Proper 13–Ordinary time Year a

• 1ST READING
• PSALM
• 2ND READING
• GOSPEL

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Nehemiah 9:16-21

16 “But they and our fathers acted presumptuously and stiffened their neck and did not obey your commandments. 17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.[a] But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. 18 Even when they had made for themselves a golden[b] calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, 19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. 20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them water for their thirst. 21 Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

Psalm 78:14-26

14 He divided the sea and let them go through;
     * he made the waters to stand in a heap.
15 In the daytime he led them with a cloud,
     * and all the night through with a light of fire. 
16 He split the hard rocks in the wilderness
     * and gave them drink in abundance, as out of the great deep.
17 He brought waters out of the stony rock,
     * so that it gushed out like the rivers.
18 Yet for all this they sinned more against him,
    * and provoked the Most High in the wilderness.
19 They tested God in their hearts
     * and demanded food for their craving.
20 They spoke against God, saying,
     * “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
21 Indeed, he smote the stony rock, so that water gushed out, and the streams overflowed;
     * but can he give bread also, or provide meat for his people?”
22 When the LORD heard this, he was full of wrath;
     * so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and there flared up fierce anger against Israel,
23 Because they did not believe in God,
     * and did not put their trust in his help.
24 So he commanded the clouds above
     * and opened the doors of heaven.
25 He rained down manna upon them to eat
     * and gave them food from heaven.
26 So mortals ate the bread of angels;
​     * for he sent them food enough. 

Romans 8:35-39

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Matthew 14:13-21

13 Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. 14 When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. 15 Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” 16 But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” 17 They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” 18 And he said, “Bring them here to me.” 19 Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. 20 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. 21 And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Sources: The Collect of the Day is taken from the Book of Common Prayer 2019. The Psalm verses are taken from the New Coverdale Psalter of the BCP 2019. Scripture quotations are taken from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.