The Twelfth Sunday of Pentecost
**Please note this service is based on the format of the Anglican Church of Canada. Unless otherwise indicated, all prayers come from the Book of Alternative Services (BAS) and the hymns from the Book of Common Praise (BCP). Other hymns and prayers have been sourced to give appropriate credit.
**NRSV translation used for the readings, unless otherwise stated.
**This is for personal use at home as the church is unable to gather in our houses of worship but together we can worship in our own homes.
Opening Prayer
Let us pray.
God of all who
wander in the wilderness, you go before us as beacon and guide. Lead us through
all danger, sustain us through all desolation, and bring us home to the land
you have prepared for us. Amen. (Revised Common Lectionary Prayers)
Opening Hymn – Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun (BCP #8)
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
And also with you.
Collect for Purity
The Gloria
Collect of the Day
Let us pray.
Almighty God, we
are taught by your word that all our doings without love are worth nothing.
Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of
love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue; through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The Readings
A reading from
the Book of Exodus 1:8-2:10
Now
a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. He said to his people,
“Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come,
let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war,
join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they
set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply
cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the
more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the
Israelites. The Egyptians became ruthless in imposing tasks on the Israelites,
and made their lives bitter with hard service in mortar and brick and in every
kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on
them.
The
king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and
the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on
the birthstool, if it is a boy, kill him; but if it is a girl, she shall live.”
But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded
them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives
and said to them, “Why have you done this, and allowed the boys to live?” The
midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian
women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.”
So God dealt well with the midwives; and the people multiplied and became very
strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then
Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every boy that is born to the Hebrews you
shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every girl live.”
Now
a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived
and bore a son; and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three
months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him, and
plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it
among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to
see what would happen to him.
The
daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants
walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid
to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took
pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his
sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the
Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her,
“Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said
to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.”
So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought
him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and she took him as her son. She named him Moses,
“because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be the God.
Psalm 124
If it had not
been the Lord who was on our side,
let Israel now say;
if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
when our enemies
attacked us,
then they
would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would
have gone over us;
then over us
would have gone
the raging waters.
Blessed be the Lord,
who has not given
us as prey to their teeth.
We have
escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
and we have
escaped.
Our help is in
the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
Helper and defender of Israel, rescue the peoples of the world from destructive anger, and set us free to love and serve each other in the peace of Christ of Lord. Amen.
A reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans 12:1-8
I
appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to
present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is
your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God
– what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For
by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself
more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each
according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we
have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who
are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of
another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us:
prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in
teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader,
in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.
Gradual Hymn – Jesus Calls Us; o’er the Tumult (BCP #432)
The Lord be with you.
And also with you.
The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew. 16:13-20
Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Now
when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples,
“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the
Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are
the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are
you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but
my Father in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will
build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will
give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will
be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the
Messiah.
The Gospel of Christ.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.
Sermon
Guest Preacher: Rev Jason Zinko (Bishop, Manitoba/Northwestern Ontario Synod)
Grace, Mercy, and Peace to you in the name of Christ our Saviour.
I first want to say thank you for inviting me into your congregations and into your homes to speak about the gospel reading that we have been assigned today.
“Peter’s Confession,” as this part of Matthew’s gospel is often called, is an incredibly important part of Jesus’ story. It is a turning point in Matthew’s gospel in some ways.It is here that Jesus starts to unveil his succession plan, handing over the ministry to Peter and the disciples after Jesus is no longer with us in body. It is also where Jesus’ journey to the cross in Jerusalem picks up some steam.
But at the heart of Peter’s confession, or should I say the reason for it, is Jesus’ question about what people are saying about him. More importantly, Jesus wanted to know what his followers were saying about him and who his disciples believed him to be.
This is not a question about understanding or knowledge. Jesus is not asking if his disciples have seen enough proof or if they have finally caught on to what Jesus has been teaching them.
This is a question of purpose and identity. By posing this question, Jesus is actually asking the disciples, “Why are you here? Why did you leave your old lives behind to wander across the country with me? What does it mean for you to follow me?”
We might think these are questions that the disciples would have asked long before following Jesus around the countryside for a year or more. But again, understanding who Jesus is does not come only through a specific amount of listening, learning, or experience. In part, our belief about who Jesus is comes from God and is revealed through faith. It is God’s grace and faithfulness that allow us to see Jesus clearly for who he is.
