10/08/23

Like a building, we have a foundation stone on which we rest, a cornerstone on which we build, a capstone that holds it all together. Christ is each of those stones—the foundation on which our faith is established, the cornerstone on which our faith is built, and the capstone that holds us up. He is also a stone of stumbling. Those who reject His foundation, His cornerstone, and His capstone are broken into pieces in the day of judgment. All of this is revealed in the surprise of a parable about a master who built a vineyard, planted the vines, and set it out for tenants to produce the wine. It is a story of warning, but it is also a story of grace.

Children Activity Bags We value children in our worship services. If needed, there is a family room available for families with children. The family room has a diaper changing table, a closed-circuit TV to watch the worship service, toys and books for children. The family room is located across from the kitchen in the long hallway, the first door on the right, just past the bathrooms. There are “King’s Kids” bags with activities for children to help them worship. They are near the usher’s station on a small rack. Please return the bag to the rack after the service.

Holy Communion The Scripture teaches the Lord’s Supper is a precious gift of God in which Christ gives us His true body and blood (in a miraculous way), together with the bread and wine, for the forgiveness of our sins and the strengthening of our faith. Because the Bible teaches that this Sacrament may also be spiritually harmful if misused ( 1 Cor: 11:27), and that participation in the Lord’s Supper is an act of confession of faith, we ordinarily commune those who have been instructed in the teachings of our church and who have confessed their faith in these teachings. If you have a question, please speak to Pastor Ralph before the service. For those who prefer a non-alcoholic alternative, there is grape juice at the center of each tray. Those not receiving the Sacrament, including children, are invited to come to the altar, cross their arms over their chest, and receive a special blessing.

We Honor God By Believing in Christ  “What does it mean: The Father is honored in the Son. Nothing but this that the Father be recognized as, and considered, a gracious, merciful Father who is not angry with us and does not want to condemn us to hell but forgives sin and grants us all His grace for the sake of His Son Christ… This is the honor that really honors God; for from it arises a real confidence in the heart, so that the heart takes refuge in Him and can call upon Him with assurance in all troubles. Likewise, it thanks Him for all grace and benefaction and confesses and proclaims His name and Word before everybody. These are the acts of worship that really please and praise Him. But they can be performed only in the Son.”  What Luther Says # 2068

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

October 8, 2023

Welcome 

Opening Hymn                          Christ Is Our Cornerstone                                       LSB 912

Invocation, Confession and Absolution          (Psalm 80:7, 18)

L:   In the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

C:   Amen.

L:   Restore us, O God of hosts;

C:   let Your face shine, that we may be saved!

L:   Then we shall not turn back from You;

C:   give us life, and we will call upon Your name!

L:   Holy and gracious God,

C:   I confess that I have sinned against You this day. Some of my sin I know—the thoughts and words and deeds of which I am ashamed—but some is known only to You. In the name of Jesus Christ I ask for forgiveness. Deliver and restore me that I may rest in the forgiveness and peace He has earned through His sacrificed for me. Amen.

(Silence is kept for meditation and reflection.)

L: Almighty God in His mercy has given His Son to die for you and for His sake forgives you all your sins. As a servant of Christ, and by His authority, your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit.

C:   Amen.

L:   May the Lord, who has begun this good work in us, bring it to completion in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

C:   Amen.

Hymn of Praise                      Holy God, We Praise Thy Name                LSB 940  vs 1, 3

Prayer of the Day

All:  Merciful Father, in Your abundant love You redeemed us from our sin and restored us as Your own children in Christ. As You have crowned us with love and mercy, keep us in this grace and favor that we may strive to complete the race and receive from Your hand the crown of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

OT Lesson                  (The Lord planted His people to be His vineyard)              Isaiah 5:1–7

I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight.

NT Lesson             (“I press on toward towards the upward call of Christ.”)  Phil. 3:4b–14

If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. 

Gospel Lesson                  (The  builders reject the cornerstone.)     Matthew 21:33–46

“Listen to another parable: There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and went away on a journey. When the harvest time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit. “The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third. Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them the same way. Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and take his inheritance.’ So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. “Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they replied, “and he will rent the vineyard to other tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “ ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit. He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them. They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet. 

Message Song                        Sent Forth by God’s Blessing                                           LSB  643

Message                                      “Fruit of the Spirit”                                        Gary Kinne

Notes:

Nicene Creed

 C:    I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all  things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made; who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary  and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried. And the third day He rose again according to the Scriptures and ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father.  And He will come again with glory to judge both the living and the dead, whose kingdom will have no end. 
And I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spoke by the prophets. And I believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church, I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins, and I look for the resurrection of the dead and the life ✠ of the world to come. Amen.

Offering

Offertory                                     Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart                       LSB  806      

Prayers of the Church  

After each petition:

 L:  Lord, in your mercy,

 C:  hear our prayer.   

The 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.

The Lord’s Supper

Preface                                                                      page 194 in the hymnal

L:  The Lord be with you.

C:  ♪ And with thy spirit.

L:  Lift up your hearts.

C:  ♪ We lift them up unto the Lord.

L:  Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

C:  ♪ It is meet and right so to do.

L:  It is truly good, right, and salutary …. And with the host of heaven we sing:

Sanctus — Holy, Holy, Holy                                          page 195 in the hymnal

C:  ♪ Ho -ly, ho-ly, ho-ly Lord God of Sa – ba – oth. Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.   

          Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest. Blessed is He, blessed is He, blessed is

          He who cometh in the name of the Lord.  Hosanna, hosanna, hosanna in the highest.

The Words of Institution (Jesus Institutes the Lord’s Supper)

Pax Domini—The Peace of the Lord                    page 197 in the hymnal

L:  The peace of the Lord be with you always.

C:  ♪ Amen.   

Agnus Dei – Lamb of God                                                            page 198 in the hymnal                                      

C:  ♪ O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world; have mercy upon us.

         O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takest away the sin of the world; have mercy upon us.

         O Christ, Thou Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world; 

         grant us Thy peace.  A – men.

Distribution Hymn                              The Church’s One Foundation           LSB 644

Nunc Dimittis                                                                                   page 199 in the hymnal        

C: ♪ Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace according to Thy Word, for mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of Thy people Israel. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.                                                                                                                                          

 Post Communion Collect

All:  We give You thanks, O Lord our God, for having us made us Your own in Christ, and we pray You to send us Your Holy Spirit that we may be fixed upon what lies ahead in the future prepared for us by Christ, and, striving toward that future may receive at last the crown of everlasting life from His hand; through Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Benediction                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

L:   The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor and ✠ give you peace.

C:   Amen.

Sending Hymn              Saints, See the Clouds of Witnesses               LSB 667 vs 1, 4-6               

Announcements 

Dismissal

L:   Go in peace as you serve the Lord.

C:   Thanks be to God! 

Postlude