Readings

Trinity 3. 21.06.2026.
Collect.
Contemporary

Almighty God, you have broken the tyranny of sin

and have sent the Spirit of your Son into our hearts whereby we call you Father:

give us grace to dedicate our freedom to your service,

that we and all creation may be brought to the glorious liberty of the children of God;

through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you

and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Genesis 21. 8-21

The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. So she said to Abraham, ‘Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.’ The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. But God said to Abraham, ‘Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named after you. As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.’ So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, ‘Do not let me look on the death of the child.’ And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, ‘What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.’ Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow. He lived in the wilderness of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

Psalm 86. 1-10, [16, 17]

Pointed Psalm

1-10

Incline your ear, O / Lord, and / answer me :

for / I am / poor • and in / misery.

Preserve my soul, for / I am / faithful :

save your servant, for I / put my / trust in / you.

Be merciful to me, O Lord, for / you are my / God :

I call up/on you / all the day / long.

Gladden the / soul of your / servant :

for to you, O / Lord, I / lift up my / soul.

For you, Lord, are / good and for/giving :

abounding in steadfast love to / all who / call up/on you.

Give ear, O Lord, / to my / prayer :

and listen to the / voice of my / suppli/cation.

In the day of my distress I will / call up/on you :

for / you will / answer / me.

Among the gods there is none like / you, O / Lord :

nor / any / works like / yours.

All nations you have made

shall come and worship / you, O / Lord :

and shall / glori/fy your / name.

For you are great and do / wonderful / things :

you a/lone / are / God.

[16-17]

Turn to me and have / mercy up/on me :

give your strength to your servant

and / save the / child of your / handmaid.

Show me a token of your favour,

that those who hate me may see it and / be a/shamed :

because you, O / Lord, have / helped and / comforted me.

Romans 6. 1b-11

Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 10. 24-39

‘A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!

‘So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground unperceived by your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

‘Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven; but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

‘Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

Related

Jeremiah 20. 7-13

O Lord, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughing-stock all day long; everyone mocks me. For whenever I speak, I must cry out, I must shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’ For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long. If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name’, then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot. For I hear many whispering: ‘Terror is all around! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’ All my close friends are watching for me to stumble. ‘Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him, and take our revenge on him.’ But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonour will never be forgotten. O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous, you see the heart and the mind; let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.

Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers.

Psalm 69. 7-10, [11-15,] 16-18 or 69. 13-18

Pointed Psalm

Psalm 69. 7-10, [11-15,] 16-18

7-10

For your sake have I suffered reproach;

shame has / covered my / face :

I have become a stranger to my kindred,

an alien / to my / mother’s / children.

Zeal for your house has / eaten me / up :

the scorn of those who scorn / you has / fallen up/on me.

I humbled my/self with / fasting :

but that was / turned to / my re/proach.

[11-15] I put on / sackcloth / also :

and be/came a / byword a/mong them.

Those who sit at the gate / murmur a/gainst me :

and the / drunkards make / songs a/bout me.

But as for me, I make my prayer to / you, O / Lord :

at an ac/ceptable / time, O / God.

Answer me, O God, in the abundance / of your / mercy :

and / with your / sure sal/vation.

Draw me out of the mire, / that I / sink not :

let me be rescued from those who hate me

and / out of the / deep / waters.

Let not the water flood drown me,

neither the deep / swallow me / up :

let not the Pit / shut its / mouth up/on me.

16-18

Answer me, Lord, for your loving/kindness is / good :

turn to me in the / multitude / of your / mercies.

Hide not your face / from your / servant :

be swift to answer me, / for I / am in / trouble.

Draw near to my soul / and re/deem me :

de/liver me be/cause of my / enemies.

Psalm 69. 13-18