Anything But Ordinary

The Rev. Dr. Skip Ferguson

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

October 9, 2011

Anything But Ordinary

Philippians 4:1-9

The 28^th Sunday in Ordinary Time:

that’s how our liturgical calendar marks today.

Last week was “World Communion Sunday”.

A few weeks before that we had Genesis Sunday;

but today is called simply,

the 28^th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Could we come up with a less interesting way

to refer to this particular Sunday in our liturgical year?

Throughout the year

we have our special Sundays

like Easter, Pentecost,

Reformation Sunday,

and monthly Communion Sundays.

We also have our special seasons:

Advent, which is just 7 short weeks away,

and the six weeks of Lent

which begins with Ash Wednesday.

We add in our own special Sundays,

unique to our church:

in addition to Genesis Sunday

we have Youth Sunday,

Heritage Sunday,

Ordination Sunday,

Music Ministry Sunday,

and Confirmation Sunday,

among others.

Still, even with all these special days,

our Liturgical Calendar refers to most Sundays as “Ordinary”.

In fact, 33 of 52 Sundays each year are termed “Ordinary”.

Perhaps it’s time we turn the Liturgical Calendar over

to a marketing and advertising agency.

It hardly sounds like an exciting invitation

to say “come to church next Sunday;

for the 29^th Sunday in Ordinary Time.”

How much more exciting if we said,

“Come and join us next Sunday

for an all-new premillennial Lord’s Day celebration!

Join us and don’t get left behind.”

We’ve been looking at worship the past few weeks

in our Bible Study classes,

both the Wednesday and the Thursday groups,

and one of things we’ve learned is that

no Sunday is ordinary;

every Sunday is special,

every Sunday is extraordinary.

Every Sunday is extraordinary

because every Sunday is the Sabbath,

the day the Lord commands us to honor and keep holy,

the day blessed by our Lord,

the day consecrated by God.

Every Sunday also has a bit of Easter in it.

Easter without the lilies and the chocolate bunnies,

but Easter just the same,

because every Sunday we celebrate the Resurrection.

Every Sunday we remember that

the Risen Christ is with us,

that God did more than just give us his Son,

he raised his Son from the grave,

raised him for you and for me,

defeating death in the bargain,

so that you and I would be assured of

God’s love for all eternity.

The liturgical calendar uses the word “ordinary”

not in the sense of common,

not in the sense of “everyday”;

It uses the word in the context of “in order”:

the next Sunday in order

as we go through the Liturgical year,

a year that begins with Advent,

a full month before our secular calendars

turn the page to a new year.

Because every Sunday is extraordinary,

even those we call “ordinary”,

we should fill them with our rejoicing,

just as Paul tells us to,

our hearts filled with joy as we come to worship.

We should enter this Sanctuary every Sunday

rejoicing,

knowing that we have the potential, each of us,

to leave this room an hour or so after we walked in

different,

transformed,

transformed by the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

We should come into this Sanctuary rejoicing

because we have the potential

to have something extraordinary happen

to each of us.

If, of course,

always the “if”,

if we come here open to God’s transforming power,

if we come in with hearts and minds open

to the prospect, the potential,

the possibility, that if we let God,

if we step out of the way,

God will transform us in heart and in mind.

Even on the most ordinary of Sundays,

if you come into this Sanctuary

filled with a sense of expectation,

filled with a sense of anticipation

that something extraordinary

could happen to you,

You could walk out of here

looking much the same as when you walked in

but feeling different inside,

tingling with the Spirit,

knowing that somehow, someway

through the power of God’s Holy Spirit

you became a little more Christ-like

a little more godly.

It’s simple:

If you come into the Sanctuary,

come into worship with ordinary expectations,

then nothing extraordinary is likely to happen.

You won’t be open to God’s power;

you’ll block the way – even to God –

with a closed mind, a closed heart,

                      

But if you come rejoicing,

filled with a sense of expectation

that the extraordinary could happen,

then don’t be surprised when it does.

If you come in rejoicing,

you are sure to go out rejoicing with even more Spirit

and enthusiasm.

“Rejoice in the Lord always,

again I say rejoice!”

Paul’s words to his brothers and sisters in Philippi

were instructions not just for worship, of course.

They were instructions for how Paul wanted them,

wants us,

to go through life,

all of life: the good times and the bad,

the ups and the down.

Paul himself was well acquainted with the bad,

just read through Acts

and you’ll marvel at all Paul went through

as he traveled throughout the Mediterranean

sharing the gospel.

Still, for all he went through

he found it easy to write “rejoice”.

