Eighth Sunday after Pentecost	August 3, 2025
Prayer of the Day
Almighty, eternal God, your kindness is far more than we desire or deserve. Generously pour out your mercy to forgive where our conscience is afraid and to provide that for which by ourselves, we do not even presume to pray; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
First Reading: Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14; 2:18-26 
2Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity. 
12I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. 13And I applied my heart to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven. It is an unhappy business that God has given to the children of man to be busy with. 14I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind. 
18I hated all my toil in which I toil under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to the man who will come after me, 19and who knows whether he will be wise or a fool? Yet he will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. 20So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, 21because sometimes a person who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave everything to be enjoyed by someone who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest. This also is vanity. 24There is nothing better for a person than that he should eat and drink and find enjoyment in his toil. This also, I saw, is from the hand of God, 25for apart from him who can eat or who can have enjoyment? 26For to the one who pleases him God has given wisdom and knowledge and joy, but to the sinner he has given the business of gathering and collecting, only to give to one who pleases God. This also is vanity and a striving after wind.
Psalm 100 (LBW)*
1Be joyful in the Lord, | all you lands;*
	serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence | with a song.
2Know this: The Lord him- | self is God;*
	he himself has made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep | of his pasture.
3Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his | courts with praise;*
	give thanks to him and call up- | on his Name.
4For the Lord is good; his mercy is | everlasting;*
	and his faithfulness endures from | age to age.
Psalm 100 (ESV)*
1Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
2Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
3Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!
5For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.

*The Book of Common Prayer verse numbers for this psalm are different from the numbering in the ESV.
Second Reading: Colossians 3:1-11
1If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6On account of these the wrath of God is coming. 7In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. 8But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. 9Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. 11Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Gospel: Luke 12:13-21
13Someone in the crowd said to {Jesus}, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” 14But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?” 15And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” 16And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully, 17and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ 18And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. 19And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.”’ 20But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ 21So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
Lessons for Next Week
Genesis 15:1-6; Psalm 33:12-22; Hebrews 11:1-16; Luke 12:22-34 [35-40]