Our Sacred Roots: The Priesthood of All Believers

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T he S eason after P entecost

Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost August 21 - 27, 2022 • Proper 16

WEEK 39

As Lord of the harvest, Jesus has commissioned his Church during this age to go and make disciples of all nations. During this season after Pentecost, let us obey Christ’s command and share the Gospel to the ends of the earth, gathering in the harvest of souls so ripe for reaping. As Christ’s hands and feet in the world, let us both show and tell of his salvation to a dying and hurting world. This is a season of harvest.

THIS WEEK’S THEME His Life in Us: A New Creation Do Justice and Love Kindness, Matthew 25.31-46

At the final judgment when the Son of Man comes in his glory with his angels, he will sit on his glorious throne and judge the nations, separating them as it were, sheep from the goats, with some receiving eternal life and others eternal punishment. The final disposition of the judgment will be determined on how we treated the least of these; how we treated them, so did we treat him. This shows that the Church is the very presence of Christ in the world, showing the kindness and grace of our God to the world. As disciples of Jesus Christ and members of his body, we are charged with the duty to apply his kingdom ethic of doing justice and loving mercy. Each local congregation is an outpost of God’s Kingdom, called to demonstrate freedom, wholeness, and justice in its engagement with the world, responding in love, obeying the leading of its head, the Lord Jesus Christ.