Readings for Sunday – 7/20/25

The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

THE 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 forever. Amen.

OLD TESTAMENT: Amos 8:1-12
This is what the Lord God showed me—a basket of summer fruit. He said, “Amos,
what do you see?” And I said, “A basket of summer fruit.” Then the Lord said to
me, The end has come upon my people Israel; I will never again pass them by. The
songs of the temple shall become wailings in that day,” says the Lord God; “the
dead bodies shall be many, cast out in every place. Be silent!” Hear this, you that
trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land, saying, “When will the
new moon be over so that we may sell grain; and the sabbath, so that we may offer
wheat for sale? We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practice
deceit with false balances, buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of
sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat. The Lord has sworn by the pride
of Jacob: Surely, I will never forget any of their deeds. Shall not the land tremble
on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it, and all of it rise like the Nile,
and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt? on that day, says the
Lord God, I will make the sun go down at noon, and darken the earth in broad
daylight.
I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; I will
bring sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head; I will make it like the
mourning for an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day. The time is surely
coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of
bread, or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander
from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, seeking the word
of the Lord, but they shall not find it.
Reader: The Word of the Lord People: Thanks be to God

PSALM: Psalm 52
1 You tyrant, why do you boast of wickedness *
against the godly all day long?
2You plot ruin; your tongue is like a sharpened razor, *
O worker of deception.
3 You love evil more than good *
and lying more than speaking the truth.
4 You love all words that hurt, *
O you deceitful tongue.
5 Oh, that God would demolish you utterly, *
topple you, and snatch you from your dwelling, and root you out of the
land of the living!
6 The righteous shall see and tremble, *
and they shall laugh at him, saying,
7 “This is the one who did not take God for a refuge, *
but trusted in great wealth and relied upon wickedness.”
8 But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God; *
I trust in the mercy of God for ever and ever.
9 I will give you thanks for what you have done *
and declare the goodness of your Name in the presence of the godly.

EPISTLE: Colossians 1:15-28
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all
things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether
thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through
him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold
together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him
all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to
reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace
through the blood of his cross. And you who were once estranged and hostile in
mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his fleshly body through death,
so as to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him— provided
that you continue securely established and steadfast in the faith, without shifting
from the hope promised by the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed to
every creature under heaven. I, Paul, became a servant of this gospel. I am now
rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I am completing what is
lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. I became
its servant according to God’s commission that was given to me for you, to make
the word of God fully known, the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages
and generations but has now been revealed to his saints. To them God chose to
make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this
mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. It is he whom we proclaim,
warning everyone and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present
everyone mature in Christ.
Reader: The Word of the Lord People: Thanks be to God

THE GOSPEL of our Lord Jesus Christ according to:
Luke 10:38-42 People: Glory to You Lord Christ
Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman
named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary,
who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying. But Martha was
distracted by her many tasks; so, she came to him and asked, “Lord, do you not
care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her then to
help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and
distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the
better part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Reader: The Gospel of the Lord People: Praise to you, Lord Christ