Wandering through Ordinary Time

Ordinary Time

Digress a bit with me this morning. Wander down a tangent.

With the rash of Principal Feasts behind us (Easter Day, Ascension Day, The Day of Pentecost, Trinity Sunday), the Church now moves into the Season after Pentecost. In the Roman Catholic and some Protestant Churches it’s called Ordinary Time. 

To define Ordinary Time, go on line and look it up. Google this morning yields About 26,100,000 results in 0.15 seconds. George Washington would be amazed.

For Sunday readings during the Season after Pentecost the Revised Common Lectionary provides a choice (BCP 896, in the most recent edition of The Book of Common Prayer, which is not the one in the pew racks of most churches):

This lectionary provides two patterns for the Old Testament reading during the Season after Pentecost, beginning with Proper 4. In one pattern, the Old Testament and Gospel readings are closely related each Sunday; in the other, the Old Testament is read in semi-continuous fashion throughout the season, and the readings are not paired with each Sunday Gospel. Congregations may choose each year whether to use the semi-continuous Old Testament readings or the readings that are related to the Gospel, using as well the psalm associated with their choice of Old Testament reading. They should remain with that pattern for the entire lectionary year and may make a different choice in another year. 

Sundays of Ordinary Time are given a Proper number that relates to the date of the upcoming Sunday. Thus, June 26 is the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (2nd Sunday after Pentecost) Proper 8. Depending on the congregation’s choice of pattern, the Old Testament readings will be either Genesis 22:1-14 and Psalm 13 or Jeremiah 28:5-9 and Psalm 89:1-4,15-18. 

With either pattern, throughout the summer the second readings will be from Romans; and because we are in Lectionary Year A, the Gospel readings will be from Matthew. 

Curiosity gets the best of me. In the second pattern, why does the lectionary omit Psalm 89 verses 5-14? Only the sages who prepared the lectionary know for sure. Sometimes there’s a particularly nasty passage they wanted to avoid. Sometimes the piece is overly long, so they selected only the most relevant verses. Psalm 89 has 52 verses. The author is said to be Ethan the Ezrahite, a descendant of Levi. Ethan was a singer in King David’s time. He evidently was considered very wise, because the Bible says that “King Solomon was wiser than anyone on earth. He was even wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite.” (1 Kings 4:31).

Psalm 89 is a bit of a puzzler. In the King James Version it begins with a verse that many know as a beloved praise song:

I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.

The psalmist praises The Lord for anointing David as king and for establishing a covenant with David and his seed for ever. Everything is promising and hopeful for David. Selah. Then at verse 38 it all falls apart and the psalm becomes a lament. The Lord has become angry with David, turned against him, is using his enemies to bring him down. Toward the end of the psalm Ethan the Ezrahite offers a most pitiable lament

Lord, where are thy former lovingkindnesses, which thou swearest unto David in thy truth? 

We can perceive the ups and downs of almost every life in the turbulent fortunes of David the king. Psalm 89 is recommended reading this morning, top to bottom.

Psalm 89. A maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.

TW+