Essay on Common Time
The season of the Christian year called “common time” consumes much of the year. I will share my studies of the biblical texts. These studies owe much to the input of Homiletics, a magazine designed for preachers who value the lectionary. I have also taken seriously their theological dimension through consulting Karl Barth and Wolfhart Pannenberg.
The season of common time continues with thematic selections from the Old Testament, epistles, and gospels that will have the little connection with each other. The Psalm will usually have some relationship to the Old Testament reading. I have found it helpful to select one such theme and preach from that perspective. The number of Sundays will vary.
I have added a theological reflection on the biblical texts for this season. The Old Testament, Epistle, and Gospel lessons are successive studies of books in the Bible. The psalm usually follows the Old Testament lesson, sometimes so closely that I put the two together. It is a good opportunity to educate the congregation biblically and for the preacher to dig deeper into a portion of the Bible. These studies have fewer illustrations and focus upon the theological and philosophical implications of the texts.
Year A Old Testament Lesson, in which I include reflection on the psalm, begins with Genesis 6, then Exodus, then Deuteronomy, then Joshua, and ends with Judges; the Epistle Lesson begins with Romans, then Philippians, and ends with Thessalonians; and the Gospel Lesson is from Matthew.
Year B Old Testament lessons, in which I include reflection on the psalms, focus on King David, King Solomon, Song of Solomon, Proverbs, Esther, Job, Ruth, and ends with I Samuel; the Epistle Lesson starts with II Corinthians, then Ephesians, then James, and concluding with Hebrews; the Gospel Lesson starts with Mark and moves to John 6, and then returns to Mark 7 and following.
Year C Old Testament lessons, in which I include reflection on the psalms, begin with Elijah in I Kings, then II Kings, then Amos, then Hosea, then Isaiah, then Jeremiah, then Lamentations, then Joel, then Habakkuk, then Haggai, and ends with Isaiah; the Epistle Lesson begins with Galatians, then Colossians, then Hebrews 11-13, then Philemon, then Pastoral Epistles, concluding with II Thessalonians, and the Gospel Lesson is from Luke.
Common Time contains within it two special days on which I offer a theological reflection on these texts: All Saints’ Day and Thanksgiving Day. One will need to decide about the readings for All Saints’ Day which one can substitute for the first Sunday in November.
Common Time culminates with the Feast of Christ the King or the Last Sunday of the Church Year, for which I also have a theological study of the texts.
Here are my Bible studies for these Sundays. These reflections include some homiletical insights, stories, and illustrations that will be missing in the theological reflections. They do contain some repetitions that I hope in the future I can correct. They are not as tightly presented as I would like.
May 29-June 4
Year A
Year B
Year C
June 5-11
Year A
Year B
Year C
June 12-18
Year A
Year B
Year C
June 19-25
Year A
Year B
Year C
June 26-July 2
Year A
Year B
Year C
July 3-9
Year A
Old Testament or Alternative Reading
Year B
Year C
July 10-16
Year A
Year B
Year C
July 17-23
Year A
Year B
Year C
July 24-30
Year A
Year B
Year C
July 31-August 6
Year A
Year B
Year C
August 7-13
Year A
Year B
Year C
August 14-20
Year A
Year B
Year C
August 21-27
Year A
Year B
Year C
August 28-September 3
Year A
Year B
Year C
September 4-10
Year A
Year B
Year C
September 11-17
Year A
Year B
Year C
September 18-24
Year A
Year B
Year C
September 25-October 1
Year A
Year B
Year C
October 2-8
Year A
Old Testament: Introduction Commandments 1-4 Commandments 5-10
Year B
Year C
October 9-15
Year A
Year B
Year C
October 16-22
Year A
Year B
Year C
October 23-29
Year A
Year B
Year C
October 30-November 5
Year A
Year B
Year C
November 6-12
Year A
Year B
Year C
November 13-19
Year A
Year B
Year C
I conclude reflections on three days that occur toward the end of common time that require some special attention.
All Saints’ Day is always November 1, but I have found that a celebration on the first Sunday of November with communion was quite acceptable. It is a day of remembrance for the saints, with the New Testament meaning of all Christian people of every time and place. We celebrate the communion of saints as we remember the dead of both the Church universal and of our local congregations. For this reason, the names of persons in the congregation who have died during the past year may be solemnly read as a response to the word. We are saints and sinners. An interesting moment for the children would be to ask them to bring an adult with them to the front of the church.
