Wisdom Wednesday- Ordinary Time

Grace and peace to you. I’m Rev. Joe Cailles, the pastor of Peakland United Methodist Church in Lynchburg Virginia. I’m standing in our sanctuary today and I wanted you to see our new green banners which were given by Jan Hickey and Emily Hickey in memory of Madison Grey Hickey. We have green banners on the table, the pulpit and the lectern. The green signifies a new season in the life of the church. Now that Advent and Christmas are done and Lent and Easter are still a month and a half away, we are in a season of Ordinary time here at the church.

For the church the word ordinary has two meanings. Ordinary time comes from the word ordinal. When we count numbers one, two, three, four we are using cardinal numbers. When we count using first, second, third and fourth, those are ordinal numbers. In the church calendar last Sunday, January 15 was the second Sunday after Epiphany, and next Sunday January 22, will be the third Sunday after Epiphany.

Ordinary also means not special, run-of the mill, regular order of business, and it’s true that in the life of the church, we celebrate the high holy days of Christmas, and Easter and Pentecost with lots of big church ministries and special music and fantastic worship. During these ordinary Sundays, we might be tempted to think of church life as run-of the mill, regular order of business, nothing special or exciting happening here.

But that’s where God steps in and makes these ordinary days, extraordinary and transforms regular order of business into new possibilities and new life for our church community.

We at Peakland have discerned that Christ is giving us a vision of reaching out, serving all, and extending God’s table. I’ll be meeting with the principal of Bedford Hills Elementary school this week to see how we at Peakland can reach out there and serve them and welcome them at God’s table. In a couple of weeks on Saturday, January 28, Peakland will have our pot-luck Italian dinner. Our first church potluck supper of the new year with our new kitchen and our new floors. In this ordinary time do something not so ordinary: Reach out to someone you know and invite them to join us at the Potluck. Let’s reach out and extend God’s table to others. Reach out to a neighbor or a church member you haven’t seen in a while, and offer to be with them at the dinner.

During these ordinary church days, we could just do ordinary run of the mill things at Peakland or we could let God do wonderful things with us and our community, reaching out, serving all, extending God’s Table.


Thanks be to God!