He found it easy to write,

even though the letter was written

as Paul languished in a dank, dark prison cell

far from family and friends.  

Rejoice, Paul wrote,

rejoice so you can take hold of the extraordinary life

to which you have been called through Jesus Christ.

Let go of the tedious ordinary things

that control you and shape your life:

fear, worry,

self-indulgence,

pettiness, greed,

quarreling, anger, resentment.

Embrace the elements of the extraordinary life,

Paul then tells us,

the honorable, the noble:

compassion, kindness,

charity, patience,

acceptance.

Let your gentleness be known:

your forbearance, your openness,

your compassion,

your concern for the needs of others,

for these are the characteristics

of faithful disciples of Jesus Christ,

those who model their lives on his.

        

The great theologian Karl Barth wrote,

“On Sunday morning when the bells ring

to call [us all] to church,

there is in the air an expectancy that something great,

[something] crucial,

… [something] even momentous is about to happen.”

(The Word of God and the Word of Man,

104, italics in original)

The cause may or may not be the sermon;

it may or may not be a choir anthem;

it could be the silent prayer you lift up,

it could be the person you greet

during the passing of the peace,

it could be the expression on the face

of a child sitting near you,

a youngster completely enthralled by the lights,

the sound, the people, the place,

a youngster who finds the whole experience

truly extraordinary.

If you are filled with a sense of expectation,

then you will be ready for it to happen:

the momentous.

If you are filled with a sense of expectation

you will participate fully and completely

in every part of worship

ready to sing out,

even if you cannot sing;

more attentive to prayer,

even if your mind is filled with concerns from work and home;

listening with open mind and heart

as the word of God is read

and then interpreted.

What makes an worship service extraordinary

is not whether we have some festive music

or some other special celebration is woven into the service.

What makes it extraordinary is

how actively you engage yourself in worship.

The worship leaders – me, Deborah, our liturgists,

our role is to prompt, to teach;

but your role is to respond,

respond to God, respond for God,

joyfully, enthusiastically.

If you sit as still and stolid as an ebenezer,

that wonderful Old Testament word

that means a large rock,

you may well miss the momentous,

the extraordinary.

You may walk out perhaps with some new knowledge,

humming music from the service,

but you will not be transformed.

    

Our Directory for Worship

describes worship as a time when

“The people call God by name,

invoke God’s presence,

beseech God in prayer,

and stand before God in silence and contemplation.

They bow before God,

lift hands and voices in praise,

sing, make music, and dance.

Heart, soul, strength, and mind, with one accord,

they join in the language, drama,

and pageantry of worship.”

Do you hear how active worship should be?

The people of God don’t sit

while worship leaders read, lead and plead,

The people of God are fully engaged,

actively participating in the extraordinary,

filled with anticipation,

filled with a sense of expectation.

Steve Jobs, the chairman and co-founder of Apple Computer,

who died this past week of pancreatic cancer,

was a man who sought the extraordinary as he built his company.

He sought the extraordinary and expected the extraordinary,

and over the years, he and his company gave us

one extraordinary product after another

beginning with the Macintosh computer;
I am on my seventh or 8^th over the past 20 years.

He gave us the iPod, the iPhone, the iPad

each an extraordinary product

from a man and a company that sought nothing less.

His passion wasn’t fueled by a desire to make money;

that would have been too common, too ordinary

His passion was fired by his desire

to build extraordinary products.

I remember reading a story of how Jobs went about

hiring a senior executive from Pepsi Cola

The man was among the top executives at Pepsi

and had no reason to leave:

he was paid extremely well,

and had all the trappings and perks

that came with top management position.

But Jobs captured him for Apple when he said,

“Look you can either spend the rest of your career

selling flavored sugar water to people,

or you can come to Apple and change the world.”

It was nothing less than an invitation

to leap from the ordinary to the extraordinary.

This is the invitation we each have

as we live out our lives as disciples of Jesus,

an invitation renewed each Sunday morning

as we enter this Sanctuary for worship:

an invitation to embrace the extraordinary

in every part of worship

in anticipation of a transformative encounter

with God’s Holy Spirit.

So come rejoicing,

come rejoicing each Sunday as you come for worship,

festival Sunday or ordinary Sunday.

Come filled with expectation and anticipation,

participate with enthusiasm,

passion,

opening yourself to the one you are here for,

the one you are worshiping.

Demonstrate to God through your worship

that you think of him as extraordinary.

And then leave rejoicing,

for you will be transformed,

filled that much more

with that extraordinary peace,

that peace that is wholeness, completeness,

that peace that truly surpasses understanding.

To God be the glory!

AMEN