Year
A
Proper 11
Sunday
20 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 you have formed in us the
first fruits of your Spirit,
a harvest that will prevail when evil
is uprooted.
It was your labour that brought forth
creation,
and your love that formed the families of the earth.
You
revealed yourself to Jacob,
promising that for all who are led by
your Spirit,
every place would be filled with your presence.
In
Jesus Christ you have thrown open the gate of heaven
and adopted
us as your beloved children.
Though all creation yet groans in
pain,
Christ suffers with us,
enduring death on the cross,
so
that we might be glorified with him.
His Spirit groans within us
as we await the end of the age
when your children will be revealed
and,
with our bodies redeemed,
we will shine like the sun in
your Kingdom.
Therefore with .....
©2002
Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
Short Preface
(for insertion
into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)
We thank you for
adopting us as your beloved children
who at the end of the age
when evil is uprooted,
will be revealed with our bodies
redeemed,
shining like the sun in your Kingdom.
©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 you have formed in us the first
fruits of your Spirit,
a harvest that will prevail when evil is
uprooted.
It was your labour that brought forth creation,
and
your love that formed the families of the earth.
You revealed
yourself to Jacob,
promising that for all who are led by your
Spirit,
every place would be filled with your presence.
In
Jesus Christ you have thrown open the gate of heaven
and adopted
us as your beloved children.
Though all creation yet groans in
pain,
Christ suffers with us,
enduring death on the cross,
so
that we might be glorified with him.
His Spirit groans within us
as we await the end of the age
when your children will be revealed
and,
with our bodies redeemed,
we will shine like the sun in
your Kingdom.
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
God has searched our hearts,
testing and judging our thoughts,
but through our hope in Christ
we are saved.
We have been adopted as children of God
and given
freedom and glory.
Our redemption has begun.
Sisters and
Brothers,
........your sins are
forgiven;
................be at
peace.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton
LaughingBird.net
Commission
& Benediction
Go now with your hope set
on Christ.
As children of God, let the Spirit of God lead you
and
let your righteousness shine like the sun
until darkness and light
are one.
And wherever you go,
whether you scale the heavens
or plunge to the depths,
may God’s presence be inescapably
with you;
May Christ Jesus welcome you into his inheritance;
And
may the Holy Spirit assure you that you are God’s children.
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 11 - Year
A - Sunday 20 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 28: 10-19a
Jacob
was travelling from Beer-sheba to Haran, and was camping out each
night on the way. One night he set up camp in a suitable place, and
bedded himself down using a rock that he found there for a headrest.
In a dream he saw a ramp spanning the gap between earth to heaven,
and God’s messengers were using the ramp to go up and down
between the two. As he looked at it, the LORD
came and stood beside him and said:
“I am the LORD, the God of your fathers Abraham and Isaac. I will give to you and your descendants the land on which you are now camped. Your descendants will multiply like a cloud of dust, spreading out in all directions and settling all over the world. Life will be better for all the peoples of the world because of you and your descendants. And you can know for sure that I am with you. I will look after you wherever you go and I will get you safely back to this land. I will stick with you and make good on all my promises to you.”
Jacob woke up suddenly and said, “No bull, the LORD
is right here in this place, and I didn’t realise it!”
And he was shaking in his boots at the thought of it. “This
place makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck,” he said.
“This must fair dinkum be the house of God — the front
gate of heaven itself!”
........So
when Jacob got up early the next morning, he took the stone he had
used for a headrest and set it up as a monument. He poured oil on top
of it to dedicate it to the LORD. He named the
place ‘Bethel’, which means ‘House of God’.
©2002
Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
*
Psalm 139: 1-12, 23-24
You have taken a good
hard look at me, LORD,
........and
you know exactly what makes me tick.
You know when I’ve
got my feet up and when I’m on the job;
........you
can read my mind like an open book.
You see where I am going
and where I stop,
........and you
know all about what I do and why.
You know exactly what I am
going to say, LORD,
........even
before I open my mouth.
You are in front of me, behind me,
beside me;
........your hand on my
shoulder at every turn.
All this is more than I can get my
head around;
........I pinch myself,
and struggle to take it in.
Could I hide from your spirit if I
wanted to?
........Is there anywhere
I could go to escape you?
If I sped into outer space, you’d
be there;
........if I curled up in
the bowels of the earth, you’d be there.
If I took to
the skies and pursued the dawn;
........crossed
the globe and never came back;
I’d be no further from your
reach;
........you’d hold me
tight and guide me just as easily.
If I hide in the shadows
........and plead with the darkness
to cover me,
you can still see me as clear as day,
........for
light and dark are all the same to you.
Take a good hard look
at me, God;
........check me out and
read my thoughts.
Dig out anything corrupt in me,
........and
set my feet on the tracks that have proven true.
©2001
Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
*
Romans 8: 12-25
........The
truth is, brothers and sisters, that we owe nothing to the
preoccupations of our former life. We need no longer have our lives
dictated by the mindless pursuit of fashionable dreams and selfish
desires. After all, the attraction was fatal. But thanks to God’s
Spirit, we can now be rid of all that — give it a decent burial
and get on with our new lives. All those who dance to the Spirit’s
tune are God’s beloved children. We were not sold into slavery
where we would grovel timidly in the dust, afraid to put a foot
wrong. Rather we were adopted into a family full of love and joy.
Like eager children crying, “Daddy! Mummy!” we come
running to God, and with loving arms, God’s Spirit gathers us
up, demonstrating clearly to whom we belong. And since we are
children of God, we are actually on the same footing as Christ. With
him we will inherit all that has been kept in trust for God’s
children. But we have to take the good with the bad, and we know the
price he paid. We need to be willing to cop it on the chin with him
now if we want to share the glory with him later.
