Service in Aurelia: 9th Sunday after Pentecost

"'Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matthew 7A warm welcome to worship with us in Aurelia.After the service, you are warmly welcome to stay with us for coffee and tea.Liturgy: Tuomas VauraSermon: David MawbyMusic: Matleena Närvänen***First Reading: Amos 8: 4–8Hear this, you that trample on the needy, and bring to ruin the poor of the land,saying, ‘When will the new moon be over so that we may sell grain;and the sabbath, so that we may offer wheat for sale?We will make the ephah small and the shekel great, and practise deceit with false balances,buying the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, and selling the sweepings of the wheat.’The Lord has sworn by the pride of Jacob:Surely I will never forget any of their deeds.Shall not the land tremble on this account, and everyone mourn who lives in it,and all of it rise like the Nile, and be tossed about and sink again, like the Nile of Egypt?Second Reading: 2 Corinthians 8: 1–9We want you to know, brothers and sisters, about the grace of God that has been granted to the churches of Macedonia; for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means, begging us earnestly for the privilege f sharing in this ministry to the saints—and this, not merely as we expected; they gave themselves first to the Lord and, by the will of God, to us, so that we might urge Titus that, as he had already made a beginning, so he should also complete this generous undertaking among you. Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking. I do not say this as a command, but I am testing the genuineness of your love against the earnestness of others. For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. Gospel: Luke 12: 13–21Someone in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.’ But he said to him, ‘Friend, who set me to be a judge or arbitrator over you?’ And he said to them, ‘Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ Then he told them a parable: ‘The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, “What should I do, for I have no place to store my crops?” Then he said, “I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’