Service Sheet: Sunday 31st July 2022

ST. MICHAEL & ALL ANGELS’ CHURCH, HELENSBURGH

Charity Registered in Scotland SC006468

Eighth Sunday after Pentecost

INTROIT HYMN 532 Now thank we all our God

COLLECT

Grant to us, Lord, the spirit to think on those things that are right, and always to be ready to do them: that we, who without you cannot be alive, may have the strength to live according to your will; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end.

OLD TESTAMENT READING

Ecclesiastes 1. 2, 12-14; 2. 18-23
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
The Futility of Seeking Wisdom
I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. I saw all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing after wind. I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun, seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labours under the sun, because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest. This also is vanity.

PSALM – Psalm 49. 1-9
R. God shall ransom my soul from the grasp of death.

Hear this, all you peoples; listen, all you that dwell in the world, You of low or high degree, both rich and poor together. R

My mouth shall speak of wisdom and my heart shall meditate on understanding. I will incline my ear to a parable; I will unfold my riddle with the lyre. R

Why should I fear in evil days, when the malice of my foes surrounds me, Such as trust in their goods and glory in the abundance of their riches? R

For no one can indeed ransom another or pay to God the price of deliverance. To ransom a soul is too costly; there is no price one could pay for it, So that they might live for ever, and never see the grave. R

EPISTLE

Colossians 3. 1-11

The New Life in Christ

If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life. But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all!

GRADUAL HYMN 411 Judge eternal, throned in splendour

GOSPEL

Luke 12.13-21

The Parable of the Rich Fool

Someone in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’

OFFERTORY HYMN 66 Be thou my vision

COMMUNION HYMN 687 Take my life, and let it be

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

God of grace, we have shared in the mystery of the body and blood of Christ. May we who have tasted the bread of life live with you for ever. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

RECESSIONAL HYMN 19 All my hope on God is founded

BLESSING

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord: and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be among you and remain with you always.

Scripture quotations from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA amended according to the Revised Common Lectionary in NRSV. Psalm from the Book of Common Worship of the Church of England. Collect, Prayer after Communion and Blessing from Scottish Liturgy 1982 with Propers and Revised Common Lectionary published by the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Edinburgh 2006.