Pentecost Sixteen Worship Service | 9-17-23
St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
PENTECOST 16
09-17-2023 10:00AM “Hybrid” Worship
+ We Rejoice in the Spirit +
THE OPENING RITE (based on PSALM 103):
L People of God, bless the Lord, bless God’s holy name!
With every fiber of your being, rejoice and praise God!
How can we ever forget God’s many blessings?
C God forgives me my sins and touches my afflictions with healing!
God snatches me back from the jaws of hell and delivers me from the door of death!
God embraces me with concern and surrounds me with love!
God answers my needs and gives meaning to my life!
How can I ever forget God’s many blessings?
L Rejoice with me, all you who seek and serve God!
Whoever and wherever you are, lift your hearts in praise to God!
This is no time for despair and discouragement.
Let us all remember and rejoice!
C Our God is full of compassion and overflowing with mercy!
Our God is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love!
God’s love reaches high, deep, far, wide, here, there, now, and forever!
How can I ever forget God’s many blessings?
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and let all that is with me bless God’s holy name! Hallelujah!
OPENING SONG: “OH, WHAT HE’S DONE FOR ME” Tan #154
PRAYER OF THE DAY (together):
O Lord, what do we owe for love so divine, for mercy we have not earned, for forgiveness we do not deserve? Help us to extend the patience and the pardon that you have given us to the world that we live in.
Teach us to forgive and forgive and, then, to forgive again.
Give me the words and courage to say sincerely to others, “You are forgiven”.
And help me to ask for forgiveness from you and from those I have wronged. Amen.
+ We Rejoice in God’s Saving Word +
FIRST READING: GENESIS 50:15-21
[Unexpected forgiveness instead of bitterness and revenge. Joseph will offer God’s mercy… will his brothers receive it? Will you offer it? Receive it?]
50:15 Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers said, “What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?”
50:16 So they approached Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this instruction before he died,
50:17 ‘Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.’ Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
50:18 Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, “We are here as your slaves.”
50:19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God?
50:20 Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.
50:21 So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones.” In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.
SONG SELECTION ALL SAINTS CHOIR
SECOND READING: ROMANS 14:1-12
[In the Christian community we are called to stop fussing with, judging, and condemning one another. With the gifts of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit – and the awareness that each and all of us are judged by God – the Church can abide a lot of disagreement over many other things. IF we are humble and obedient!]
14:1 Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions.
14:2 Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables.
14:3 Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them.
14:4 Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
14:5 Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds.
14:6 Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.
14:7 We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.
14:8 If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.
14:9 For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
14:10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
14:11 For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.”
14:12 So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
WOMEN’S DAY TEMPLE TALK: Our theme will be “Breaking the Chains of Silence!”
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 18:21-35
[How can a person who is forgiven the equivalent of 150,000 years of wages, in turn, be unwilling to forgive a debt of 100 days of wages? And are we really listening to ourselves when we pray, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”?]
18:21 Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?”
18:22 Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.
18:23 “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves.
18:24 When he began the reckoning, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him;
18:25 and, as he could not pay, his lord ordered him to be sold, together with his wife and children and all his possessions, and payment to be made.
18:26 So the slave fell on his knees before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’
18:27 And out of pity for him, the lord of that slave released him and forgave him the debt.
18:28 But that same slave, as he went out, came upon one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and seizing him by the throat, he said, ‘Pay what you owe.’
18:29 Then his fellow slave fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’
18:30 But he refused; then he went and threw him into prison until he would pay the debt.
18:31 When his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their lord all that had taken place.
18:32 Then his lord summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
18:33 Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?’
18:34 And in anger his lord handed him over to be tortured until he would pay his entire debt.
18:35 So my heavenly Father will also do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
THE SERMON: Pastor Gwen or Pastor Neil
SONG RESPONSE: “LET THERE BE PEACE ON EARTH” Tan #498
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… May the Spirit of God within us guide us to grateful, generous, and fruitful discipleship!
SONG SELECTION
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.
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: “I AM THINE, O LORD” Tan #387
“CAN’T NOBODY DO ME LIKE JESUS” Tan #384
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…We are sent forth to be and become the BODY OF CHRIST for the world!
CLOSING SONG: “DOWN AT THE CROSS” Tan #248