Introduction to the Word and Liturgy for Worship
To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
-Ephesians 3:8 (ESV)
The riches of Christ are . . . like the sea too deep to fathom. Translators and commentators compete with one another in their attempt to find a dynamic equivalent in English. The riches of Christ, they say, are ‘unsearchable’, ‘inexplorable’, ‘untraceable’, ‘unfathomable’, ‘inexhaustible’, ‘illimitable’, ‘inscrutable’ and ‘incalculable’. Perhaps . . . ‘infinite’ is the simplest, for what is certain about the wealth Christ has and gives is that we shall never come to an end of it.
-John Stott, The Message of Ephesians
The Collect of the Day
Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
The Word:
(Click on the links below to read Sunday's passages)
First Reading: Ephesians 3:1-21
Psalm 114 (posted below the Playlist)
Gospel Reading: Mark 6:45-52
A downloadable Home Liturgy with Spiritual Communion follows the Psalm
(click below on the Spotify Playlist to listen)
Psalm 114
1 When Israel came out of Egypt, *
and the house of Jacob from among
a people of a foreign tongue,
2 Judah was God’s sanctuary, *
and Israel his dominion.
3 The sea beheld it and fled; *
Jordan was driven back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams, *
and the little hills like young sheep.
5 What ailed you, O sea, that you fled? *
O Jordan, that you were driven back?
6 You mountains, that you skipped like rams, *
and you little hills like young sheep?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, *
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 Who turned the hard rock into a pool of water, *
and the flint stone into a springing well.
(from the New Coverdale Psalter as found in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer)