The Sixth Sunday after
Pentecost
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Prelude, Welcome, and Information
Hymn
#519 Open Your Ears, O Faithful People
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The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you
all.
And also with
you.
Psalm 123
1To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
2As the eyes of servants look to
the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her
mistress,
so our eyes look to the Lord our
God,
until he has mercy upon us.
3Have mercy upon us, O Lord,
have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of
contempt.
4Our soul has had more than its
fill of the scorn
of those
who are at ease, of the contempt of the proud.
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The Lord be with you. And
also with you.
Let us pray.
God of the covenant, in our
baptism you call us to proclaim the coming of your Kingdom. Give us the
courage you gave the apostles, that we may faithfully witness to your love
and peace in every circumstance of life, in the name of Jesus Christ, our
Savior and Lord. Amen.
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Reading:
Ezekiel 2:1-5
A reading from the book of the Prophet Ezekiel
He said to me: O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with
you. 2And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set
me on my feet; and I heard him speaking to me. 3He said to me,
Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who
have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me
to this very day. 4The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I
am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, “Thus says the
Lord God.” 5Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they
are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among
them.
The Word of the Lord
Reading:
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
A reading from the second letter to the Corinthians
2I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the
third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God
knows. 3And I know that such a person—whether in the body or
out of the body I do not know; God knows— 4was caught up into
Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted
to repeat. 5On behalf of such a one I will boast, but on my own
behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses. 6But if I
wish to boast, I will not be a fool, for I will be speaking the truth. But I
refrain from it, so that no one may think better of me than what is seen in me
or heard from me, 7even considering the exceptional character
of the revelations. Therefore, to keep me from being too elated, a thorn was
given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from
being too elated. 8Three times I appealed to the Lord about
this, that it would leave me, 9but he said to me, “My grace is
sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast
all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in
me. 10Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I
am weak, then I am strong.
The Word of the Lord.
Gospel
Verse:
Alleluia! I will boast
gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Alleluia!
Gospel Reading: Mark 6:1-13
A reading from the Gospel of Mark
(Jesus) left that place and came to his hometown, and his disciples
followed him. 2On the sabbath he began to teach in the
synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, “Where did this
man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of
power are being done by his hands! 3Is not this the carpenter,
the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not
his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4Then
Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown,
and among their own kin, and in their own house.” 5And he could
do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people
and cured them. 6And he was amazed at their unbelief.
Then he went about among the villages teaching. 7He
called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them
authority over the unclean spirits. 8He ordered them to take
nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their
belts; 9but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. 10He
said to them, “Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the
place. 11If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to
hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony
against them.” 12So they went out and proclaimed that all
should repent. 13They cast out many demons, and anointed with
oil many who were sick and cured them.
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Sermon
(added at the end of the document)
Hymn #796 How Firm a Foundation
Thanks and Offertory
Prayers
of the Church:
Trusting Jesus’ promise
that we will be heard, we offer our prayers for the world God loves, the church
God calls, and for all people according to their needs.
[Short pause]
·
God who calls us partners, you call us to your
service, to your community, to your world. Give us faith to trust that
you are with us. God who is with us,
Hear our prayer.
·
God who calls us partners, you welcome us as part
of your church, with all of our failures and shortcomings. Give us the
grace to welcome all as you welcome us. God who is with us,
Hear our prayer.
·
God who calls us partners, you send us to your
world, to make your love and presence real in the lives of the people around
us. Remove our fear, that we may embrace our ministry. God who is
with us,
Hear our prayer.
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God who calls us partners, your church is called to
be a safe place for the outcasts, the un-valued, the un-wanted. Forgive
us for building walls between ourselves and others. Give us the will and
desire to tear them down, that your grace may shine in us all. God who is
with us,
Hear our prayer.
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God who calls us partners, we pray for this
country, and the people that make it up. Give us the grace to confess our
failures, the determination to change direction, and the guidance to know where
you are calling us to go. God who is with us,
Hear our prayer.
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God who calls us partners, we pray for this world
as it works its way through pandemic. We remember those in hospital,
those who are shut-in, those who are isolated, and those who see no reason to
hope. And we offer you our prayers for those who are close to us, whom we
name before you.
[Silence]
God who is with us,
Hear our prayer.
