Year
A
Proper 9
Sunday
6 July 2014
Eucharistic Preface
Let
us lift up our hearts.
........We
lift them to the Lord.
Let us give thanks to the Lord our
God.
........It is right to
give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right to give
you our thanks and praise, O God,
for with the passion of a lover
you have delivered us from slavery to sin and death.
You
are the Creator and Lord of heaven and earth,
and it is your Word
that brings life into bloom.
You called your servant Rebekah to
leave family and country,
and, from the offspring of her loving
union with Isaac,
you brought forth a people to delight in your
ways.
You sent among us your child, Jesus the Christ,
and
in him you revealed yourself to us.
Though we were burdened and
wearied by sin
and unable to dance to your song,
in gentleness
and humility
he lifted our burdens
and showed us the way of
wisdom.
When he was killed,
you raised him to life,
rescuing
us from our bodies of death
and giving us rest for our
souls.
Therefore with .....
©2002
Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
Short
Preface
(for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with
fixed prefaces)
We give you thanks that though we were
burdened and wearied by sin,
and unable to dance to your song,
in
gentleness and humility
your Son Jesus has lifted our burdens
and
showed us the way of wisdom.
©2002 Nathan
Nettleton LaughingBird.net
General
Prayer of Thanksgiving
(Preface reformatted for use
apart from communion)
We give you all
thanks and praise, O God,
for with the passion of a lover
you
have delivered us from slavery to sin and death.
You are the
Creator and Lord of heaven and earth,
and it is your Word that
brings life into bloom.
You called your servant Rebekah to leave
family and country,
and, from the offspring of her loving union
with Isaac,
you brought forth a people to delight in your ways.
You sent among us your child, Jesus the Christ,
and in him
you revealed yourself to us.
Though we were burdened and wearied
by sin
and unable to dance to your song,
in gentleness and
humility
he lifted our burdens
and showed us the way of
wisdom.
When he was killed,
you raised him to life,
rescuing
us from our bodies of death
and giving us rest for our
souls.
Therefore, with our hearts lifted high,
we offer you
thanks and praise at all times
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever
and ever.
Amen.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton
LaughingBird.net
Declaration
of Grace / Absolution
Who will deliver us from this
body of death,
and from the law of sin at work within us?
Thanks
be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lifts the heavy
burden of sin we are carrying
and gives rest to our
souls.
Sisters and Brothers,
........your
sins are forgiven;
................be
at peace.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton
LaughingBird.net
Commission
& Benediction
Go now at the call of
Christ.
Take his yoke upon you and learn from him;
Dance when
he sings and mourn when he cries.
Be generous in your hospitality
to all.
And may God greatly bless you;
May Christ Jesus
reveal the fullness of God to you;
And may the Holy Spirit lift
your burdens and give you rest.
We go in peace to love and
serve the Lord,
........In the
name of Christ. Amen.
©2002 Nathan
Nettleton LaughingBird.net
Paraphrases
of the Scripture
Lections
for Proper 9 - Year A
- Sunday 6 July 2014
Lections from The Revised
Common Lectionary.
Copyright 1992 by the Consultation on Common
Texts (CCT)
P. O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville, TN 37203-0003,
USA. Used with Permission.
* Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49,
58-67
Abraham’s trusted servant addressed
Rebekah’s family, saying:
“I work for Abraham and he has sent me here. The LORD has set my boss up very nicely. He has become a very wealthy man, with huge holdings of livestock, investments in silver and gold, a large workforce, and convoys of transport animals. My boss and his wife Sarah became the parents of a son in their old age, and they have signed over their entire fortune to him. My boss has given me the job of finding a suitable wife for his son, but he made me promise that I would not let him marry one of the local Canaanite girls. Instead he has sent me to find a wife for his son from here among his own relatives.
“So, when I pulled up at the spring here today, I prayed that the God of my boss would put me on the right track. I said, ‘O LORD, I have arrived here at this spring where the young women come to collect water. I will ask the first one who comes for a drink, and she will offer me a drink and offer to draw water for my camels as well. LORD, let her be the one you have chosen to be the bride of my boss’s son.’
