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!
The mercy of the Lord is everlasting:
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 119:137–176
Tsadhe
[137] Righteous are you, O LORD,
and right are your rules.
[138] You have appointed your testimonies in righteousness
and in all faithfulness.
[139] My zeal consumes me,
because my foes forget your words.
[140] Your promise is well tried,
and your servant loves it.
[141] I am small and despised,
yet I do not forget your precepts.
[142] Your righteousness is righteous forever,
and your law is true.
[143] Trouble and anguish have found me out,
but your commandments are my delight.
[144] Your testimonies are righteous forever;
give me understanding that I may live.
Qoph
[145] With my whole heart I cry; answer me, O LORD!
I will keep your statutes.
[146] I call to you; save me,
that I may observe your testimonies.
[147] I rise before dawn and cry for help;
I hope in your words.
[148] My eyes are awake before the watches of the night,
that I may meditate on your promise.
[149] Hear my voice according to your steadfast love;
O LORD, according to your justice give me life.
[150] They draw near who persecute me with evil purpose;
they are far from your law.
[151] But you are near, O LORD,
and all your commandments are true.
[152] Long have I known from your testimonies
that you have founded them forever.
Resh
[153] Look on my affliction and deliver me,
for I do not forget your law.
[154] Plead my cause and redeem me;
give me life according to your promise!
[155] Salvation is far from the wicked,
for they do not seek your statutes.
[156] Great is your mercy, O LORD;
give me life according to your rules.
[157] Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,
but I do not swerve from your testimonies.
[158] I look at the faithless with disgust,
because they do not keep your commands.
[159] Consider how I love your precepts!
Give me life according to your steadfast love.
[160] The sum of your word is truth,
and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.
Sin and Shin
[161] Princes persecute me without cause,
but my heart stands in awe of your words.
[162] I rejoice at your word
like one who finds great spoil.
[163] I hate and abhor falsehood,
but I love your law.
[164] Seven times a day I praise you
for your righteous rules.
[165] Great peace have those who love your law;
nothing can make them stumble.
[166] I hope for your salvation, O LORD,
and I do your commandments.
[167] My soul keeps your testimonies;
I love them exceedingly.
[168] I keep your precepts and testimonies,
for all my ways are before you.
Taw
[169] Let my cry come before you, O LORD;
give me understanding according to your word!
[170] Let my plea come before you;
deliver me according to your word.
[171] My lips will pour forth praise,
for you teach me your statutes.
[172] My tongue will sing of your word,
for all your commandments are right.
[173] Let your hand be ready to help me,
for I have chosen your precepts.
[174] I long for your salvation, O LORD,
and your law is my delight.
[175] Let my soul live and praise you,
and let your rules help me.
[176] I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek your servant,
for I do not forget your commandments.
Old Testament Reading
1 Samuel 25
[1] Now Samuel died. And all Israel assembled and mourned for him, and they buried him in his house at Ramah.
Then David rose and went down to the wilderness of Paran. [2] And there was a man in Maon whose business was in Carmel. The man was very rich; he had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats. He was shearing his sheep in Carmel. [3] Now the name of the man was Nabal, and the name of his wife Abigail. The woman was discerning and beautiful, but the man was harsh and badly behaved; he was a Calebite. [4] David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. [5] So David sent ten young men. And David said to the young men, “Go up to Carmel, and go to Nabal and greet him in my name. [6] And thus you shall greet him: ‘Peace be to you, and peace be to your house, and peace be to all that you have. [7] I hear that you have shearers. Now your shepherds have been with us, and we did them no harm, and they missed nothing all the time they were in Carmel. [8] Ask your young men, and they will tell you. Therefore let my young men find favor in your eyes, for we come on a feast day. Please give whatever you have at hand to your servants and to your son David.’”
[9] When David’s young men came, they said all this to Nabal in the name of David, and then they waited. [10] And Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? There are many servants these days who are breaking away from their masters. [11] Shall I take my bread and my water and my meat that I have killed for my shearers and give it to men who come from I do not know where?” [12] So David’s young men turned away and came back and told him all this. [13] And David said to his men, “Every man strap on his sword!” And every man of them strapped on his sword. David also strapped on his sword. And about four hundred men went up after David, while two hundred remained with the baggage.
