Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost	September 15, 2024
Prayer of the Day
O Lord, help your people to avoid the infection of the evil one, and with pure hearts to follow you, our only Lord. 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 50:4-10
4The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. 5The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. 6I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. 7But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. 8He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. 9Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up. 10Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God.
Psalm 116:1-8* (LBW)
1I love the Lord, because he has heard the voice of my | supplication,*
	because he has inclined his ear to me whenever I | called upon him.
2The cords of death entangled me; the grip of the grave took | hold of me;*
	I came to | grief and sorrow.
3Then I called upon the name | of the Lord:*
	“O Lord, I pray you, | save my life.”
4Gracious is the | Lord and righteous;*
	our God is full | of compassion.
5The Lord watches | over the innocent;*
	I was brought very low, | and he helped me.
6Turn again to your rest, | O my soul,*
	for the Lord has treat- | ed you well.
7For you have rescued my | life from death,*
	my eyes from tears, and my | feet from stumbling.
8I will walk in the presence | of the Lord *
	in the land | of the living.
Psalm 116 (ESV)
1I love the Lord, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3The snares of death encompassed me; the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me; I suffered distress and anguish.
4Then I called on the name of the Lord: “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”
5Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; our God is merciful.
6The Lord preserves the simple; when I was brought low, he saved me.
7Return, O my soul, to your rest; for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
8For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling;
9I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
Second Reading: James 3:1-12
1Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. 3If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. 4Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. 5So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! 6And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. 7For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, 8but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. 10From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? 12Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.
Gospel: Mark 9:14-29
14When {Jesus, Peter, James and John} came to the disciples, they saw a great crowd around them, and scribes arguing with them. 15And immediately all the crowd, when they saw him, were greatly amazed and ran up to him and greeted him. 16And he asked them, “What are you arguing about with them?” 17And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. 18And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.” 19And he answered them, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him to me.” 20And they brought the boy to him. And when the spirit saw him, immediately it convulsed the boy, and he fell on the ground and rolled about, foaming at the mouth. 21And Jesus asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” And he said, “From childhood. 22And it has often cast him into fire and into water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” 25And when Jesus saw that a crowd came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” 26And after crying out and convulsing him terribly, it came out, and the boy was like a corpse, so that most of them said, “He is dead.” 27But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up, and he arose. 28And when he had entered the house, his disciples asked him privately, “Why could we not cast it out?” 29And he said to them, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”
Next Week’s Readings:
Jeremiah 11:18-20; Psalm 54; James 3:13-4:10; Mark 9:30-37
* — Some psalms within the Book of Common Prayer psalter, which the Sola lectionary uses, are numbered differently than the psalms in the psalter of the English Standard Version Bible, on which the lectionary calendar is based. To account for this difference, today’s psalm reading ends at verse 8 (the ESV reading will end at verse 9).