Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost	August 25, 2024
Prayer of the Day
Care for your Church, O Lord, with perpetual mercy. Since we totter and are sure to fall without your grace, remove what will harm us and arrange what will make us whole. Grant this, we 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: Isaiah 29:11-19
11The vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.” 13And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, 14therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.” 15Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” 16You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? 17Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest? 18In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. 19The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
Psalm 14 (LBW)
1The fool has said in his heart, “There | is no God.”*
	All are corrupt and commit abominable acts; there is none who does | any good.
2The Lord looks down from heaven up- | on us all,*
	to see if there is any who is wise, if there is one who seeks | after God.
3Everyone has proved faithless; all alike | have turned bad;*
	there is none who does good; | no, not one.
4Have they no knowledge, all those e- | vildoers*
	who eat up my people like bread and do not call up- | on the Lord?
5See how they trem- | ble with fear,*
	because God is in the company of | the righteous.
6Their aim is to confound the plans of the | afflicted,*
	but the Lord is | their refuge.
7Oh, that Israel’s deliverance would come out | of Zion!*
	when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, Jacob will rejoice and Isra- | el be glad.
Psalm 14 (ESV)
1The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there 
	is none who does good.
2The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who 
	understand, who seek after God.
3They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt; there is none who does good, not 
	even one.
4Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers who eat up my people as they eat bread and do 
	not call upon the Lord?
5There they are in great terror, for God is with the generation of the righteous.
6You would shame the plans of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge.
7Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores the fortunes of his 
	people, let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.
Second Reading: Ephesians 5:22-33
22Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30because we are members of his body. 31“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Gospel: Mark 7:1-13
1When the Pharisees gathered to {Jesus}, with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, 2they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. 3(For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands properly, holding to the tradition of the elders, 4and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) 5And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; 7in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ 8You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.” 9And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! 10For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ 11But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God) — 12then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, 13thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
Next Week’s Readings:
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9; Psalm 119:129-136; Ephesians 6:10-20; Mark 7:14-23