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Genesis 1:1-5; Acts 19:1-7; Mark 1:4-11

By Jerry and Pam Wicklein

What do we do now? Christmas is over and we have time now to consider the act of God that we have experienced. It is six weeks before the Lent-Easter Pentecost cycle begins.

This week we embark on a portion of the Christian year known as "Ordinary Time," the weeks between the Epiphany, the baptism of Jesus and Ash Wednesday.

There is nothing ordinary about "Ordinary Time." It is not about the pedestrian things of life. Ordinary Time is in-between time when we have an opportunity to focus on what God is doing in creation and the meaning of Emmanuel, "God with us." It is time that counts and time we have to make count.

I have always liked this time of the year, when winter comes and the leaves are raked and the world seems steeped in "midwinter."

Advent with its anticipation and expectation has passed. Christmas joy came with celebrations both secular and sacred. Epiphany and the gift of Christ to the world have settled in and the holy family has embarked on a journey to Egypt. The shepherds and wise men have all gone home. And like so much of life in winter we now have time to ruminate and get below the surface of it all, pondering the events of Advent-Christmas-Epiphany drama.

This year I suggest we approach Ordinary Time by following a recent direction I received in reading Thoreau: "Repentance is not a free and fair highway to God ... God prefers that you approach him thoughtful, not penitent, though you are the chief of sinners. It is only by forgetting yourself that you draw near to him."

Being thoughtful and forgetting self are two spiritual disciplines for this midwinter time.

So how do we plan to forget self and ponder the ways of God in life?

We listen for the voice of God that brings order out of chaos and creates light for all creation. It is time to allow God's voice of creation to create hope and action in the dark of winter. I am reminded of the thoughts of Madeline L'Engle: "God created, and it was joy: time, space, matter. There is and we are a part of that is-ness, part of that becoming. That is our calling co-creation. Every single one of us, without exception, is called to co-create with God. No one is unimportant."

The acts of God in creation and in the self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ emphasize the importance of all we have and are as the children of God.

This Ordinary Time is also an occasion to listen for the extraordinary voice that cries out in the wilderness and calls our attention to the new covenant Word of creation, Jesus Christ at his baptism and later when we hear the "is-ness" in the voice of God saying: "This IS my beloved, Listen to him."

Ordinary Time is extraordinary when we take time to thoughtfully listen for God to speak, through Scripture, creation and spiritual conversation. It is the time when we are called to allow God's voice to speak to us, to invite us, to challenge us to ruminate on the Word until it "springs" forth into life and witness.

We are the "ordinary," those who count in the eyes of God, called to be extraordinary in our acts of piety, mercy, compassion and justice.

The Rev. Jerry Wicklein is a retired pastor in the Baltimore-Washington Conference. He and Pam ordinarily live in Timonium.