An ordinary Sunday

An ordinary Sunday

It was a smallish town in the midst of an unusually hot summer, and it was that “dead” space between Christmas and New year. That nation was in its usual summer sleep and gave little interest even to the traditional; MCG cricket test (“great time to invade” is often said).

However, it was a Sunday.

30-40 people gathered in a local church. They were mostly older, and many knew each other over many years. There was no musician, so the singing accompaniment was YouTube. An elder in his 70s was preaching. His offering was faithful to the text and warm in his application – a ‘straight bat’ kind of sermon without flair or fancy tricks. The kids talk (two kids present) was apt to the season and the pastoral prayer had a global focus.

All in it was the kind of gathering hardly worth writing about … a bit like an ordinary meal that creates no memories and generates no lingering ‘wow’.

However, it was a gathering of the bride of Christ. And he was present through his Spirit in the ordinariness of familiar routines. We left, reminded of higher things and called to live in their light as a new year loomed. It was a bit like an ordinary meal that nourishes its diners for the coming days.

My point? The gatherings of God’s people are often like this – embarrassingly ordinary. Our yearning to have ears tickled and senses stimulated by dazzling gatherings of large numbers may blind us to the reassure that is before our eyes. Christ may be as much present and working in the ordinariness of the forgettable Sunday as in the memorable event that resembles Pentecost.