One thing I love about Jesus in the Gospel accounts is how he honors and values the very things or people we'd be tempted to view as ordinary. In fact, decades before Jesus' earthly ministry, God chose the most ordinary of towns to serve as the birthplace for the Messiah (Bethlehem). Moreover, on the night Jesus was born, ordinary shepherds were the first to hear the angels' birth announcements of the King of kings. Even Mary and Joseph, ordinary folks from the province of Judah, were just normal, Galilean residents of Nazareth. So--what do we find in the midst of all these ordinary people and circumstances? Well, we find God at work in extraordinary ways! That's right, the story of Christmas is that God's extraordinary Son was sent into an ordinary town on an ordinary night and announced to ordinary shepherds.
And wait, there's more extraordinary examples in Jesus' life that stem from the "ordinary". Decades later, when Jesus began his ministry, he was the ordinary son of a poor carpenter, neglected by his neighbors and persecuted by naysayers. Jesus called ordinary fishermen, a zealot, a tax collector and others to form his band of disciples. Jesus took them to ordinary places and even taught them about the extraordinary Kingdom of God using ordinary stories called parables so that they could grasp, ever so imperfectly, what God's reign and rule looked like in their particular context. And as they walked through Galilee and made their way to Jerusalem, leading up to Jesus' last week on earth, Jesus and his followers met ordinary people like Zacchaeus, a Samaritan woman, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and all sorts of blind, deaf and mute persons--even Jewish and Roman leaders--who were curious about Jesus' power to heal and save. Jesus taught his disciples in an ordinary upper room, proclaiming a new covenantal relationship through ordinary elements (bread/wine), and eventually was thrust upon an ordinary cross and died a real, excruciating, human death. But as we know, Jesus' interactions with Jews and Gentiles alike, including his own death and resurrection, were anything but ordinary.
In Jesus' birth, ministry and passion, God knew exactly what God was doing and honored the usual, customary items and people to do the extraordinary on earth. To our God, nothing created and nothing experienced is ever ordinary--ever. In fact, By associating with all things ordinary during his earthly existence Jesus demonstrated that no thing, and no person, is simply "ordinary" (or unable to be used for God's holy purposes). For it is in the very things we deem ordinary where God's extraordinary power is exhibited most profoundly and acutely. As Christ-followers, this ought not to surprise us, for Paul talked about how God's strength is demonstrated through weakness (2 Cor. 12:9-10), explaining in detail why the ordinary is the seat of God's divine power: "But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. In contrast, God is why you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption..." (1 Cor. 1:27-30a, NRSV). When God's people are spiritually in tune and aware of each moment and experience as gifts from the Lord, nothing is ordinary.
In fact, every aspect of life is a divine gift because the "ordinary" becomes a portal for God's "extraordinary" work to manifest itself in our lives.
And that should give us pause for reflection. After all, how many moments, or how many people, or how many circumstances in our everyday lives do we take for granted? What would happen if we stopped looking at our days as ordinary and instead chose to see God at work in all that we see (even in the events/people that have come and gone)? What if we chose to be more mindful about life and intentionally viewed it as a way to encounter God? If we did this more often, how would our work change? How would our relationships with others shift? What kind of appreciation and gratitude might we develop for the Lord?
Nothing is ordinary. Our extraordinary God wants us to believe that everything and everyone has purpose and meaning, harnessing the ability to help us experience the work of the Holy Spirit in every situation, whether big or small. You've recently heard me preach about the blessing of small churches in the world (including our own). How could anyone neglect the extraordinary going on during our ordinary weeks here at UBC? Jesus is showing up in all of it, and we are the beneficiaries! We mustn't ever see each day as boring or dull or ordinary because God's handprints are on everything we see and experience in creation. And since creation is a reflection of His character (and more specifically, as we are created in God's image), the greatest way to worship our Savior is to find God at work in the ordinary, believing that at any moment God can transform what we interpret as typical into a beautiful and life-altering vision of God's Kingdom.
That's right, ordinary items like cloth and wineskins, seeds and weeds, yeast and treasure, dragnets and pearls, candlelight and lost coins are the very vessels that hold the extraordinary hope of our transformation in Christ Jesus. What does that mean for you in your present-tense experience? It simply means that your car keys, your grocery receipt, the person who changes your oil, the cardinal at your back window, the kid waiting at the bus stop, your lost phone, your plane flight or your broken faucet are windows through which you can observe, more clearly, God's plan unfolding in your life and in the lives of those around you.
The ordinary becomes the extraordinary and ur souls are no longer the same.
We now see life in a different, more appreciative light.
And our love for God, Who shows up in all things, grows and deepens.
Most of all, while we are tempted to ignore ordinary, inanimate objects we must never, ever view people as ordinary. People are holy conduits of God's lovingkindness, and as Christ's body we must look for the extraordinary in everyone. Remember, those who saw God in Jesus during his ministry caught a glimpse of heavenly glory. You and I must make the conscious decision, then, to honor people the way the Spirit teaches us through the apostle Paul: "From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we no longer know him in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; look, new things have come into being!" (2 Cor. 5:16-17, NRSV).
Nothing, or no one, is ordinary.
God is in it all--God's image is reflected in the lives of all people
And when we celebrate what the world views as ordinary, we'll find an extraordinary God waiting to display his greatness and grandeur. And...we'll have the joy of seeing God at work. Often, God chooses us to join him in his redemptive, reconciling work. Therefore, when we engage the ordinary with the extraordinary power of Christ's Holy Spirit, we realize that ALL of life is holy. And this truth alone compels us to give God all the honor and praise!
So let's encourage one another to stop seeing and talking about objects, situations and people as ordinary and begin to live into the reality that God is everywhere, in everything and in all people who bear His image. May God's omnipresence and transcendence call all of us, His Church, to greater, joyful service, both in and around our community. When that happens, friends, nothing less than God's extraordinary blessings become ours for the celebrating. And those we serve reap the blessings of Christ's presence, too! Now that's something to shout about!
I'm proud of you, extraordinary church! I see God in you and in those we serve!
><> Pastor Will <><
John 3:30
