June 25, 2023

The Collect

Lord, make us have perpetual love and reverence for You and Your Holy Name, for You never fail to help and govern those whom You have set upon the sure foundation of Your loving kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Psalm 69:8-20

8 I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children;

9 for zeal for your house consumes me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

10 When I weep and fast, I must endure scorn;

11 when I put on sackcloth, people make sport of me.

12 Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of the drunkards.

13 But I pray to you, LORD, in the time of your favor; in your great love, O God, answer me with your sure salvation.

14 Rescue me from the mire, do not let me sink; deliver me from those who hate me, from the deep waters.

15 Do not let the floodwaters engulf me or the depths swallow me up or the pit close its mouth over me.

16 Answer me, LORD, out of the goodness of your love; in your great mercy turn to me.

17 Do not hide your face from your servant; answer me quickly, for I am in trouble.

18 Come near and rescue me; deliver me because of my foes.

19 You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you.

20 Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none.

Matthew 10:24-39

24 “The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master.

25 It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!

26 “So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.

27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs.

28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.

30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

32 “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven.

33 But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven.

34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

35 For I have come to turn “ ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—

36 a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

37 “Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

38 Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

39 Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.