Pentecost Twelve Worship Bulletin | 8-20-23
St. Peter’s Evangelical Lutheran Church
PENTECOST 12
08-20-2023 10:00AM “Hybrid” Worship
+ We Rejoice in the Spirit +
OPENING SONG: “COME, WE THAT LOVE THE LORD” Brown #135
THE OPENING RITE (based on today’s First Reading and Gospel):
L Our time of confession is an opportunity for us to try to see ourselves as God sees us and then to allow God’s mercy to
change us. So let us confess before God and one another. [A brief silence is kept.]
O God, you have said that your house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.
O God, your love is extended far and wide, even to “foreigners” and “Canaanites” in today’s Scripture lessons.
C We confess that we aren’t nearly as inclusive.
Sometimes we want – not only our friends, our relatives, our neighbors, and our coworkers –
but also our churches
to look just like us,
to act just like us,
to think just like us,
to be just like us,
and every difference annoys, horrifies, or threatens us.
Forgive us our boundaries and our stereotypes, our conditions and our condemnations, our fine lines and our narrow minds, our inability and our unwillingness to grow in love for others. Amen.
L The Bible reminds us that — in Christ – there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, or any other distinction between believers who are supposedly “in” and those rejected would-be believers who are considered “out”.
The truth, my friends, is that all have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. So each of us, every one of us, can merely take our place on our knees – shoulder to shoulder and side by side with all the other sinners – clinging to God’s mercy and celebrating God’s grace. Today God embraces and loves you through his Son and our Lord (+) Jesus Christ.
PRAYER OF THE DAY (together):
God of all peoples, you reach out with mercy and love to embrace all who call upon you. If Jesus could have a change of his heart and mind this morning, then so can we! Teach us as disciples of Jesus to continue to invite, include, welcome, affirm, and serve everyone. Give us clean hearts, open minds, and arms with a long reach. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
+ We Rejoice in God’s Saving Word +
FIRST READING: ISAIAH 56:1, 6-8
[God’s house is to be a place of prayer for all, even foreigners and outcasts. Humility, righteousness and obedience define who belongs to the Israelite community – not race, nationality, or any other category.]
56:1 Thus says the LORD: Maintain justice, and do what is right, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed.
56:6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, all who keep the sabbath, and do not profane it, and hold fast my covenant–
56:7 these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.
56:8 Thus says the Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather others to them besides those already gathered.
SONG SELECTION: Maliek Patterson
SECOND READING: ROMANS 11:1-2a, 29-32
[God’s salvation in Christ has not abandoned and rejected Israel. The call and gifts of God are irrevocable… and God has mercy upon all.]
11:1 I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.
11:2a God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
11:29 For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
11:30 Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy because of their disobedience,
11:31 so they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.
11:32 For God has imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
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 15:10-28
[Jesus teaches that sometimes people look, act, talk, and pretend “holy”… but fall far from the true heart and will of God. Then he is tested by his own teaching when an “outsider” – pagan and unclean – approaches him and begs for help. Even the “dogs” can eat the crumbs that fall from God’s table!]
15:10 Then he called the crowd to him and said to them, “Listen and understand:
15:11 it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.”
15:12 Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?”
15:13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.
15:14 Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.”
15:15 But Peter said to him, “Explain this parable to us.”
15:16 Then he said, “Are you also still without understanding?
15:17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?
15:18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.
15:19 For out of the heart come evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.
15:20 These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.”
15:21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon.
15:22 Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.”
15:23 But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, “Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us.”
15:24 He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
15:25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, “Lord, help me.”
15:26 He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.”
15:27 She said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.”
15:28 Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.
THE SERMON: Pastor Neil
SONG RESPONSE: “PASS ME NOT, O GENTLE SAVIOR” Brown #150
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: Ida Swindle
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:
Lord God, we thank you for making a way out of no way in our life! During this summer may we dedicate our leisure and our work, our rest and our travel, our service and our spending, our health and our wealth, our worship and our witness to glorify You and to extend your Kingdom to others. 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:
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 #123 Brown #214
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: “COME AND GO WITH ME TO MY FATHER’S HOUSE” Brown #141
Lord, show me your way, teach me to love, and give me the courage.