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!
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness:
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 80
To the choirmaster: according to Lilies. A Testimony. Of Asaph, a Psalm.
[1] Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,
you who lead Joseph like a flock.
You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
[2] Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh,
stir up your might
and come to save us!
[3] Restore us, O God;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!
[4] O LORD God of hosts,
how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?
[5] You have fed them with the bread of tears
and given them tears to drink in full measure.
[6] You make us an object of contention for our neighbors,
and our enemies laugh among themselves.
[7] Restore us, O God of hosts;
let your face shine, that we may be saved!
[8] You brought a vine out of Egypt;
you drove out the nations and planted it.
[9] You cleared the ground for it;
it took deep root and filled the land.
[10] The mountains were covered with its shade,
the mighty cedars with its branches.
[11] It sent out its branches to the sea
and its shoots to the River.
[12] Why then have you broken down its walls,
so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
[13] The boar from the forest ravages it,
and all that move in the field feed on it.
[14] Turn again, O God of hosts!
Look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
[15] the stock that your right hand planted,
and for the son whom you made strong for yourself.
[16] They have burned it with fire; they have cut it down;
may they perish at the rebuke of your face!
[17] But let your hand be on the man of your right hand,
the son of man whom you have made strong for yourself!
[18] Then we shall not turn back from you;
give us life, and we will call upon your name!
[19] Restore us, O LORD God of hosts!
Let your face shine, that we may be saved!
Psalm 81
To the choirmaster: according to The Gittith. Of Asaph.
[1] Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
[2] Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
the sweet lyre with the harp.
[3] Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our feast day.
[4] For it is a statute for Israel,
a rule of the God of Jacob.
[5] He made it a decree in Joseph
when he went out over the land of Egypt.
I hear a language I had not known:
[6] “I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
your hands were freed from the basket.
[7] In distress you called, and I delivered you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
[8] Hear, O my people, while I admonish you!
O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
[9] There shall be no strange god among you;
you shall not bow down to a foreign god.
[10] I am the LORD your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
[11] “But my people did not listen to my voice;
Israel would not submit to me.
[12] So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
to follow their own counsels.
[13] Oh, that my people would listen to me,
that Israel would walk in my ways!
[14] I would soon subdue their enemies
and turn my hand against their foes.
[15] Those who hate the LORD would cringe toward him,
and their fate would last forever.
[16] But he would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”
Old Testament Reading
1 Samuel 2
[1] And Hannah prayed and said,
“My heart exults in the LORD;
my horn is exalted in the LORD.
My mouth derides my enemies,
because I rejoice in your salvation.
[2] “There is none holy like the LORD:
for there is none besides you;
there is no rock like our God.
[3] Talk no more so very proudly,
let not arrogance come from your mouth;
for the LORD is a God of knowledge,
and by him actions are weighed.
[4] The bows of the mighty are broken,
but the feeble bind on strength.
[5] Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger.
The barren has borne seven,
but she who has many children is forlorn.
[6] The LORD kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
[7] The LORD makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low and he exalts.
[8] He raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from the ash heap
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’s,
and on them he has set the world.
[9] “He will guard the feet of his faithful ones,
but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness,
for not by might shall a man prevail.
[10] The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces;
against them he will thunder in heaven.
The LORD will judge the ends of the earth;
he will give strength to his king
and exalt the horn of his anointed.”
[11] Then Elkanah went home to Ramah. And the boy was ministering to the LORD in the presence of Eli the priest.
[12] Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the LORD. [13] The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, [14] and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. [15] Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you but only raw.” [16] And if the man said to him, “Let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you wish,” he would say, “No, you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force.” [17] Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the LORD, for the men treated the offering of the LORD with contempt.
[18] Samuel was ministering before the LORD, a boy clothed with a linen ephod. [19] And his mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. [20] Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, “May the LORD give you children by this woman for the petition she asked of the LORD.” So then they would return to their home.
[21] Indeed the LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew in the presence of the LORD.
[22] Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting. [23] And he said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people. [24] No, my sons; it is no good report that I hear the people of the LORD spreading abroad. [25] If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the LORD, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the LORD to put them to death.
[26] Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the LORD and also with man.
[27] And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the LORD, ‘Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh? [28] Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. [29] Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’ [30] Therefore the LORD, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the LORD declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. [31] Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. [32] Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. [33] The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men. [34] And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day. [35] And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever. [36] And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say, “Please put me in one of the priests’ places, that I may eat a morsel of bread.”’”
New Testament Reading
Romans 2
[1] Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. [2] We know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things. [3] Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? [4] Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? [5] But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
[6] He will render to each one according to his works: [7] to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; [8] but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. [9] There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, [10] but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. [11] For God shows no partiality.
[12] For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. [13] For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. [14] For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. [15] They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them [16] on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.
[17] But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God [18] and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; [19] and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, [20] an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—[21] you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? [22] You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? [23] You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. [24] For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”
[25] For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. [26] So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? [27] Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. [28] For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. [29] But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God.
- 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, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ 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.