Worship Guide - 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A

Worship with One Click

You can choose to watch all of this Sunday's worship service in a series of linked videos, one after the other by clicking this link. Just press the button that says "PLAY ALL" and sit back and relax. You can also just click on the graphic to the left.​ Otherwise, proceed as normal through the sections.

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​…get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit! … Turn, then, and live.
~Ezekiel 18:31b, 32c
 
Etty Hillesum (1914-1943) was a Dutch author who wrote both of her religious awakening, and of the persecution of Jewish people in Amsterdam during the German occupation. In 1943, she was deported and killed in Auschwitz concentration camp. While at the Westerbork transit camp, she wrote these words:
 
There is a really deep well inside me. And in it dwells God. Sometimes I am there, too … And that is all we can manage these days and also all that really matters: that we safeguard that little piece of You, God, in ourselves.

There is something very important, pivotal, and fragile being revealed about this moment in history. The ancients used the word apocalypse to describe an urgent unveiling, the bringing into light of an ultimate state of affairs.
 
While engaging the chief priests and elders in an exchange that seems eerily similar to many that dominate our politics of late, Jesus enters into the fray, but in a way that exposes the deadly whirlwind of their ambition, and the life-giving turn toward “a new heart and a new spirit” that restores the whole of creation.
 
What perhaps is most surprising is the power that each of us has to turn the tide, to restore the Divine Center, as Richard Rohr names it, by “holding it and fully occupying it ourselves,”—taking on the “mind of Christ” (Philippians 2), or as Etty Hillesum knew, that we can “safeguard that little piece of … God in ourselves.”
 
Indeed, this may be some of our most important work in this apocalyptic time. Turn, then, and live. Enter into God’s rest. Enter into worship.

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Prelude

If you have prayers you would like to share, please do so here. These will be shared by email to our St Andrew prayer list so that we pray for what you hold by name. This information is not shared online in a searchable form.

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Gathering Song

Holy God, all lives are yours, 
​and you seek life, not death.
Renew our hearts, refresh our spirits,
and help us walk in your holy way,
that we may welcome the impartiality of your judgment
and accept your all-embracing goodness,
through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Song of Praise

Confession, Forgiveness

S​end a text to a couple of people. Make a call. Who comes to mind for you? Wish them well. More than that, wish them the peace that comes with justice. Then click below.

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The Word

Your Word, O God:
let our minds meditate on it,
let our tongues speak of it,
let our hearts love it,
let our mouths preach it,
let our souls hunger for it,
our flesh thirst for it,
and our whole being desire it,
until we enter into the joy of the Lord,
who is God one and Triune, blessed forever.
Amen.

Ezekiel 18:1-4, 25-32 † Psalm 25:1-9 † Philippians 2:1-13 † Matthew 21:23-32
*In the season after Pentecost (also known as Ordinary Time, or "Proper" Sundays, the first reading can follow one of two tracks—either a semi-continuous track that stays with a story over a number of Sundays or a paired track that companions more closely the gospel reading. This summer we are mostly using the paired readings. 

Psalm

Reflection

You can find a printed version of this sermon here.

Song of Response

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Eucharist

If you haven’t already, set the elements—some bread, some juice or wine—in the room or space where you worship in these days with our faith community. Add flowers—something beautiful, something humane, and add something that points to bigger things—justice and goodness, generosity and renewal.

​If a joy or a concern has come to mind, please share it with the assembly here so you do not carry it alone. These will be shared by email to our St Andrew prayer list so that we pray for what you hold by name. This information is emailed to a curated group, not shared or posted online in a searchable form.

As we respond to God's grace and new life, consider those ways you can express gratitude, thanksgiving and blessing. And remember that we continue to keep our financial commitments to our mission partners and staff. Thank you for remembering to send in your financial pledges and offerings.

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Sending Song

Charge and Blessing