Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost Worship Order of Bulletin
St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
PENTECOST 15 – Coronavirus
Labor Day Sunday
09-05-2021 10:00AM Zoom Worship
OPENING SONG:
THE OPENING RITE:
L The steadfast love of God, the life of (+) Jesus Christ, and the growth of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
C And also with you.
L If we seek the Lord, we will find him.
If we gather in his name, he will be present.
If we open our hearts and minds, he will transform us.
C Now is the time to celebrate God’s love!
Now is the time to grow in God’s grace!
L Let us thank God for being together, for seeing and hearing and touching each other – even from a distance!
Let us open our eyes and our ears to the sights and sounds and the spirit of worship – in every home and setting!
Let us loosen our lips and unfold our hands to tell and to show our faith – and not just in the safety of our sanctuary.
C Now is the time to share in the Word of life!
Now is the time to offer Good News to others!
L Sisters and brothers, God comes near to touch and to heal, to save and embrace, to challenge and transform.
Through the love of God in Christ, let ears be opened and tongues released…
let hearts be opened and lives transformed…
let minds be opened and “outsiders” embraced…
and let the people of God SEE Jesus, HEAR Jesus, SPEAK Jesus, LIVE Jesus, and DO Jesus!
C Now is the time of life and love!
Now is the time of Jesus Christ!
THE PRAYER OF THE DAY:
Let us pray. O God, throughout the ages you transform sickness into health, death into life, and want into blessing. Of all people, we know better than to show favoritism only to the popular and the privileged. Of all people, we should have compassion, offer mercy, and overflow with love toward those in need. If Jesus can learn this and do it, then let us also learn this and do it. Amen.
FIRST READING: ISAIAH 35:4-7a [Real hope hovers above distress and despair.]
35:4 Say to those who are of a fearful heart, “Be strong, do not fear! Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.”
35:5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
35:6 then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;
35:7a the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water
SECOND READING: JAMES 2:1-17 [True love breaks down petty partiality.]
2:1 My brothers and sisters, do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?
2:2 For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in,
2:3 and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,”
2:4 have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?
2:5 Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?
2:6 But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you? Is it not they who drag you into court?
2:7 Is it not they who blaspheme the excellent name that was invoked over you?
2:8 You do well if you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
2:9 But if you show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.
2:10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.
2:11 For the one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery but if you murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
2:12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty.
2:13 For judgment will be without mercy to anyone who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment.
2:14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works? Can faith save you?
2:15 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food,
2:16 and 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?
2:17 So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.
GOSPEL VERSE:
“There is strength in the name of the Lord…
There is power in the name of the Lord…
There is hope in the name of the Lord…
Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”
THE HOLY GOSPEL: MARK 7:24-37 [Open hearts pulse love through open hands.]
7:24 From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice,
7:25 but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet.
7:26 Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter.
7:27 He said to her, “Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
7:28 But she answered him, “Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
7:29 Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may go–the demon has left your daughter.”
7:30 So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.
7:31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis.
7:32 They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him.
7:33 He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue.
7:34 Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, “Ephphatha,” that is, “Be opened.”
7:35 And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.
7:36 Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.
7:37 They were astounded beyond measure, saying, “He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.”
SERMON: Pastor Gwen or Pastor Neil
SONG SELECTION: “OPEN OUR EYES, LORD” ( Brown #98 )
- Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus,
to reach out and touch Him and say that we love Him.
Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen.
Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus.
- Open our lips, Lord, we want to serve Jesus,
to reach out to others, invite them to love Him.
Open our hands, Lord, and guide us in mission.
Open our hearts, Lord, we want to serve Jesus.
OFFERING… As long as there are sisters and brothers near and far who are in great need of basic living, we know we have a task to do. As long as some have not heard the good news of God’s love, we are called to share it. Because God has blessed us in Jesus Christ, let us reach out with generous hearts and willing hands..
THE OFFERTORY SONG:
“More about Jesus would I know, more of his grace to others show,
More of his saving fullness see, more of his love who died for me.
MORE, MORE ABOUT JESUS… MORE, MORE ABOUT JESUS…
MORE OF HIS SAVING FULLNESS SEE, MORE OF HIS LOVE WHO DIED FOR ME.
More about Jesus let me learn, more of his holy will discern;
Spirit of God, my Teacher be, showing the things of Christ to me.”
OFFERING PRAYER (see Philippians 3:10-11):
Dear God, I want to know Christ inside and out. I want to experience the power of his resurrection and join him in his suffering. I want to be like him in his death and be raised like him from death. As I grow in the grace of Christ, make me strong in my faith, bold in my witness, and fervent in my servant-love. There is no better life than life in Christ! Amen.
MUSIC SELECTION: Dennis Fortune
THE PRAYERS… We pray for NEW LIFE in the Spirit and for the MISSION of the Church to the world!
THE LORD’S PRAYER
SONG SELECTION:
THE BENEDICTION… We are sent forth to be and become the BODY OF CHRIST for the world!.