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Welcome! We're glad you're planning on observing
a liturgical season of creation. We have prepared some materials
for you to use in worship, teaching, and personal reflection for
this Sunday.
The list of Creation Season Readings below is
designed to offer alternative readings concerning food, for use
on any Sunday of this celebration of creation.
Old Testament (Hebrew Scripture)
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Isaiah 40:10-11:
10See, the Lord
God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11He will feed his
flock like a shepherd;
he will gather the lambs in his arms,
and carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead the mother sheep.
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Ezekiel 34:11-16; 34:23-31:
11 For thus says
the Lord God: I myself will search for my sheep, and will
seek them out. 12As
shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their
scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue
them from all the places to which they have been scattered
on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13I
will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from
the countries, and will bring them into their own land;
and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the
watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land.
14I will feed
them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel
shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good
grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the
mountains of Israel. 15I
myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make
them lie down, says the Lord God. 16I
will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed,
and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen
the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I
will feed them with justice.
...
23 I will set up
over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall
feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.
24And I, the Lord,
will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince
among them; I, the Lord, have spoken.
25 I will make with
them a covenant of peace and banish wild animals from
the land, so that they may live in the wild and sleep
in the woods securely. 26I
will make them and the region around my hill a blessing;
and I will send down the showers in their season; they
shall be showers of blessing. 27The
trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth
shall yield its increase. They shall be secure on their
soil; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I break
the bars of their yoke, and save them from the hands of
those who enslaved them. 28They
shall no more be plunder for the nations, nor shall the
animals of the land devour them; they shall live in safety,
and no one shall make them afraid. 29I
will provide for them splendid vegetation, so that they
shall no more be consumed with hunger in the land, and
no longer suffer the insults of the nations. 30They
shall know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and
that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the
Lord God. 31You
are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God,
says the Lord God.
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Isaiah 33:13-16
13Hear, you who
are far away, what I have done;
and you who are near, acknowledge my might.
14The sinners in
Zion are afraid;
trembling has seized the godless:
‘Who among us can live with the devouring fire?
Who among us can live with everlasting flames?’
15Those who walk
righteously and speak uprightly,
who despise the gain of oppression,
who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it,
who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed
and shut their eyes from looking on evil,
16they will live
on the heights;
their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks;
their food will be supplied, their water assured.
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Psalm 104:10-15
10 You
send the springs into the valleys;
they flow between the mountains.
11 All
the beasts of the field drink their fill from them,
and the wild asses quench their thirst.
12 Beside
them the birds of the air make their nests
and sing among the branches
13 You
water the mountains from your dwelling on high;
the earth is fully satisfied by the fruit of your works.
14 You
make grass grow for flocks and herds
and plants to serve mankind;
15 That
they may bring forth food from the earth,
and wine to gladden our hearts
From the Book of Common
Prayer, pages 104-105
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New Testament
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Matthew 25:31-40
31 ‘When
the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels
with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
32All the nations
will be gathered before him, and he will separate people
one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from
the goats, 33and
he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats
at the left. 34Then
the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come,
you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
35for I was hungry
and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me
something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed
me, 36I was
naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took
care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
37Then the righteous
will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw
you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you
something to drink? 38And
when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed
you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39And
when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited
you?” 40And
the king will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just
as you did it to one of the least of these who are members
of my family, you did it to me.”
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John 21:15-19:
15 When they had
finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, ‘Simon
son of John, do you love me more than these?’ He
said to him, ‘Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.’
Jesus said to him, ‘Feed my lambs.’ 16A
second time he said to him, ‘Simon son of John,
do you love me?’ He said to him, ‘Yes, Lord;
you know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Tend
my sheep.’ 17He
said to him the third time, ‘Simon son of John,
do you love me?’ Peter felt hurt because he said
to him the third time, ‘Do you love me?’ And
he said to him, ‘Lord, you know everything; you
know that I love you.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Feed
my sheep. 18Very
truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to
fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished.
But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands,
and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take
you where you do not wish to go.’ 19(He
said this to indicate the kind of death by which he
would glorify God.) After this he said to him, ‘Follow
me.’
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James 2:14-17:
14 What good is
it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith
but do not have works? Can faith save you? 15If
a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,
16and one of you
says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and eat your
fill’, and yet you do not supply their bodily needs,
what is the good of that? 17So
faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
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Additional Resources are found here.
Back
to Creation Season 2008 Main Page
Note: The List of additional resources
was prepared by John G. Gibbs, PhD. All readings are from
the NRSV translation except where noted.
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