Growing and Flourishing in Ordinary Time

We are in the growing season of the church year. It’s the time in the liturgical calendar that we call “time after Pentecost”. Some folks in the church call it “Ordinary Time”. I like the simplicity of that.

This time after Pentecost – this Ordinary Time – in the church year is a long season – it begins with The Holy Trinity Sunday at the end of May goes until Christ the King Sunday at the end of November. Then the comes the First Sunday in Advent and we start the liturgical cycle over again.

Ordinary Time is a long fertile season…a time of growing the church. We will hear scripture stories from the prophets in the Old Testament and the apostles in the New Testament, witnessing to God’s love and care; we will watch and listen with Jesus’ disciples, as they follow Jesus, witnessing his teaching and healing and feeding people with love and compassion. From all of this, we will grow in our understanding of what it means to be people of God; to be gathered together as the church….into the body of Christ…sent out into the world for the sake of the world.

Ordinary Time – this time after Pentecost – is a season of maturing for us as people of faith; it is a time for us to grow deeper in wisdom and spiritual maturity. We are nurtured during this time by the ancient spiritual practices of prayer; worship; scripture reading and study; discernment; and living in Christian community for mutual conversation and consolation.

In today’s scripture we are given the image of the tree as a way to think about how we live together and grow together in this community of faith.

We hear in Ezekiel that God will take a sprig – a small piece – from a cedar tree and plant it on a high mountain where it will grow into a noble cedar.

We hear in the psalm that “the righteous will flourish (will grow) like a palm tree and shall spread abroad like a cedar…”.

And from the gospel, we hear the familiar parable of how the kin_dom of God is like the mustard seed, that smallest of seeds that when planted grows into the greatest of shrubs.

Trees are planted, in a certain place, and when the conditions are right, they grow, rooted down into the soil and extending up into the sky. They flourish.

One of the fascinating things I have learned in the last few years is that trees have the ability to communicate with each other! Did you know that? Trees are connected through their root systems; they are networked together so that they can share water and nutrients; through that network, they can also communicate when they are distressed and they can assist each other in times of drought or disease.

Trees communicate with each other in their network – in their community – to sustain life together.

Now I don’t know exactly how trees communicate with each other. I don’t know if their patterns of communication vary over time or with the seasons. I don’t know if trees get anxious when the weather changes, all of a sudden, and the wind starts to blow and the threat of a storm approaches.

I do, however, know something about how people communicate with each other, as they live together in community, in good times and in challenging times.

In the best of times, when life is calm and all is well, people in community communicate

with each other in healthy ways – with open and honest conversation; talking directly with each other, face-to-face (or zoom box to zoom box); listening to each other with compassion; acknowledging and respecting differences in perspective; growing in understanding and learning from each other. Under these conditions, a community can grow and flourish.

Then, of course, there are times when life is not calm and things change and every day is a challenge. Change can be threatening to a community; people get anxious when things around them change, all of a sudden, in ways that they cannot control. Under these conditions, people in community may communicate with each other in unhealthy ways – talking about people behind their backs, rather than directly; speaking for others (“people are saying”), rather than for themselves; forming judgements without fully listening to different perspectives. Under these conditions, a community will struggle and stagnant.

Holy Trinity Lutheran Church is in a season of change, with the recent retirement of your pastor, and a season of transition, as we work together through the process of calling a new pastor to serve in this place.

My hope for you is that this will be a season of spiritual growth for you, individually and collectively as a community of faith.

My hope for you is that this will be a season that nurtures and sustains you, as you root yourselves in the spiritual practices that bring abundant life.

My hope for you is that this will will be a season of healthy communication in this community of faith, as you listen to one another and to the Holy Spirit for guidance.

The good news for this day is that the seed of the kin_dom of God has been sown in this place called Holy Trinity Lutheran Church for many years; of decades

The good news for this day is that through the Word and water and bread and wine that is offered in this place, Christ makes all things new.

The good news for this day is that you who gather so faithfully in this place are connected and joined together by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Trust in the power of the Holy Spirit to lead you in this season of transition so that the kin_dom of God may continue to grow and flourish and bear good fruit in you and in this place.

To God be the glory. Amen.