For those who grumble at grace never experience it. Those who risk accepting it, discover that their lives are changed forever. Salvation came to Zacchaeus because he was willing to go out on a limb to see Jesus. Salvation comes to us when we are willing to go out on a limb and risk becoming all that we can be through the grace of that same Jesus Christ.
-- from the Proper 26 sermon

Larry R. Kalajainen writes that we are ordinary people, and ordinary time is a gift to us. It offers us opportunity to practice living by the grace notes of the gospel seasons. It is time filled, not with meaning assigned to it by the gospel events, but with the meanings that we give to it as we live in time as Christ's disciples. The author adds that God has invested time with meaning, and we celebrate that meaning in the gospel seasons. But, we also have an investment to make in time. Ordinary time is our time. It is ours to fill with meaning, with purpose, with faithful discipleship and love. The twelve sermons in this book are based on gospel texts primarily from Luke. Sermons follow the Revised Common, Episcopal, Lutheran, and Roman Catholic lectionaries. Larry R. Kalajainen, New Brunswick, New Jersey, is a United Methodist pastor in the Southern New Jersey Annual Conference. He holds a doctorate in Biblical Studies from Drew University. He and his wife, Carol, and their two daughters spent six years as missionaries.