Fourteenth Sunday After Pentecost

St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

PENTECOST 14   –    Coronavirus

08-29-2021      10:00AM Zoom Worship

OPENING SONG:    “WE’RE MARCHING TO ZION”     Veronica Britto                              Brown #135

THE OPENING RITE:           Diane Hillsman + Tyler

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   It is not dirty hands that make a person evil…

C    but dirty hearts and minds.   

L   It is not “sweet talk” with our lips that honors God…

C    but sincere acts of obedient love. 

L   It is not God who shuts us out of the Kingdom…

C    but human pride that shuts God out of our lives.   

L   Brothers and sisters, we have come here together not because of our own goodness, but out of our awareness of our need. Let us humble ourselves in confession.

C          O merciful God…
We come here to admit that we have honored you with our lips while our hearts are far away. It is inside our own hearts that we have discovered the wellspring of the evil that we do and the neglect of the good that we ought to do.
Please forgive our tired old ways of sin and our pretending that we are righteous.
We pray for your mercy and for a new faith beginning through Jesus Christ.  Amen.

L   My friends, God loves you too much to let you go! All those who yield to God’s control will discover peace that endures, freedom to live, and wonder-working power. In the name of (+) Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven. Now place yourself under new management and become genuine doers of the word, not just hearers, not just talkers.  Amen.      

THE PRAYER OF THE DAY:    Diane Hillsman

Let us pray.
O God, you sent Jesus to give us life that is new,
 to give us life that is abundant,
 and to give us life that is eternal.
Be our strength and give us sincere hearts, that we may
 serve you with joy,
 obey you with love,
 and become doers of the word and not just hearers.  Amen. 

FIRST READING:   DEUTERONOMY 4:1-2, 6-9    [Faith that celebrates God’s love and obeys God’s law.]                                                   Ben Shipanga

4:1 So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.

4:2 You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the LORD your God with which I am charging you.

4:6 You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!”

4:7 For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him?

4:8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?

4:9 But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children–

SECOND READING:   JAMES 1:17-27    [Faith that is more than kind thoughts and pleasant words.] Roland Thompson

1:17 Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

1:18 In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

1:19 You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger;

1:20 for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.

1:21 Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

1:22 But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.

1:23 For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror;

1:24 for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like.

1:25 But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act–they will be blessed in their doing.

1:26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.

1:27 Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

GOSPEL VERSE:    Ben Shipanga
Your grace and mercy brought me through,
I’m living this moment because of You;
I want to thank You, and praise You too:
Your grace and mercy brought me through.”      [repeat]

THE HOLY GOSPEL:   MARK 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23   [Faith that is authentic, not phony!]    Margie Wright                  

7:1 Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him,

7:2 they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.

7:3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders;

7:4 and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.)

7:5 So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”

7:6 He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;

7:7 in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’

7:8 You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

7:14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand:

7:15 there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

7:21 For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder,

7:22 adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly.

7:23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

SERMON:    The Rev. Clesha Staten, St. Peter’s member (Today is her 6th anniversary of ordination!)

SONG SELECTION:    “CREATE IN ME”    Madison + Kaela 

OFFERING… Sometimes, after all has been said and done, more has been said and much less has been done.  WITH ALL THAT WE ARE AND HAVE AND SEEK TO BECOME, LET US BE STRONG, OBEDIENT, BOLD, AND LOVING!

OFFERING SONG: Charlotte Webb
“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine!
Heir of salvation, purchase of God, born of his Spirit, washed in his blood.

THIS IS MY STORY, THIS IS MY SONG,    
PRAISING MY SAVIOR ALL THE DAY LONG!   [sing the chorus 2 times]

We are God’s people, we are Christ’s Church, called by God’s Spirit into the world.
 We have God’s power from heaven above, we’ll share God’s justice, mercy and love!” 

OFFERING PRAYER:        Jerona Jackson Rice                 

     Lord God, thank you for making a way out of no way in my life!
     During this summer may I dedicate my leisure and my work, my rest and travel, my service and spending, my health and my wealth, my worship and my witness to glorify You and to extend your Kingdom to others. Someone somewhere is in need of your Good News.  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!    Earlene Jackson 

THE LORD’S PRAYER

SONG SELECTION         Paul Samuel        

THE BENEDICTION… We are sent forth to be and become the BODY OF CHRIST for the world!       Pastor Clesha Staten