Joel: crisis & renewal for the people of god
October 1-2
Sermon Title: The Crisis Comes Home
Preacher: The Rev. Alex Shuttleworth
Saturday Evening Bulletin
Sunday Morning Bulletin
The Collect of the day
Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in continual godliness, that through your protection it may be free from all adversities, and devoutly serve you in good works, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
The lesson: Joel 2: 1-9
The Day of the Lord
1 Blow a trumpet in Zion;
sound an alarm on my holy mountain!
Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,
for the day of the Lord is coming; it is near,
2 a day of darkness and gloom,
a day of clouds and thick darkness!
Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains
a great and powerful people;
their like has never been before,
nor will be again after them
through the years of all generations.
3 Fire devours before them,
and behind them a flame burns.
The land is like the garden of Eden before them,
but behind them a desolate wilderness,
and nothing escapes them.
4 Their appearance is like the appearance of horses,
and like war horses they run.
5 As with the rumbling of chariots,
they leap on the tops of the mountains,
like the crackling of a flame of fire
devouring the stubble,
like a powerful army
drawn up for battle.
6 Before them peoples are in anguish;
all faces grow pale.
7 Like warriors they charge;
like soldiers they scale the wall.
They march each on his way;
they do not swerve from their paths.
8 They do not jostle one another;
each marches in his path;
they burst through the weapons
and are not halted.
9 They leap upon the city,
they run upon the walls,
they climb up into the houses,
they enter through the windows like a thief.
Psalm 50: 1-6 (Saturday evening) or Psalm 22
Psalm 50: 1-6 will be read during the Saturday evening service. Psalm 22 will be sung in unision during the Sunday morning services.
1 The Lord, even the most mighty God, has spoken
and called the world, from the rising of the sun to the going down thereof.
2 Out of Zion, perfect in her beauty,
has God shone forth in glory.
3 Our God shall come and shall not keep silence;
there shall go before him a consuming fire, and a mighty tempest shall be stirred up round about him.
4 He shall call to the heavens above,
and to the earth beneath, that he may judge his people:
5 “Gather my faithful together unto me,
those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”
6 And the heavens shall declare his righteousness,
for God himself is Judge.
(BCP 2019)
The gospel: Matthew 24: 42-44
42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.