........In
my opinion, the worst that our current situation can dish up pales
into insignificance next to the glory that is about to be brought out
from under wraps. The whole creation is hanging out for this, for the
day when the names are read out and the children of God come into
their own. Until then, the whole creation is stuck in a rut, unable
to make any progress. The creation didn’t bring this on itself,
but rather it is being held in check so that, rather than hurtling
headlong to destruction, the entire creation can be set free from its
devastating addictions and be delivered into the glorious freedom
that belongs to the children of God.
........The
time of deliverance is near. After a long pregnancy, the whole
creation is now groaning and shuddering in the final stages of
labour. And we are not just witnesses to this birth. We ourselves,
having been impregnated by the Spirit, are labouring to bring the new
life within us to fruition. For then, with our bodies set free, our
longing to be God’s children will be fulfilled. This joyous
expectancy ensures that our deliverance will come. If there was never
to be anything more than our present reality, these longings within
us would be in vain. But we are eager to see a promised new reality,
and this hope sustains us.
©2002 Nathan
Nettleton LaughingBird.net
*
Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43
Jesus used another
story to teach the crowd, saying:
“Here is a good illustration of the kingdom of heaven. A farmer planted his fields with good quality seed. But that night, while all the workers were asleep, some mongrel came and dumped a load of weed seeds on the field, and then cleared off before anybody saw what had happened. So when the crop came up and the grain began to form, there were weeds coming up everywhere among it. The farmer’s workers came to him and said, ‘That was clean seed you sowed, wasn’t it, Boss? How come we’ve now got weeds all through the crop?’
The farmer replied, ‘Some mongrel has tried to sabotage it!’
The workers asked, ‘Do you want us to get stuck in and pull the weeds out?’
But the farmer replied, ‘No, it’s not worth the risk. You’ll uproot half the wheat crop trying to get them out. Just let them both grow together until harvest time, and then I’ll tell the harvesters to pull the weeds out first and bundle them up for burning. The good wheat can then be harvested and stored in my silo.’”
When Jesus had finished teaching the crowd, he went into the house with his closest followers. They asked him to explain the story about the weeds to them. He said:
“The farmer who planted the good seeds in the story represents the New Human. The field is the world, and the good quality seeds are the people who belong to the kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one, and the mongrel who sowed them is the devil. The harvest time is the end of the age — the grand finale — and the harvesters are God’s angels. The scene where the weeds are gathered up and thrown on the fire is just like what will happen at the end of the age. The New Human will send his angels to weed out of his kingdom all that cause corruption and participate in evil, and throw them into the incinerator. They’ll be cursing and kicking themselves then! After that, those who stayed on the right track will be seen in all their glory, shining like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Don’t miss what I’m saying: if you’ve got ears, use them!”
©2002 Nathan Nettleton
LaughingBird.net
Alternative
Hebrew Bible Lections themed to the Gospel Lection
*
Wisdom of Solomon 12: 13, 16-19 (alt)
Lord,
everything and everybody is under your care,
........and
there is no other god to whom you have to answer
................or
prove that you have been fair to everyone.
It is your strength
that results in things being put right;
........it
is because you are in charge of everything
................that
you are free to show mercy to all.
When people question
whether you are up to the job,
........you
blow away their doubts with a show of strength,
and if anyone has
the gall to challenge your power,
........you
put them back in their place quick smart.
Although your power
and authority are supreme,
........you
are gentle and compassionate in judging us.
You are more than
capable of wiping us out if you wished,
........but
you show great tolerance in your rule over us.
In these things
you have set an example for us,
........showing
us that those who are passionate for what is right
................must also be gentle
on others.
And you have given your children every reason for
hope,
........because you give us the
chance to turn our backs on corruption
................and
get our lives back on track with you.
©2002
Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
OR
*
Isaiah 44: 6-8 (alt)
I
am the LORD, the commander of
everything;
........your ruler who
puts things right for you.
I am the whole story, from beginning to
end;
........the one and only
God.
Can anyone match me? Let’s hear from
them!
........Let them take the stand
and set out their case.
In all the years since I set up the
nation,
........did they ever
announce what was about to happen?
What’s going to happen
next?
........Let’s hear from
them.
My people, don’t worry. You’ve got nothing
to fear.
........Haven’t I
always kept you informed?
........You
are my witnesses!
Is there any other god besides me?
........Is
there any other rock you can depend on?
No way! Not even
one.
........And I ought to
know!
©2002 Nathan Nettleton
LaughingBird.net
*
Psalm 86: 11-17
Teach me how to stick to your
track, LORD,
........so
I won’t stray from your path of truth.
................Keep
my heart focussed on adoring you alone.
O Lord my God, I thank
you with all my heart;
........I will
always name you as the to whom all the glory is due.
Your love
for me is the best, and absolutely rock-solid;
........you
saved me when my whole being was plunging into the abyss.
A
crass and arrogant mob are out to get me, God;
........a
bunch of thugs are trying to bump me off,
................and
they couldn’t care less about you.
But I know that you,
Lord,
........are a compassionate
and generous God,
................slow
to anger, and rich in love and loyalty.
I am your servant,
Lord,
........and my mother was your
servant too.
Take note of me, and treat me with
compassion;
........save me and give
me strength.
Give me a sign that you are on my
side;
........something that will be
seen by those who hate me
................and
send them off with their tails between their legs.
You, LORD,
have come to my help;
........you
have given me comfort.
©2002 Nathan
Nettleton LaughingBird.net