Fourth Sunday after Epiphany Order of Worship | 1-28-24
St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
4th Sunday after Epiphany
01-28-2024 10:00AM Hybrid Worship
+ GATHERING +
THE GREETING, CONFESSION, AND FORGIVENESS:
L The grace of (+) Jesus Christ, the mercy of the Holy One, and the Spirit of the living God be with you all.
The psalmist says today that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Let us come before God, confessing our sin and our desire to be renewed.
Holy, merciful, and loving God…
C Our bodies are weak, our minds are confused, and our spirits are unclean.
Sometimes, when we think we are being so strong, we are struggling in our weakness.
Sometimes, when we think that we are being so independent, we are enslaved and imprisoned.
Sometimes, when we think we are being so holy, we are only proudly sinning.
Sometimes, when we think that we really don’t need you, we are most in need of you.
Lord, we have gathered because we cannot do it alone.
It’s time for a fight, Lord, inside our hearts and minds and lives.
It’s time for you to confront what is not right, battle what is wrong, and heal us for new living.
We pray for the peace, the power, and the promises of Jesus Christ to change us. Amen.
L Hear and receive the Good News! Disciples of Christ, you are (+) forgiven!
The sickness of your nature and the separation of your relationships has been changed forever.
The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus has turned wrong into right and altered your destination from death to life.
His healing touch, his loving presence, and his saving promise will embrace you all the way into eternity.
Hallelujah and Amen!
OPENING SONG: “NO, NOT ONE!” Tan #308
THE PRAYER OF THE DAY (together):
Father in heaven, you sent your Son Jesus to bring wholeness and to speak the truth to our world.
Let me open my heart and my life completely to his authority.
Deliver me from my fears and my sins, my sicknesses and my demons.
Help me to pass on your love and care in Jesus’ name.
Lord, keep me thirsty in my heart and busy in my witness. So be it, Amen!
+ THE HOLY WORD +
FIRST READING: Deuteronomy 18:15-20
[The promise of a new prophet like Moses to be God’s prophet.]
18:15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet.
18:16 This is what you requested of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: “If I hear the voice of the LORD my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.”
18:17 Then the LORD replied to me: “They are right in what they have said.
18:18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command.
18:19 Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable.
18:20 But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak–that prophet shall die.”
THE PSALM: Psalm 111 (a paraphrase of the Psalm from Psalms/Now, published in 1973):
L My heart is full today.
I am so grateful for all that God has done for me.
C I need but crawl out of my corner of depression and self-pity
and look around me to see how great my God is.
I cannot see God, but I can see the works of my God’s hands.
L My God is a merciful and loving God.
C How tenderly God deals with those whose hearts are open to God!
L My God is a righteous and faithful God.
C God’s promises and rules are forever!
L My God is a majestic and powerful God.
C God created me and sustains me day by day.
L My God is a forgiving God.
C God takes me back to his loving heart when I go astray.
L My God is in the world today.
C And those who recognize and accept God’s presence are building on foundations eternally secure.
How grateful I am to my God today!
SECOND READING: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13
[The call to place others’ needs above our own rights.]
8:1 Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.
8:2 Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge;
8:3 but anyone who loves God is known by him.
8:4 Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists,” and that “there is no God but one.”
8:5 Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth–as in fact there are many gods and many lords–
8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
8:7 It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.
8:8 “Food will not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.
8:9 But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.
8:10 For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols?
8:11 So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.
8:12 But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.
8:13 Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.
GOSPEL VERSE:
“Always remember Jesus, Jesus.
Always remember Jesus, Jesus.
Always keep Him on your mind.”
THE GOSPEL: Mark 1:21-28
[In the beginning of Jesus’ earthly ministry and cosmic battle.]
1:21 They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught.
1:22 They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
1:23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit,
1:24 and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.”
1:25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!”
1:26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.
1:27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching–with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”
1:28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.
SONG SELECTION: ALL SAINTS CHOIR
THE SERMON: Pastor Clesha Staten
SONG RESPONSE: “CAN’T NOBODY DO ME LIKE JESUS” Tan #384
THE PRAYERS… We pray that we may see, accept, and bear THE LIGHT OF CHRIST in our lives!
+ THE HOLY MEAL +
OFFERING [There is healing power in God’s love, and God’s love heals us and empowers us to offer that love to others. It is our time to give God our gratitude and our gifts… is our duty and our delight to help make broken people whole again.]
SONG SELECTION: ALL SAINTS CHOIR
THE OFFERTORY SONG: “THIS LITTLE LIGHT OF MINE”
- This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine… (3X)
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine!
- Ev’rywhere I go, I’m gonna let it shine… (3X)
- Jesus gave it to me, I’m gonna let it shine… (3X)
OFFERING PRAYER by the Communion Assistant:
O Lord our God, You have anointed us to bring good news and to proclaim liberty, to bind up the
brokenhearted and to liberate the oppressed. Help us to shine forth always and in all ways with the
bright glory of Jesus Christ. Amen.
THE PREFACE:
L The Lord be with you. C AND ALSO WITH YOU!
L Lift up your hearts! C WE LIFT THEM UP IN LOVE FOR GOD!
L Let us give thanks to the Lord our God! C IT IS RIGHT TO GIVE GOD THANKS AND PRAISE!
THE EUCHARISTIC WORDS by the Celebrant, who recalls and re-enacts Jesus’ Holy Meal.
THE LORD’S PRAYER (spoken)
COMMUNION AND BLESSINGS… All believers in Christ are welcome at the Lord’s Table! We will have “continuous distribution” with wafers and either wine or grape juice. CHRIST COMES TO US IN BREAD AND WINE AND BLESSING, BRINGING US PEACE, UNITY, STRENGTH, AND HOPE FOR LIVING FAITHFULLY AND LOVING FERVENTLY!
COMMUNION SONGS: Tan #137 Tan #500
THE COMMUNION BLESSING by the Celebrant after all have communed.
POST-COMMUNION PRAYER by the Communion Assistant.
+ SENDING +
BENEDICTION by the Pastor… God sends us TO SHINE with the Light of Jesus Christ in a shadowy world!
CLOSING SONG: “SATAN, WE’RE GOING TO TEAR YOUR KINGDOM DOWN” Tan #485