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Ninth Sunday after Pentecost • Year C
August 10, 2025 • Proper 14
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Historical Collect
Almighty and merciful God, only by your gift of grace can the faithful offer service that is worthy of you and deserving of praise. Keep us from stumbling as we run to receive your promises; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. (Leonine Sacramentary, 6th Century)
Thematic Collect
God of all grace, you delight in your children and give them the kingdom. Give us faith to trust in your loving provision, that we might not worry needlessly, but live in freedom and gratitude; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever. Amen.
The Common Thread
Your faith, as Abraham’s, is reckoned to you as righteousness. The Lord God is our sure defense, for we cannot be saved from ruin by military or political might, but by the strong right arm of the Lord. It is our unwavering conviction that God both created and sustains by his word. How can we not trust him with fear and faith, and hope in his steadfast love? We do not concern ourselves over each day’s bread, as God has given us the whole kingdom, the heavenly city, the glorious homeland that we both seek and find in Christ.
First Reading • Genesis 15:1–6
God’s covenant with Abraham was not the mere promise of a multitude of offspring, but the promise of one descendent in particular. “Offspring” in verse five is singular, pointing toward the one in whom all his offspring (plural) would be blessed (re: Gal 3:16). We are all made righteous through faith in this promised Christ, just as Abraham was accounted righteous by believing the word of the Lord.
Psalm • Psalm 33:12-22
The hearts and mind, the desires and secrets, of all people are an open book to the Lord God. He sees many who put their confidence in their own strength or the might of their country’s military. Yet, his eye is most keenly upon those who fear him, who place their whole hope and trust in him. They are the ones who are happy to wait on his promise, for their confidence is not so much in the promise—let alone their own deeds or the might of nations—as his steadfast love.
Second Reading • Hebrews 11:1-16
Faith is not founded in intellectual knowledge or in empirical research. Indeed, faith is a certainty in that which is not rationally knowable or able to be discovered. Nor is faith an opinion; rather, it is a conviction. In this hall of faith that is the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, we see this conviction at work in the lives of many who preceded us. They all died in faith, not receiving the outcome of their faith, but seeing it in the distance and still believing. Like them, we too are exiles in faith, awaiting a better place, an inheritance, a homeland. God has prepared this heavenly city; it is as good as lived in already.
Gospel • Luke 12:22-34, 35-40
What are we to do here, we who long for a “a new heaven and a new earth,” (Isa 65:17; Rev 21:1) ones in which righteousness dwell (2 Pet 3:13)? We are to build houses and settle in them, plant gardens and enjoy their produce, marry and have children. We are to increase without anxiety or fear, except a healthy fear of the Lord, for it is the Father’s delight to give us treasure on earth and in heaven.
Resources
Links to Worship Resources for this Service
