Fourth Sunday of Pentecost Worship Bulletin | 6-25-23
St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
PENTECOST 4 / Scholarship Recognition
06-25-2023 10:00AM “Hybrid” Worship
+ We Rejoice in the Spirit +
OPENING RITE:
L Loving God, You see me and You know me.
You know my failures and my foolishness,
my sins and my selfishness,
my detours and my despair,
the times I have chosen to do wrong,
the times I have neglected to do right,
the times I have given up on You and given up on myself.
C Sometimes I find myself up against the wall,
at the bottom of the barrel,
at the end of my rope,
with no place to go but up,
and wondering if it is too late in my life.
L Loving God, You reach out to change each of us through the death and resurrection of your Son, Jesus Christ. Saint Paul writes that the “old me” has died and been buried with Christ by his crucifixion, and the “new me” is raised up through Christ, by his Easter victory.
C Lord, make us, then, NEW people,
focused upon NEW goals,
moved by NEW ambitions,
committed to NEW objectives,
unafraid,
willing,
and trusting Jesus with my life. Amen.
OPENING SONG: “LEAD ME, GUIDE ME” Brown #70
THE PRAYER OF THE DAY (together):
Almighty God, here we are, flesh and blood, spirit and life – created, redeemed, and empowered by Your love!
Teach us to serve You and not to count the cost, to stand for justice and not be so afraid, and to lose our lives
for the sake of others.
We pray to take risks for Christ’s sake, knowing that it is the only way that we will find life. Amen.
+ We Rejoice in God’s Saving Word +
FIRST READING: JEREMIAH 20:7-13
[Jeremiah has a vocational crisis at the mid-point of his ministry. He feels caught in the middle, squeezed between a God who has insisted that he preach difficult words of warning and a people who refuse to believe him. He blames God for this mess. But he also looks to God for the solution.]
20:7 O LORD, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me.
20:8 For whenever I speak, I must cry out, I must shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.
20:9 If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
20:10 For I hear many whispering: “Terror is all around! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” All my close friends are watching for me to stumble. “Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him, and take our revenge on him.”
20:11 But the LORD is with me like a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
20:12 O LORD of hosts, you test the righteous, you see the heart and the mind; let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.
20:13 Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers
SECOND READING: ROMANS 6:1b-11
[Paul believes that baptism is a journey or a process that occurs over an entire life. The movement is from the “old life” of sin to a “new life” in Christ. In baptism we are buried with Christ, and raised with Christ. No longer does and should sin have power over us… our ways, our values, and our objectives are changed.]
6:1b Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?
6:2 By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?
6:3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
6:4 Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
6:5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6:6 We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.
6:7 For whoever has died is freed from sin.
6:8 But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
6:9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
6:10 The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
6:11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
GOSPEL VERSE:
“There’s a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place, and I know that it’s the Spirit of the Lord. There are sweet expressions on each face, and I know they feel the presence of the Lord.
SWEET HOLY SPIRIT, SWEET HEAVENLY DOVE, STAY RIGHT HERE WITH US, FILLING US WITH YOU LOVE.
AND FOR THESE BLESSINGS WE LIFT OUR HEARTS IN PRAISE. WITHOUT A DOUBT WE’LL KNOW THAT
WE HAVE BEEN REVIVED WHEN WE SHALL LEAVE THIS PLACE!”
HOLY GOSPEL: MATTHEW 10:24-39
[Jesus warns his disciples, then and now, that their ministry in his name will surely meet with opposition and threats. The cost of discipleship looks like a splintery cross. They and we are not to let fear bring despair and failure. Trust in God through it all. Stay committed and on course as his disciples.]
10:24 “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master;
10:25 it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
10:26 “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.
10:27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.
10:28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
10:29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
10:30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted.
10:31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
10:32 “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven;
10:33 but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
10:34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
10:35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
10:36 and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
10:37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
10:38 and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
10:39 Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
SONG SELECTION: ALL SAINTS CHOIR
THE SERMON: Micah Gillum, school teacher and a member of St. Peter’s
SCHOLARSHIP RECOGNITION… We celebrate those who are graduating from various levels of schooling!
THE PRAYERS… We pray for NEW LIFE in the Spirit and for the MISSION of the Church to the world!
+ We Rejoice in God’s Nourishing Meal +
THE OFFERING… We are each called, we are all called, to be “laborers in his harvest”. Be courageous and compassionate!
SONG SELECTION: ALL SAINTS CHOIR
THE OFFERTORY SONG:
“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 led by the Communion Assistant:
O Lord our God, if your Spirit is alive within us, then stretch our time and abilities, our money and our mouths, all that we are and all that we have, to testify to your amazing grace in Jesus Christ. Someone somewhere is in need of your Good News. 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 our thanks and praise.
L Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful… C … and set us on fire with your love! Alleluia!
L [continues the Preface]… we praise your name and join their unending hymn: Gracious God,
C [singing…] “Holy, holy, holy, holy,
holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!
and we lift our hearts before you as a token of our love,
holy, holy, holy, holy.
Precious Jesus, precious Jesus,
We’re so glad that you redeemed us, precious Jesus…
Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit,
come and fill our hearts anew, O Holy Spirit…”
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 Jesus Christ are welcome at the Lord’s Table! The wine may be received from the pouring chalice; we also have grape juice on the tray. You can receive God’s peace, power, and promises for true life!
COMMUNION SONGS: Brown #234 Brown #73
THE COMMUNION BLESSING by the Celebrant after all have communed.
POST-COMMUNION PRAYER by the Communion Assistant.
+ We Rejoice in Our Mission +
THE BENEDICTION by the Pastor
CLOSING SONG: “I WANT JESUS TO WALK WITH ME” Brown #66