John
3:16-18 – This passage is the inspiration for the hymn “God
Loved the World so that He Gave” {LSB 830} Taken from a familiar verse of
the Scriptures the Savior explains the motivation the Father had in sending His
Son into the world. The purpose of His coming was to redeem and save us.
A new season is upon us. The Christian
year consists of two cycles: preparing, celebrating, and then living into our
discipleship to Jesus Christ. The first of these is Advent through the Season
after Easter. The second is the Season after Pentecost.
When Jesus rose from the dead, He gave your life meaning and worth. For His resurrection announces that your every dissatisfaction with church, school, work, family, life, yourself, it's all buried forever. Instead, you are righteous in God's sight and an inheritor of eternal life. So that you would hear and believe these glorious new realities which are yours by Jesus' blood and merit, He gathered His church back together again and gave them one command, one singular task, "Preach this Gospel."
The Season after Pentecost begins and ends with what we might call “bookend Sundays.” These Sundays provide the frame for what comes between them.
Trinity Sunday is the first of these. Christ the King, functions as the
second.
Trinity Sunday launches us into our
life’s vocations after Pentecost with a celebration of the Triune God in whom
all our lives and activities are grounded.
Christ the King, this season’s other
bookend, point us to our final destination in the culmination of the reign of
the one who makes us and all things new. All the readings are related to one
another and are focused on the gospel lesson appointed for each Sunday.
Collect
for Pentecost 2–O God, whose never-failing providence sets in
order all things both in heaven and earth, put away from us, we entrust you,
all hurtful things, and give us those things tht are profitable for us; through
the merits of Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and rules with You and the
Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever.
Collect for Pentecost 2, Lutheran Service Book © 2006, Concordia
Publishing House, St. Louis
Schnorr Von
Carolsfeld woodcuts, ‘The Crucifixion ’© WELS permission granted for personal and
congregational use
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