Preparing for the Twenty-First
Sunday after Pentecost

Year B

Prayer

Psalm 104:1-9, 24, 35b

In wisdom you have made them all

 

Bless the Lord, O my soul.

O Lord my God, you are very great.

You are clothed with honor and majesty,

wrapped in light as with a garment.

You stretch out the heavens like a tent,

you set the beams of your chambers on the waters,

you make the clouds your chariot,

you ride on the wings of the wind,

you make the winds your messengers,

fire and flame your ministers.

You set the earth on its foundations,

so that it shall never be shaken.

You cover it with the deep as with a garment;

the waters stood above the mountains.

At your rebuke they flee;

at the sound of your thunder they take to flight.

They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys

to the place that you appointed for them.

You set a boundary that they may not pass,

O Lord, how manifold are your works!

In wisdom you have made them all;

the earth is full of your creatures.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.

Praise the Lord!

 

Job 36:1-16

God watches everything we do

 

Elihu continued and said:

 

“Bear with me a little, and I will show you,

for I have yet something to say on God’s behalf.

I will bring my knowledge from far away,

and ascribe righteousness to my Maker.

For truly my words are not false;

one who is perfect in knowledge is with you.

“Surely God is mighty and does not despise any;

he is mighty in strength of understanding.

He does not keep the wicked alive,

but gives the afflicted their right.

He does not withdraw his eyes from the righteous,

but with kings on the throne

he sets them forever, and they are exalted.

And if they are bound in fetters

and caught in the cords of affliction,

then he declares to them their work

and their transgressions, that they are behaving arrogantly.

He opens their ears to instruction,

and commands that they return from iniquity.

If they listen, and serve him,

they complete their days in prosperity,

and their years in pleasantness.

But if they do not listen, they shall perish by the sword,

and die without knowledge.

“The godless in heart cherish anger;

they do not cry for help when he binds them.

They die in their youth,

and their life ends in shame.

He delivers the afflicted by their affliction,

and opens their ear by adversity.

He also allured you out of distress

into a broad place where there was no constraint,

and what was set on your table was full of fatness.”

 

Romans 15:7-13

The Gentiles glorify God

 

Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written,

 

“Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles,

and sing praises to your name”;

 

and again he says,

 

“Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people”;

 

and again,

 

“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles,

and let all the peoples praise him”;

 

and again Isaiah says,

 

“The root of Jesse shall come,

the one who rises to rule the Gentiles;

in him the Gentiles shall hope.”

 

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.