ORDER OF WORSHIP
20th Sunday after Pentecost
October 15, 2023
PRELUDE Prelude in Classical Style, arr. Young
WELCOME AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
-WORSHIP COMMITTEE MEETING will be held today, October 15th following the worship service.
-TUESDAY MORNING COFFEE GROUP meets at First Lutheran Mission Coffee House at 9:30ish.
-THURSDAY MORNING BIBLE STUDY AND PRAYER TIME will meet in the Center Meeting Room 9:30-11:30. Come visit and see what we are about!
-SISTERHOOD will meet at First Lutheran Mission Coffee House on Thursday, October 19 at 11:30 AM.
-MEN’S BROTHERHOOD will meet at the church lounge on Thursday, October 19 at 5:30 PM.
-CHOIR PRACTICE will be held on Sunday mornings at 9:30 AM on the Sundays that the choir will be singing special music. Please meet in the North Meeting Room. Let’s make a joyful noise to the Lord!
CALL TO WORSHIP
Rejoice in the Lord always!
All thanks and praise to God!
Do not worry about anything.
We trust in God who provides for us.
Let the peace of God settle among you.
We will share God’s peace with all.
*HYMN #667 (Red) When Morning Gilds the Skies
When morning gilds the sky,
my hearts awaking cries: may Jesus Christ be praised!
Alike at work and prayer to Jesus I repair;
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Does sadness fill my mind?
A solace here I find: may Jesus Christ be praised!
Or fades my earthly bliss?
My comfort still is this: may Jesus Christ be praised!
Let earth's wide circle round
in joyful notes resound: may Jesus Christ be praised!
Let air and sea and sky
from depth to height reply: may Jesus Christ be praised!
Be this, while life is mine,
My canticle divine: may Jesus Christ be praised!
Be this the eternal song
through all the ages long: may Jesus Christ be praised!
CALL TO CONFESSION
From ancient times to now, God’s people have turned away. We are no different: we let fear take hold of us and try to go our own way. Let us be honest about how we have failed to follow God.
PRAYER OF CONFESSION
True God from True God, we have not built a golden calf, but we have worshiped idols. We have put our trust in what we build with our own hands. We find security in what we can hoard instead of trusting your provision. We listen to lies that spread hatred and division instead of the radical truth of your word. Forgive us. Melt down our idols until we see only you and fix our sight on your way alone.
(Silent reflection)
ASSURANCE OF PARDON
God shows us a different way— a way of truth, honor, justice, purity, and excellence. This path is open to all of us if we reach out and accept God’s forgiveness.
Thanks be to God! We will live as God’s people, forgiven and freed.
*GLORIA PATRI
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, Amen.
PRAYER FOR ILLUMINATION
Sovereign God, let your Word rule in our hearts and your Spirit govern our lives until at last we see the fulfillment of your realm of justice and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
SCRIPTURE READING
Exodus 32:1-14
1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.”
2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’
9 “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? 12 Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. 13 Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’” 14 Then the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.
Philippians 4:1-9
1 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!
2 I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3 Yes, and I ask you, my true companion, help these women since they have contended at my side in the cause of the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.
4 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.
Gospel Reading: Matthew 22:1-14
1 Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: 2 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 “Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’
5 “But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 “Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.
13 “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
14 “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”
SERMON Rejoice and Peace Elizabeth Fox, CRE
*HYMN #169 (Red) Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
Dear Lord and Father of mankind, forgive our foolish ways;
re-clothe us in our rightful mind,
in purer lives thy service find, n deeper reverence, praise.
In simple trust like theirs who heard beside the Syrian sea
the gracious calling of the Lord,
let us, like them, without a word rise up and follow thee.
O Sabbath rest by Galilee, O calm of hills above,
where Jesus knelt to share with thee
the silence of eternity, interpreted by love!
Drop thy still dews of quietness, till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace.
Breathe through the heats of our desire thy coolness and thy balm;
let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire, O still, small voice of calm!
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH Adapted from the Confession of 1967, 9.32–33
The life, death, resurrection, and promised coming of Jesus Christ has set the pattern for the church’s mission. His human life involves the church in the common life of all people. His service to men and women commits the church to work for every form of human well-being. His suffering makes the church sensitive to all human suffering so that it sees the face of Christ in the faces of persons in every kind of need. His crucifixion discloses to the church God’s judgment on the inhumanity that marks human relations, and the awful consequences of the church’s own complicity in injustice. In the power of the risen Christ and the hope of his coming, the church sees the promise of God’s renewal of human life in society and of God’s victory over all wrong. The church follows this pattern in the form of its life and in the method of its action. So to live and serve is to confess Christ as Lord.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
-Gayle F
-Carol G
-Robert (Robby’s father)
-Susan H (MK’s daughter)
-Maxine D
-Andrew N (friend of Ella)
-Barb (Bob O’s sister)
-Anthony B (Teri’s son)
-USS South Dakota, captain and crew
-Jim (Dianne L’s husband)
-Nelda H
-Betty G
-Richard C and Dolores as caregiver
-Bob J and Jan as caregiver
-Darwin L and Jeanne as caregiver
-Bob O and Nancy as caregiver
-Andrew & Beth L
-Gwen B (Lee P’s friend)
-Patty (friend of Michele and Brookings)
-Harry (Bonnie S’s father)
Our homebound or in care members: Richard C, Bob J, Delores K, Rose P, Cliff R, Dee W (Please reach out and call)
This Week’s Prayer Families: Bruce & Lucy B, Linda B, Bob B, Teri B
Those who mourn: We pray for the Bierstedt, Riedesel, Eich, Ohnstad, VanderWaal, Broksieck, Canaday, Barnett, Fee, Goodale, McCann, and Webster families and all who have lost loved ones.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever, Amen.
INVITATION TO OFFERING
I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, to present yourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. Let us offer our lives to the Lord.
SPECIAL MUSIC Nancy O
*DOXOLOGY
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.
PRAYER OF DEDICATION
God of the harvest, you are continually planting the seeds of your love in our world and in our lives. As we bring our gifts to you, may they be seeds of your grace, peace, and hope, planted deeply in our community. Amen.
*CLOSING HYMN #542 (Red) God Be with You Till We Meet Again
God be with you till we meet again;
loving counsels guide, uphold you,
with a shepherd’s care enfold you;
God be with you till we meet again.
God be with you till we meet again;
unseen wings, protecting, hide you,
daily manna still provide you;
God be with you till we meet again.
God be with you till we meet again;
when life’s perils thick confound you,
put unfailing arms around you;
God be with you till we meet again.
God be with you till we meet again;
keep love’s banner floating o’er you,
smite death’s threatening wave before you;
God be with you till we meet again.
BLESSING AND CHARGE
POSTLUDE My Fortress is our God, arr. Young