The Fourth Sunday after Trinity offers one of the most comprehensive and beloved Collects in the 1928 Prayer Book: O God, the protector of all that trust in thee, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy; Increase and multiply upon us thy mercy; that, thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal. The prayer holds the whole of the Christian life in tension — present navigation through a passing world and final arrival at what does not pass. Nothing in human life is strong or holy apart from God; everything the faithful do in the world is thus an act of dependence.

The appointed Epistle from Romans 8 declares that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. The whole creation, Paul writes, groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, waiting for the adoption — the redemption of our body. The Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered, because we do not know how to pray as we ought. The Epistle places present struggle and eschatological hope side by side, refusing to allow either to swallow the other.

The appointed Gospel from Luke 6 gives the heart of the Sermon on the Plain: Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged; condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned; forgive, and ye shall be forgiven. The Collect's petition — that we may pass through things temporal without losing things eternal — finds its practical daily shape in the Gospel's call to merciful, non-judgmental love modelled on the mercy of the Father toward us.