The Second Sunday after Pentecost
THE COLLECT
O Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you
never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of
your loving- kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you
and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
OLD TESTAMENT: 1 Kings 19:1-4, (5-7), 8-15a
Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and how he had killed all the prophets
with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “So may the gods
do to me, and more also, if I do not make your life like the life of one of them by this
time tomorrow.” Then he was afraid; he got up and fled for his life, and came to
Beer-sheba, which belongs to Judah; he left his servant there. But he himself went a
day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a solitary broom
tree. He asked that he might die: “It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I
am no better than my ancestors.” Then he lay down under the broom tree and fell
asleep. Suddenly an angel touched him and said to him, “Get up and eat.”
He looked, and there at his head was a cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water.
He ate and drank, and lay down again. The angel of the Lord came a second time,
touched him, and said, “Get up and eat, otherwise the journey will be too much for
you.” He got up, and ate and drank; then he went in the strength of that food forty
days and forty nights to Horeb the mount of God. At that place he came to a cave,
and spent the night there. Then the word of the Lord came to him, saying, “What are
you doing here, Elijah?” He answered, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the
God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your
altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left, and they are seeking
my life, to take it away.” He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the
Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it
was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord
was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the
earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after
the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his
mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice
to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” He answered, “I have been very
zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the Israelites have forsaken your covenant,
thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. I alone am left,
and they are seeking my life, to take it away.” Then the Lord said to him, “Go,
return on your way to the wilderness of Damascus.”
Reader: The Word of the Lord People: Thanks be to God
PSALM Psalm 43
1 Give judgment for me, O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly people; *
deliver me from the deceitful and the wicked.
2 For you are the God of my strength; why have you put me from you? *
and why do I go so heavily while the enemy oppresses me?
3 Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, *
and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling;
4 That I may go to the altar of God, to the God of my joy and gladness; *
and on the harp, I will give thanks to you, O God my God.
5 Why are you so full of heaviness, O my soul? *
and why are you so disquieted within me?
6 Put your trust in God; *
for I will yet give thanks to him, who is the help of my countenance, and my
God.
EPISTLE: Galatians 3:23-29
Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith
would be revealed. Therefore, the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so
that we might be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer
subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through
faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with
Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no
longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to
Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.
Reader: The Word of the Lord People: Thanks be to God
THE GOSPEL of our Lord Jesus Christ according to:
Luke 8:26-39 People: Glory to You Lord Christ
Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. As
he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long
time, he had worn no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs.
When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice,
“What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you,
do not torment me” for Jesus had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of
the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound
with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the
demon into the wilds.) Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” He said,
“Legion”; for many demons had entered him. They begged him not to order
them to go back into the abyss. Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine
was feeding; and the demons begged Jesus to let them enter these. So, he gave
them permission. Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine,
and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned. When
the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in
the country. Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they
came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at
the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. Those
who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had
been healed. Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes
asked Jesus to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So, he got into
the boat and returned. The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he
might be with him; but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your home, and
declare how much God has done for you.” So, he went away, proclaiming
throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.
Reader: The Gospel of the Lord People: Praise to you, Lord Christ