The traditional Christian church calendar is comprised of seasons and special days. We are in the season of Pentecost. Pentecost is the longest season of the church calendar and concludes with Christ the King Sunday. Let us consider how we are empowered to act for God this season.
Brief Order For Confession and Forgiveness
Music to accompany this worship is on Spotify at:
Entrance Hymn
The God of All Grace
Kyrie
Hymn of Praise
Prayer of the Day
Sovereign God, you have created us to live in loving community with one another. Form us for life that is faithful and steadfast, and teach us to trust like little children, that we may reflect the image of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
The First Lesson
Genesis 2:18-24
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.”
19 So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner.
21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.
22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
23 Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken.”
24 Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Psalm
Psalm 8 (5)
1 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens.
2 Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established;
4 what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them?
5 Yet you have made them a little lower than God, and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You have given them dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under their feet,
7 all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord, our Sovereign, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
The Second Lesson
Hebrews 1:1-4; 2:5-12
1 Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets,
2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.
3 He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,
4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.
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5 Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to angels.
6 But someone has testified somewhere, “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them?
7 You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor,
8 subjecting all things under their feet.” Now in subjecting all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them,
9 but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
10 It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
11 For the one who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters,
12 saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will praise you.”
The Gospel Acclamation
Alleluia. If we love one another, God | lives in us*
and God’s love is perfect- | ed in us. Alleluia. (1 John 4:12)
The Gospel
Mark 10:2-16
2 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”
3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?”
4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.”
5 But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you.
6 But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.’
7 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,
8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
10 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter.
11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her;
12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
13 People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them.
14 But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.
15 Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”
16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
The Sermon
Do we accept others as they are or try to bend them to our will?
The Hymn of the Day
Our Father By Whose Name
The Creed
The Peace
In These Times
The Prayers
The Offering
Communion
The Lord’s Prayer
Communion Hymns
Come Follow Me
Communal Blessing
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. I’ve used the Lectionary published on the ELCA website at elca.org to prepare this worship.