[14] But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to greet our master, and he railed at them. [15] Yet the men were very good to us, and we suffered no harm, and we did not miss anything when we were in the fields, as long as we went with them. [16] They were a wall to us both by night and by day, all the while we were with them keeping the sheep. [17] Now therefore know this and consider what you should do, for harm is determined against our master and against all his house, and he is such a worthless man that one cannot speak to him.”
[18] Then Abigail made haste and took two hundred loaves and two skins of wine and five sheep already prepared and five seahs of parched grain and a hundred clusters of raisins and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on donkeys. [19] And she said to her young men, “Go on before me; behold, I come after you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal. [20] And as she rode on the donkey and came down under cover of the mountain, behold, David and his men came down toward her, and she met them. [21] Now David had said, “Surely in vain have I guarded all that this fellow has in the wilderness, so that nothing was missed of all that belonged to him, and he has returned me evil for good. [22] God do so to the enemies of David and more also, if by morning I leave so much as one male of all who belong to him.”
[23] When Abigail saw David, she hurried and got down from the donkey and fell before David on her face and bowed to the ground. [24] She fell at his feet and said, “On me alone, my lord, be the guilt. Please let your servant speak in your ears, and hear the words of your servant. [25] Let not my lord regard this worthless fellow, Nabal, for as his name is, so is he. Nabal is his name, and folly is with him. But I your servant did not see the young men of my lord, whom you sent. [26] Now then, my lord, as the LORD lives, and as your soul lives, because the LORD has restrained you from bloodguilt and from saving with your own hand, now then let your enemies and those who seek to do evil to my lord be as Nabal. [27] And now let this present that your servant has brought to my lord be given to the young men who follow my lord. [28] Please forgive the trespass of your servant. For the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house, because my lord is fighting the battles of the LORD, and evil shall not be found in you so long as you live. [29] If men rise up to pursue you and to seek your life, the life of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of the living in the care of the LORD your God. And the lives of your enemies he shall sling out as from the hollow of a sling. [30] And when the LORD has done to my lord according to all the good that he has spoken concerning you and has appointed you prince over Israel, [31] my lord shall have no cause of grief or pangs of conscience for having shed blood without cause or for my lord working salvation himself. And when the LORD has dealt well with my lord, then remember your servant.”
[32] And David said to Abigail, “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who sent you this day to meet me! [33] Blessed be your discretion, and blessed be you, who have kept me this day from bloodguilt and from working salvation with my own hand! [34] For as surely as the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, who has restrained me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, truly by morning there had not been left to Nabal so much as one male.” [35] Then David received from her hand what she had brought him. And he said to her, “Go up in peace to your house. See, I have obeyed your voice, and I have granted your petition.”
[36] And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light. [37] In the morning, when the wine had gone out of Nabal, his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. [38] And about ten days later the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.
[39] When David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, “Blessed be the LORD who has avenged the insult I received at the hand of Nabal, and has kept back his servant from wrongdoing. The LORD has returned the evil of Nabal on his own head.” Then David sent and spoke to Abigail, to take her as his wife. [40] When the servants of David came to Abigail at Carmel, they said to her, “David has sent us to you to take you to him as his wife.” [41] And she rose and bowed with her face to the ground and said, “Behold, your handmaid is a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.” [42] And Abigail hurried and rose and mounted a donkey, and her five young women attended her. She followed the messengers of David and became his wife.
[43] David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel, and both of them became his wives. [44] Saul had given Michal his daughter, David’s wife, to Palti the son of Laish, who was of Gallim.
New Testament Reading
1 Corinthians 6
[1] When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? [2] Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? [3] Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! [4] So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? [5] I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, [6] but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? [7] To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? [8] But you yourselves wrong and defraud—even your own brothers!
[9] Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, [10] nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. [11] And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
[12] “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. [13] “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. [14] And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. [15] Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! [16] Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” [17] But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. [18] Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. [19] Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, [20] for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
- 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...
Grant to us, Lord, we pray, the spirit to think and do always those things that are right, that we, who cannot exist without you, may by you be enabled to live according to your will; 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.