The Second Sunday in Lent

The Second Sunday in Lent
Sunday, February 25, 2024

The Collect:
O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from your ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of your Word, Jesus Christ your Son; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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God of Sarah and Abraham, long ago you embraced your people in covenant and promised them your blessing. Strengthen us in faith, that, with your disciples of every age, we may proclaim your deliverance in Jesus Christ to generations yet unborn. Amen.

The Old Testament Reading:
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 KJV
And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.
² And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.
³ And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,
⁴ As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.
⁵ Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.
⁶ And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
⁷ And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.
¹⁵ And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.
¹⁶ And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

The Psalm:
Psalm 22:23-31 KJV
²² I will declare thy name unto my brethren:*
in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
²³ Ye that fear the Lord, praise him;*
all ye the seed of Jacob, glorify him; and fear him, all ye the seed of Israel.
²⁴ For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;*
neither hath he hid his face from him; but when he cried unto him, he heard.
²⁵ My praise shall be of thee in the great congregation:*
I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
²⁶ The meek shall eat and be satisfied: they shall praise the Lord that seek him:*
your heart shall live for ever.
²⁷ All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord:*
and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee.
²⁸ For the kingdom is the Lord’s:*
and he is the governor among the nations.
²⁹ All they that be fat upon earth shall eat and worship:*
all they that go down to the dust shall bow before him: and none can keep alive his own soul.
³⁰ A seed shall serve him;*
it shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation.
³¹ They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born,*
that he hath done this.

The Epistle:
Romans 4:13-25 KJV
¹³ For the promise, that he should be the heir of the world, was not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
¹⁴ For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:
¹⁵ Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.
¹⁶ Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,
¹⁷ (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.
¹⁸ Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.
¹⁹ And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah’s womb:
²⁰ He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God;
²¹ And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
²² And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.
²³ Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him;
²⁴ But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead;
²⁵ Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.

The Gospel:
Mark 8:31-38 KJV
³¹ And he began to teach them, that the Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and of the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
³² And he spake that saying openly. And Peter took him, and began to rebuke him.
³³ But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter, saying, Get thee behind me, Satan: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but the things that be of men.
³⁴ And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
³⁵ For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.
³⁶ For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
³⁷ Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
³⁸ Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.