February often lands in a “between” season of the church year. Christmas has faded into memory, Lent has not yet begun, and we may feel like we’re in the spiritual equivalent of winter’s long middle stretch. Lutheran and many Protestant traditions name these weeks the Time after Epiphany—a time to linger with the revelation of who Jesus is. Other traditions call the same stretch Ordinary Time—the season when the church is neither preparing for nor celebrating the great festivals. And while we may use different names, we often share the same visual cue in worship: green. The good news is that we don’t have to choose one lens or the other. Held together, Epiphany and Ordinary Time teach us something essential about discipleship.
Ordinary Time doesn’t mean unimportant time. It’s called “ordinary” partly because it isn’t Advent, Christmas, Lent, or Easter—but it’s also ordinary because it’s most of our lives. And that’s where faith is formed: not only on mountaintops, but in the steady, repeated practices of worship, prayer, service, and learning to love our neighbors.
That is exactly what makes this season such a gift. In these weeks, Jesus calls disciples to follow him—not because of a star overhead, and not yet because of the drama of Holy Week, but simply because Jesus says: “Follow me.” This is the heart of Ordinary Time: following Jesus in the daily ordinariness of our lives—at work, at home, in our relationships, in our decisions, in our habits.
At the same time, Epiphany reminds us who this Jesus is: God-with-us. Epiphany has always carried a bold confession—Jesus is not only human; Jesus is God incarnate, present among us.
So what happens when we hold these two together?
· Epiphany tells us who Jesus is: God revealed in human flesh.
· Ordinary Time tells us how we meet him: through the long, faithful work of listening and following.
Discipleship, then, is learning to stay close to Jesus. We keep coming back to his word, we learn to trust him, and we follow him one day at a time. Most of the time, faith grows quietly—through ordinary days and steady habits—because Christ is faithful and present.
And that is why this “between” season matters so much. It reminds us that even the great celebrations—wonderful as they are—are not meant to carry the whole weight of the Christian life. We also need the steady weeks where Jesus’ voice meets us in the ordinary.
No bright stars. No earthquakes. Just a voice that meets us in the middle of everyday life and announces: God is among you.
So in February, while we await the approach of Lent, here is an invitation for our congregation: receive this season as “green time.” Not bland time—growth time. Time to practice the faith in small, concrete ways that add up to a life.
Epiphany says: Christ is revealed. Ordinary Time says: keep following. And together they give us a faithful way to live right here in February—where God is still with us, and Jesus is still saying, “Follow me.”
Pastor Mark
