Year A
Proper 25
Sunday 23 October 2011
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 been our haven from generation to generation.
From age to age, you are God.
You created the mountains,
and brought the earth to birth.
Through your servant Moses you led your people to freedom,
and after seeing from afar the land of promise,
he died, returning to dust like all the children of earth.
In your child, Jesus Christ
one even greater than Moses has come to us.
On him rests the Spirit of wisdom and truth,
and on his words hang all the law and the prophets.
Though he was killed by love’s enemies,
you raised him to life and seated him at your right hand.
In him we have seen the splendour of your work
and through him you have entrusted us
with the wonderful news of your love for the world.
Therefore with .....
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
Short Preface
(for insertion into Eucharistic prayers with fixed prefaces)
We give thanks for your child, Jesus Christ,
on whose words hang all the law and the prophets.
Though he was killed by love’s enemies,
you raised him to life and seated him at your right hand,
and through him you have entrusted us with the gospel.
©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 been our haven from generation to generation.
From age to age, you are God.
You created the mountains,
and brought the earth to birth.
Through your servant Moses you led your people to freedom,
and after seeing from afar the land of promise,
he died, returning to dust like all the children of earth.
In your child, Jesus Christ
one even greater than Moses has come to us.
On him rests the Spirit of wisdom and truth,
and on his words hang all the law and the prophets.
Though he was killed by love’s enemies,
you raised him to life and seated him at your right hand.
In him we have seen the splendour of your work
and through him you have entrusted us
with the wonderful news of your love for the world.
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
Though God tests our hearts,
our sins are not held against us,
but God entrusts to us the message of the gospel,
the promise of God’s forgiveness and love.
Sisters and Brothers,
........your sins are forgiven;
................be at peace.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
Commission & Benediction
Go now, with courage in our God.
Declare the message of the gospel
which God has entrusted to us,
and in wholehearted love for God and for others,
share not only the message, but your very selves.
And may God be your haven;
May Christ Jesus lead you into love - heart, soul and mind;
And may the Holy Spirit bless the work of your hands
........and gladden all your days.
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 25 - Year A - Sunday 23 October 2011
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.
* Deuteronomy 34: 1-12
........The people of Israel were camped
on the Plains of Moab outside the promised land, with Jericho opposite
them on the other side of the river. Moses went off by himself and
climbed to the top of Mount Nebo in the Pizgah Ranges. From there the LORD
showed him the whole of the land, as far across Gilead to the west as
Dan, Ephraim, and the Mediterranean sea, as far south as the Negev
Desert, and as far north as Manasseh and Naphtali. He could see the
land of Judah all the way south to Zoar, including the valley of
Jericho with its city of palm trees. The LORD
said to Moses, “What you are looking at is the land I promised
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that I would give to their descendants. I
have allowed you to see it with your own eyes, even though you will not
set foot in it.”
........Then, after a lifetime of working for the LORD, Moses died there in the land of Moab, as the LORD
had decided. His body lies buried there in a valley, somewhere beyond
Beth-peor, but to this day, no one knows the exact location of his
grave. Moses had lived for one hundred and twenty years, and right up
till the end his eyesight was sharp and he was as fit as a fiddle; as
full of life and energy as ever. The Israelites stayed put on the
plains of Moab while they grieved the death of Moses and observed the
customary thirty day period of mourning.
........Moses had laid his hands on
Joshua, the son of Nun, designating him as his successor. As a result,
the spirit of wisdom filled Joshua and the Israelite people readily
took their orders from him, just as the LORD had commanded through Moses.
........The world has never seen another prophet in the same league as Moses, for the LORD dealt with him in person, face to face. No one else has ever done anything to equal the miraculous things he did when the LORD
sent him to bring the people out of the land of slavery. Never again
has anyone seen anything like the terrifying acts of power that
God’s people saw Moses execute against the tyrant king and
against his officers and his land.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
* Psalm 90: 1-6, 13-17
Lord, in every generation
........you have been house and home to us.
