Liturgy for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A (Matthew)

Introduction

Jacob wrestles through the night at the Jabbok and will not let go until he is blessed, though he carries the mark of it for the rest of his life.

Isaiah invites the hungry and the thirsty to a table with no price.

Paul grieves for his own people with a sorrow he cannot set down.

And Jesus takes five loaves and two fish, looks to heaven, and feeds five thousand with food to spare.

Hunger and blessing run through every text this week, and each time, the table turns out to be wider than expected.

This liturgy follows the Revised Common Lectionary for the Tenth Sunday after Pentecost (Year A) and is shaped by themes of wrestling for blessing, hunger, and the abundance God provides from very little.

The lectionary readings at a glance

Genesis 32:22-31: Jacob wrestles alone through the night with a stranger at the ford of the Jabbok. He will not release his opponent without a blessing. He is renamed Israel and leaves limping, having seen God face to face.

• A Sermon on this passage: What Do You Call this Place?

• Who Was Jacob in the Bible?

Psalm 17:1-7, 15: A prayer for vindication from one who has kept to God's ways. The psalmist asks to be kept as the apple of God's eye, and closes with the hope of waking satisfied, beholding God's likeness.

Isaiah 55:1-5 (alternate first reading): An open invitation to the thirsty and the hungry to come and eat without cost. Why spend money on what does not satisfy? Come, and your soul shall live.

Psalm 145:8-9, 14-21 (alternate psalm): A hymn to God's graciousness and mercy. The Lord upholds all who are falling and opens his hand to satisfy the desire of every living thing.

Romans 9:1-5: Paul speaks of his great sorrow and unceasing anguish for the sake of his own people, the Israelites, to whom belong the covenants, the promises, and the Messiah.

Matthew 14:13-21: Jesus withdraws to a deserted place, but the crowds follow. Moved with compassion, he heals the sick and, as evening falls, feeds five thousand from five loaves and two fish.

In many Christian traditions Communion is observed/celebrated on the first Sunday of the month. These passages all point to our longing to be fed and filled.

Call to worship

One: Come, all who are thirsty, come to the water.

All: Come, all who are hungry, come and be fed.

One: Why spend your life on what does not satisfy?

All: Here is bread enough, and grace besides.

One: Let us worship the God who fills the empty hand.

All: Let us worship the God who feeds the multitude.

Call to worship

One: Some blessings come easily. Others we wrestle for through the night.

All: We come with our wrestling, and our need for blessing.

One: God does not let go, and neither do we.

All: We will not let you go until you bless us.

One: Come, let us worship the God who meets us in the dark.

All: And sends us out limping, and named, and blessed.

Opening prayer

God of Jacob and God of the five thousand, you meet us in places we did not expect you, by the river at night, on a hillside at supper time. We come hungry. We come wrestling. Meet us again, and do not let us go until we too are blessed. Amen.

Prayer of confession

Gracious God, we have looked for bread in places that leave us empty. We have wrestled for lesser blessings and let go of the ones that matter too soon. We have kept our hands closed when you asked us to open them. Forgive us, and feed us again. Amen.

Assurance of pardon

One: The Lord is gracious and merciful,

All: slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

One: The Lord upholds all who are falling,

All: and none of us is forgotten.

One: In Christ, you are fed. In Christ, you are forgiven.

All: Thanks be to God.

Prayer for illumination

Open our hands, God, and open this word to us. Feed us with what we cannot provide for ourselves. Bless us, even if it costs us something to receive it. Amen.

Benediction

Go, fed by grace that costs you nothing and asks everything. Go, blessed, even if you leave a little changed. And may the God who wrestles with you in the night walk with you into the day. Amen.

More benedictions and blessings

See also

Worship Resources
Calls to Worship
Opening Prayers
Prayers of Confession
Assurance of Pardon
Prayer of Illumination
Benedictions and Blessings