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!
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God:
O come, let us adore him.
- 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.
Praying the Psalms
Psalm 78
A Maskil of Asaph.
[1] Give ear, O my people, to my teaching;
incline your ears to the words of my mouth!
[2] I will open my mouth in a parable;
I will utter dark sayings from of old,
[3] things that we have heard and known,
that our fathers have told us.
[4] We will not hide them from their children,
but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the LORD, and his might,
and the wonders that he has done.
[5] He established a testimony in Jacob
and appointed a law in Israel,
which he commanded our fathers
to teach to their children,
[6] that the next generation might know them,
the children yet unborn,
and arise and tell them to their children,
[7] so that they should set their hope in God
and not forget the works of God,
but keep his commandments;
[8] and that they should not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not steadfast,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.
[9] The Ephraimites, armed with the bow,
turned back on the day of battle.
[10] They did not keep God’s covenant,
but refused to walk according to his law.
[11] They forgot his works
and the wonders that he had shown them.
[12] In the sight of their fathers he performed wonders
in the land of Egypt, in the fields of Zoan.
[13] He divided the sea and let them pass through it,
and made the waters stand like a heap.
[14] In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
and all the night with a fiery light.
[15] He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink abundantly as from the deep.
[16] He made streams come out of the rock
and caused waters to flow down like rivers.
[17] Yet they sinned still more against him,
rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
[18] They tested God in their heart
by demanding the food they craved.
[19] They spoke against God, saying,
“Can God spread a table in the wilderness?
[20] He struck the rock so that water gushed out
and streams overflowed.
Can he also give bread
or provide meat for his people?”
[21] Therefore, when the LORD heard, he was full of wrath;
a fire was kindled against Jacob;
his anger rose against Israel,
[22] because they did not believe in God
and did not trust his saving power.
[23] Yet he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven,
[24] and he rained down on them manna to eat
and gave them the grain of heaven.
[25] Man ate of the bread of the angels;
he sent them food in abundance.
[26] He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens,
and by his power he led out the south wind;
[27] he rained meat on them like dust,
winged birds like the sand of the seas;
[28] he let them fall in the midst of their camp,
all around their dwellings.
[29] And they ate and were well filled,
for he gave them what they craved.
[30] But before they had satisfied their craving,
while the food was still in their mouths,
[31] the anger of God rose against them,
and he killed the strongest of them
and laid low the young men of Israel.
[32] In spite of all this, they still sinned;
despite his wonders, they did not believe.
[33] So he made their days vanish like a breath,
and their years in terror.
[34] When he killed them, they sought him;
they repented and sought God earnestly.
[35] They remembered that God was their rock,
the Most High God their redeemer.
[36] But they flattered him with their mouths;
they lied to him with their tongues.
[37] Their heart was not steadfast toward him;
they were not faithful to his covenant.
[38] Yet he, being compassionate,
atoned for their iniquity
and did not destroy them;
he restrained his anger often
and did not stir up all his wrath.
[39] He remembered that they were but flesh,
a wind that passes and comes not again.
[40] How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and grieved him in the desert!
[41] They tested God again and again
and provoked the Holy One of Israel.
[42] They did not remember his power
or the day when he redeemed them from the foe,
[43] when he performed his signs in Egypt
and his marvels in the fields of Zoan.
[44] He turned their rivers to blood,
so that they could not drink of their streams.
[45] He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them,
and frogs, which destroyed them.
[46] He gave their crops to the destroying locust
and the fruit of their labor to the locust.
[47] He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamores with frost.
[48] He gave over their cattle to the hail
and their flocks to thunderbolts.
[49] He let loose on them his burning anger,
wrath, indignation, and distress,
a company of destroying angels.
[50] He made a path for his anger;
he did not spare them from death,
but gave their lives over to the plague.
[51] He struck down every firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
[52] Then he led out his people like sheep
and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
[53] He led them in safety, so that they were not afraid,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
[54] And he brought them to his holy land,
to the mountain which his right hand had won.
[55] He drove out nations before them;
he apportioned them for a possession
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
[56] Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God
and did not keep his testimonies,
[57] but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers;
they twisted like a deceitful bow.
[58] For they provoked him to anger with their high places;
they moved him to jealousy with their idols.
[59] When God heard, he was full of wrath,
and he utterly rejected Israel.
[60] He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh,
the tent where he dwelt among mankind,
[61] and delivered his power to captivity,
his glory to the hand of the foe.
[62] He gave his people over to the sword
and vented his wrath on his heritage.
[63] Fire devoured their young men,
and their young women had no marriage song.
[64] Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows made no lamentation.
[65] Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
like a strong man shouting because of wine.
[66] And he put his adversaries to rout;
he put them to everlasting shame.
[67] He rejected the tent of Joseph;
he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
[68] but he chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which he loves.
[69] He built his sanctuary like the high heavens,
like the earth, which he has founded forever.
[70] He chose David his servant
and took him from the sheepfolds;
[71] from following the nursing ewes he brought him
to shepherd Jacob his people,
Israel his inheritance.
[72] With upright heart he shepherded them
and guided them with his skillful hand.
Psalm 79
A Psalm of Asaph.
[1] O God, the nations have come into your inheritance;
they have defiled your holy temple;
they have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
[2] They have given the bodies of your servants
to the birds of the heavens for food,
the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.
[3] They have poured out their blood like water
all around Jerusalem,
and there was no one to bury them.
[4] We have become a taunt to our neighbors,
mocked and derided by those around us.
[5] How long, O LORD? Will you be angry forever?
Will your jealousy burn like fire?
[6] Pour out your anger on the nations
that do not know you,
and on the kingdoms
that do not call upon your name!
[7] For they have devoured Jacob
and laid waste his habitation.
[8] Do not remember against us our former iniquities;
let your compassion come speedily to meet us,
for we are brought very low.
[9] Help us, O God of our salvation,
for the glory of your name;
deliver us, and atone for our sins,
for your name’s sake!
[10] Why should the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants
be known among the nations before our eyes!
[11] Let the groans of the prisoners come before you;
according to your great power, preserve those doomed to die!
[12] Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors
the taunts with which they have taunted you, O Lord!
[13] But we your people, the sheep of your pasture,
will give thanks to you forever;
from generation to generation we will recount your praise.
Old Testament Reading
Isaiah 55
[1] “Come, everyone who thirsts,
come to the waters;
and he who has no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price.
[2] Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
[3] Incline your ear, and come to me;
hear, that your soul may live;
and I will make with you an everlasting covenant,
my steadfast, sure love for David.
[4] Behold, I made him a witness to the peoples,
a leader and commander for the peoples.
[5] Behold, you shall call a nation that you do not know,
and a nation that did not know you shall run to you,
because of the LORD your God, and of the Holy One of Israel,
for he has glorified you.
[6] “Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
[7] let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
[8] For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD.
[9] For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
[10] “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
[11] so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
[12] “For you shall go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall break forth into singing,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
[13] Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall make a name for the LORD,
an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
New Testament Reading
Matthew 3
[1] In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, [2] “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” [3] For this is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah when he said,
“The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord;
make his paths straight.’”
[4] Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. [5] Then Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan were going out to him, [6] and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
[7] But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? [8] Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. [9] And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father,’ for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. [10] Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
[11] “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. [12] His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”
[13] Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. [14] John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” [15] But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. [16] And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; [17] and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
- 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 Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for your holy Name, for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure foundation of your loving-kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and 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.