Pentecost Nineteen Worship Service | 10-08-03

October 8, 2023 Pentecost, Worship Service

St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

PENTECOST 19

10-08-2023 10:00AM “Hybrid” Worship

+ We Rejoice in the Spirit +

THE OPENING RITE: Carol Chatman

L God cared enough about the world to send his Son. But the people cared more about themselves and, in their

selfishness, they murdered the Son. Let us confess our personal and our shared participation in the sin, the failure,

and the guilt of our broken lives and rebellious world.

C Dear God, you have planted us like a vineyard on a fertile hill, provided good seed for us, and protected us.

But we have yielded sour and wild grapes.

You have entrusted life, time and abilities, and unlimited possibilities and blessings to us.

But we have been unfaithful tenants, full of rebellion, violence, and injustice.

Is there any hope for us for the future? We bow our heads and humble our hearts in humility.

L The answer, my friends, will not be in blindly ignoring your situation and continuing your pursuit of the ”small g” gods of

this fading treasures and fleeting pleasures. Your salvation, my friends, will not depend on anything good you have done

or try to do. You are totally dependent on God’s grace. If you are sincere in your confession, then forget the sin that lies

behind and strain forward to what lies ahead, regarding everything else as nothing compared to the surpassing value of

knowing Jesus Christ as Lord. Amen.

OPENING SONG: “GATHER US IN”

Here in this place, new light is streaming, now is the darkness vanished away;

See in this space our fears and our dreamings, brought here to you in the light of the day.

Gather us in, the lost and forsaken… gather us in, the blind and the lame.

Call us to now, and we shall awaken, we shall arise at the sound of our name.

We are the young, our lives are a mystery, we are the old, who yearn for your face.

We have been sung throughout all of history, called to be light to the whole human race.

Gather us in, the rich and the haughty… gather us in, the proud and the strong.

Give us a heart so meek and so lowly, give us the courage to enter the song.

Here we will take the wine and the water, here we will take the bread of new birth.

Here you shall call your sons and your daughters, call us anew to be salt of the earth.

Give us to drink the wine of compassion… give us to eat the bread that is you.

Nourish us well, and teach us to fashion lives that are holy and hearts that are true.

(4) Not in the dark of buildings confining, not in some heaven, light years away –

here in this place the new light is shining, now is the kingdom, now is the day.

Gather us in, and hold us forever… gather us in, and make us your own.

Gather us in, all peoples together, fire of love in our flesh and our bone.

PRAYER OF THE DAY (together):

Holy God, without Christ all that we have is nothing… and with Christ all that we have is everything.

Forgive us, renew us, and restore us, so that we may be the people of your vineyard and bear good fruit,

pressing forward, looking upward, living faithfully and loving fervently. Amen.

+ We Rejoice in God’s Saving Word +

FIRST READING: ISAIAH 5:1-7 Armia Dennis

[The prophet’s sad song about Israel, God’s vineyard, gone sour and wild.]

5:1 Let me sing for my beloved my love-song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

5:2 He dug it and cleared it of stones, and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.

5:3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard.

5:4 What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?

5:5 And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.

5:6 I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

5:7 For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting; he expected justice, but saw bloodshed; righteousness, but heard a cry!

SONG SELECTION ALL SAINTS CHOIR

SECOND READING: PHILIPPIANS 3:4b-14 Pastor Gwen

[The rubbish of Paul’s merits and achievements next to the worth of Christ.]

3:4b If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more:

3:5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee;

3:6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

3:7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ.

3:8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith.

3:10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death,

3:11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

3:12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

3:13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

3:14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

WOMEN’S DAY TEMPLE TALK: Our theme will be “Breaking the Chains of Silence!” Kennedy

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!”

HOLY GOSPEL: MATTHEW 21:33-46 Doris Fortune

[Jesus’ sad song about those who would reject God’s cornerstone and murder God’s Son.]

21:33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country.

21:34 When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce.

21:35 But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another.

21:36 Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way.

21:37 Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’

21:38 But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’

21:39 So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him.

21:40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”

21:41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”

21:42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’?

21:43 Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom.

21:44 The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”

21:45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them.

21:46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

THE SERMON: Pastor Gwen or Pastor Neil

SONG RESPONSE: “I KNOW IT WAS THE BLOOD” Brown #75

THE PRAYERS… We pray for NEW LIFE in the Spirit and for the MISSION of the Church to the world! Pastor Bob Holum ?

+ We Rejoice in God’s Nourishing Meal +

THE OFFERING… May the Spirit of God within us guide us to grateful, generous, and fruitful discipleship!

SONG SELECTION: ALL SAINTS CHOIR

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) led by the Communion Assistant. Maliek Patterson

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.

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 We are the Body of Christ! C His Spirit is in us! Alleluia!

L [continues the Preface]… we praise your name and join their unending hymn:

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 #272 Brown #192

THE COMMUNION BLESSING by the Celebrant after all have communed.

POST-COMMUNION PRAYER by the Communion Assistant. Tanya Morris

+ We Rejoice in Our Mission +

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

CLOSING SONG: “WE ARE MARCHING IN THE LIGHT OF GOD” Brown #63