Beloved,
This week I stumbled across a poem of George Herbert (a 16th century Christian poet) written for Trinity Sunday (the Sunday after Pentecost), but I think it is a fitting poem for every Sunday (truly, for every day!). Listen to what Herbert wrote:
LORD, Who has form’d me out of mud,
And hast redeem’d me through Thy bloud,
And sanctifi’d me to do good.
Purge all my sinnes done heretofore;
For I confess my heavie score,
And I will strive to sinne no more.
Enrich my heart, mouth, hands in me,
With faith, with hope, with charitie,
That I may runne, rise, rest with Thee.
What a beautiful description of the blessings of our salvation that come to us through union with Christ by the Spirit and that we particularly enjoy when we gather on His day in His presence under His ordinances as His people.
Every Sunday is a day of new beginnings. We step into a new week celebrating the new creation that has broken into the old through the resurrection triumph of our Lord. We are renewed in the spirit of our minds which results in resurrection transformation, even as we have our hope strengthened in the ultimate renewal to come that will issue in eternal sabbath rest in a resurrected cosmos.
But while every Sunday is about new beginnings as we meet with our risen King, this Sunday is peculiarly marked by newness as we begin a new sermon series in Exodus and a new Sunday school year. I hope you are as excited as I am for it! God has great things in store for us, and let us be praying in the words of Herbert that by God’s renewing grace He would freshly purge and enrich us so that we might run, rise, and rest with Him.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Nick