The traditional Christian church calendar is comprised of seasons and special days. We are in the season of Pentecost. The season of Pentecost is the longest season of the church calendar and concludes with Christ the King Sunday. In this season let us consider how we are empowered to act for God.
Brief Order For Confession and Forgiveness
Music to accompany this worship is on Spotify at:
Entrance Hymn
Bless the Lord
Kyrie
Hymn of Praise
Anthem of Praise
Prayer of the Day
Teach us, good Lord God, to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labor and not to ask for reward, except that of knowing that we do your will, through Jesus Crist, our Savior and Lord.
The First Lesson
Jeremiah 20:7-13
7. O LORD, you have enticed me, and I was enticed; you have overpowered me, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; everyone mocks me.
8. For whenever I speak, I must cry out, I must shout, “Violence and destruction!” For the word of the LORD has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.
9. If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
10. For I hear many whispering: “Terror is all around! Denounce him! Let us denounce him!” All my close friends are watching for me to stumble. “Perhaps he can be enticed, and we can prevail against him, and take our revenge on him.”
11. But the LORD is with me like a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not prevail. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
12. O LORD of hosts, you test the righteous, you see the heart and the mind; let me see your retribution upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.
13. Sing to the LORD; praise the LORD! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers.
Psalm
Psalm 69:7-10 [11-15] 16-18 (16)
7. It is for your sake that I have borne reproach, that shame has covered my face.
8. I have become a stranger to my kindred, an alien to my mother’s children.
9. It is zeal for your house that has consumed me; the insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.
10.When I humbled my soul with fasting, they insulted me for doing so.
11. When I made sackcloth my clothing, I became a byword to them.
12. I am the subject of gossip for those who sit in the gate, and the drunkards make songs about me.
13. But as for me, my prayer is to you, O LORD. At an acceptable time, O God, in the abundance of your steadfast love, answer me. With your faithful help
14. rescue me from sinking in the mire; let me be delivered from my enemies and from the deep waters.
15. Do not let the flood sweep over me, or the deep swallow me up, or the Pit close its mouth over me.
16. Answer me, O LORD, for your steadfast love is good; according to your abundant mercy, turn to me.
17. Do not hide your face from your servant, for I am in distress– make haste to answer me.
18. Draw near to me, redeem me, set me free because of my enemies.
The Second Lesson
Romans 6:1b-11
1b. Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?
2. By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?
3. Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
6. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.
7. For whoever has died is freed from sin.
8. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
9. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
10. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
The Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia. Jesus says, The Spirit of the Lord will testify on | my behalf,
and you also | are to testify. Alleluia. (John 15:26, 27)
The Gospel
Matthew 10:24-39
24. “A disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master;
25. it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household!
26. “So have no fear of them; for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.
27. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light; and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops.
28. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
29. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
30. And even the hairs of your head are all counted.
31. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.
32. “Everyone therefore who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven;
33. but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.
34. “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.
35. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
36. and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.
37. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
38. and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
39. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
The Sermon
Is God a fire in you that cannot be contained?
The Hymn of the Day
God of Day and God of Darkness
The Creed
Maybe God’s Trying to Tell You Something
The Peace
Choose to Hope
The Prayers
The Presence Of The Lord Is Here
The Offering
Communion
The Lord’s Prayer
The Battle, It’s the Lord’s
Communion Hymns
Keep Your Eyes on the Prize
The Power and the Glory
Communal Blessing
Stepping Out On Your Word
Dismissal
The Bible readings are from the New Revised Standard Version. I wish to thank the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, ELCA, and its predecessor bodies for all their teaching throughout the years. I’ve used the Lectionary published on the ELCA website at elca.org in preparation of this worship.