Collect for the 7th Sunday after Trinity
Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name, increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness, and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen
Old Testament Reading
Ecclesiastes 1.2, 12-14
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem,
applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with.
I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind.
This is the word of the Lord.
All Thanks be to God.
Psalm 49
1 Hear this, all you peoples; • listen, all you that dwell in the world,
2 You of low or high degree, • both rich and poor together.
3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom • and my heart shall meditate on understanding.
4 I will incline my ear to a parable; • I will unfold my riddle with the lyre.
5 Why should I fear in evil days, • when the malice of my foes surrounds me,
6 Such as trust in their goods • and glory in the abundance of their riches?
7 For no one can indeed ransom another • or pay to God the price of deliverance.
8 To ransom a soul is too costly; • there is no price one could pay for it,
9 So that they might live for ever, • and never see the grave.
10 For we see that the wise die also; with the foolish and ignorant they perish • and leave their riches to others.
11 Their tomb is their home for ever, their dwelling through all generations, • though they call their lands after their own names.
12 Those who have honour, but lack understanding, • are like the beasts that perish.
New Testament Reading
Colossians 3.1-11
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient.
These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.
But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!
This is the word of the Lord.
All Thanks be to God.
Gospel Reading
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke.
All Glory to you, O Lord.
Luke 12.13–21
Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
All Praise to you, O Christ.
Post Communion
Lord God, whose Son is the true vine and the source of life,
ever giving himself that the world may live:
may we so receive within ourselves the power of his death and passion
that, in his saving cup, we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love;
for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever. Amen