The Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

July 31, 2005

 

The Collect

Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your Church; and, because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

The First Lesson                                Nehemiah 9:16-20
Ezra blessed the Lord, and said, "Our ancestors acted presumptuously and stiffened their necks and did not obey your commandments; they refused to obey, and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them; but they stiffened their necks and determined to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and you did not forsake them. Even when they had cast an image of a calf for themselves and said, `This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,' and had committed great blasphemies, you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud that led them in the way did not leave them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night that gave them light on the way by which they should go. You gave your good spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and gave them water for their thirst.

 

The Psalm      Attendite, popule       Psalm 78:14-20, 23-25 BCP 694

14 He led them with a cloud by day, *
    and all the night through with a glow of fire.

 

15 He split the hard rocks in the wilderness *
    and gave them drink as from the great deep

 

16 He brought streams out of the cliff, *
    and the waters gushed out like rivers.

 

17 But they went on sinning against him, *
    rebelling in the desert against the Most High.

 

18 They tested God in their hearts, *
    demanding food for their craving.

 

19 They railed against God and said, *
    "Can God set a table in the wilderness?

 

20 True, he struck the rock, the waters gushed out,
    and the gullies overflowed; *
    but is he able to give bread
    or to provide meat for his people?"

 

23 So he commanded the clouds above *
    and opened the doors of heaven.

 

24 He rained down manna upon them to eat *
    and gave them grain from heaven.

 

25 So mortals ate the bread of angels; *
    he provided for them food enough.

 

The Second Lesson                 Romans 8:35-39
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

La Segunda Lectura             Romanos 8: 35-39

¿Quién nos podrá separar del amor de Cristo? ¿El sufrimiento, o las dificultades, o la persecución, o el hambre, o la falta de ropa, o el peligro, o la muerte violenta?  Como dice la Escritura:  "Por causa tuya estamos siempre expuestos a la muerte;  nos tratan como a ovejas llevadas al matadero." Pero en todo esto salimos más que vencedores por medio de aquel que nos amó.  Estoy convencido de que nada podrá separarnos del amor de Dios: ni la muerte, ni la vida, ni los ángeles, ni los poderes y fuerzas espirituales, ni lo presente, ni lo futuro, ni lo más alto, ni lo más profundo, ni ninguna otra de las cosas creadas por Dios. ¡Nada podrá separarnos del amor que Dios nos ha mostrado en Cristo Jesús nuestro Señor!

 

The Gospel                             Matthew 14:13-21

Jesus withdrew in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." They replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish." And he said, "Bring them here to me." Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.