Ordinary Time is a gift for us this Christmas season. It moves us from the hoopla of the holidays to the celebration of Savior stepping down from heaven to earth. It moves us from the cynicism of our current circumstances to the reality of Jesus who has walked into our darkness with us. Ordinary Time represents the 300-400 years between the Old Testament and New Testament — a faithful Messiah in the moments of silence and the brilliance of glory.
I’m not saying to put on hold the Christmas tree, turning off the holiday songs, or giving up your peppermint mocha.
Ordinary Time calls us to see Jesus presently on the Monday before Advent. It calls us to see the people He has invited us to love today. It reminds to experience the silence and solitude of His presence before rushing to the next event.
How will you live in Ordinary Time this week? I pray that this week prepares your heart to experience the Good News of the Gospel found in Jesus.
Photo by Daniel Silva Gaxiola