Risky - 6.2.24 The Rev. Teri Waldron, M.Div, BCC

Second Sunday after Pentecost

The Collect:

O God, your never-failing providence sets in order all things both in heaven and earth: Put away from us, we entreat you, all hurtful things, and give us those things which are profitable for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

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Old Testament: 1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)

¹Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. ²At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; ³the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. ⁴Then the Lord called, “Samuel! Samuel!” and he said, “Here I am!” ⁵and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. ⁶The Lordcalled again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” ⁷Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lordhad not yet been revealed to him. ⁸The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. ⁹Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. ¹⁰Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

[¹¹Then the Lord said to Samuel, “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. ¹²On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. ¹³For I have told him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. ¹⁴Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering forever.” ¹⁵Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. ¹⁶But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” He said, “Here I am.” ¹⁷Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” ¹⁸So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, “It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.”

¹⁹As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. ²⁰And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.]

Psalm: Psalm 139:1-5, 12-17

¹ Lord, you have searched me out and known me; *
       you know my sitting down and my rising up;
       you discern my thoughts from afar.
² You trace my journeys and my resting-places *
       and are acquainted with all my ways.
³ Indeed, there is not a word on my lips, *
       but you, O Lord, know it altogether.
⁴ You press upon me behind and before *
       and lay your hand upon me.
⁵ Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; *
       it is so high that I cannot attain to it.
¹² For you yourself created my inmost parts; *
       you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
¹³ I will thank you because I am marvelously made; *
       your works are wonderful, and I know it well.
¹⁴ My body was not hidden from you, *
       while I was being made in secret
       and woven in the depths of the earth.
¹⁵ Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb;
    all of them were written in your book; *
        they were fashioned day by day,
       when as yet there was none of them.
¹⁶ How deep I find your thoughts, O God! *
       how great is the sum of them!
¹⁷ If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sand; *
       to count them all, my life span would need to be like yours.

Old Testament: Deuteronomy 5:12-15

¹²Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. ¹³Six days you shall labor and do all your work. ¹⁴But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female slave, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female slave may rest as well as you.¹⁵Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lordyour God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day.

Psalm: Psalm 81:1-10

¹ Sing with joy to God our strength *
       and raise a loud shout to the God of Jacob.
² Raise a song and sound the timbrel, *
       the merry harp, and the lyre.
³ Blow the ram’s-horn at the new moon, *
       and at the full moon, the day of our feast.
⁴ For this is a statute for Israel, *
       a law of the God of Jacob.
⁵ He laid it as a solemn charge upon Joseph, *
       when he came out of the land of Egypt.
⁶ I heard an unfamiliar voice saying *
      “I eased his shoulder from the burden;
       his hands were set free from bearing the load.”
⁷ You called on me in trouble, and I saved you; *
       I answered you from the secret place of thunder
       and tested you at the waters of Meribah.
⁸ Hear, O my people, and I will admonish you: *
       O Israel, if you would but listen to me!
⁹ There shall be no strange god among you; *
       you shall not worship a foreign god.
¹⁰ I am the Lord your God,
   who brought you out of the land of Egypt and said, *
      “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.”

Epistle: 2 Corinthians 4:5-12

⁵For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. ⁶For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. ⁷But we have this treasure in clay jars, so that it may be made clear that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us.

⁸We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; ⁹persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ¹⁰always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. ¹¹For while we live, we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be made visible in our mortal flesh. ¹²So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Gospel: Mark 2:23-3:6

²³One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. ²⁴The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”²⁵And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? ²⁶He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.” ²⁷Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; ²⁸so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”

¹Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. ²They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. ³And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” ⁴Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. ⁵He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. ⁶The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.