Reading 1
A reading from the book of Isaiah
4 The Lord God has given me
a trained tongue,
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens,
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
5 The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I did not turn backward.
6 I gave my back to those who struck me
and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard;
I did not hide my face
from insult and spitting.
7 The Lord God helps me;
therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
8 he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
Let us stand in court together.
Who are my adversaries?
Let them confront me.
9 It is the Lord God who helps me;
who will declare me guilty?
All of them will wear out like a garment;
the moth will eat them up.
The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
The Response to the Psalm is
I trust in you, O LORD; You are my God.
Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye wastes away from grief, my soul and body also.
For my life is spent with sorrow and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my misery, and my bones waste away.
I trust in you, O LORD; You are my God.
I am the scorn of all my adversaries, a horror to my neighbors, an object of dread to my acquaintances; those who see me in the street flee from me.
I have passed out of mind like one who is dead; I have become like a broken vessel.
I trust in you, O LORD; You are my God.
For I hear the whispering of many– terror all around!– as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.
But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.”
I trust in you, O LORD; You are my God.
Reading 2
A reading from the letter of Paul to the Philippians
5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death– even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
Elmbrook Sunday Readings and Rota 