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 7
A Shiggaion of David, which he sang to the LORD concerning the words of Cush, a Benjaminite.
[1] O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge;
save me from all my pursuers and deliver me,
[2] lest like a lion they tear my soul apart,
rending it in pieces, with none to deliver.
[3] O LORD my God, if I have done this,
if there is wrong in my hands,
[4] if I have repaid my friend with evil
or plundered my enemy without cause,
[5] let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it,
and let him trample my life to the ground
and lay my glory in the dust. Selah
[6] Arise, O LORD, in your anger;
lift yourself up against the fury of my enemies;
awake for me; you have appointed a judgment.
[7] Let the assembly of the peoples be gathered about you;
over it return on high.
[8] The LORD judges the peoples;
judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness
and according to the integrity that is in me.
[9] Oh, let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and may you establish the righteous—
you who test the minds and hearts,
O righteous God!
[10] My shield is with God,
who saves the upright in heart.
[11] God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.
[12] If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;
he has bent and readied his bow;
[13] he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.
[14] Behold, the wicked man conceives evil
and is pregnant with mischief
and gives birth to lies.
[15] He makes a pit, digging it out,
and falls into the hole that he has made.
[16] His mischief returns upon his own head,
and on his own skull his violence descends.
[17] I will give to the LORD the thanks due to his righteousness,
and I will sing praise to the name of the LORD, the Most High.
Psalm 8
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. A Psalm of David.
[1] O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory above the heavens.
[2] Out of the mouth of babies and infants,
you have established strength because of your foes,
to still the enemy and the avenger.
[3] When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
[4] what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him?
[5] Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings
and crowned him with glory and honor.
[6] You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;
you have put all things under his feet,
[7] all sheep and oxen,
and also the beasts of the field,
[8] the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
[9] O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Psalm 9
To the choirmaster: according to Muth-labben. A Psalm of David.
[1] I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart;
I will recount all of your wonderful deeds.
[2] I will be glad and exult in you;
I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.
[3] When my enemies turn back,
they stumble and perish before your presence.
[4] For you have maintained my just cause;
you have sat on the throne, giving righteous judgment.
[5] You have rebuked the nations; you have made the wicked perish;
you have blotted out their name forever and ever.
[6] The enemy came to an end in everlasting ruins;
their cities you rooted out;
the very memory of them has perished.
[7] But the LORD sits enthroned forever;
he has established his throne for justice,
[8] and he judges the world with righteousness;
he judges the peoples with uprightness.
[9] The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed,
a stronghold in times of trouble.
[10] And those who know your name put their trust in you,
for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.
[11] Sing praises to the LORD, who sits enthroned in Zion!
Tell among the peoples his deeds!
[12] For he who avenges blood is mindful of them;
he does not forget the cry of the afflicted.
[13] Be gracious to me, O LORD!
See my affliction from those who hate me,
O you who lift me up from the gates of death,
[14] that I may recount all your praises,
that in the gates of the daughter of Zion
I may rejoice in your salvation.
[15] The nations have sunk in the pit that they made;
in the net that they hid, their own foot has been caught.
[16] The LORD has made himself known; he has executed judgment;
the wicked are snared in the work of their own hands. Higgaion. Selah
[17] The wicked shall return to Sheol,
all the nations that forget God.
[18] For the needy shall not always be forgotten,
and the hope of the poor shall not perish forever.
[19] Arise, O LORD! Let not man prevail;
let the nations be judged before you!
[20] Put them in fear, O LORD!
Let the nations know that they are but men! Selah
Old Testament Reading
2 Samuel 10
[1] After this the king of the Ammonites died, and Hanun his son reigned in his place. [2] And David said, “I will deal loyally with Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father dealt loyally with me.” So David sent by his servants to console him concerning his father. And David’s servants came into the land of the Ammonites. [3] But the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think, because David has sent comforters to you, that he is honoring your father? Has not David sent his servants to you to search the city and to spy it out and to overthrow it?” [4] So Hanun took David’s servants and shaved off half the beard of each and cut off their garments in the middle, at their hips, and sent them away. [5] When it was told David, he sent to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, “Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown and then return.”
[6] When the Ammonites saw that they had become a stench to David, the Ammonites sent and hired the Syrians of Beth-rehob, and the Syrians of Zobah, 20,000 foot soldiers, and the king of Maacah with 1,000 men, and the men of Tob, 12,000 men. [7] And when David heard of it, he sent Joab and all the host of the mighty men. [8] And the Ammonites came out and drew up in battle array at the entrance of the gate, and the Syrians of Zobah and of Rehob and the men of Tob and Maacah were by themselves in the open country.
[9] When Joab saw that the battle was set against him both in front and in the rear, he chose some of the best men of Israel and arrayed them against the Syrians. [10] The rest of his men he put in the charge of Abishai his brother, and he arrayed them against the Ammonites. [11] And he said, “If the Syrians are too strong for me, then you shall help me, but if the Ammonites are too strong for you, then I will come and help you. [12] Be of good courage, and let us be courageous for our people, and for the cities of our God, and may the LORD do what seems good to him.” [13] So Joab and the people who were with him drew near to battle against the Syrians, and they fled before him. [14] And when the Ammonites saw that the Syrians fled, they likewise fled before Abishai and entered the city. Then Joab returned from fighting against the Ammonites and came to Jerusalem.
[15] But when the Syrians saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they gathered themselves together. [16] And Hadadezer sent and brought out the Syrians who were beyond the Euphrates. They came to Helam, with Shobach the commander of the army of Hadadezer at their head. [17] And when it was told David, he gathered all Israel together and crossed the Jordan and came to Helam. The Syrians arrayed themselves against David and fought with him. [18] And the Syrians fled before Israel, and David killed of the Syrians the men of 700 chariots, and 40,000 horsemen, and wounded Shobach the commander of their army, so that he died there. [19] And when all the kings who were servants of Hadadezer saw that they had been defeated by Israel, they made peace with Israel and became subject to them. So the Syrians were afraid to save the Ammonites anymore.
New Testament Reading
2 Corinthians 3
[1] Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? [2] You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on our hearts, to be known and read by all. [3] And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.
[4] Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. [5] Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, [6] who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
[7] Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses’ face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, [8] will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? [9] For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. [10] Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. [11] For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.
[12] Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, [13] not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. [14] But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. [15] Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. [16] But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. [17] Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. [18] And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
- 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...
Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of godly life: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work, and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for 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.