Streams of Mercy
In the Sept-Oct issue of the magazine, Presbyterians Today, I came across a wonderful article, by Kathleen Long Bostrom I’d like to share. Bostrom is a retired PC(USA) minister and the author of over 50 books, most of them picture books for children.
“A New Liturgical Season Emerges – ‘Anything But’ Ordinary Time.”
“September is usually the month when we settle back into our routines. Beach umbrellas are replaced by school buses speckling the roadway. Parents scramble to get kids out the door to school. Churches, too, gear up for rally days. But not this year.
As 2020 began – and at the first ragged, painful cough – the world found itself navigating an unprecedented journey that introduced phrases such as “sheltering in place” and “social distancing.” By early summer, as communities began emerging from isolation, protests pushed COVID-19 from the limelight. People joined in outrage, horrified by the brutal death of George Floyd, an African American man pinned to the ground pleading for his life. This year has become “The Year of Tragical Thinking” and has ushered in a new season in the liturgical calendar – “Anything But” Ordinary Time.”
Traditionally, the season of Ordinary Time runs til the Saturday before the first Sunday of Advent. It is a season to discover God in the daily rhythm of our lives. But daily rhythms seem hard to come by lately, and “Anything But” Ordinary Time has put us on an unending road trip with no detailed timeline letting us know when we’ll be safely home again.
The Old Testament lectionary readings recall another unprecedented trip – the one the Hebrews took from Egypt to Canaan. The Hebrews lived in slavery for 500 years, their identity shattered, their freedom long-forgotten. Moses whisks them from the only life they have known and sends them skedaddling into a foreign land where they wander for an entire generation. They are homeless, frightened and threatened, and have no way of knowing when their journey will end. They are only a few miles - and months- into the journey when the people start to whine like a carload of kids on a trip. They even become nostalgic for the “normalcy” of slavery when they reminisce about pots of meat and bread, putting a shining patina on what was in actuality a life of suffering and starvation. Slavery? Normal? Not in God’s eyes.
In this season, we also have World Communion Sunday, which falls on Oct 4. The emphasis on being united with Christians around the world has particular significance in 2020. The pandemic of COVID-19 has unfurled like an 11th plaque, and nobody has been spared the effects. The world seems to have awakened to the blatant inequality between different colors of human beings. And yet we are reminded in the breaking of the bread that Jesus welcomes all people- equally. “This is my body,” Jesus said, not broken for a few, but broken for everyone.
We are still on an unending road trip. We’re not there yet, but there is no going back to the way things were, no more than it was possible for the Hebrews to return to Egypt. Ordinary and normal are no more. Maybe it’s time that we embraced that truth. Let us allow “’Anything But” Ordinary Time to open our eyes, helping us recognize that nobody is exempt from a pandemic and that inequality and injustice won’t go away unless we all make that happen. The journey has begun, and we must keep moving forward until we are finally home. “
I give thanks for Bostrom’s gifts in ministry, for these insights to help us find our way on this continuing journey to a new day, and for the faithfulness of our God who is with us on the journey.
Elizabeth