Pentecost
The word ‘Pentecost’ comes from the Greek meaning simply ‘fiftieth.’ Pentecost Sunday ends the season of Easter and symbolizes a new beginning. It celebrates the unleashing of the Holy Spirit on the world and the empowering of the church to reach the world with the gospel. In remembering Pentecost and living in light of this powerful turning point the church expresses gratitude to Christ for sending “another counselor” (John 14:16), celebrates the work of the Spirit in the renewal of all creation, and professes its confidence and security in knowing the Spirit’s power is available for its mission.
- Calling -
O Lord, open our lips.
And our mouth shall proclaim Your praise.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen. Alleluia!
Alleluia. The Spirit of the Lord filleth the world:
O come, let us adore him. Alleluia.
- Constitution -
Read/Listen, Meditate, Pray, and Contemplate on God’s Word, remembering that God is with you and ready to speak to you because he loves you.
Job 15
[1] Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said:
[2] “Should a wise man answer with windy knowledge,
and fill his belly with the east wind?
[3] Should he argue in unprofitable talk,
or in words with which he can do no good?
[4] But you are doing away with the fear of God
and hindering meditation before God.
[5] For your iniquity teaches your mouth,
and you choose the tongue of the crafty.
[6] Your own mouth condemns you, and not I;
your own lips testify against you.
[7] “Are you the first man who was born?
Or were you brought forth before the hills?
[8] Have you listened in the council of God?
And do you limit wisdom to yourself?
[9] What do you know that we do not know?
What do you understand that is not clear to us?
[10] Both the gray-haired and the aged are among us,
older than your father.
[11] Are the comforts of God too small for you,
or the word that deals gently with you?
[12] Why does your heart carry you away,
and why do your eyes flash,
[13] that you turn your spirit against God
and bring such words out of your mouth?
[14] What is man, that he can be pure?
Or he who is born of a woman, that he can be righteous?
[15] Behold, God puts no trust in his holy ones,
and the heavens are not pure in his sight;
[16] how much less one who is abominable and corrupt,
a man who drinks injustice like water!
[17] “I will show you; hear me,
and what I have seen I will declare
[18] (what wise men have told,
without hiding it from their fathers,
[19] to whom alone the land was given,
and no stranger passed among them).
[20] The wicked man writhes in pain all his days,
through all the years that are laid up for the ruthless.
[21] Dreadful sounds are in his ears;
in prosperity the destroyer will come upon him.
[22] He does not believe that he will return out of darkness,
and he is marked for the sword.
[23] He wanders abroad for bread, saying, ‘Where is it?’
He knows that a day of darkness is ready at his hand;
[24] distress and anguish terrify him;
they prevail against him, like a king ready for battle.
[25] Because he has stretched out his hand against God
and defies the Almighty,
[26] running stubbornly against him
with a thickly bossed shield;
[27] because he has covered his face with his fat
and gathered fat upon his waist
[28] and has lived in desolate cities,
in houses that none should inhabit,
which were ready to become heaps of ruins;
[29] he will not be rich, and his wealth will not endure,
nor will his possessions spread over the earth;
[30] he will not depart from darkness;
the flame will dry up his shoots,
and by the breath of his mouth he will depart.
[31] Let him not trust in emptiness, deceiving himself,
for emptiness will be his payment.
[32] It will be paid in full before his time,
and his branch will not be green.
[33] He will shake off his unripe grape like the vine,
and cast off his blossom like the olive tree.
[34] For the company of the godless is barren,
and fire consumes the tents of bribery.
[35] They conceive trouble and give birth to evil,
and their womb prepares deceit.”
Job 16
[1] Then Job answered and said:
[2] “I have heard many such things;
miserable comforters are you all.
[3] Shall windy words have an end?
Or what provokes you that you answer?
[4] I also could speak as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you
and shake my head at you.
[5] I could strengthen you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
[6] “If I speak, my pain is not assuaged,
and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me?