This could be a good Sunday to emphasize the gift that growing old gracefully could be to self and others. Life's second half can be life's best half. A youth-oriented culture can give the impression that makes growing older a sin. We routinely make assumptions. An over 55 housing development assumes targets those over that age who want to hang out only with others that age. However, some of us over that age prefer to be in diverse communities and to be with those younger. We appreciate the innovative ideas and experiences younger people can bring to our lives. Many people assume that sexuality and sensuality are no longer important. Yet, released from the stresses of working and raising a family, many couples are experiencing the best sex of their lives. With the focus on healthy lifestyle that the baby-boom generation has emphasized, many elderly persons are healthy and vibrant, still exercising and running, and are reminders that aging does not mean sicker is part of being elderly. Many are living longer and healthier lives. Churches understandably want young couples with families to learn the value of finding their gifts for ministry in the church and the world. Yet, church leadership often targets this busy group for its volunteers. The elderly have done their service and put out to pasture. Some elderly in the church like that idea. Yet, the group that has the time to prioritize and focus upon such gifts for ministry is the elderly. Retirees have far greater flexibility of time for crucial areas of church activity, growth and development. Churches tend to offer to the young the newest trends and topics, assuming those older are interested only in the stable old standbys. Such an approach can bore the elderly and lessen their needed spiritual growth. Many students of aging recognize that there are various stages of retirement, for example, and that the spiritual growth of those in that phase of life involves facing the gifts and challenges of each stage. Growing old gracefully involves re-engaging with the community in smarter and wiser ways. Growing old gracefully means being a visionary for the future of your church, your community, your country. Growing old gracefully means taking the time to celebrate all the physical and spiritual gifts God provides, and relishing them. Growing old gracefully accepts the natural limitations of ageing while at the same time challenging such limits by not caving into them too early. If you enjoy doing something, do it until you cannot do it. Your body will have plenty of time in the ground. Growing old gracefully does not mean rattling around in an empty nest, but rather, it means opening the doors of your mind, heart and home to new ideas, new feelings and new people God sends your way. Are you looking forward to "retirement" as a time with a slowed pace, a quiet house, and a lot of golf? Such an approach to the retirement stages of life has never appealed to me. Growing old gracefully means finding the gifts for ministry you continue to have and finding your way to allow such gifts to flourish.
The fact that . . . we still live well cannot ease the pain of feeling that we no longer live nobly.[1]
When it comes time to die, make sure that all you have to do is die. The only way to make sure of that is to live every day as though it were your last.[2]
When I was young, I was sure of everything; in a few years, having been mistaken a thousand times, I was not half so sure of most things as I was before; at present, I am hardly sure of anything but what God has revealed to me.[3]
We do not set out to become old. Far from it, we hardly intend to become middle‑aged. Instead, we plan to live in some eternal now which will lead on to something better, something more complete than what we have done before. Sometime in our spiritual travels, as a complete surprise, we notice it has become winter. The waves crashing over the deck are ice‑cold and gray. For the first time, we know we are not going to become old; we are, perhaps without admitting it, already old. Youth and middle age are behind us. This change has occurred, it seems, without preparation, without fair warning. My friend John Chase was a humorist. "The reason why I'm not doing so well at being old," he said in his 85th year, "is that I don't have any practice." But haven't we been preparing all along? Haven't our lives up to now given us some kind of practice?[4]
All Saints' Day celebrates the age and wisdom of the church‑‑we find strength and renewed vitality in the long history of the institution. Grace and power are present in the long arm of tradition within our churches that also enjoy long personal histories. This is the church's conversation with the dead, our continuing dialogue with the saints about how they have preceded us in this faith. None of us is here, "on our own;" all of us are indebted to the saints for our faith.
Among the challenges of being a Christian is to realize that you are part of an amazing history and tradition, but you are living in an age that does not care about it.
The sociologist, Margaret Mead, once called us Americans “Neophiles,” that is, “lovers of the new.” We worship the new and improved model of everything. In a traditional, agricultural society, the elders have something to teach the young. But in a technological society, the old seem to have nothing to teach the young. Technology renders the older generation. We see this tendency in church. People do not want to sing the old songs anymore. Contemporary Christian music is all the rage. We do not care much for the Bible. We ought to admit that it is much easier to see the prejudices of our grandparents than to see our own! What this prejudice against the past accounts for is the often-superficial nature of our society.
Here are a few quotes that I hope offer some things to consider.
