Ninth Sunday after Trinity AD 2026

In today’s Epistle, Saint Paul shows us how the Bible ought to be read: not merely as a collection of spoken and written words, but in such a way that we encounter there the eternal Word of God, His only begotten Son, through whom we were created, in whom we are redeemed, and by whom we are called to eternal life.

Speaking of the people of Israel, who had escaped from slavery in Egypt and journeyed through the wilderness toward the Promised Land, Saint Paul says that they were all “under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did all eat the same spiritual meat; and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.”

These words were written both for our encouragement and for our warning. They encourage us because they are a prophecy of what came to pass when the fulness of the time was come and God sent His Son into the world. We have been delivered from the tyranny of the devil. Through Baptism, we have died to sin. Christ nourishes us on our journey toward eternal life with the Bread of Life. And we may rest upon Him as upon the surest Rock, for He has promised to be with us always, even unto the end of the world.

Yet these words are also a warning and an admonition, for “with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness.” God has done everything necessary for our salvation and has opened to us the way to eternal life. Let us therefore hold fast to Him and to His grace, lest we lose the inheritance He has prepared for us. God is faithful, and He desires to pour out the abundance of His grace upon us.