Book of Common Prayer
Unity: modeled by the Messiah, encouraged by scripture
15 We, the “strong” ones, should bear with the frailty of the “weak,” and not please ourselves. 2 Each one of us should please our neighbor for his or her good, to build them up.
3 The Messiah, you see, did not please himself. Instead, as the Bible says, “the reproaches of those who reproached you are fallen on me.” 4 Whatever was written ahead of time, you see, was written for us to learn from, so that through patience, and through the encouragement of the Bible, we might have hope. 5 May the God of patience and encouragement grant you to come to a common mind among yourselves, in accordance with the Messiah, Jesus, 6 so that, with one mind and one mouth, you may glorify the God and father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah.
United praise under the Messiah’s universal rule
7 Welcome one another, therefore, as the Messiah has welcomed you, to God’s glory. 8 Let me tell you why: the Messiah became a servant of the circumcised people in order to demonstrate the truthfulness of God—that is, to confirm the promises to the patriarchs, 9 and to bring the nations to praise God for his mercy. As the Bible says:
That is why I will praise you among the nations,
and will sing to your name.
10 And again it says,
Rejoice, you nations, with his people.
11 And again,
Praise the Lord, all nations,
and let all the peoples sing his praise.
12 And Isaiah says once more:
There shall be the root of Jesse,
the one who rises up to rule the nations;
the nations shall hope in him.
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit.
The Twelve sent out and the feeding of the five thousand
9 Jesus called together the Twelve, and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. 2 He sent them out to announce God’s kingdom and cure the sick.
3 “Don’t take anything for the journey,” he said to them, “no stick, no bag, no bread, no money, no second cloak. 4 Whenever you go into a house, stay there and leave from there. 5 If anyone won’t receive you, go out of that town and wipe the dust off your feet as evidence against them.”
6 So off they went, and traveled through the villages, announcing the good news and healing people everywhere.
7 Herod the Tetrarch heard what was going on, and was very puzzled. Some people were saying that John had been raised from the dead. 8 Others were saying that Elijah had appeared; still others, that one of the old prophets had arisen.
9 “I beheaded John,” said Herod, “but I keep hearing all these things about this other fellow. Who is he?” And he tried to get to see him.
10 The apostles returned and told Jesus what they had done. He took them off and went away privately to a town called Bethsaida. 11 When the crowds discovered, they followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and he healed those who needed it.
12 As the day wore on, the Twelve came to Jesus.
“Send the crowd away,” they said, “so that they can go into the villages and countryside nearby, find somewhere to stay, and get something to eat. We’re in quite a lonely spot here.”
13 “You give them something to eat,” he replied.
“All we’ve got here,” they said, “is five loaves and a couple of fishes—unless you mean we should go ourselves and buy food for all these people?” 14 (There were about five thousand men.)
“Get them to sit down,” Jesus said to them, “in groups of around fifty each.”
15 They did so, and everyone sat down. 16 Then Jesus took the five loaves and the two fish. He looked up to heaven, blessed the food, divided it, and gave it to the disciples to pass around the crowd. 17 Everyone ate, and was satisfied. They took up twelve baskets of broken bits left over.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.