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The collect and readings - as well as the Bishop's sermon, video and other resources - for the Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity (8 September A.D. 2017).

The Collect

LORD, we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Epistle: Ephesians 4:1-6

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (ESV)

Psalm 131

LORD, I am not high-minded: / I have no proud looks.

I do not exercise myself in great matters, / which are too high for me.

But I calm my soul and keep it quiet, like weaned child with his mother: / yea, my soul is even as a weaned child. Alleluia! Alleluia!

O Israel, trust in the LORD, / from this time forth for evermore. Alleluia!

Gospel: Luke 14:1-11

One Sabbath, when he went to dine at the house of a ruler of the Pharisees, they were watching him carefully. And behold, there was a man before him who had dropsy. And Jesus responded to the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath, or not?” But they remained silent. Then he took him and healed him and sent him away. And he said to them, “Which of you, having a son or an ox that has fallen into a well on a Sabbath day, will not immediately pull him out?” And they could not reply to these things.

Now he told a parable to those who were invited, when he noticed how they chose the places of honor, saying to them, “When you are invited by someone to a wedding feast, do not sit down in a place of honor, lest someone more distinguished than you be invited by him, and he who invited you both will come and say to you, ‘Give your place to this person,’ and then you will begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when you are invited, go and sit in the lowest place, so that when your host comes he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher.’ Then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at table with you. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (ESV)

Resources:

Morning Prayer & Evening Prayer Readings:

 

Artwork: Robert Scott Lauder, Christ Teacheth Humility, 1847. Oil on canvas, National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.