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.
Isaiah 36
[1] In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. [2] And the king of Assyria sent the Rabshakeh from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem, with a great army. And he stood by the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Washer’s Field. [3] And there came out to him Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder.
[4] And the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: On what do you rest this trust of yours? [5] Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me? [6] Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff, which will pierce the hand of any man who leans on it. Such is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. [7] But if you say to me, “We trust in the LORD our God,” is it not he whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and to Jerusalem, “You shall worship before this altar”? [8] Come now, make a wager with my master the king of Assyria: I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. [9] How then can you repulse a single captain among the least of my master’s servants, when you trust in Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? [10] Moreover, is it without the LORD that I have come up against this land to destroy it? The LORD said to me, “Go up against this land and destroy it.”’”
[11] Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it. Do not speak to us in the language of Judah within the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” [12] But the Rabshakeh said, “Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men sitting on the wall, who are doomed with you to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?”
[13] Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah: “Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! [14] Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you. [15] Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the LORD by saying, “The LORD will surely deliver us. This city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” [16] Do not listen to Hezekiah. For thus says the king of Assyria: Make your peace with me and come out to me. Then each one of you will eat of his own vine, and each one of his own fig tree, and each one of you will drink the water of his own cistern, [17] until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and wine, a land of bread and vineyards. [18] Beware lest Hezekiah mislead you by saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” Has any of the gods of the nations delivered his land out of the hand of the king of Assyria? [19] Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand? [20] Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?’”
[21] But they were silent and answered him not a word, for the king’s command was, “Do not answer him.” [22] Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh.
Isaiah 37
[1] As soon as King Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the LORD. [2] And he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, and Shebna the secretary, and the senior priests, covered with sackcloth, to the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz. [3] They said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah, ‘This day is a day of distress, of rebuke, and of disgrace; children have come to the point of birth, and there is no strength to bring them forth. [4] It may be that the LORD your God will hear the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to mock the living God, and will rebuke the words that the LORD your God has heard; therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.’”
[5] When the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah, [6] Isaiah said to them, “Say to your master, ‘Thus says the LORD: Do not be afraid because of the words that you have heard, with which the young men of the king of Assyria have reviled me. [7] Behold, I will put a spirit in him, so that he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land, and I will make him fall by the sword in his own land.’”
[8] The Rabshakeh returned, and found the king of Assyria fighting against Libnah, for he had heard that the king had left Lachish. [9] Now the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Cush, “He has set out to fight against you.” And when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, [10] “Thus shall you speak to Hezekiah king of Judah: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you by promising that Jerusalem will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. [11] Behold, you have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands, devoting them to destruction. And shall you be delivered? [12] Have the gods of the nations delivered them, the nations that my fathers destroyed, Gozan, Haran, Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? [13] Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, the king of Hena, or the king of Ivvah?’”
[14] Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the LORD, and spread it before the LORD. [15] And Hezekiah prayed to the LORD: [16] “O LORD of hosts, God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; you have made heaven and earth. [17] Incline your ear, O LORD, and hear; open your eyes, O LORD, and see; and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. [18] Truly, O LORD, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations and their lands, [19] and have cast their gods into the fire. For they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone. Therefore they were destroyed. [20] So now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD.”
[21] Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, [22] this is the word that the LORD has spoken concerning him:
“‘She despises you, she scorns you—
the virgin daughter of Zion;
she wags her head behind you—
the daughter of Jerusalem.
[23] “‘Whom have you mocked and reviled?
Against whom have you raised your voice
and lifted your eyes to the heights?
Against the Holy One of Israel!
[24] By your servants you have mocked the Lord,
and you have said, With my many chariots
I have gone up the heights of the mountains,
to the far recesses of Lebanon,
to cut down its tallest cedars,
its choicest cypresses,
to come to its remotest height,
its most fruitful forest.
[25] I dug wells
and drank waters,
to dry up with the sole of my foot
all the streams of Egypt.
[26] “‘Have you not heard
that I determined it long ago?
I planned from days of old
what now I bring to pass,
that you should make fortified cities
crash into heaps of ruins,
[27] while their inhabitants, shorn of strength,
are dismayed and confounded,
and have become like plants of the field
and like tender grass,
like grass on the housetops,
blighted before it is grown.
