Introduction to the Word and Liturgy for Worship
Christ brought us together through his death on the cross. The Cross got us to embrace, and that was the end of the hostility. Christ came and preached peace to you outsiders and peace to us insiders. He treated us as equals, and so made us equals. Through him we both share the same Spirit and have equal access to the Father. . . . You were all called to travel on the same road and in the same direction, so stay together, both outwardly and inwardly. You have one Master, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who rules over all, works through all, and is present in all. Everything you are and think and do is permeated with Oneness.
-Ephesians 2:16-18; 4:2-6, The Message
What we know about God and what we do for God have a way of getting broken apart in our lives. The moment the organic unity of belief and behavior is damaged in any way, we are incapable of living out the full humanity for which we were created. Paul's letter to the Ephesians joins together what has been torn apart in our sin-wrecked world. He begins with an exuberant exploration of what Christians believe about God, and then, like a surgeon skillfully setting a compound fracture, "sets" this belief in God into our behavior before God so that the bones—belief and behavior—knit together and heal.
-Eugene Peterson, The Invitation
The Collect of the Day
O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, 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 2:11-21
Psalm 22:23-31 (posted below the Playlist)
Gospel Reading: Mark 6:30-44
A downloadable Home Liturgy with Spiritual Communion follows the Psalm
(click below on the Spotify Playlist to listen)
Psalm 22:23-31
23 O praise the Lord, you that fear him; *
magnify him, all you seed of Jacob,
and fear him, all you seed of Israel.
24 For he has not despised nor abhorred the low estate of the poor; *
he has not hidden his face from him,
but when he called unto him, he heard him.
25 My praise is of you in the great congregation; *
my vows will I perform in the sight of those who fear him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied; *
those who seek after the Lord shall praise him;
may your hearts live for ever.
27 All the ends of the world shall remember, and be turned unto the Lord, *
and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.
28 For the kingdom is the Lord’s, *
and he is the Governor among the peoples.
29 All those who sleep in the earth, how shall they worship him? *
All those who go down into the dust, how shall they kneel before him?
30 But my life shall be preserved in his sight, and my children shall worship him; *
they shall tell of the Lord to the generations to come;
31 And to a people yet unborn shall they declare his righteousness, *
that he has brought it to pass.
(from the New Coverdale Psalter as found in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer)