The Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity.
Psalm 119.113-120
Iniquos odio habui
113. I HATE
them that imagine evil things : but thy law do I love.
114. Thou
art my defence and shield : and my trust is in thy word.
115. Away
from me, ye wicked : I will keep the commandments of my God.
116. O
stablish me according to thy word, that I may live : and let me not be
disappointed of my hope.
117. Hold
thou me up, and I shall be safe : yea, my delight shall be ever in thy
statutes.
118. Thou
hast trodden down all them that depart from thy statutes : for they imagine but
deceit.
119. Thou
puttest away all the ungodly of the earth like dross : therefore I love thy
testimonies.
120. My
flesh trembleth for fear of thee : and I am afraid of thy judgements.
The Collect.
KEEP, we beseech thee, O Lord, thy Church with
thy perpetual mercy: and, because the frailty of man without thee cannot but
fall, keep us ever by thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all
things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Old Testament Reading: Deuteronomy 7.6-13
Psalter: Psalm 97, 98 | 79, 80
Epistle Reading: Galatians 6.11-18
Gospel Reading: St. Matthew 6.24-34
Toon: “Let us notice here in the first petition a strange but most
relevant fact. God the Father is implored to keep his Church (for which his Son
shed his precious blood) not with his Fatherly Care, not with his Watchful
Providence and not with the guardianship of his holy Archangels and angels, but
with his Perpetual Mercy.
If man (we, all of us) is to be saved and secured from major spiritual
and moral injuries with which Satan, the world (Zeitgeist) and the flesh
threaten him, it can only be by the continual & perpetual exercise of the
Father’s mercy in the name and for the sake of his Beloved Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our conviction is that from that heavenly mercy proceed abundant
blessings of many and varied kinds, descending upon those who seek the Lord and
find him.
Let us also recognize, as does the Collect, that considered as moral
and spiritual beings who stand before God, the all-holy, the all-seeing and the
all-knowing One, we are not only mortal but also frail. We possess the ancient
disease of inbred, original sin and because of it we cannot truly, in and of
ourselves, truly help ourselves into the way and enjoyment of God’s salvation.
Thus we pray again for help, the presence of the Holy Ghost indwelling
our souls so that he elevates our affections, inspires our thinking and
energises our wills in order to guide us away from that which will harm us and
towards that which will protect and bless us. Many things exist to harm us,
even things which, in and of themselves, are good but for you or for me. In
practice, they are the cause of temptation and sin. Happily there are many
things in God’s creation, and especially in the provisions of the new creation
of grace and mercy, that are for the cleansing, renewing, inspiring and saving
of our souls and bodies.
As the Household of God and the Body of Christ we are in the fishing
boat, the Ark of the Lord, as it were on the high seas, and the Lord is with us
to make sure that the boat does not sink, that the sea is calmed and that we
arrive at our heavenly destination rejoicing in the Lord.
The Epistle points us to the Cross of Christ, in which alone we are to
glory. The Gospel takes us into the Sermon on the Mount for instruction in the
ways of the Kingdom of God” (http://www.pbs.org.uk/the-bcp/fifteenth-sunday-after-trinity).
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