Watchword for the 2^nd Sunday after Pentecost [1^st Sunday after Trinity] from Lk.10,16: Jesus said to his disciples: “He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

Deuteronomy 6:4-9  Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.  Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.  These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

1 John 4:16b-21  Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  ¹⁷ In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.  ¹⁸ There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.  ¹⁹ We love because he first loved us.  ²⁰ If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.  ²¹ And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Luke 16:19 – 31   ¹⁹ “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day.  ²⁰ At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores  ²¹ and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.  ²² “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.  ²³ In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.  ²⁴ So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’  ²⁵ “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.  ²⁶ And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’  ²⁷ “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house,  ²⁸ for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’  ²⁹ “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’  ³⁰ “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’  ³¹ “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'” 

Liturgical colour: Green

Collect of the day: O God, the strength of all who trust in You, mercifully accept our prayers; and because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing, grant us Your grace to keep Your commandments that we may please You in both will and deed; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Hymn of the week: To God the Holy Spirit let us pray…

1.  To God the Holy Spirit let us pray For the true faith needed on our way That He may defend us when life is ending And from exile home we are wending. Lord, have mercy!
2. O sweetest Love, Your grace on us bestow; Set our hearts with sacred fire aglow That with hearts united we love each other, Ev’ry stranger, sister and brother. Lord, have mercy!
3. Transcendent Comfort in our ev’ry need Help us neither scorn nor death to heed That we may not falter nor courage fail us When the foe shall taunt and assail us. Lord, have mercy!
4. Shine in our hearts, O Spirit precious light; Teach us Jesus Christ to know aright That we may abide in the Lord who bought us, Till to our true home He has brought us. Lord, have mercy!

Martin Luther (1483-1546): Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist…