gathered together in Unity

Below are the readings for church this morning, lifted from our worship bulletin. Linda tapped me awake at "oh-three-ten hours", so I've been sitting here soon two hours, sipping mugga black as it gradually cools from hot to lukewarm and I'm still not awake. Three o'clock is my usual Sunday morning waking hour, which almost invariably works fine, but not today for some reason.

Maybe the worry, maybe stirred by the last verse of today's psalm, "O Lord of hosts, happy are they who put their trust in you" as I anguish about the thousands of Afghans who trusted us, helped and relied on us our twenty years in country, believed our promises and now, waiting for Death to bang at the door, learn their lesson as truth about us comes too late. Who could possibly ever trust us again?

There's the Collect for today (scroll down), Proper 15, Year B, what's the theology of the prayer? It isn't asserted as is usually the case with our Collects, this Collect opens with the petition. IS the Church gathered together in unity? No? then how can it show forth God's power?

The Church has NEVER been gathered together in unity. In history, Constantine expected to use the Church, Christianity, to unite the Roman Empire, but found it torn by divisions, which was the reason he gathered the Council of Nicaea and forced the bishops to draft up and adopt a statement of what the faith would be, orthodoxy that everyone would be required to say they believed; yet even then they were not gathered together in unity. As Bishop Spong said, creeds are not handed down from heaven, they are written by humans and reflect the worldview of their era, age, Time. So, did Constantine's plan for unity work? 

Sunday School this morning: the gnostic Gospel of Judas Iscariot (which we had lined up for last Sunday but postponed to today), and perhaps something about Solomon's temple and something to close out our weeks of reading from John chapter six, I AM the Bread of Life.

RSF ABC & PTL

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Grant, O merciful God, that your Church, being gathered together in unity by your Holy Spirit, may show forth your power among all peoples, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The people sit.

The Lessons
A Reading from 1 Kings 8:[1, 6, 10-11], 22-30, 41-43

[Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the ancestral houses of the Israelites, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion. Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place, in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the most holy place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. And when the priests came out of the holy place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud; for the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD.]

Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands to heaven. He said, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart, the covenant that you kept for your servant my father David as you declared to him; you promised with your mouth and have this day fulfilled with your hand. Therefore,

O LORD, God of Israel, keep for your servant my father David that which you promised him, saying, ‘There shall never fail you a successor before me to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children look to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.’ Therefore, O God of Israel, let your word be confirmed, which you promised to your servant my father David.
“But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built! Regard your servant’s prayer and his plea, O LORD my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today; that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place. Hear the plea of your servant and of your people Israel when they pray toward this place; O hear in heaven your dwelling place; heed and forgive.

“Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your name —for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm—when a foreigner comes and prays toward this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so that they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built. The Word of the Lord.

People Thanks be to God. 

Psalm 84 

1 How dear to me is your dwelling, O LORD of hosts! *
My soul has a desire and longing for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.

2 The sparrow has found her a house
and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young; * by the side of your altars, O LORD of hosts,
my King and my God.

3 Happy are they who dwell in your house! * they will always be praising you.

4 Happy are the people whose strength is in you! * whose hearts are set on the pilgrims' way.

5 Those who go through the desolate valley will find it a place of springs, * for the early rains have covered it with pools of water.

6 They will climb from height to height, *
and the God of gods will reveal himself in Zion.

7 LORD God of hosts, hear my prayer; * hearken, O God of Jacob.

8 Behold our defender, O God; *
and look upon the face of your Anointed.

9 For one day in your courts is better than a thousand in my own room, * and to stand at the threshold of the house of my God
than to dwell in the tents of the wicked.

10 For the LORD God is both sun and shield; * he will give grace and glory;

11 No good thing will the LORD withhold * from those who walk with integrity.

12 O LORD of hosts, *
happy are they who put their trust in you!

The Epistle: A Reading from Ephesians 6:10-20

Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak. The Word of the Lord.

People Thanks be to God.

Then, all standing, the Deacon or a Priest reads the Gospel, first saying

The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John (6:56-69)

People Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said, “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.

When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But among you there are some who do not believe.” For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. And he said, “For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.”

Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. So Jesus asked the twelve, “Do you also wish to go away?” Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.”

The Gospel of the Lord.
People Praise to you, Lord Christ.