Worship Notes for Pentecost 17, 2015

Thursday after Pentecost 16

September 17, 2015

The Lord be with you.

This coming Sunday (September 20) will be the seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. (I made a mistake in the date line of last week's worship notes.) As it is a “third Sunday,” we will be using a non-communion service. This is also the final non-communion Sunday in this quarter so the last time we will use The Service of Prayer and Preaching (page 260). October we will switch to Matins for our non-communion services. In these services, which were designed with an accent on the Bible as the high point of the service instead of the Lord’s Supper, the appointed Psalm is used instead of the Introit. The appointed lessons are Jeremiah 11:18-20, Psalm 54 (antiphon v. 4), James 3:13-4:10, and Mark 9:30-37. The sermon will again be drawn from the Epistle lesson. The text is James 4:6. The sermon is titled, “God’s Favor.”

Our opening hymn will be “To Your Temple, Lord, I Come” (LSB 981). The sermon hymn will be “O God, Forsake Me Not” LSB (731). The closing hymn will be “Lord Jesus, Think on Me” LSB (610).  

Below is a video of our opening hymn, “To Your Temple, Lord, I Come” (LSB 981). While this hymn is numbered LSB 981, our hymnal only goes to LSB 966. This is one of the supplemental hymns which is available to us and will be provided as an insert Sunday. The hymnal review committee marked the hymn as “well-known,” so we should have no problem with it.

Our adult Bible class will begin lesson three in the study, Word: God Speaks to Us. Some of the questions in this lesson include: “What is the promise of the serpent’s spirituality?” “What happens when Christians forsake the Holy Scriptures as the Spirit’s Word? … Where is this happening today?” “How does Isaiah demonstrate the connectedness between Word and Spirit?” To prepare for the class read Genesis 3:1-13.

In our prayers this coming Sunday we will remember the EvangelicalLutheran Church in Kenya (ELCK), Rev. Walter E. Obare, Presiding Bishop; Island Lutheran in Hilton Head Island; and the Valley and Butte wildfires in California that have destroyed 700 homes.

What follows is a synopsis of Sunday’s lessons, provided by the synod, then the lessons. As always, the synopsis does not factor in the appointed Psalm but, as we will be using it Sunday, it is included in the readings. Following the readings are some additional notes.

Our Father Cares for His Children with the Gospel of His Son

The sinful heart is filled with “bitter jealousy and selfish ambition” (James 3:14), which causes hostility, quarrels and conflicts, even among those who are fellow members of the body of Christ. This should not be so! Rather, God “opposes the proud” with His Law, in order to humble them unto repentance; He “gives grace to the humble,” in order to exalt them by His Gospel of forgiveness (James 4:6–10). This true “wisdom from above” is found in the gentleness, mercy and peace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who humbled Himself and sacrificed Himself for the salvation of sinners (James 3:17). He was “like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter,” committing Himself to God, His Father, “who judges righteously, who tests the heart and the mind” (Jer. 11:19–20). Therefore, “after three days,” His Father exalted Him by raising Him from the dead (Mark 9:31). In Holy Baptism, He takes disciples of all ages into His arms like little children. In receiving Him through repentance and faith in His forgiveness of sins, they receive from His Father a share in the glory of His cross and resurrection (Mark 9:36–37).

Psalm 54 (antiphon v. 4)

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Maskil of David, when the Ziphites went and told Saul, Is not David hiding among us?

^54:1        O God, save me by your name,

                        and vindicate me by your might.

²           O God, hear my prayer;

                        give ear to the words of my mouth.

³           For strangers have risen against me;

                        ruthless men seek my life;

                        they do not set God before themselves. Selah

⁴           Behold, God is my helper;

                        the Lord is the upholder of my life.

⁵           He will return the evil to my enemies;

                        in your faithfulness put an end to them.

⁶           With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;

                        I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.

⁷           For he has delivered me from every trouble,

                        and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.

Jeremiah 11:18-20

¹⁸          The Lord made it known to me and I knew;

                        then you showed me their deeds.

¹⁹          But I was like a gentle lamb

                        led to the slaughter.

            I did not know it was against me

                        they devised schemes, saying,

            “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,

                        let us cut him off from the land of the living,

                        that his name be remembered no more.”

²⁰          But, O Lord of hosts, who judges righteously,

                        who tests the heart and the mind,

            let me see your vengeance upon them,

                        for to you have I committed my cause.

James 3:13-4:10

¹³          Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good conduct let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. ¹⁵This is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. ¹⁷But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. ¹⁸And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

^4:1         What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? ²You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. ³You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. ⁴You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. ⁵Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? ⁶But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” ⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. ⁹Be wretched and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. ¹⁰Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Mark 9:30-37

³⁰          They went on from there and passed through Galilee. And he did not want anyone to know, ³¹for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise.” ³²But they did not understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.

³³          And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?” ³⁴But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. ³⁵And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.” ³⁶And he took a child and put him in the midst of them, and taking him in his arms, he said to them, ³⁷“Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

Some Additional Notes

• The Church Council will meet Sunday for its regularly scheduled meeting.

• Information for the October newsletter is due Sunday.

• Our Second Coat Drive is kicking off. We team with the Bethlehem Center, who distributes the coats to individuals in need. You can check out the post made earlier this week, and information will be placed on a bulletin board. The final day to donate coats will be our Thanksgiving Eve service. A box for your donations will be in the narthex. The newsletter will have more information

• October 25 is Reformation Sunday this year. We will have a covered dish lunch after the service and we will play “Luther-Bingo.” The newsletter will have more information.

• Keep Praying for your Neighbors and Walking your Neighborhoods.

• Don’t forget to check out the other posts from earlier this week. An easy way to review the titles is by looking at the left hand side of this blog. If a title catches your attention, just click on it and you will go to that post.

• Remember, you can link one or more of our blog posts to your facebook (or other social media) page. Find one you like and share it.

Blessings in Christ,

Pastor Rickert