Prelude – God of Grace
Greeting and Welcome
Lighting of the Candles
Hymn of Invocation – Faith and Truth and Life Bestowing (LSB 584)
Faith and truth and life bestowing,
Open now the Scriptures, Lord,
Seed to life eternal sowing,
Scattered on the wind abroad.
Let not hearts, Your Word receiving,
Like a barren field be found,
Choked with thorns and unbelieving,
Shallow earth or stony ground.
May the Spirit’s pow’r unceasing
Bring to life the hidden grain,
Daily in our hearts increasing,
Bearing fruit that shall remain.
So in Scripture, song, and story,
Savior, may Your voice be heard.
Till our eyes behold Your glory
Give us ears to hear Your Word.
+ Preparation +
Invocation
P: In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
C: Amen.
Opening Sentences
P: O Lord, I love the habitation of Your house,
C: and the place where Your glory dwells.
P: Lord, restore the fortunes of Your people.
C: Let all Your people rejoice and be glad!
P: From generation to generation, You are our God.
C: Your Word shall be heard among our children and our children’s children.
P: Let us ever share the joys of Jesus.
C: Let us spread His grace and love to all the nations.
Confession and Absolution
P: Indeed, it is good to be here, worshiping the Lord and receiving His gifts for our forgiveness, life, and salvation. Yet, we must admit that there have been times when we have taken God for granted. There have been times when we have created our own religious, political, and social traditions and given those human-made traditions more attention than Jesus. Still, our heavenly Father invites us to come to Him and ask for forgiveness.
Silence for reflection.
P: Heavenly Father,
C: we confess that we have not always looked to You for all good. We have created idols for ourselves. We confess our sins of thought, word, and deed. Forgive us, Father, for these weak failures. Renew us and lead us, so that we follow You and look to You for all good, for the sake of Jesus. Amen.
P: Almighty God in His mercy has given His Son to die and rise for You and because of Jesus forgives You all Your sins. As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
C: Amen. We are forgiven in Christ. He is our true inheritance forever. Amen.
+ Word +
Introit
P: O Lord, I love the habitation of your house
and the place where your glory dwells.
C: Vindicate me, O Lord, for I have walked in my integrity,
and I have trusted in the Lord without wavering.
P: Prove me, O Lord, and try me;
test my heart and my mind.
C: I wash my hands in innocence and go around your altar, O Lord,
proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, and telling all your wondrous deeds.
All: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen
P: O Lord, I love the habitation of your house
and the place where your glory dwells.
Salutation and Prayer of the Day
P: The Lord be with you.
C: And also with you.
P: Let us pray. Almighty and merciful God, defend Your Church from all false teaching and error that Your faithful people may confess You to be the only true God and rejoice in Your good gifts of life and salvation; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
C: Amen.
First Reading – Isaiah 29:11–19
And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”
And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”
Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark,and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest? In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
P: This is the Word of the Lord.
C: Thanks be to God.
Epistle – 1 Corinthians 15:12-19
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.
P: This is the Word of the Lord.
C: Thanks be to God.
Holy Gospel – Mark 7:1-13
P: The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the seventh chapter.
C: Glory to You, O Lord.
When the Pharisees gathered to [Jesus], with some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem, they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (For the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands, holding to the tradition of the elders, and when they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions that they observe, such as the washing of cups and pots and copper vessels and dining couches.) And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, “‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ You leave the commandment of God and hold to the tradition of men.”
And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban’ (that is, given to God)—then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”
P: This is the Gospel of the Lord.
C: Praise to You, O Christ.
Children’s Hymn – Standin’ in the Need of Prayer (AGPS 220)
Not my brother, nor my sister, but it’s me, O Lord,
Standin’ in the need of prayer;
Not my brother, nor my sister, but it’s me, O Lord,
Standin’ in the need of prayer. Refrain
Refrain: It’s me, it’s me, O Lord,
Standin’ in the need of prayer;
It’s me, it’s me, O Lord,
Standin’ in the need of prayer.
Not my father, nor my mother, but it’s me, O Lord,
Standin’ in the need of prayer;
Not my father, nor my mother, but it’s me, O Lord,
Standin’ in the need of prayer. Refrain
Children’s Sermon – Tim Cosby
Hymn of the Day – Christ, the Life of All the Living (LSB 420)
Christ, the life of all the living,
Christ, the death of death, our foe,
Who, Thyself for me once giving
To the darkest depths of woe:
Through Thy suff’rings, death, and merit
I eternal life inherit.
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be,
Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.
Thou hast suffered great affliction
And hast borne it patiently,
Even death by crucifixion,
Fully to atone for me;
Thou didst choose to be tormented
That my doom should be prevented.
Thousand, thousand thanks shall be,
Dearest Jesus, unto Thee.
Then, for all that wrought my pardon,
For Thy sorrows deep and sore,
For Thine anguish in the Garden,
I will thank Thee evermore,
Thank Thee for Thy groaning, sighing,
For Thy bleeding and Thy dying,
For that last triumphant cry,
And shall praise Thee, Lord, on high.
Sermon
Offertory – Meditation in F
