St. Paul’s Lutheran Church
Alliance, Ohio
Sunday, May 14, 2023
9:30 AM
PRELUDE Dear Christians, One and All, Rejoice J. Walker
Confession and Forgiveness
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Let us confess our sin in the presence of God and of one another.
Most merciful God,
we confess that we are captive to sin and cannot
free ourselves. We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what
we have done and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you with our
whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. For the sake of your
Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us. Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that
we may delight in your will and walk in your ways, to the glory of your holy
name.
Amen.
In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for us, and for his sake God forgives us all our sins. As a called and ordained minister of the church of Christ, and by his authority, I therefore declare to you the entire forgiveness of all your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
HYMN
Come, Thou Almighty King #408
GREETING
The grace of our Lord, Jesus
Christ, the love of God, and communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
And also with you.
KYRIE
HYMN OF PRAISE This Joyful Eastertide vs. 1
PRAYER OF THE DAY
First Reading: Acts 17:22-31
22Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and
said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23For as I went through the
city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an
altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as
unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24The God who made the world and everything in it,
he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human
hands, 25nor is he
served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to
all mortals life and breath and all things. 26From one ancestor he made
all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their
existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27so that they would search
for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from
each one of us. 28For ‘In him
we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said,
‘For we too are his offspring.’29Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to
think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the
art and imagination of mortals. 30While God has overlooked the
times of
human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because he has fixed a
day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he
has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from
the dead.”
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Psalm: Psalm 66:8-20
8Bless our | God, you peoples;
let the sound of | praise be heard.
9Our God has kept us among
the living and has not allowed our | feet to slip.
10For you, O God,
have | tested us; you have tried us just as silver is tried.
11You brought us into the
net; you laid heavy burdens upon our backs.
12You let people ride over
our heads; we went through | fire and water, but you brought us out into
a place | of refreshment.
13I will enter your
house | with burnt offerings and will Pay | you my vows—
14those that I
promised | with my lips and spoke with my mouth when I | was in trouble.
15I will offer you burnt
offerings of fatlings with the | smoke of rams; I will give you oxen and goats.
16Come and listen, all
you | who believe, and I will tell you what God has | done for me.
17I called out to God | with my mouth, and
praised theLord | with my tongue.
18If I had cherished
evil | in my heart, the Lord would | not have heard me;
19but in truth | God has heard me
and has attended to the sound | of my prayer.
20Blessed be God, who has
not rejected my prayer, nor withheld unfailing | love from me.
Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:13-22
13Who will harm
you if you are eager to do what is good? 14But even if you do suffer
for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do
not be intimidated, 15but in your
hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone
who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; 16yet do it with gentleness
and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned,
those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. 17For it is better to
suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for
doing evil. 18For Christ
also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in
order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in
the spirit, 19in which also
he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20who in former times did
not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of
the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through
water. 21And baptism,
which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body,
but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of
Jesus Christ, 22who has gone
into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and
powers made subject to him.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION
The Holy Gospel according to Saint John the 14th
chapter. Glory to you O Lord
[Jesus said
to the disciples:] 15“If you love
me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will
give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17This is the Spirit of
truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows
him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. 18“I will not leave you
orphaned; I am coming to you. 19In a little while the world will no longer see
me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will know
that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21They who have my
commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be
loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
The Gospel of the Lord. Praise to you, O
Christ.
SERMON
HYMN Come Down, O Love Devine #804
APOSTLES CREED
I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of
heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God's 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 to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven, he is seated at the right hand of the Father, and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the
forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and
the life everlasting. Amen
Prayers of Intercession, PEACE, OFFERING
Special music
GREAT Thanksgiving
PROPER PREFACE
SANCTUS
COMMUNION PRAYER
LORD'S PRAYER
Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass
against us; and lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us
from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen
DISTRIBUTION OF COMMUNION
HYMN Children of the Heavenly
Father #781
PRAYER
BLESSING
HYMN Alleluia! Sing to Jesus #392 v. 1,3,5
DISMISSAL
POSTLUDE We Praise You, Lord Mark Sedio
Liturgy and hymns printed and streamed with permission through OneLicense. A-710659
