By Chuck Sackett | Posted Feb. 23, 2010
May 30, 2010Trinity Sunday (C)Romans 5:1-5
In speaking of Ordinary Time, one Web site says, "Rather than meaning common or mundane, this term comes from the word ordinal, which simply means counted time." Another says, "…others suggest the etymology of Ordinary Time is related to the English word ordinary, which itself has a connotation of time and order, derived from the Latin word ordo." In either case, counting time still sounds ordinary.
There are strong seasons in the church year: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost. This isn't one of them. Trinity Sunday marks the beginning of ordinary time, the season between seasons. These Sundays remind us of a simple truth—most time is ordinary time, neither crisis nor climax, tragedy nor comedy, just ordinary.
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In today's text, Paul teaches us the Triune God has made provision not only for the crisis moments of life, but for the mundane, daily grind of the marathon we call life. We come away from today's text knowing: God turns ordinary life into extraordinary living.
The structure of the Book of Romans underscores the significance of this text. In the first three chapters, Paul underlined the simple truth: "We're all sinners and condemned." Before he gets to the powerful rebuttal of
chapter 8: "There is now therefore no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus," he reports the actions of the grandson of Abraham, the likeness of Adam, who is going to resolve our predicament and change our destiny.
We are reminded that in the midst of the mundane:
I. Through Christ, we can experience peace with God (v. 1).
Our sin has alienated us from God (
v. 3:23), and all our human effort never will be sufficient to restore that broken relationship. Paul implies there isn't enough remnant of goodness in any one of us to produce righteousness. It must be something given directly to us, created as it were "out of nothing" (
v. 4:17).
It's easy in the ordinary day-by-day experience of life to forget the crisis moment of our conversion. As we live counting the days, we sometimes take for granted that we no longer are alienated from God. Instead, anytime, anywhere, we can speak with God and enjoy His companionship. We don't have to wait until the Sundays of ordinary time to worship, pray, encounter Scripture or give.
We are reminded that in the midst of the mundane:
II. Through Christ, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God (v. 2).
