Trinity 5 Sunday 22nd June 2008
Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified: hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people, that in their vocation and ministry they may serve you in holiness and truth to the glory of your name; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
First reading - Jeremiah 20.7-13
7) O LORD, you have enticed me,
and I was enticed;
you have overpowered me,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughing-stock all day long;
everyone mocks me.
8) For whenever I speak, I must cry out,
I must shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’
For the word of the LORD has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
9) If I say, ‘I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name’,
then within me there is something like a burning fire
shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
10) For I hear many whispering:
‘Terror is all around!
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’
All my close friends
are watching for me to stumble.
‘Perhaps he can be enticed,
and we can prevail against him,
and take our revenge on him.’
11) But the LORD is with me like a dread warrior;
therefore my persecutors will stumble,
and they will not prevail.
They will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonour
will never be forgotten.
12) O LORD of hosts, you test the righteous,
you see the heart and the mind;
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
13) Sing to the LORD;
praise the LORD!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hands of evildoers.
Psalm Refrain
I will bless your name for ever, my God and King.
Second reading - Romans 6.1b-11
1Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? 2By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? 3Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Gospel - Matthew 10.24-39
Jesus summoned the twelve and sent them out with the following instruction:
24) ‘A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master;
25) it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
26) So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.
27) What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.
28) Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
29) Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father.
30) And even the hairs of your head are all counted.
31) So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
32) Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven;
33) but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
34) Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35) For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36) and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
37) Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
38) and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
39) Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.’
Post-communion
Grant, O Lord, we beseech you, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your governance, that your Church may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.