‘Even before I finished my prayer, Rebekah came out to fill her water container. After she had gone down to the spring and collected her water, I asked her for a drink. Without hesitation she offered me a drink from her water container and then offered to draw more water for my camels. So I accepted the drink and she watered my camels. Then I asked her whose daughter she was, and she told me that her father was Bethuel, the son of Nahor and Milcah. I knew then that she came from among my boss’s relatives, so I put on her the ring and the jewellery he had sent. Then I bowed my head and gave thanks to the LORD, the God who my boss Abraham worships. The LORD had put me on the right track so that I could find a suitable wife for my boss’s son from among his own people.
Now then, let me know whether you will do the right thing by my boss. Or if not, tell me straight, so that I will know which way to turn.”
........So the family called Rebekah
and asked her, “Are you willing to go with this
man?”
........“I am,”
she said.
........So they farewelled
their sister Rebekah, and sent her off with Abraham’s servant
and his drivers. They also sent with her the family servant who had
been her childhood nanny. They gave Rebekah their blessing, saying to
her,
“Sister, may you become the mother of millions;
........may your descendants triumph in everything they do.”
With
that, Rebekah and the servant girls who were going with her got up
and were seated on the camels. They set off, following Abraham’s
servant as he headed for home; mission accomplished.
........Now
Isaac was living in the southern part of Canaan, near a waterhole
called ‘the Eye of God’. One evening he was out walking
to unwind at the end of the day, when he looked up and saw the convoy
of camels approaching. Rebekah saw him in the distance, and quickly
slipped off her camel and asked the servant, “Who is that man
coming towards us?”
........The
servant replied, “That’s him, my boss, Isaac.”
........So
she made herself ready, with her veil over her face. The servant told
Isaac all about the success of his mission. Then Isaac met Rebekah
and took her home and she became his wife. As the new leading woman
of the tribe, she was given the home that had belonged to Isaac’s
late mother, Sarah. Isaac loved Rebekah greatly, and she was a
comfort to him as he grieved the death of his mother.
©2002
Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
*
Psalm 45: 10-17 (alt)
O
chosen daughter, bride of the king, listen to my advice:
........leave your father’s
home and don’t look back
................for
the king is wild with desire for you.
What more could you want?
Abandon yourself to him!
........Wedding
gifts will arrive from every nation,
................the
wealthy outdo each other with their presents.
The inner beauty
of your bride, O king,
........outshines
even her wedding gown,
................woven
with gold and sparkling with jewels.
In dazzling beauty she is
brought to you
........with her
chosen bridesmaids at hand.
Joy and laughter process in with her,
........and the whole palace erupts
with elation.
Soon you will have children, continuing your
family line,
........and the thrones
of the earth will be theirs.
No one will ever forget
you,
........your fame will inspire
generation after generation,
........and
songs will be sung in praise of you forever and ever.
©2000
Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
OR
*
Song of Solomon 2: 8-13 (alt)
I
await the voice of my lover!
........I
watch him running through the alpine bush,
........leaping
rocks and logs,
................as
surefooted as a wallaby,
................muscles
rippling like a mountain thoroughbred.
Look, now he arrives,
there by the garden wall,
........his
eyes scanning the windows,
........searching
the balcony,
................eager to
catch a sight of me.
My lover calls out for me alone, saying:
“Come now, my darling, my lovely one,
........come away with me.
The outdoors will welcome us,
........for the cold wet winter has released its grip.
Wildflowers explode with colour
........and the air is filled with song;
Bellbird calls ring through the bush
........like the summons to a wedding.
Berries and grapes ripen with promise
........and every flower adds it fragrance
........to the wafting breeze.
So come, my darling, my lovely one,
........come away with me.”
©2000
Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
*
Romans 7: 15-25a
........Sometimes
I can’t make head nor tail of my own behaviour. I want to do
what is right, but instead I find myself doing things I absolutely
despise. Even as I do them, I am telling myself I don’t want
to. Clearly then I know they are wrong, so I am not trying to excuse
myself by arguing that the law is stupid. The fact is that I don’t
have what it takes to control everything I do. Somewhere inside me,
sin has corrupted the system. When I look inside myself and see the
selfish desires that live there, I know they are all rotten to the
core. While I have no trouble making up my mind to do what is right,
I still can’t do it. I fail to follow through on my good
intentions, and instead find myself doing something crooked —
the exact thing I wanted so much to avoid. Now if what I actually do
is not what I am intending to do, then clearly I have lost control of
what I am doing. Something inside me — namely sin — is
sabotaging the system and wreaking havoc.
