July
26, 2009
8th Sunday after Pentecost
The Collect
O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom
nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your
mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through
things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus
Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one
God, for ever and ever. Amen.
2 Samuel 11:1-15
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle,
David sent Joab with his officers and all Israel with him; they ravaged
the Ammonites, and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem.
It happened, late one afternoon, when David rose from his couch and was
walking about on the roof of the king's house, that he saw from the
roof a woman bathing; the woman was very beautiful. David sent someone
to inquire about the woman. It was reported, "This is Bathsheba
daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite." So David sent
messengers to get her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now
she was purifying herself after her period.) Then she returned to her
house. The woman conceived; and she sent and told David, "I am
pregnant."
So David sent word to Joab, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent
Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab and the
people fared, and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, "Go
down to your house, and wash your feet." Uriah went out of the king's
house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept
at the entrance of the king's house with all the servants of his lord,
and did not go down to his house. When they told David, "Uriah did not
go down to his house," David said to Uriah, "You have just come from a
journey. Why did you not go down to your house?" Uriah said to David,
"The ark and Israel and Judah remain in booths; and my lord Joab and
the servants of my lord are camping in the open field; shall I then go
to my house, to eat and to drink, and to lie with my wife? As you live,
and as your soul lives, I will not do such a thing." Then David said to
Uriah, "Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back." So
Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day. On the next day, David invited
him to eat and drink in his presence and made him drunk; and in the
evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his lord,
but he did not go down to his house.
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of
Uriah. In the letter he wrote, "Set Uriah in the forefront of the
hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, so that he may be struck
down and die."
Psalm 14 Page 598, BCP
Dixit insipiens
1
The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God." *
All are corrupt and commit abominable acts;
there is none who does any good.
2
The LORD looks down from heaven upon us all, *
to see if there is any who is wise,
if there is one who seeks after God.
3
Every one has proved faithless;
all alike have turned bad; *
there is none who does good; no, not one.
4
Have they no knowledge, all those evildoers *
who eat up my people like bread
and do not call upon the LORD?
5
See how they tremble with fear, *
because God is in the company of the righteous.
6
Their aim is to confound the plans of the afflicted, *
but the LORD is their refuge.
7
Oh, that Israel's deliverance would come out of Zion! *
when the LORD restores the fortunes of his people,
Jacob will rejoice and Israel be glad.
Ephesians 3:14-21
I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in
heaven and on earth takes its name. I pray that, according to the
riches of his glory, he may grant that you may be strengthened in your
inner being with power through his Spirit, and that Christ may dwell in
your hearts through faith, as you are being rooted and grounded in
love. I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the
saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to
know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be
filled with all the fullness of God.
Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish
abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in
the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.
Amen.
John 6:1-21
Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee, also called
the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd kept following him, because they saw
the signs that he was doing for the sick. Jesus went up the mountain
and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, the festival
of the Jews, was near. When he looked up and saw a large crowd coming
toward him, Jesus said to Philip, "Where are we to buy bread for these
people to eat?" He said this to test him, for he himself knew what he
was going to do. Philip answered him, "Six months' wages would not buy
enough bread for each of them to get a little." One of his disciples,
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, "There is a boy here who
has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many
people?" Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was a great
deal of grass in the place; so they sat down, about five thousand in
all. Then Jesus took the loaves, and when he had given thanks, he
distributed them to those who were seated; so also the fish, as much as
they wanted. When they were satisfied, he told his disciples, "Gather
up the fragments left over, so that nothing may be lost." So they
gathered them up, and from the fragments of the five barley loaves,
left by those who had eaten, they filled twelve baskets. When the
people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, "This is
indeed the prophet who is to come into the world."
When Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force
to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself.
When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat,
and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark, and Jesus had
not yet come to them. The sea became rough because a strong wind was
blowing. When they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus
walking on the sea and coming near the boat, and they were terrified.
But he said to them, "It is I; do not be afraid." Then they wanted to
take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the land
toward which they were going.
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