As we begin the month of June, we always find ourselves just about finished with the festival half of the church year. Easter, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday come and go. Confirmation usually falls in here somewhere. In our daily lives, kids get done with school and the summer usually brings different activities and itineraries our way. In the church, we settle in for the Pentecost season—a season set aside for growth in the Christians faith.
Instead of growth, we often times seem to slip. We slip out of town a little early, or we slip back in a little late. We slip in extra time traveling, or maybe we slip in extra time sleeping, because there is just so much going on. We slip in and out of church so that we will be inconspicuous—of course, we don’t want to bother anyone.
Yes, it is that time of the year as well when I will serve up a reminder not to slip away from Jesus. With all going on during the summer months, it is easy to slip. I know this myself. Because of schedules—travel, continuing education, Camp Linn Haven, VBS, vacation— we take time off from Bible studies and other church responsibilities and these gaps in the schedule makes it very easy to slip.
I hope that the words of Saint Paul will help us remember, whether we are on vacation or traveling or busy with other things, we need the Lord with us daily as we set apart our lives for Him. The Apostle writes: “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer” (1 Timothy 4:4-5 ESV). So as we travel, undertake summer activities, vacation, whatever…, we consecrate (sanctify, “make holy”) that time, that occasion, or that event by the Word of God and prayer.
Martin Luther talks about these very kinds of things in the explanation of the Third Commandment in the Large Catechism: “For the Word of God is the sanctuary above all sanctuaries, yea, the only one which we Christians know and have…. But God's Word is the treasure which sanctifies everything, and by which even all the saints themselves were sanctified. At whatever hour then, God's Word is taught, preached, heard, read or meditated upon, there the person, day, and work are sanctified thereby, not because of the external work, but because of the Word which makes saints of us all. Therefore I constantly say that all our life and work must be ordered according to God's Word, if it is to be God-pleasing or holy.”
Keep this Word which makes saints of us all and orders our lives with you this summer… so you don’t slip. God bless.
In Jesus, our Good Shepherd,
Pastor Keith
