The name “Ordinary Time” comes from the word “ordinal” as in ordinal numbers (e.g. “first, second, etc.”) because each Sunday is counted after Pentecost. Ordinary time is not “mundane” time, though it can feel that way because it is the season of routine. We have been filled with the Holy Spirit and released into the world, to live to the Lord. Ordinary Time, then, is about learning to see how the resurrection infuses every day, transforming ordinary time into peculiar time.

June 7 | Second Sunday After Pentecost: Jesus Eats with Sinners

Jesus made his contemporaries uncomfortable with his choices of table fellowship. In Matthew 9, the Pharisees can’t believe that Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners. But Matthew, the recently called tax collector, knows that this is the greatest news of all: Jesus is here to eat with the sick and sinners, because we are all sick and need a doctor.

May 31 | First Sunday after Pentecost: Make Disciples, Not Converts

In Matthew 28, Jesus commissions his disciples to make disciples of all nations by baptizing and teaching them. Far too often, the great commission is understood to be an evangelism text, with the understanding to “go make converts” when Jesus is tasking his disciples with something far greater: to help people learn how to live as Jesus did.