The Worship Bulletin for Sunday morning, the Ninth Sunday of Pentecost  We hope you find this helpful in following along with the service. You are encouraged to respond in the appropriate places. The service is taken from the Book of Common Prayer. If you do not have a copy, you can access it at either https://www.anglican.ca/wp-content/uploads/BCP.pdf  or    http://prayerbook.ca/resources/bcponline/.

        

St. Stephen’s Anglican Parish

11:00 am St. Stephen’s On-line Service, Chester

Ninth Sunday of Pentecost                                                                            2 August 2020    

Our mission is to worship God and care for

God’s people in the spirit of Christ….

MORNING PRAYER

(Book of Common Prayer)

The Penitential Rite:                          p. 4

Responsory:                                        p. 5

Venite:                                                 p. 6

The Proclamation of the Word

Psalm 17:1-7, 16

HEAR the right, O LORD, consider my complaint, / and hearken unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned lips.
2 Let my sentence come forth from thy presence; / and let thine eyes look upon the thing that is right.
3 Thou hast proved and visited mine heart in the night-season; thou hast tried me, and shalt find no wickedness in me; / for I am utterly purposed that my mouth shall not offend.
4 As for the works of men, by the word of thy lips / I have kept me from the ways of the destroyer.
5 My steps have held fast to thy paths, / and my feet have not slipped.
6 I HAVE called upon thee, O God, for thou shalt hear me: / incline thine ear to me, and hearken unto my words.
7 Show thy marvellous loving-kindness, thou that art the Saviour of them that put their trust in thee, / from such as resist thy right hand.

16 But as for me, I shall behold thy presence in righteousness; / and when I awake, I shall be satisfied with thy likeness.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son/ and to the Holy Ghost.

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be/ world without end. Amen.

Lesson:                                   Genesis 32:22-31                                                                                     

The same night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, "Let me go, for the day is breaking." But Jacob said, "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." So he said to him, "What is your name?" And he said, "Jacob." Then the man said, "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed." Then Jacob asked him, "Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is it that you ask my name?" And there he blessed him. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved." The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

The Word of the Lord

All: Thanks be to God

Te Deum:                                            p. 7

Epistle:                                   Romans  9:1-5

I am speaking the truth in Christ - I am not lying; my conscience confirms it by the Holy Spirit - I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my own people, my kindred according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises; to them belong the patriarchs, and from them, according to the flesh, comes the Messiah, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

The Word of the Lord

All: Thanks be to God

Benedictus:                                        p. 9

Gospel Lesson:                            Matthew 14:13-21

Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a deserted place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them and cured their sick. When it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, "This is a deserted place, and the hour is now late; send the crowds away so that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." Jesus said to them, "They need not go away; you give them something to eat." They replied, "We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish." And he said, "Bring them here to me." Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

The Word of the Lord

All: Thanks be to God

Reflection:

Apostles’ Creed:                                 p. 10

Lord’s Prayer:                                     p. 11

Versicles and Responses:                  p. 11

Collect:

 God beyond all seeing and knowing, we meet you in the night of change and crisis and wrestle with you in darkness and doubt. Give us the will and spirit to live faithfully and to love as we are loved, through Jesus Christ, your Son. Amen  

Collects for Peace and Grace:                p. 11-12

Intercessory Prayers

General Thanksgiving, Prayer of Saint Chrysostom, The Grace p.14-15 

Announcements

The Rector continues his vacation, through Monday, the 3^rd of August (inclusive). If there is any emergency which requires a priest, please contact the Parish Office or the Wardens (numbers are on the cover of this bulletin), and they will put you in touch with the clergy “on-call”.

Re-Gathering for Worship – We will begin physically gathering once more for worship on Sunday, 9 August.

Please note that at St. Stephen’s, Chester, there will be one service on Sunday Mornings, 10:30 a.m. It will be a “said” Service of the Word (no Communion), and will take place in Tuck Hall, St. Stephen’s Community Centre. Please note that seating will be limited, as we can only have as many people in the hall as will allow for sufficient physical distancing, up to a maximum of 50 in attendance. Also, all those who will be in attendance MUST wear face-masks. Watch for more information in the first week of August.

There will be a Service of the Word also at St. George’s, East River, that day, at 9 a.m. Once more, all attendees must wear masks. If there are more than 10 in attendance, physical distancing must be maintained.

