The Serving and Suffering Community: Week 5 of Ordinary Time
We’re in the season of Ordinary Time - the long stretch of weeks between Pentecost and Advent. If the historic liturgical calendar teaches us to number our days to gain a heart of wisdom, there must be a lot of wisdom to be gained in our regular, working, resting, and worshipping lives. This is the model Christ seemed to have lived, and the church invites us to embrace the same pathway.
Look: Mother Teresa, M. F. Husain - Source
Listen: Little Things With Great Love, The Porter’s Gate, feat. Madison Cunningham - Lyrics | Spotify | YouTube
I made us a new playlist! Ordinary Time, pt. 1: World and Church
Read: Deuteronomy 15:7-11; Psalm 112; 2 Corinthians 8:1-15; Mark 5:22-43
Readings for the rest of the week*: Psalm 11; 1 Kings 17:8-16; Luke 21:12-19; Acts 6:1-8:3; 1 Peter 4:7-19
(The weekly readings during Ordinary Time come from Living the Christian Year by Bobby Gross. If you’d prefer to keep tracking with the Daily Office Lectionary from the 1979 BCP, you can find those passages here.)
Pray: Book of Common Prayer, Collect for the Fifth Week After Pentecost
O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things both in heaven and on earth: Put away from us all hurtful things, and give us those things that are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen
Do: This week, we’re thinking about what it means to join Christ in his suffering and his serving community. In the safety of God’s presence, ask the Spirit to help you prayerfully sit with the following questions:
In what ways has God gifted you for service to your fellow believers within your community - both inside and outside your church walls?
Have you found a fitting place to use those gifts? What would your next step be to offer your gifts to your community?
The beautiful statement from our title song today is attributed to Mother Teresa: “Not all of us can do great things, but we can do small things with great love.” Most likely that proverb comes from this beautiful encouragement:
“We do not need to carry out grand things in order to show a great love for God and for our neighbor.
It is the intensity of love we put into our gestures that makes them something beautiful for God.”
This week, set aside a half-hour this week to listen to Mother Teresa speak at the 1994 National Prayer Breakfast. (You might also enjoy my reflection on everyday acts of sacrificial love in this post: Dying the Many Little Deaths of Ordinary Service.)
*During Ordinary Time this year, I’ll be sharing readings from the excellent devotional guide, Living the Christain Year: Time to Inhabit the Story of God by Bobby Gross. While it’s not necessary to purchase the book to follow along with us, it’s an excellent resource we’ve dog-eared so often the pages are falling out of our copy!