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Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost
August 14, 2005
The Collect
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.
Thus says the LORD: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. Happy is the mortal who does this, the one who holds it fast, who keeps the sabbath, not profaning it, and refrains from doing any evil. Do not let the foreigner joined to the LORD say, "The LORD will surely separate me from his people"; and do not let the eunuch say, "I am just a dry tree." For thus says the LORD: To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give, in my house and within my walls, a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant-- these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
1 May God be
merciful to us and bless us, *
show us the light of his countenance and come to us.
2 Let your ways
be known upon earth, *
your saving health among all nations.
3 Let the peoples
praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.
4 Let the nations
be glad and sing for joy, *
for you judge the peoples with equity
and guide all the nations upon earth.
5 Let the peoples
praise you, O God; *
let all the peoples praise you.
6 The earth has
brought forth her increase; *
may God, our own God, give us his blessing.
7 May God give us
his blessing, *
and may all the ends of the earth stand in awe of him.
Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I glorify my ministry in order to make my own people jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead! For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
Pero tengo algo que decirles a ustedes, que no son judíos. Puesto que Dios me ha enviado a los no judíos, yo tengo en gran estima este servicio. Quiero que algunos de mi propia raza sientan celos de ustedes, y así llevarlos a la salvación. Pues si el rechazo de los judíos ha traído al mundo la reconciliación con Dios, ¿qué no traerá el que sean aceptados? ¡Nada menos que vida para los que estaban muertos! Pues lo que Dios da, no lo quita, ni retira tampoco su llamamiento. En tiempos pasados, ustedes desobedecieron a Dios, pero ahora que los judíos han desobedecido, Dios tiene compasión de ustedes. De la misma manera, ellos han desobedecido ahora, pero solamente para que Dios tenga compasión de ustedes y para que, también ahora, tenga compasión de ellos. Porque Dios sujetó a todos por igual a la desobediencia, con el fin de tener compasión de todos por igual.
Jesus left Gennesaret and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly.