The first gathering at All Saints’, Canaan will take place on Sunday, 16 August, 7 p.m. with a Service of the Word. Masks and possible physical distancing requirements will need to be applied for that celebration as well.

Commentary (Compiled from Commentaries by Chris Haslam – Diocese of Montreal)

Genesis 32:22-31-  After serving Laban for many years, Jacob has decided to return home to Canaan. He has outwitted Laban into giving him the best of his flocks, and has departed with his wives and entourage without saying farewell. This has angered Laban, who has marched after Jacob, but (thanks to God’s intervention), they have come to an amicable agreement. In ancient folklore, struggles between humans and mysterious beings are common. Such beings, sometimes divine, often guard river crossings, and are only effective at night. The being is usually forced to reveal something of himself. This is such a story – but much more. Jabbock is little more than a stream, but it runs in a deep, mysterious gorge. The supernatural event can have no witnesses (“Jacob was left alone”, v. 24.) The struggle appears to be with “a man”, but in v. 26, Jacob probably recognizes him as God: he seeks his blessing. This is confirmed in v. 28: “you have striven with God”. Jacob’s life has been a struggle, from his birth on. He does not win a complete victory: his “hip was put out of joint” (v. 25). In v. 30, “Peniel” means face of God. We read in earlier chapters that God promised to preserve Jacob’s life; here (v. 30) his “life is preserved”. This story was handed down orally for many generations, and recorded by an author of Genesis much later. To this author, what really mattered was what it said about Israel, the nation: Jacob struggled with God, and he is given a new name (“Israel”, v. 28.) This change signifies a new era in Jacob’s life; it gives meaning to his future life; he now has a mission. Jacob is no longer just cunning; he is now divinely commissioned Israel: he is father of God’s chosen people. Just as he struggled with God, so does the nation. It too is protected by God, and God’s people have a role in the path to salvation.

Romans 9:1-5 - Paul has written of the new way of being we have in Christ, in the love of God, aided by the Holy Spirit, with the certain hope of eternal life – while others continually alienate themselves from God and face the finality of physical death. We are adopted children of God, and so will attain complete oneness with him, sharing in his power (glory). Now he confronts a worrying question: why have most Jews rejected the good news? This causes Paul, as a follower of Christ, great pain. Perhaps some thought him insensitive to the plight of his fellow Jews, but the “Holy Spirit”, within him, “confirms” that he really cares. He would even be willing to be “cut off from Christ” (v. 3), be condemned to damnation, for the sake of bringing his fellow Jews to Christ. They are “Israelites” (v. 4) – a title given to them by God. They have seven gifts from God: (1) “adoption”, being chosen as children of God; (2) “glory”, God’s presence in the desert and in the Temple; (3) the “covenants” of God with the patriarchs; (4) “the giving of the law”, the expression of God’s will at Sinai; (5) temple “worship”; (6) “the promises” to Adam, Noah, Moses and David; and (7) a heritage still in effect, of worshipping the God of their fathers, “the patriarchs” (v. 5, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob). There is an eighth gift, the greatest: Jesus, who was born a Jew. But they fail to recognize him for who he is: the “Messiah”, the Christ. Paul’s basic answer is in vv. 6-18: God, not humans, choses through whom he works to bring about his plan of salvation, as the Old Testament shows. God decided that the lineage of Israel, his people, would be through Isaac and Jacob, not through Ishmael and Esau.

Matthew 14:13-21 Matthew has told us of the beheading of John the Baptist – killed because he denounced Herod Antipas’ marriage to his brother Philip’s wife when Philip was still alive (a violation of Jewish law). This is a story of a miracle, but which miracle? The obvious answer is the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, but there is perhaps another miracle here. Matthew places this story in a section of the gospel about training the disciples for their mission, so perhaps Jesus is teaching them about what they can do. (A peasant in Palestine, then and now, travelled with food.) Jesus says to his disciples “you give them something to eat” (v. 16). He is saying: you have the resources to solve this problem! Take the initiative! Be leaders! In v. 19, we have a reminder of the Last Supper, the eucharistic feast, and of the messianic feast at the end of time. Jesus takes bread, recognizes it as the Father’s gift (“looked up to heaven”), blesses it, breaks it, and gives it, distributes it. Then, in v. 20, we see another level to the story. The disciples get everyone to work together to a common purpose. All are “filled” and much is left over: a basket for each disciple. Each of them has a mission to perform, one of telling the good news of the infinite abundance of God’s love, which all can eat.