Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost

THE OLD TESTAMENT READING                                                                    Isaiah 56:1; 6-8 (ESV)

Thus says the Lord:  “Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon My Salvation will come, and My Deliverance be revealed.  And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be His servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast My covenant--these I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar; for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”  The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to Him besides those already gathered.”

 

THE EPISTLE                                                                                Romans 11:1-2; 13-15; 28-32 (ESV)

I ask, then, has God rejected His people?  By no means!  For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.  God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.  Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel?  Now I am speaking to you Gentiles.  Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them.  For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?  As regards the Gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake.  But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.  For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.  Just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.  For God has consigned all to disobedience, that He may have mercy on all.

 

THE HOLY GOSPEL                                                                                      Matthew 15:21-28 (ESV)

Jesus went away from there and withdrew to the district of Tyre and Sidon.  And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon.”  But He did not answer her a word.  And His disciples came and begged Him, saying, “Send her away, for she is crying out after us.”  He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”  But she came and knelt before Him, saying, “Lord, help me.”  And He answered, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”  She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”  Then Jesus answered her, “O woman, great is your faith!  Be it done for you as you desire.”  And her daughter was healed instantly.