The Old Testament lesson for the 5th Sunday after Easter (Rogate)

The Lord spoke to Moses, “Go quickly, descend, because your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, have acted corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them—they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”

Then the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people. Look what a stiff-necked people they are! So now, leave me alone so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation.”

But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, why does your anger burn against your people, whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘For evil he led them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent of this evil against your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about I will give to your descendants, and they will inherit it forever.’” Then the Lord relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people.

Exodus 32,7-14

1    From depths of woe I cry to Thee,
In trial and tribulation;
Bend down Thy gracious ear to me,
Lord, hear my supplication.
If Thou rememb’rest ev’ry sin,
Who then could heaven ever win
Or stand before Thy presence?

2    Thy love and grace alone avail
To blot out my transgression;
The best and holiest deeds must fail
To break sin’s dread oppression.
Before Thee none can boasting stand,
But all must fear Thy strict demand
And live alone by mercy.

3    Therefore my hope is in the Lord
And not in mine own merit;
It rests upon His faithful Word
To them of contrite spirit
That He is merciful and just;
This is my comfort and my trust.
His help I wait with patience.

4    And though it tarry through the night
And till the morning waken,
My heart shall never doubt His might
Nor count itself forsaken.
O Israel, trust in God your Lord.
Born of the Spirit and the Word,
Now wait for His appearing.

5    Though great our sins, yet greater still
Is God’s abundant favor;
His hand of mercy never will
Abandon us, nor waver.
Our shepherd good and true is He,
Who will at last His Israel free
From all their sin and sorrow.

Martin Luther 1483-1546

Collect for this Sunday before the Ascension of our Lord

God, our heavenly Father, through Your Son You have promised us the Holy Spirit. Send down upon us that Spirit, that He may teach us to show forth Your praise, not only here on earth in weakness, since we know Your power and glory only from afar, but also in power and glory on that day when, united with the choir of angels, we shall see You face to face; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord.

Dobberstein Pg.94

A song for the Sabbath day

It is fitting to thank the Lord,
and to sing praises to your name, O Most High.
It is fitting to proclaim your loyal love in the morning,
and your faithfulness during the night,
to the accompaniment of a ten-stringed instrument and a lyre,
to the accompaniment of the meditative tone of the harp.
For you, O Lord, have made me happy by your work.
I will sing for joy because of what you have done.
How great are your works, O Lord!
Your plans are very intricate!
The spiritually insensitive do not recognize this;
the fool does not understand this.
When the wicked sprout up like grass,
and all the evildoers glisten,
it is so that they may be annihilated.

But you, O Lord, reign forever.
Indeed, look at your enemies, O Lord.
Indeed, look at how your enemies perish.
All the evildoers are scattered.
You exalt my horn like that of a wild ox.
I am covered with fresh oil.
I gloat in triumph over those who tried to ambush me;
I hear the defeated cries of the evil foes who attacked me.
The godly grow like a palm tree;
they grow high like a cedar in Lebanon.
Planted in the Lord’s house,
they grow in the courts of our God.
They bear fruit even when they are old;
they are filled with vitality and have many leaves.
So they proclaim that the Lord, my Protector,
is just and never unfair.

Psalm 92