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God who calls us partners, you call us to your
service, to your community, to your world. Give us faith to trust that
you are with us. God who is with us,
Hear our prayer.
·
God who calls
us partners, bless the congregation of Trinity Church, London and their
pastoral staff, Pastor Steve Johnston and Sister Jean Widmeyer. God who is with
us,
Hear our prayer.
We pray all this in
the name of Jesus, our Saviour and Lord.
Amen.
Hymn #392 Alleluia! Sing to
Jesus
The
Lord’s Prayer
Finally let us pray for all things as
our Lord would have us ask:
Our
Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven.
Give
us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against
us;
and lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For
thine is the kingdom, and the power,
and the
glory, forever and ever. Amen.
Lord, now you let your servant go in peace;
your
word has been fulfilled.
My own eyes have seen the salvation
which
you have prepared
in
the sight of every people:
A light to reveal you to the nations
and the glory of your people Israel.
Hymn
#545 Lord, Dismiss Us with Your Blessing
Benediction and Sending
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine on you and
be gracious to you.
The Lord look upon you with favor and +
give you peace.
Amen.
Go in peace. Serve the Lord. Thanks
be to God!
Sung Postlude #892 O
Canada
So
they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many
demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
·
Jesus goes to
his hometown and finds skepticism, disbelief, and ultimately rejection. And he could do no deed of power there,
except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. And he
was amazed at their unbelief. I can imagine that such a situation
may have been painful for him. It sure cramped his ability to do “deeds of
power.”
·
He did seem
to recover rather quickly. Some of this might be Mark’s style of writing. In
Mark’s Gospel, Jesus runs almost breathlessly from one place to another, from
one deed to the next. Jesus began a new way of proclaiming the Kingdom of God
and maybe it wasn’t the next morning when he did so. The timing does not really
matter.
·
Jesus came to
Nazareth and began to teach in the synagogue only to face astonishment and
offense. He soon sent his disciples out two
by two to preach repentance, to heal the sick, and to drive out
demons. They were given some rather explicit instruction on what to take on
their journeys, what to do when they got there, and what to do if their message
was unheard. (If any place will not
welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that
is on your feet as a testimony against them.) {Oh how I’ve wished to do that at times!} We might note that the
disciples were not told to preach in synagogues, but to keep to households and
trust in the hospitality of the people who took them in.
·
Mark later
reports that the men-on-mission were successful. Since our reading stops there,
we don’t hear the rest of the story. What have heard does carry a similar idea
as the reading from the prophet Ezekiel: Whether
they hear or refuse to hear… …they shall
know that there has been a prophet among them. Both the disciples
on mission and the prophet were charged to deliver the message; the response
was not up to them.
·
In our own
day, we rarely have to face demons, although many of us have come face-to-face
with evil. Few of us anoint with oil to heal the sick… unless you count Vicks
or Asper-cream and such things that really do help. We don’t like the idea of
proclaiming repentance, but that is still our charge. Sometimes repentance is
choosing to change. Sometimes it’s embracing the change required by the
situation and the time. Repentance is actually a response to the grace of God.
It is grace that saves and repentance is a way of acting saved.
·
Right now,
our nation is faced with more than one crisis of history. The treatment of the
peoples of the First Nations is in the forefront of every news report and on
the front page of every newspaper. The residential schools are not a distant
memory in time and space, particularly since they existed in our area and in
our time. The reality of prejudice against Muslims was brought home to all of
us in this region by the horror that took place in London so recently. None of
these things are good and all of them challenge our self-perception as a just,
equitable, and free people.
·
Still the
unveiling of the truth about ourselves is both crisis and opportunity.
We could even think of it as a graced moment, with a terrible grace coming to
those whose eyes were opened. Were we to think ourselves perfect, there would
be no need of change. If proclamation leads to repentance and repentance leads
to change, then God’s grace is present. In that grace then, we can be better.
We will never save ourselves, but we will know how much we need God’s grace.
·
As a church,
we Lutherans were not involved in the residential schools, but neither did we
do much to stop that horror. With God’s grace, we can be better. As Paul was
told: “My grace is sufficient for
you, for power is made perfect in weakness.” So, I will boast all the more
gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
·
May God’s spirit
fill us. May God’s strength empower us. May God’s grace be with us in all we
might say and do… until we all are healed.
So
they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. They cast out many
demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.
