Readings for Sunday – 7/21/24

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

COLLECT
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask
and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully
give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness
we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives
and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen

OLD TESTAMENT: 2 Samuel 7:1-14a
When the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all
his enemies around him, the king said to the prophet Nathan, “See now, I am
living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent.” Nathan said to the
king, “Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you.”
But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: Go and tell my servant
David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? I have
not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to
this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have
moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of
the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel,
saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?” Now therefore thus you
shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the
pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; and I have
been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before
you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the
earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that
they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall
afflict them no more, as formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my
people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord
declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled
and you lie down with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, who
shall come forth from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a
house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will
be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.
Reader: The Word of the Lord People: Thanks be to God

PSALM: Psalm 89:20-37
Tunc locutus es
I have found David my servant; *
with my holy oil have I anointed him.
My hand will hold him fast *
and my arm will make him strong.
No enemy shall deceive him, *
nor any wicked man bring him down.
I will crush his foes before him *
and strike down those who hate him.
My faithfulness and love shall be with him, *
and he shall be victorious through my Name.
I shall make his dominion extend *
from the Great Sea to the River.
He will say to me, ‘You are my Father, *
my God, and the rock of my salvation.’
I will make him my firstborn *
and higher than the kings of the earth.
I will keep my love for him for ever, *
and my covenant will stand firm for him.
I will establish his line for ever *
and his throne as the days of heaven.”
“If his children forsake my law *
and do not walk according to my judgments;
If they break my statutes *
and do not keep my commandments;
I will punish their transgressions with a rod *
and their iniquities with the lash;
But I will not take my love from him, *
nor let my faithfulness prove false.
I will not break my covenant, *
nor change what has gone out of my lips.
Once for all I have sworn by my holiness: *
‘I will not lie to David.
His line shall endure for ever *
and his throne as the sun before me;
It shall stand fast for evermore like the moon, *
the abiding witness in the sky.’

THE EPISTLE A Reading from: Ephesians 2:11-22
Remember that at one time you Gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by
those who are called “the circumcision” —a physical circumcision made in the
flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of
promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus
you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he
is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down
the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with
its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new
humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups
to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through
it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those
who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.
So, then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints
and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the
whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in
whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.
Reader: The Word of the Lord People: Thanks be to God

GOSPEL HYMN: “O Love of God” (Jesus Christ our Lord) pg. 455

O Love of God, how strong and true, e-ter-nal and yet ev-er new; un-com-
pre-hend-ed and un-bought, be-yond all know-ledge and all thought.

O wide-em-brac-ing, wondrous Love, we read thee in the sky a-bove, we
read thee in the earth be-low, in the seas that swell and streams that flow.

We read thee best in him who came to bear for us the cross of shame, sent
by the Fa-ther from on high, our life to live, our death to die.

We read thy power to bless and save e’en in the dark-ness of the grave; still
more in re-sur-rec-tion light, we read the full-ness of thy night.

The Holy GOSPEL of our Lord Jesus Christ according to:
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
The apostles gathered around Jesus, and told him all that they had done and
taught. He said to them, “Come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and
rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even
to eat. And they went away in the boat to a deserted place by themselves. Now
many saw them going and recognized them, and they hurried there on foot
from all the towns and arrived ahead of them. As he went ashore, he saw a
great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep
without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.
When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret and moored the
boat. When they got out of the boat, people at once recognized him, and
rushed about that whole region and began to bring the sick on mats to wherever
they heard he was. And wherever he went, into villages or cities or farms, they
laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch even
the fringe of his cloak; and all who touched it were healed.
Reader: The Gospel of the Lord People: Praise to you, Lord Christ