Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost
The COLLECT
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things: Graft in our
hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion; nourish us with all
goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our
Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God for ever and ever.
Amen.
OLD TESTAMENT: Song of Solomon 2:8-13
The voice of my beloved!
Look, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
bounding over the hills.
My beloved is like a gazelle
or a young stag.
Look, there he stands
behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
looking through the lattice.
My beloved speaks and says to me:
“Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away;
for now the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away.”
Reader: The Word of the Lord People: Thanks be to God
PSALM: Psalm 45:1-2, 7-10
1 My heart is stirring with a noble song;
let me recite what I have fashioned for the king; *
my tongue shall be the pen of a skilled writer.
2 You are the fairest of men; *
grace flows from your lips, because God has blessed you for ever.
7 Your throne, O God, endures for ever and ever, *
a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom;
you love righteousness and hate iniquity.
8 Therefore God, your God, has anointed you *
with the oil of gladness above your fellows.
9 All your garments are fragrant with myrrh, aloes, and cassia, *
and the music of strings from ivory palaces makes you glad.
10 Kings’ daughters stand among the ladies of the court; *
on your right hand is the queen, adorned with the gold of Ophir.
THE EPISTLE A Reading from: James 1:17-27
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down
from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we
would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to
speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.
Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and
welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if
any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at
themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves and, on going away,
immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law,
the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act-
they will be blessed in their doing.
If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their
hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God,
the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep
oneself unstained by the world.
Reader: The Word of the Lord People: Thanks be to God
The Holy GOSPEL of our Lord Jesus Christ according to:
Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23
When the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem
gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with
defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the
Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the
tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they
wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing
of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him,
“Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat
with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you
hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips,
but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me,
teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and
understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the
things that come out are what defile.” For it is from within, from the human
heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice,
wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil
things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Reader: The Gospel of the Lord People: Praise to you, Lord Christ