Welcome to worship at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church!
PRELUDE “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” John Kraus
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.
Silence is kept for reflection
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 When I Survey the Wondrous Cross #803
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
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Children's message
First Reading: Isaiah 5:1-7
1 I will sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
2 He dug it and cleared it of stones
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded rotten grapes.
3 And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people of Judah,
judge between me
and my vineyard.
4 What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
why did it yield rotten grapes?
5 And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
6 I will make it a wasteland;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
7 For the vineyard of the Lord
of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his cherished garden;
he expected justice
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness
but heard a cry!
Psalm: Psalm 80:7-15
7 Restore us, O | God of hosts;
let your face shine upon us, and we | shall be saved.
8 You have brought a vine |
out of Egypt;
you cast out the nations and |
planted it.
9 You cleared the | ground for it;
it took root and | filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered | by its shadow
and the towering cedar trees | by
its boughs. R
11 You stretched out its tendrils | to the sea
and its branches | to the river.
12 Why have you broken |
down its wall,
so that all who pass by pluck |
off its grapes?
13 The wild boar of the forest has | ravaged it,
and the beasts of the field have | grazed upon it.
14 Turn now, O |
God of hosts,
look | down from heaven;
15 behold and | tend this vine;
preserve what your right | hand has planted. R
Second Reading:
Philippians 3:4b-14
[Paul writes:] 4b If anyone else has reason to be confident in the
flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the
people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the
law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under
the law, blameless.
7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss
because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss
because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I
have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order
that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness
of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ,
the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his
resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his
death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the
goal, but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I
do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of:
forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the
goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION
Gospel: Matthew
21:33-46
[Jesus said:] 33 “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner
who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built
a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away. 34 When the harvest time
had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. 35 But the tenants seized
his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36 Again he sent other
slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. 37 Then he sent his son to
them, saying, ‘They will respect my
son.’ 38 But when the tenants saw
the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ 39 So they seized him, threw him out of the
vineyard, and killed him. 40 Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what
will he do to those tenants?” 41 They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the
vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?
43 “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from
you and given to a people that produces its fruits. 44 The one who falls on
this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they
realized that he was speaking about them. 46 They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the
crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
SERMON
HYMN The Church of Christ in Every Age #729
We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary and became truly human. For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures; he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son,* who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.
PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE, PEACE, OFFERING
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 Jesus Loves Me! #595
POST COMMUNION PROCLAMATION AND PRAYER
BLESSING
HYMN I Love to Tell the Story #661
DISMISSAL
POSTLUDE “The Church of Christ in Every Age” C.S.Lang
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