You are God, and have been from time before time;
........even before you brought the mountains to birth;
................even before you created the planet or anything on it.
You tell us when our time is up,
........and return us to the earth from which we came.
From where you look,
........a thousand years is like the blink of an eye,
................and the ancient past like yesterday.
Our lives pass as if you had erased them completely;
........they are gone like a dream.
Like cut flowers they are fresh and new one day,
........and faded memories the next.
It’s time for a change, LORD.
........Hasn’t this gone on long enough?
................For pity’s sake, it’s time to give us a break.
Let a new day dawn
........and give us our fill of your love and loyalty,
so that our lives may be full of smiles and laughter
........till the end of our days.
Give us more days of happiness
........than the days of suffering you sent.
May the years where evil reigned
........be cancelled out by years of joy.
Make your actions clear to those of us in your service;
........let your children see your strength in all its glory.
Put us in your good books, O Lord our God,
........and give us a rich return for all our labour —
................may the work of our hands turn to gold!
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
* 1 Thessalonians 2: 1-8
Sisters and brothers, you know first hand that our coming to you was
not a lost cause. The appalling abuse we had suffered at Philippi could
easily have made us give up, as you know. But when we came to you, our
confidence in God gave us the courage to take to the field, despite the
strength of the opposition, and to clearly announce to you the
wonderful news of God’s love. Our desire to make this known is
not motivated by anything shonky or deceitful, or by vested interests.
It was God who gave us the thumbs-up and entrusted us with this
wonderful message, and so as we seek to broadcast it, we are not out to
win any popularity prizes, but to please God who can see what makes us
tick. As you know and as God is our witness, we never tried to sweet
talk you or take advantage of you to make a buck. We weren’t
after applause, either from you or from anyone else. Although we could
have justifiably pulled rank as the Messiah’s senior ambassadors
and expected you to support us, we didn’t. Instead we treated you
with all the gentleness of a nursing mother tenderly caring for her own
children. You have become so important to us, and we care about you so
much, that we have set our hearts not only on sharing the message about
God’s love with you, but sharing our own lives with you.
©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net
* Matthew 22: 34-46
........Jesus had clearly floored the
members of the ruling Sadducee Party when they had tried to take him on
in a public debate, and it wasn’t long before the devoutly
religious Pharisee Party heard about it. They gathered together a
delegation to challenge Jesus, and one of their members who was a
religious lawyer began to test him out with a question. “Teacher,
which commandment in the law is the most important?”
........Jesus replied:
“You will love the Lord your God with everything you are — all your passion, all your deepest desire, and all your brainpower.Now while the Pharisee delegation were planning their next move, Jesus took the initiative and put a question to them: “What is your thinking about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”
This is the most important and number one commandment. And this next one comes second only to it:
You will love your neighbour as attentively as you love yourself.
Everything else in the law and the prophets hangs on these two commandments.”
‘God said to my Lord,Clearly King David is calling him Lord. Why would he address his own son in such terms?”
........“Sit here as my right hand man,
................while I put your enemies under your heel.”’
Gather the whole congregation of my people and tell them this: You are to be utterly dedicated to doing what is right, because I am the LORD your God, and I am utterly dedicated to doing what is right.
....You are not to pervert the course of justice in the courts. Your decisions must be fair and transparent, not showing bias either to the poor or to the powerful. You are to be absolutely fair in your judgments, without fear or favour. Your are not to go spreading malicious stories about anybody; and you are not to seek to profit from the misfortune of another. Why? Because I am the LORD.
....You are not to harbour hatred in your heart towards anyone in your community. If someone you know does the wrong thing, speak up and sort it out, or you will end up being held responsible yourself. If anyone among your people has wronged you, you are neither to bear a grudge, nor try to get even. Instead you are to love your neighbour as attentively as you love yourself. Why? Because I am the LORD.