St Mary's Uttoxeter

On being ordinary

15 Feb 2017 • Articles

On being ordinary

Author: Geoffrey Lowson

Having just emerged from three consecutive church seasons – Advent, Christmas and Epiphany – we are now in the period leading up to Ash Wednesday and Lent, which the church designates as ‘ordinary time’. For those of us who were weaned on The Book of Common Prayer, the three Sundays immediately before Ash Wednesday had much more exotic names; Septuagesima, Sexagesima and Quinquagesima. Compared with that, ordinary time sounds a bit, well, ordinary!

What do we make of ordinariness? In terms of things, it can be hard to say. What makes one painting really special and yet another insignificant?

For people, it is even more complex. In a society that spends so much time worshipping ‘celebrity’; when we make such a fuss about the number of A* passes at GCSE; when the government is talking in terms of a meritocracy, what about those of us who are just ordinary?

As I parish priest I was occasionally saddened by the fact that, when planning the funeral, the bereaved spouse could not think of anything to say about the partner who had just died. It was not because they did not love the person; it was not because there was nothing to tell. It was because they felt that they had to tell of something important; they felt that living an ordinary life was somehow less significant. Once that barrier was overcome, the stories began to flow.

Jesus loved to be with ordinary men and women; he entrusted his mission to twelve working men. So often in our own generation we see God at work in the every day. Further, I have always found the Indian greeting namaste particularly beautiful. When Indians greet one another by put their hand together and bowing, they often utter the word namaste, which can be translated ‘I greet the little bit of God in you.’ How cananyone be just ordinary with that in mind?

Of course extraordinary achievements are to be celebrated and applauded and things of great beauty and worth are to be admired. But to a certain extent, it is the ordinary that underpins the extraordinary. It is the plywood plinth that supports the wonderful sculpture; it is the supportive parent who makes cups of tea for the A* pupil.

And so back to ordinary time. The next period will be the 26 weeks long, from the day after the Feast of Pentecost until the first Sunday of Advent. It is a time for reflection andgrowth (hence the green colour); a time devoted to the mystery of Christ in all its aspects, both the ordinary and the extraordinary.