Carl Schorske: the modern mind has grown indifferent to history because history has become useless to it; in other words, it is not obstinacy or ignorance but a sense of irrelevance that leads to the diminution of history.
Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death. We do not refuse to remember; neither do we find it exactly useless to remember. Rather, we are being rendered unfit to remember.
Bill Moyers: I worry that my own business . . . helps to make this an anxious age of agitated amnesiacs. We Americans know everything about the last twenty-four hours but very little of the last sixty centuries or the last sixty years.
Yet, at some level, we know that part of the human project is to know the history so that we can move forward.
Neil Postman says that most education is history. Most professors are historians, no matter what their field is, passing on to one generation what previous generations figured out. The only way for one generation to make advances is for it to inculcate thoroughly what past generations have known.
"The great Christian revolutions," said H. Richard Niebuhr, "come not by the discovery of something that was not known before. They happen when somebody takes radically something that was always there."
The Christian faith is inherently traditional, not because we are antiquarian, but because we realize that in our tradition is our true revolutionary possibility. How often the prophets of Israel criticize the present order first by calling on Israel, "Remember..."
A bishop of Sweden said, “Saints are those who make it easier for us to believe in God.”
An important part of learning to be a follower of Jesus is simply keeping before you the Bible, learning it, and applying it to your life.
As the writer T. S. Eliot said, "You don't really criticize any author to whom you have never surrendered yourself...you have to give yourself up, and then recover yourself, and the third moment is having something to say, before you have wholly forgotten both surrender and recovery." (Quoted by Will Campbell).
An American bishop has written a book, Why the Church Must Change or Die. Poor old church, so out of step, so out of step with the times.
People are always accusing the church of being old-fashioned and antiquarian. You can see their point. Our preachers dress in the fashion of centuries long past. I am aware that whenever I put on clergy robe and stole, it symbolizes a tradition almost 2000 years old. The music is not in the top 10. And the Bible - this old, very old book with its old words and old ideas.
I admit that I have heard too often in my years of ministry the "Seven Last Words of the Church" ("We never did it that way before"). Sometimes our tradition gets the best of us. We ossify, petrify, and die. Many of our mainline Protestant denominations have been closing many more churches than they have been opening for some decades now.
One lecture by a distinguished professor of jazz found it difficult to talk about the craft of jazz, its complexity, and its dependence on individual originality. However, when someone asked him, "Who are your models?" he immediately listed the names of famous pianists, saxophonists, and drummers. He spoke of his mentors with such reverence. He spoke of sitting for hours in a piano bar studying nothing but the fingers of a pianist's left hand. He says that a jazz artist must spend at least a couple of decades in rigorous imitation of others before that person can hope to be original.
I have found it much the same with teaching and preaching. Reading is like allowing persons from the past to become your mentor for a while. Teaching and preaching recognize that the only way this generation can make advances is to instill in our minds and hearts what past generations of known.
In other words, all thinking is a kind of apprenticeship, submitting oneself to the discipline of the thought of another person before you have interesting thoughts of your own.
November 1 is a special day on the calendar of the church, called, “All Saints Day.” In a way, every Sunday is like all saints Sunday. Whenever we sing a hymn, read from scripture, even pray or preach, we are doing so with the saints. We are dependent on those who have gone before us to give us the words, tell us the stories, and teach us the tunes whereby we praise God, grow in our faith and commitment, and find the way that leads to God.
Revelation 7:9-17 speaks of heaven as a great multitude so large that no one could count them. They are those who, having sung God's songs on earth in their lifetimes, now sing that song before the throne of the lamb for all time. When asked, "Who are these?" John is told that they are the ones who passed through great ordeals and yet were faithful. They kept believing, and hoping, witnessing, and giving, even when the going got rough. Now they rest from their labors. Now they are in the presence of the great shepherd who wipes away all tears and guides them to the waters of eternal life.
Note that these saints, robed in white, are in a great processional, a great parade moving around the throne of God. You and I today are part of that long, more than 2,000-year processional moving toward the lamb. The Lamb will guide us to the springs of the water of life. The saints are those who walk before us, those who show us the way.
I would not be here today if it were not for all those saints who put up with me in Sunday school and told me the stories of Jesus, who taught me in a college religion class, and guided me when I was confused, and put their arm around me when I wanted to give up. I am thinking of a multitude that I could not possibly name today, I think of the faith, hope, and courage of my mother. I think of Joe, Ed, Wayne, Dwayne, Robert, Bill, and on and on. I expect that you are also thinking about the people who put you here today, the saints who nurtured you in this faith and to whom you owe your commitment to Christ.
