Prayers

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.

Anglican Cycle of Prayer

The Most Rev. Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury

Iglesia Anglicana de la Región Central de América

Episcopal Church

The Most Rev. Michael Curry, XXVII Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church

The election of the XXVIII Presiding Bishop on June 26, 2024
The Joint Nominating Committee for the Election of the Presiding Bishop
The announced nominees to be the next Presiding Bishop

Episcopal Service Corps

Dioceses of Southeast Florida, Southwest Florida

Diocese of Olympia

The Most Rev. Melissa Skelton, Bishop Provisional of the Diocese of Olympia
The Rev. Philip N. LaBelle, Bishop-elect of the Diocese of Olympia

St. Aiden’s, Camano Island
Transfiguration, Darrington

Those in authority

Joseph R. Biden, Jr, President of the United States
Kamala Harris, Vice President of the United States

Jay Inslee, Governor of Washington

Teri Gobin, Chair of the Tulalip
Cecile Hanson, Chair of the Duwamish
Fawn Sharp, President of the National Congress of American Indians

Lessons

Lessons appointed for use for this day from the Revised Common Lectionary (Episcopal version).

Deuteronomy 5:12-15 (NRSV)

Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But 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. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your 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 81:1-10 (BCP)

Exultate Deo

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.”

2 Corinthians 4:5-12 (NRSV)

For we do not proclaim ourselves; we proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. For 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.

But 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. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our bodies. For 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. So death is at work in us, but life in you.

Mark 2:23—3:6 (NRSV)

One sabbath Jesus and his disciples were going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He 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.” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.” Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” Then 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. He 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. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.

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The Old Testament, New Testament and Gospel readings are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Psalm is from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979.

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