Prelude
Greeting and Welcome
Lighting of the Candles
Hymn of Invocation – O Come, All Ye Faithful (LSB 379)
O come, all ye faithful,
Joyful and triumphant!
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold Him
Born the king of angels: Refrain
Refrain: O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!
Highest, most holy,
Light of Light eternal,
Born of a virgin, a mortal He comes;
Son of the Father
Now in flesh appearing! Refrain
Sing, choirs of angels,
Sing in exultation,
Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above!
Glory to God
In the highest: Refrain
Yea, Lord, we greet Thee,
Born this happy morning;
Jesus, to Thee be glory giv’n!
Word of the Father
Now in flesh appearing! Refrain
+ Preparation +
Invocation
P: In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
C: Amen.
Opening Sentences – Hebrews 8:10–12; Psalm 122:1
P: “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord:
C: I will put My laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
P: And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.
C: For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”
P: I was glad when they said to me,
C: “Let us go to the house of the Lord!”
Confession and Absolution
P: Let us now make confession of our sins to God, our gracious and heavenly Father.
C: Eternal God, we confess that by nature we are sinful people. We have transgressed Your Law in many ways, by what we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not always been wise in our thinking and our speaking and our actions. Our motives and thoughts have not always been pure. We deserve Your punishment now and for eternity. O God, in Your mercy forgive our sin and restore us to a full and joyful relationship with You, through the merits of Jesus, our Lord. Direct all that we do by Your Holy Spirit that in the year now beginning we joyfully follow Your will and gladly obey Your Commandments as Your redeemed people.
P: In the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it. Be at peace.
C: Thanks be to God. Amen.
+ Word +
First Reading – 1 Kings 3:4–15
The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there, for that was the great high place. Solomon used to offer a thousand burnt offerings on that altar.
At Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, “Ask what I shall give you.” And Solomon said, “You have shown great and steadfast love to your servant David my father, because he walked before you in faithfulness, in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart toward you. And you have kept for him this great and steadfast love and have given him a son to sit on his throne this day. And now, O Lord my God, you have made your servant king in place of David my father, although I am but a little child. I do not know how to go out or come in. And your servant is in the midst of your people whom you have chosen, a great people, too many to be numbered or counted for multitude. Give your servant therefore an understanding mind to govern your people, that I may discern between good and evil, for who is able to govern this your great people?”
It pleased the Lord that Solomon had asked this. And God said to him, “Because you have asked this, and have not asked for yourself long life or riches or the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern what is right, behold, I now do according to your word. Behold, I give you a wise and discerning mind, so that none like you has been before you and none like you shall arise after you. I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days. And if you will walk in my ways, keeping my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”
And Solomon awoke, and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings and peace offerings, and made a feast for all his servants.
P: This is the Word of the Lord.
C: Thanks be to God.
Epistle – Ephesians 1:3–14
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
P: This is the Word of the Lord.
C: Thanks be to God.
Holy Gospel – Mark 2:18-22
P: The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the second chapter.
C: Glory to You, O Lord.
Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?” And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day. No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made. And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
P: This is the Gospel of the Lord.
C: Praise to You, O Christ.
Children’s Hymn – Infant Holy, Infant Lowly (LSB 393)
Infant holy, Infant lowly,
For His bed a cattle stall;
Oxen lowing, little knowing
Christ the child is Lord of all.
Swiftly winging, angels singing,
Bells are ringing, tidings bringing:
Christ the child is Lord of all!
Christ the child is Lord of all!
Flocks were sleeping, shepherds keeping
Vigil till the morning new
Saw the glory, heard the story,
Tidings of a Gospel true.
Thus rejoicing, free from sorrow,
Praises voicing, greet the morrow:
Christ the child was born for you!
Christ the child was born for you!
Children’s Sermon
Hymn of the Day – Of the Father’s Love Begotten (LSB 384)
Of the Father’s love begotten
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see
Evermore and evermore.
Oh, that birth forever blessèd,
When the virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving,
Bore the Savior of our race,
And the babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face
Evermore and evermore.
This is He whom seers in old time
Chanted of with one accord,
Whom the voices of the prophets
Promised in their faithful word.
Now He shines, the long-expected;
Let creation praise its Lord
Evermore and evermore.
Sermon
Apostles' Creed
C: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life + everlasting. Amen.
Prayer of the Church
+ Celebrating birthdays this week: 3 – Abraham Ryan; 6 – Matthew Schaefer; 8 – Katie Dawdy, Patricia Price; 9 – Grace Ortstadt
Special Celebrations and Needs:
+ Church family members: Jim & Judy Thielker, mourning the death of their son, David; Judy George, recovering from heart surgery
+ Friends of our congregation: Gary Brugere, for healing from hip surgery; Donna, friend of the Brugere family, experiencing vascular health issues
+ Those who are homebound or in nursing facilities: Mary Guion, Corinne Gutzler, Anne Hammann, Bettie Welch, Joan Winkler, Ruth Wussler
Offertory
