Sunday 26 July 2026 – The Eight Sunday after Trinity / Sea Sunday

Collect
Almighty God,
who sent your Holy Spirit
to be the life and light of your Church:
open our hearts to the riches of your grace,
that we may bring forth the fruit of the Spirit
in love and joy and peace;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen

Collect for Sea Sunday
Almighty God, who has created the earth and the deep,
and whose only begotten Son
walked on the waters and calmed the raging storms:
send your Holy Spirit and anoint all seafarers
with the most excellent gift of your grace;
that they may have strength of body and soul
amidst the raging of the waves;
grant this for the sake of your Son,
Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

1 Kings 3 5-12
At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night;
and God said, “Ask what I should give you.”
And Solomon said,
“You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant my father David, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you; and you have kept for him this great and steadfast love, and have given him a son to sit on his throne today.
And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David,
although I am only a little child; I do not know how to go out or come in.
And your servant is in the midst of the people whom you have chosen,
a great people, so numerous they cannot be numbered or counted.
Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people,
able to discern between good and evil; for who can govern this your great people?”
It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this.
God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches,
or for the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right,
I now do according to your word. Indeed I give you a wise and discerning mind;
no one like you has been before you and no one like you shall arise after you.

Romans 8. 26 – 39
The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.
And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit,
because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
We know that all things work together for good for those who love God,
who are called according to his purpose.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son,
in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family.
And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified;
and those whom he justified he also glorified.

What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us,
will he not with him also give us everything else?
Who will bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
Who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God,
who indeed intercedes for us.
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep to be slaughtered.”
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor powers, 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 13. 31-33, 44-52
Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took
and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs
and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took
and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.”

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes
and sells all that he has and buys that field. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls;
on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind;
when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad.
So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous
and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
“Have you understood all this?” They answered, “Yes.”
And he said to them, “Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like
the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.”

They replied, “We have nothing here but five loaves and two fish.”
And he said, “Bring them here to me.”
Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish,
he looked up to heaven, and blessed and broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples,
and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
And all ate and were filled; and they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve baskets full.
And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.