We stand at a threshold, once again; a new season in the ongoing revelation of God. Pentecost has come. Jesus has ascended. The Holy Spirit has descended. As Jesus’ living ministry ends, the people of God are Ordained – as the Body of Christ – to live out the Gospel, in our own lives and as a community of faith. The Gospel of Jesus opens the way for the Gospel of the church. As the Son returns to unity with the Father, the Spirit fills creation. We are invited to embrace, and to experience, an understanding of God as Holy Trinity: God revealed as Father // Son // Spirit.
Below are the Prayer of the Day and Readings.
It is a blessing to celebrate these festival Sundays with you and our whole Abiding Love community!
God’s love and peace to you,
- Pr. Brad Highum
bhighum@abidinglove.org
God of creation, we long to know you, as you long to be known. Draw us into the mystery of your being and reveal yourself in glory … Father, Son and Spirit. Open us to experience you everywhere around us and at the deepest level of ourselves. Amen.
READINGS -------------------------------------------------------
First Reading: Genesis 1:1-5
1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, 2 the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while the Spirit of God swept over the face of the waters. 3 Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
Psalm 8
1 O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established; 4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 13:11-13
11 Finally, brothers and sisters, farewell. Put things in order, listen to my appeal, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. 12 Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. 13 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.
Gospel: Matthew 28:16-20
16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
