From Advent through Pentecost Sunday, we are walking with Jesus, learning and growing and inviting alongside him, observing and listening as he makes his earthly journey. Then on Pentecost, the church takes the stage and seeks to live out all that has been learned as we show to the world what living in the kingdom looks like. We don’t walk alone, however, which is why the first series of this long season is about the God we proclaim. It is by the grace of God that we can be the church we are called to be.

Abbreviations:

UMH - The United Methodist Hymnal
TFWS - The Faith We Sing
W&S - Worship and Song

Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Year B

Psalm 20

We are saved from fear and self-centeredness and can work in ways that align with the purpose of God, which we know from II Corinthians 5:18-19, was the reconciliation of the world. We are saved to participate in that reconciliation, to live out the ways of peace, to build up the body of Christ. Psalm 20 invites us to identify as the people who are called by God to be the light on the hill or the salt of the earth. We are the sign that God is at work in the world. We are the ones who live out the ways of peace.