We give thanks for these saints, all of them, and acknowledge our indebtedness to them. Today we give thanks for the saints who surround the throne of the lamb. Name them, claim them, give thanks to God that they were there for you.
Let us now name the saints...
Prayer:
Lord, teach me to pray with the saints. Free me from enslavement from my time and place. Help me to mark the lessons of history and to learn from them. Give me the humility to receive instruction from someone other than myself or the people of my moment in history. Enable me to pray with the saints. Forgive me of my arrogance in thinking that being a faithful disciple is more difficult in my moment in history than it was in past moments. Thank you for the saints, all those dear people who lived the before me, who told me the stories of Jesus when I was young, who set good examples of fidelity before me. If I stand with Jesus today, I do so because of the gifts they so willingly shared. Amen.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and in remembrance and thanksgiving for the saints, all of them. Amen.
We bless your holy name, O God, for all your servants who, having finished their course, now rest from their labors. Give us grace to follow the example of their steadfastness and faithfulness, to your honor and glory; through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Here are my reflections on the biblical texts for this day.
Year A
Year B
Year C
The season of common time ends with Christ the King Sunday, which is the Sunday before the beginning of Advent. Pope Pius XI created The feast of Christ the King in 1925 to celebrate the kingship of Christ in the modern world. In 1925, with chaos reigning in many European countries, European colonialism at its worst, and serpents' eggs ready to hatch in the thirties, the pope proclaimed that Jesus Christ is King, "the goal of human history, ... the joy of all hearts, and the fulfillment of all aspirations ... drawn together in this Spirit we press onward toward the consummation of history which fully corresponds to the plan of his love: to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth."[5]
Here are my Bible studies for the final Sunday of common time.
Year A
Year B
Year C
I include a reflection on the readings for the American celebration of Thanksgiving Day.
I love this season of the year. It brings back so many good memories in Minnesota. Dad and mom would gather the five children together and begin the 3 ½ hour journey from Austin to Heron Lake. If you know the Minnesota terrain, by the time we reached Albert Lea, about 30 miles down the road, we asked, “Are we there yet.” Aunts, Uncles, and friends gathered at the table of grandpa and grandma for food, fellowship, and football. Just a few years ago, I made many trips to Minnesota. Dad died one year, and mom died the next. I had some wonderful conversations with Dad, conversations we needed to have. He had many tough times in his life. He wanted affirmation from his father, an affirmation he never received. He thought he had to make it alone in life. He was a man who shared little of what he felt. In fact, in my last visits he lamented that he had taken people that he cared about for granted. He did not say, “I love you,” enough. He wished he had spent more time with his children. I know part of it was his generation. The depression and World War II were serious business. One worked hard. Even though I assured him that he had made an important contribution to his five children and wife, I know what he means. We can take so many of the good things in life for granted. People in any generation can do that.
One of the recurring encouragements in the Bible is to give thanks and praise. I suspect we would not receive such encouragement if thanksgiving were natural. Praise is not an obvious thing. Gratitude is not obvious. The world is far too complex for that. You know what I mean. Senseless suffering is part of the world. The at least temporary success of evil makes it difficult to praise a loving and good God. You see, to some degree at least, the goodness of the universe depends upon human beings and their alignment with the will and purpose of God. The fact of so much senseless evil and suffering is a real obstacle for people to give thanks and praise. For some people and families in particular, I have seen immense hardship come upon them. Such times create obstacles to faith. To have gratitude in such times requires faith in what God is going to do in the world.
Think of the Pilgrims that first Thanksgiving. Half their number dead, men without a country, but still there was thanksgiving to God. Their gratitude was not for something but in something. In 1777, over 100 years later, the continental congress proclaimed a national day of Thanksgiving after the American Revolution victory at the Battle of Saratoga. However, it was twelve years later that George Washington proclaimed another national day of thanksgiving in in 1789 in honor of the ratification of the Constitution and requested that the congress finally make it an annual event. They declined. Some were opposed to it. There was discord among the colonies, many feeling the hardships of a few Pilgrims did not warrant a national holiday. And later, President Thomas Jefferson scoffed at the idea of having a day of thanksgiving. Yet, the custom grew in various colonies as a means of celebrating the harvest. It was Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor, whose efforts eventually led to what we recognize as Thanksgiving. Hale wrote many editorials championing her cause in her Boston Ladies' Magazine, and later, in Godey's Lady's Book. Finally, after Hale's 40-year campaign of writing editorials and letters to governors and presidents, her obsession became a reality when, in 1863, President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving. He did so to boos the morale of the union forces. In 1865, with the end of a bloody civil war, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November Thanksgiving. Many Southerners saw the new holiday as an attempt to impose Northern customs on their conquered land.