........So,
in my experience it seems to be an inescapable fact of life that when
I intend to do what is good, corruption is lying in wait, ready to
sneak under my guard. God’s instructions on how we should live
appeal to me greatly. I love them with all my heart and mind. So the
various parts of me are receiving the right instructions from my
mind, but I experience another set of instructions trying to override
them. I can see that my body is being controlled by a crippling
addiction to sin. How completely and utterly screwed up I am! Is
there anybody who can set me free from the addiction that has such a
deadly grip on my body? Thank God there is! Jesus the Messiah, our
Lord, can set us free!
©2002 Nathan
Nettleton LaughingBird.net
*
Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30
Jesus said to the
crowd:
“What is it about people these days? They are like a bunch of kids pointing the finger at each other in the school yard:
‘We were ready to laugh and play with you,
........but you told us to get serious.
We asked you over to do homework together,
........but you told us to lighten up.’
When John the Baptiser was around, he was a teetotaller, and would often go without food; and people accused him of being a fanatic and a wowser. Then the New Human came, always ready to share a meal and a drink, and what do they say about him? They say he’s a pisspot, a slave to his stomach, and that he’s too close to people whose lifestyles are beyond the pale! But at the end of the day, wisdom will have proved herself in practice.”
Then and there, Jesus broke into prayer, saying:
“Father, Lord of earth and sky, thank you for keeping the religious experts and the sophisticated intellectuals in the dark about these matters, while at the same time making them as plain as day to the average toddler. But of course, Father, such reckless generosity is typical of the way you like to do things!”
Then, turning to the crowd again, Jesus said:
“My Father has put the whole show in my hands, and it all hangs on the strength of our relationship. No one really knows what makes the Son tick except the Father, and no one really knows what makes the Father tick except the Son. Anyone else can only know if the Son chooses to let them in on it.
“If you are worn out and overloaded, come to me, and I will let you put your feet up. Come and work for me, and take a leaf out of my book. I am gentle on people, and down-to-earth; and with me your whole being will be able to relax. The job I will give you is piece of cake. The load I will ask you to bear is a feather-weight.”
©2002
Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
Alternative
Hebrew Bible Lections themed to the Gospel Lection
*
Zechariah 9: 9-12
It is time to celebrate,
people of Jerusalem.
........Sing and
dance and party, O Holy City!
Look, here comes your
king;
........the one who has won the
great victory!
He doesn’t big-note himself,
........but
comes riding a simple donkey,
................and
a baby one at that!
He will rid the land of heavy
armaments,
........and clear
Jerusalem of military vehicles.
He will confiscate weapons and
destroy them,
........and forge a
lasting peace between nations.
He will rule from one end of the
earth to the other,
........and the
whole world will take orders from him.
Hear what I, the LORD,
have to say to you:
........my
alliance with you has been sealed in blood,
so I will rescue those
who have been detained
........and
set them free from the dry and dusty hell-holes.
Take heart,
you prisoners, your prayers are answered;
........you
are free to find refuge and shelter within our walls.
I, the LORD,
promise you today
........that I will
compensate you double for all that you lost.
©2002
Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
*
Psalm 145: 8-14
LORD, you
are generous and compassionate;
........slow
to anger, and rich in love and loyalty.
You are good to
everyone, LORD,
........and
you care deeply about all you have created.
Everyone and
everything will thank you, their creator,
........and
all who are loyal to you will sing your praises.
As your
people, we will promote the glory of your reign,
........and
broadcast the news of your power for good.
We will tell
everyone about the great things you have done
........and
about the magnificent splendour of your reign.
You will reign
forever and ever, LORD,
........your
rule is in place for all generations to come.
Everything you
say can be relied on, LORD,
........and
everything you do is generous and loving.
When people fall,
you put them back on their feet;
........when
people are crushed, you stand them tall again.
©2001
Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net