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14th Sunday After Pentecost • Year B
August 25, 2024 • Proper 16
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Historical Collect
Care for your Church, O Lord, with perpetual mercy. Since we totter and are sure to fall without your grace, remove what will harm us and arrange what will make us whole. Grant this, we pray, through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Gelasian Sacramentary, 7th Century)
Thematic Collect
Merciful God, you bestow the riches of your grace upon your sons and daughters. Grant that we may faithfully serve you in this life and rejoice in your eternal glory; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.
The Common Thread
The Lord looks down upon us. In many cases, he sees religious but faithless people. They give him lip-service but their hearts are withdrawn from God. Yet, God is not bent on destruction but upon doing wonderful things for those faithless people. God is faithful when we are not (2 Tim 2:13). Thus, the Lord sends his salvation from on high. Christ betroths himself to his Church, loving her as a faithful husband loves his wife. He rebukes hypocritical behavior but loves her, even to the point of shedding his own blood.
First Reading • Isaiah 29:11-19
It is possible for people to be deeply religious, yet have little or no heart for God. We hate to admit it, but this is the way of some in our congregations, is sometimes our own situations, and was the case with Israel when Isaiah was a prophet. The religious things meant nothing, for it brought them no nearer to the Lord, his word, or his ways. Proof of this is not doing God's will and thinking God is none the wiser. Nevertheless, God promises to thwart the so-called wisdom of people, even if they are his chosen people.
Psalm • Psalm 14:1-7
The psalmist warns people against the foolishness of unbelief. Atheism has been around for a long time and is still with us today. Sometimes this fool is not the one who says aloud that there is no God, but the one who says it in his heart. The Lord looks among us to see if there is anyone who believes, anyone who seeks his will. When the psalmist sang, the faithful were few and far between. The Lord still brings salvation for the poor in spirit, for those who confess their need of God's Savior.
Second Reading • Ephesians 5:22-33
Throughout Paul's talk of the submission and love appropriate to wives and husbands, the apostle uses religious terminology. The husband is the head and the wife the body, just as Christ is the head of the church, his body. Somehow the sacrificial love of a husband for his wife is like the sanctifying act of Christ for his beloved church. Marriage is a vivid illustration of the mystery of God's relationship with his people.
Gospel • Mark 7:1-13
It is a sad irony that Jesus' disciples were eating with the Son of God, but that all the Pharisees could appreciate was the disciples had failed to wash their hands before eating. Certainly, the Pharisees had ceremonially cleansed their own hands first—and wanted to be sure Rabbi Jesus had noticed their pure religious practice. This is the way of religion: Look at me! Look at me! The way of faith looks to God.
Resources
Links to Worship Resources for this Service
