June 14, 2022
Friends,
The next 23 Sundays are part of what is called the Trinity Season. It’s marked with green vestments and paraments in church to point to the growth of Christians and the Church by the Word of God.
Here’s what Nils Laache says about the Trinity season:
Trinity
Blessed be the Lord God of our fathers,
praise Him and highly exalt Him forever.
From Advent until Pentecost, the Church meditates upon the life and work of Christ. In the season of Trinity (or the Sundays after Pentecost, as some churches call it), we reflect how the work of God expresses itself in the Christian life. This long season, which runs from about June until December, is actually divided into four parts. Doing this helps us see the themes of the longer season and digest the lessons we hear from Sunday to Sunday.
Trinity I is made up of six Sundays. On the first Sunday we pause to consider how God has revealed Himself to us in the Holy Trinity. The five Sundays after this tell us something of God’s Church. In many ways these Sundays are a continuation of the celebration of Pentecost, for during this time we will hear how the Holy Spirit “calls, gathers, enlightens and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.” …
The 6th through 18th Sundays after Trinity all tell of the growth and fruit of the Christian life. During this time of the Church Year we hear many of the parables of Jesus, and are encouraged in our daily cycle of repentance and renewal. This period is sometimes called “St. John’s Tide,” since it usually follows soon after the festival of St. John the Baptist (June 24). The words of St. John, “He must increase; I must decrease” nicely sum up the theme for this time of the Church Year. …
The weeks of Trinity 19-23, called Michaelmas, speak of the struggle of the Church against Satan and the powers of darkness. The name comes from the fact that the beginning of this mini-season is the day the Church observes as St. Michael and All Angels’ (September 29). These Sundays are a reminder that it is for good reason we are called the Church Militant: Satan seeks to destroy the Church and to lure Christians from the flock of Christ. Yet God defends his Church, through the work of His Holy Angels and by the proclamation of His Holy Gospel. The last Sunday of Trinity III is Reformation Sunday, a fitting end to a season which focuses on our battle against “the old evil foe.” …
Very appropriately, the end of the Church Year is when we focus on the end of the world. The last few Sundays of the Church Year remind us that one day this world will come to an end, and Christ will fulfill His promise to return and “judge the living and the dead.” We are to be ready for His return, and prepare ourselves by diligent use of the Means of Grace. Nor is the Last Judgment something we need fear. The Church is not a society trying to create heaven on earth. We are the Bride awaiting her Bridegroom, who will take us from the troubles and anxieties of this earth to our place prepared in heaven.
Excerpts from: Book of Family Prayer, by Nils Laache (1831-1892)
You can read it online here: https://archive.org/details/bookoffamilypray00laac, or you can find it in print here: https://www.amazon.com/Book-Family-Prayer-Meditations-According/dp/B00UDCLAO0
God bless and keep you,
Pr. Buchs
COMING EVENTS:
Old Settlers’ Day – Saturday, June 25
Elders & Council – Thursday, July 14 @ 6 & 7pm
Vacation Bible School – July 31-August 4 @ 6-7:30pm