For us, these questions of Jesus’ identity are incredibly important to keep in mind. Who we believe Jesus to be will shape our faith, our discipleship, and ultimately our ability to see God at work in the world around us. They will help us to solidify our identity as disciples, and help us to understand our true motivation in ministry –both as individuals and as a church.
I think it goes without saying that this has been a strange year. Nothing seems to be ‘normal’ –even after many places across our country have been getting back to some sort of normal over the past months. Certainly, nothing has been ‘normal’ in the church. Our members, leaders, clergy, and bishops have all had to do some reimagining since March. We have had to pivot a number of times and try to find creative ways of meeting the needs of our congregations and ministries while also making sure that we protected our most vulnerable members and the communities around us.
In all of this, it seems that we have really had to stop and think about our identity and purpose. We have needed to contemplate why we should start up certain practices, programs, or ministries, and why others needed to be postponed or left behind. We needed to prioritize the most effective and most valued ministries because we knew it was impossible to go back to the way everything was last year.
Those decisions about ministry did not rely only on practicalities. Those decisions, when made in faithful and healthy ways, were intended to help us think about, define, and live out our identity as disciples. They will hopefully help our whole church to refine our purpose before we move forward. But more importantly, those questions will help us to each clearly understand who Jesus is and who we are as his followers. That is what will best allow God to form us in faith so that, in each corner of our lives, we will be better equipped to see God at work and to faithfully respond to the needs of the world.
I’m not sure if you are all aware, but this weekend was supposed to be the time that youth from across the ELCIC and the Anglican Church of Canada would have gathered together for CLAY –the Canadian Lutheran and Anglican Youth Gathering. Under the theme “En Route”, our youth were going to explore what it meant to have faith and to be followers of Jesus in daily life. I am so sorry to all of our youth that this couldn’t happen for you this year. I know that for many of you, it was going to be your first time at a gathering. For others, it would have been your last time to take part in an event or ministry that has been so important in your faith lives.
I am also sorry for our church that our youth have missed this experience. CLAY Gatherings are extraordinary events to help with the faith formation of some of our younger members. These are places where our youth get to think and pray about who Jesus is and what a life of following Jesus means. They are times of building our Christian identity and growing in our understanding and purpose as God’s children.
I hope that we will all find other ways of engaging our youth in the faith formation that they missed this summer. But I also hope that we will seriously consider how we, old and young, can more actively engage in practices that will allow God to form and re-form our faith so that we can see clearly who Jesus is and how our lives as disciples carry on the work that God has called us to in baptism.
This is not work that we do on our own or for ourselves. This is not about becoming better versions of ourselves in order to win God’s approval. This is work that can only be possible because of the never-ending grace and faithfulness of God, expressed through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.
In baptism, and through the gift of the Holy Spirit, God calls each of us to a life of discipleship – of following Jesus – so that we are able to share the good news that we see and experience all around us.
And that life of discipleship will call us to work for justice for the marginalized and outcast. It will make us re-examine how our actions can bring harm to others, to creation, and to ourselves. And it will demand that we change those harmful ways of being. A life of discipleship will naturally call us to action to care for our communities in a way that carries on the ministry that Jesus embarked on, to which we are called each and every day.
In your homes, communities, and congregations, a life of discipleship will take on different forms and will address different needs. But regardless of the specific ways you live out your faith, a life of discipleship will be characterized by service, compassion, justice, and mercy. It will be a way that others can see and experience God in their lives.
My hope and prayer for each of you is that you are able to see Jesus clearly in your lives and that God will give you the grace and faith that you need in order to follow. My prayer is that we will all learn to be disciples and carry on the ministry that Jesus has entrusted to us.
Grace and peace to you in that work, and in our ministry together. Amen.
The Prayers of the
People
Through the
power of God, Peter saw Jesus in spirit and truth. For the power of God to be
felt in our own times, let us offer intercessions, saying: Lord, hear us.
For all peoples of the earth and powers of the world who have not yet recognized Jesus as the Christ,
Let us pray to
the Lord.
Lord, hear us.
For the unity of churches, and for their common witness to the possibility of faith,
Let us pray to
the Lord.
Lord, hear us.
For those who struggle to believe in the earthly manifestations of Christ in the church, in the liturgy, and in daily life,
Let us pray to
the Lord.
Lord, hear us.
For those who suffer at the hands of the church, and for those who are oppressed in the name of God,
Let us pray to
the Lord.
