What Season Are We In Now?  Hint:  Not Winter!

                                    Nancy Gammill, Senior Pastor

As we enter into this season of the Christian year, we are rather “in between” two seasons of the year.  We are living after Advent and Christmas and still waiting for Lent and Easter.  These two big seasons of the year are very connected, in ways which may seem strange to contemplate.  Both Advent and Lent are times of waiting and preparation of the heart to welcome and receive Christ the King once again into our lives.  At Christmas time he comes into our lives as a vulnerable infant just as we are vulnerable in our lives in many ways.  He comes amazingly to be one of us at the points where we are the most needy and wounded.  At Easter time, he comes into our lives as the resurrected Christ,  having vanquished death on the cross and proving once and for all that God’s goodness has ultimately triumphed over death and darkness.  One season is necessary for the celebration of the other in the totality of our faith journeys. 

In between the two is the season we call After Epiphany or “Ordinary Time.”  During Epiphany we celebrate the revelation or manifestation of God to all humankind with two stories in particular, the story of the Wise Men following the star, and the Baptism of Jesus.  We also hear stories of Jesus calling his disciples, and watch the beginning of his ministry. This time of year in the church is also known as “Ordinary Time”, partly because it has no great central theme as Christmas and Easter do. That does not mean it’s not important, however.  According to the General Norms of the Liturgical year and the Christian calendar, the days of Ordinary Time, especially the Sundays “are devoted to the mystery of Christ in all its aspects.”  Throughout the Christian year, there are about 33 or 34 weeks of Ordinary Time.  But in fact, many important Christian observances happen during this time, including All Saints Sunday, Christ the King Sunday, Trinity Sunday, and a number of specifically important United Methodist Sundays.  No Sunday during the year is truly “ordinary” in the ordinary sense of the word.  All Sundays are celebrated as mini Easter Sundays, days of resurrection.  Even during Lent, the Sundays are left out of the “40 days of Lent” and celebrated as resurrection days.

Most of the days of Ordinary Time throughout the year are celebrated with the liturgical color of green, with the exception of the days right after Pentecost which usually falls in late May or early June and on which the color red will be displayed (read Acts 2 to see why.)  In our church we choose to use the rainbow colored paraments after Pentecost as a time of transition between Pentecost and Ordinary Time and in August we change back to green. The days of waiting and preparation before Christmas and Easter are usually purple indicating the color of royalty for Christ the King, and the special feast days like Holy Communion, for example, are white along with the seasons of Christmas and Easter.  I’m sure it is confusing at times as the colors change, and please feel free to ask me questions if you are wondering at times.