Thanksgiving was proclaimed by every president after Lincoln. The date was changed a couple of times, most recently by Franklin Roosevelt, who set it up one week to the next-to-last Thursday to create a longer Christmas shopping season. Public uproar against this decision caused the president to move Thanksgiving back to its original date two years later. And in 1941, Thanksgiving was finally sanctioned by Congress as a legal holiday, as the fourth Thursday in November.[6]
Back during the dark days of 1929, after the stock market crashed, a group of ministers in the Northeast, all graduates of the Boston School of Theology, gathered to discuss how they should conduct their Thanksgiving Sunday services. Things were about as bad as they could get, with no sign of relief. The bread lines were depressingly long, the stock market had plummeted, and the term Great Depression seemed an apt description for the mood of the country.
The ministers thought they should only lightly touch upon the subject Thanksgiving in deference to the human misery all about them. After all, what was there was to be thankful for? Nevertheless, Dr. William L. Stiger, pastor of a large congregation in the city, rallied the group. This was not the time, he suggested, to give mere passing mention to Thanksgiving, just the opposite. This was the time for the nation to get matters in perspective and thank God for blessings always present, but perhaps suppressed due to intense hardship.
I suggest to you the ministers struck upon something. We do not find the most intense moments of thankfulness in times of plenty, but when difficulties abound.
Thanksgiving today is a mild-mannered holiday full of football, hot apple pie, and family reunions. However, that is not a realistic historical picture of Thanksgiving. It is more often born of adversity and challenging times. So many of the greatest expressions of thanksgiving have occurred under circumstances so debilitating one wonders why people give thanks. It would seem the more reasonable response would be bitterness and ingratitude.
Things proven to change the course of Thanksgiving:
1. During the middle of the meal, turn to Mom and say, “See, Mom, I told you they wouldn’t notice that the turkey was four months past its expiration date. You were worried for nothing.”
2. When everyone goes around to say what they are thankful for, say, “I’m thankful I didn’t get caught” and refuse to say anything more.
3. Load your plate up high, then take it to the kitchen, toss it all in the blender, and take your “shake” back to the table. Announce that it’s the new Thanksgiving Weight Loss Shake.
4. Prepare a several-hour-long speech to give when asked about your thankfulness. If necessary, insist that no one leave or eat until you have finished the speech.
Here we are, coming upon another Thanksgiving. Even though we live in the freest country in the world – a land of unprecedented opportunities, liberties and advantages – study after study reveals that the more American's have, the less fulfilled and content we actually feel. The Thanksgiving season, then, is a suitable time to reflect on what truly constitutes the good life, and to look back at the original Thanksgiving story to see what it can teach us about the origins of true happiness.
You know the story. They faced a hard winter in a strange place. Yet, the Pilgrims set aside time to give thanks to God for His provision in a strange new land. Sadly, we do not give thanks in the way the Pilgrims did, even on Thanksgiving. How many of us live in a spirit of gratitude, with humble appreciation for the many blessings God has given us, and how many of us dwell on the perceived shortcomings in our lives?
The Pilgrims were not plagued with such frenzied spirits, and for that reason they were able to give thanks joyfully despite the many uncertainties in the road ahead. Because they were men and women of faith, they knew that contentment and security is to be found not in this material world but in placing their hope, faith, and their love, in Jesus Christ. They knew that their future was in divine hands, and with that conviction, they were free to celebrate joyfully the harvest and their many blessings. They also understood that the chief end of humanity was to worship God and enjoy Him forever. Contentment was to be found in Christ, not in their circumstances.
Here are my reflections on the biblical texts for this day.
Year A
Year B
Year C
[1] Novelist John Updike
[2] Words of missionary Jim Elliot, who died at 28.
[3] John Wesley
[4] Emilie Griffin, Homeward Voyage: Reflections On Life‑Changes (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Servant Publications, 1994), 11‑12.
[5] (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, #45, p. 947.)
[6] -Jerry Wilson, "The Thanksgiving story," Thanksgiving Traditions & History, wilstar.com/holidays.
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