[28] “‘I know your sitting down
and your going out and coming in,
and your raging against me.
[29] Because you have raged against me
and your complacency has come to my ears,
I will put my hook in your nose
and my bit in your mouth,
and I will turn you back on the way
by which you came.’
[30] “And this shall be the sign for you: this year you shall eat what grows of itself, and in the second year what springs from that. Then in the third year sow and reap, and plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. [31] And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. [32] For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and out of Mount Zion a band of survivors. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.
[33] “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria: He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it. [34] By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the LORD. [35] For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.”
[36] And the angel of the LORD went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. [37] Then Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. [38] And as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, Adrammelech and Sharezer, his sons, struck him down with the sword. And after they escaped into the land of Ararat, Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place.
Psalm 76
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song.
[1] In Judah God is known;
his name is great in Israel.
[2] His abode has been established in Salem,
his dwelling place in Zion.
[3] There he broke the flashing arrows,
the shield, the sword, and the weapons of war. Selah
[4] Glorious are you, more majestic
than the mountains full of prey.
[5] The stouthearted were stripped of their spoil;
they sank into sleep;
all the men of war
were unable to use their hands.
[6] At your rebuke, O God of Jacob,
both rider and horse lay stunned.
[7] But you, you are to be feared!
Who can stand before you
when once your anger is roused?
[8] From the heavens you uttered judgment;
the earth feared and was still,
[9] when God arose to establish judgment,
to save all the humble of the earth. Selah
[10] Surely the wrath of man shall praise you;
the remnant of wrath you will put on like a belt.
[11] Make your vows to the LORD your God and perform them;
let all around him bring gifts
to him who is to be feared,
[12] who cuts off the spirit of princes,
who is to be feared by the kings of the earth.
Proverbs 25
[1] These also are proverbs of Solomon which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied.
[2] It is the glory of God to conceal things,
but the glory of kings is to search things out.
[3] As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth,
so the heart of kings is unsearchable.
[4] Take away the dross from the silver,
and the smith has material for a vessel;
[5] take away the wicked from the presence of the king,
and his throne will be established in righteousness.
[6] Do not put yourself forward in the king’s presence
or stand in the place of the great,
[7] for it is better to be told, “Come up here,”
than to be put lower in the presence of a noble.
What your eyes have seen
[8] do not hastily bring into court,
for what will you do in the end,
when your neighbor puts you to shame?
[9] Argue your case with your neighbor himself,
and do not reveal another’s secret,
[10] lest he who hears you bring shame upon you,
and your ill repute have no end.
[11] A word fitly spoken
is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.
[12] Like a gold ring or an ornament of gold
is a wise reprover to a listening ear.
[13] Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest
is a faithful messenger to those who send him;
he refreshes the soul of his masters.
[14] Like clouds and wind without rain
is a man who boasts of a gift he does not give.
[15] With patience a ruler may be persuaded,
and a soft tongue will break a bone.
[16] If you have found honey, eat only enough for you,
lest you have your fill of it and vomit it.
[17] Let your foot be seldom in your neighbor’s house,
lest he have his fill of you and hate you.
[18] A man who bears false witness against his neighbor
is like a war club, or a sword, or a sharp arrow.
[19] Trusting in a treacherous man in time of trouble
is like a bad tooth or a foot that slips.
[20] Whoever sings songs to a heavy heart
is like one who takes off a garment on a cold day,
and like vinegar on soda.
[21] If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat,
and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink,
[22] for you will heap burning coals on his head,
and the LORD will reward you.
[23] The north wind brings forth rain,
and a backbiting tongue, angry looks.
[24] It is better to live in a corner of the housetop
than in a house shared with a quarrelsome wife.
[25] Like cold water to a thirsty soul,
so is good news from a far country.
[26] Like a muddied spring or a polluted fountain
is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.
[27] It is not good to eat much honey,
nor is it glorious to seek one’s own glory.
[28] A man without self-control
is like a city broken into and left without walls.
- 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, your never-failing providence sets in order all things both in heaven and earth: Put away from us, we entreat you, all hurtful things, and give us those things which are profitable for us; 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.