“Go(ing), therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”  Matthew 28:19

            Ok, time to pray!  Let’s all join hands and form a circle!  How would you form that circle?  Would everyone be looking at everyone else or would their backs be toward the center of the circle?  What a crazy prayer circle with everyone looking out, right?  Well maybe not.

            Before Jesus ascended He commissioned His disciples, you and me, with a “going.”  We who are holding hands facing one another are being turned around.  We may yet be holding hands, but it’s in a different view when we realize how many are yet out in the world and don’t know Jesus.

            That “go(ing)” points to our Lord’s death and resurrection.  It’s not a rule we have to follow.  It’s not a command to which we had better respond.  It’s a joyful reality of who we now are in our risen Lord Jesus Christ.  “Therefore” refers back to how God has provided us faitn in the Christ, who saves us from eternal death.  God’s nature is to seek and to save the lost.  All who are baptized into the power of the triune God are filled with that nature.

            That Pentecost of long ago, with its pouring out of the Holy Spirit, was not a one-time event.  The Holy Spirit is continually filling us through God’s Word and the Sacraments, in our prayer-life and in time with one another so that in our everyday “going” we have Good News for all

            Even through our greatest accomplishments will all gather dust like some trophy on the shelf long forgotten, those whom God brings to faith through our witness will live with us forever.  Be filled with the Holy Spirit this Pentecost and in our everyday lives!  May the Holy Faith Family be an outward focused prayer circle!  Share the Good News of our risen Savior.  Love in Christ, Pastor Craig