[7] Surely now God has worn me out;
he has made desolate all my company.
[8] And he has shriveled me up,
which is a witness against me,
and my leanness has risen up against me;
it testifies to my face.
[9] He has torn me in his wrath and hated me;
he has gnashed his teeth at me;
my adversary sharpens his eyes against me.
[10] Men have gaped at me with their mouth;
they have struck me insolently on the cheek;
they mass themselves together against me.
[11] God gives me up to the ungodly
and casts me into the hands of the wicked.
[12] I was at ease, and he broke me apart;
he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces;
he set me up as his target;
[13] his archers surround me.
He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare;
he pours out my gall on the ground.
[14] He breaks me with breach upon breach;
he runs upon me like a warrior.
[15] I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin
and have laid my strength in the dust.
[16] My face is red with weeping,
and on my eyelids is deep darkness,
[17] although there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.
[18] “O earth, cover not my blood,
and let my cry find no resting place.
[19] Even now, behold, my witness is in heaven,
and he who testifies for me is on high.
[20] My friends scorn me;
my eye pours out tears to God,
[21] that he would argue the case of a man with God,
as a son of man does with his neighbor.
[22] For when a few years have come
I shall go the way from which I shall not return.
Job 17
[1] “My spirit is broken; my days are extinct;
the graveyard is ready for me.
[2] Surely there are mockers about me,
and my eye dwells on their provocation.
[3] “Lay down a pledge for me with you;
who is there who will put up security for me?
[4] Since you have closed their hearts to understanding,
therefore you will not let them triumph.
[5] He who informs against his friends to get a share of their property—
the eyes of his children will fail.
[6] “He has made me a byword of the peoples,
and I am one before whom men spit.
[7] My eye has grown dim from vexation,
and all my members are like a shadow.
[8] The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
[9] Yet the righteous holds to his way,
and he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger.
[10] But you, come on again, all of you,
and I shall not find a wise man among you.
[11] My days are past; my plans are broken off,
the desires of my heart.
[12] They make night into day:
‘The light,’ they say, ‘is near to the darkness.’
[13] If I hope for Sheol as my house,
if I make my bed in darkness,
[14] if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’
and to the worm, ‘My mother,’ or ‘My sister,’
[15] where then is my hope?
Who will see my hope?
[16] Will it go down to the bars of Sheol?
Shall we descend together into the dust?”
Psalm 88
A Song. A Psalm of the Sons of Korah. To the choirmaster: according to Mahalath Leannoth. A Maskil of Heman the Ezrahite.
[1] O LORD, God of my salvation,
I cry out day and night before you.
[2] Let my prayer come before you;
incline your ear to my cry!
[3] For my soul is full of troubles,
and my life draws near to Sheol.
[4] I am counted among those who go down to the pit;
I am a man who has no strength,
[5] like one set loose among the dead,
like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
for they are cut off from your hand.
[6] You have put me in the depths of the pit,
in the regions dark and deep.
[7] Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
and you overwhelm me with all your waves. Selah
[8] You have caused my companions to shun me;
you have made me a horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
[9] my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call upon you, O LORD;
I spread out my hands to you.
[10] Do you work wonders for the dead?
Do the departed rise up to praise you? Selah
[11] Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
[12] Are your wonders known in the darkness,
or your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
[13] But I, O LORD, cry to you;
in the morning my prayer comes before you.
[14] O LORD, why do you cast my soul away?
Why do you hide your face from me?
[15] Afflicted and close to death from my youth up,
I suffer your terrors; I am helpless.
[16] Your wrath has swept over me;
your dreadful assaults destroy me.
[17] They surround me like a flood all day long;
they close in on me together.
[18] You have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me;
my companions have become darkness.
- Communion -
Pray for yourself, others, our church, our neighbors, and the world.
Pray the Lord’s Prayer & the collect of the week:
Our Father who art in heaven...
O God, who on this day taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things, and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
- Commission -
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14)
Let us go forth in the name of Christ.