Lord, hear us.
For ourselves, our families, and our communities, who are daily faced with questions of faith,
Let us pray to
the Lord.
Lord, hear us.
Please take time to offer your own intercessions or to pray in silence.
Living God, you wish to be among us in your Son and in his church. Hear the petitions we place before you. Increase our faith that we may see your works more clearly; purify our actions that we may reveal your love more surely. We ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son, who live and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, Forever and ever. Amen. (Intercessions for the Christian People)
Confession and Absolution
Dear friends
in Christ,
God is
steadfast in love and infinite in mercy; God welcomes sinners and invites them
to the table. Let us confess our sins, confident in God’s forgiveness.
(Silence)
Most merciful God, we confess that we have sinned against
you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done and by what we have left
undone. We have not loved you with our whole heart; we have not loved our
neighbour as ourselves. We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. For the sake
of your son Jesus Christ, have mercy on us and forgive us, that we might
delight in your will, and walk in your ways, to the glory of your name. Amen.
Almighty God, have mercy upon you, pardon and deliver you from all your sins, confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
And also with you.
Offertory Hymn – Eat This Bread, Drink This Cup (BCP #63)
Prayer over the Gifts
**Although not physically at our church buildings to share
our offering together I would encourage you to set your offering of money aside
so that it can be dropped off or placed in the church once services resume, to
mail your offering to the church, or to make donations online. Please remember
ministry is still taking place.
Let us pray.
God of glory,
receive all we offer this day as a symbol of our love, and increase in us that
true and perfect gift. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
This service was created for in-person outdoor worship. For those worshiping at home, you may either read the Eucharistic prayer, or skip ahead to the Lord's Prayer and then the Doxology.
Eucharistic Prayer 1
The Lord be
with you.
And also with you.
Lift up your hearts.
We lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right that we should praise you, Gracious God, for you created all things. You formed us in your own image: all living creatures, you created us. When we turned away from you in sin, you did not cease to care for us, but opened a path of salvation for all people.
You made a covenant with Israel, and through your servants Abraham and Sarah gave the promise of a blessing to all nations. Through Moses you led your people from bondage into freedom; through the prophets you renewed your promise of salvation.
Therefore, with them, and with all your saints who have served you in every age, we give thanks and raise our voices to proclaim the glory of your name.
Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might,
heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed are they who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
Holy God, source of life and goodness, all creation rightly gives you praise. In the fullness of time, you sent your Son Jesus Christ, to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the God of all.
He healed the sick and ate and drank with outcasts and sinners; he opened the eyes of the blind and proclaimed the good news of your kingdom to the poor and to those in need. In all things he fulfilled your gracious will.
On the night he freely gave himself to death, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread, and when he had given thanks to you, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, and said, “ Take, eat: this is my body which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.”
After supper he took the cup of wine; and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and said, “ Drink this, all of you: this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.”
Gracious God, his perfect sacrifice destroys the power of sin and death; by raising him to life you give us life for evermore. Therefore we proclaim the mystery of faith.
Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.
Recalling his death, proclaiming his resurrection, and looking for his coming again in glory, we offer you, Father, this bread and this cup. Send your Holy Spirit upon us and upon these gifts, that all who eat and drink at this table may be one body and one holy people, a living sacrifice in Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Through Christ, with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory is yours, almighty God, now and for ever. Amen.
And now, as our Saviour Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray,
Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
Save us from the time of trial,
And deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power, and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen.
We break this bread to share in the body of Christ.
We, being many, are one body, for we all share in the one
bread.
This is the table of Christ. It is made ready for those who love him, and for those who want to love him more. Come, whether you have much faith or little, have tried to follow, or are afraid that you have failed. Come. Because it is Christ's will that those who want to meet him, might meet him here.
These are the gifts of God for the People of God.
Thanks be to God.
Prayer After Communion
Let us pray.
Living God,
increase in us the healing power of your love. Guide and direct us that we may
please you in all things, for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Doxology
Glory to God,
Whose power, working in us, can do infinitely more than we
can ask or imagine. Glory to God from generation to generation, in the Church
and in Christ Jesus, for ever and ever. Amen.
Blessing
The blessing
of almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, be upon you now and always. Amen.
Closing Hymn – We Are Marching in the Light
Dismissal
Go forth into the world, rejoicing in the
power of the Spirit.
Thanks be to God.
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