The Visitation reminds us that some of God’s greatest works unfold quietly. A greeting, a leap, and a song, and the Lord is already in the midst of his people. Faith receives grace, and grace turns us outward in love.
The Trinity is not primarily a doctrine to master, it is a God to worship. On Trinity Sunday we look past the acts of salvation to the one who performed them. We have been receiving his gifts all season. Today we behold the giver.
The Season after Pentecost begins tomorrow. The Ember Day gift is this: we begin having seen the King on the throne, having had the coal touch our lips, having said "here I am, send me" before the first Sunday arrives.
The prayer Jesus commands in Matthew 9:38 is answered in 10:1 — the disciples who prayed for laborers become the laborers. We cannot pray earnestly for God to send workers into the harvest without finding ourselves moving toward it.
We entered a harvest we did not plant. Someone prayed for us before we were born. Someone built this congregation before we arrived. The faithfulness of this church is the planted harvest someone else will one day reap. We plant, we water, God gives the growth.
This Memorial Day, we explore the heart of the Gospel through John 15: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” We honor those who served and gave their lives while fixing our eyes on Christ, the true Keeper and the Lamb who shepherds the multitude.