Notes

The Lord be with you!
He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

This is the Fifth Sunday after Pentecost and a weekend on which we especially give thanks to God for the special blessing of this good land and the country that we love. Our Introit this Sunday is taken from key verses in Psalm 91. This psalm assures us of God’s ever-present mercy during every change that weighs us down in this world tainted with sin. A perfect tie-in with this Sunday’s Collect of the Day.
Let us pray:
Gracious God, our heavenly Father, Your mercy attends us all our days. Be our strength and support amid the wearisome changes of this world, and at life’s end grant us Your promised rest and the full joys of Your salvation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.

Zechariah 9:9-12
Daughter of Zion is a title that evokes defeat, judgment, and the anger of God’s wrath against His people’s faithlessness. Zechariah, a prophet who appears late in Old Testament history, long after King David, the Divided Kingdom and even after the Babylonian Exile, uses the term Daughter of Zion to promise mercy renewed. The Messiah comes to lift up the humiliated head of the Daughter of Zion, and He is known Himself by the humble donkey that He rides, a sign that came to fulfillment on Palm Sunday.

Romans 7:14-25
The holy Apostle Saint Paul bares his very soul in this admission of the lingering presence of the sinful flesh inside him. Wretched man that I am, he says, not wretched man that I was! I am of the flesh, I am sold under sin, and I don’t understand the evil works that I hate, yet I still do. Nevertheless, the grace of God through Christ’s redemption has saved wretched sinners like Saint Paul, like you and like me. Thanks be to God! He has delivered us from this body of death.

Matthew 11:25-30
Jesus can say, Come to me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, because only He has the authority to give rest, that is, true peace in the enjoyment of God, the very purpose of the Sabbath. Jesus received this authority from before the beginning of time from the Everlasting Father, since He is the Son of God. He also received authority to bestow this rest when He was baptized in the Jordan River and anointed with the Holy Spirit. He has chosen to reveal the Father and lavish all His eternal benefits on those who trust in Him for the forgiveness of sins. That is what it is to bear the light yoke and easy burden of Christ: believe with all your heart, soul and mind that He has paid the full price for you.

Here’s Hymn 684, stanza 1:
“Come unto Me, ye weary, / And I will give you rest.”
O blessèd voice of Jesus, / Which comes to hearts oppressed!
It tells of benediction, / Of pardon, grace, and peace,
Of joy that hath no ending, / Of love that cannot cease.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pr. Stirdivant

At The Cross