Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost 2025: Sept 14, 2025

This week, we celebrate the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost 2025. You’re warmly invited to join us at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church, 216 E Chandler Blvd, Burlington, WI. September 14, 2025, Morning Prayer at 9:00 AM

If you can’t be with us in person, join us through our Live Stream, Replay Video, or Podcast.

Theme: Mercy That Finds the Lost

Join Us Electronically

Live Stream / Replay

Join us live at 9:00 AM on September 14, 2025. The service will also be available for replay using the same link afterward.

Podcast

The service sermon, readings, and some hymns included will be available on our podcast shortly after the service, usually within 24 hours.

Find the St John the Divine Podcast on your favorite podcast player.

Collect of the Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost 2025

O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Readings for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost 2025 (Track 2)

Exodus 32:7–14

The LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely; they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’”
The LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.”
But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.’”
And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

Psalm 51:1–10

1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving-kindness; *
  in your great compassion blot out my offenses.
2 Wash me through and through from my wickedness *
  and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, *
  and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you only have I sinned *
  and done what is evil in your sight.
5 And so you are justified when you speak *
  and upright in your judgment.
6 Indeed, I have been wicked from my birth, *
  a sinner from my mother’s womb.
7 For behold, you look for truth deep within me, *
  and will make me understand wisdom secretly.
8 Purge me from my sin, and I shall be pure; *
  wash me, and I shall be clean indeed.
9 Make me hear of joy and gladness, *
  that the body you have broken may rejoice.
10 Hide your face from my sins *
  and blot out all my iniquities.

1 Timothy 1:12–17

I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason, I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life.
To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Luke 15:1–10

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

A Reflection On The Readings For The Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost 2025

These readings for the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost 2025 draw us into God’s mercy and joy:

• Exodus illustrates God’s willingness to relent from anger when interceded for.
• Psalm 51 expresses the deep longing of a repentant heart seeking renewal.
• 1 Timothy reminds us that no one is beyond God’s mercy.
• Luke reveals the joy in heaven that occurs when the lost are found.

God seeks us out, welcomes us with open arms, and rejoices in our presence.