Quinquagesima Service

I'm a little sick last week, so I don't know if we'll be able to catch it. I hope we don't catch it.

I would like to welcome you to the Kongsvinger Lutheran Church. Today is the last

Sunday before Lent begins. It's called Quinquagisima, and roughly translated, that means 50th.

We're about 50 days off from Easter, but you'll note that they kind of use weird math to come up with these things, because Lent lasts 40 days, and Lent begins on Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, here at Kongsvinger.

We'll be following the order of Divine Service Setting 2, and the psalm tone today will be psalm tone

C, as in Cucaracha. What?

We don't have a lot of those up here. So if you are physically present here at Kongsvinger, opening hymn is 797.

Please rise. In the name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Let us then confess our sins to God our Father. Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean.

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.

We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment. 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. Almighty God, in his mercy, has given his

Son to die for you, and for his sake he forgives you all of your sins. As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by his authority,

I therefore forgive you all of your sins. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Psalm tone C. Be a rock of refuge for me.

You save me.

For you're the rock and my fortress. In you,

O Lord, do I take refuge. Let me never be put to shame.

Into your hand I commit my spirit.

Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress. Make your face shine on your servant.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the

Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.

Amen. Be a rock of refuge for me.

For you are my rock and my fortress. In peace, let us pray to the

Lord. For the peace from above, and for our salvation, let us pray to the

Lord. For the peace of the whole world, for the well -being of the

Church of God, and for the unity of all, let us pray to the

Lord. For this

Holy House, and for all who offer here their worship and praise, let us pray to the

Lord. Help, save, comfort, and defend us, gracious Lord.

Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth.

The Lord be with you. And also with you. Let us pray. O Lord, mercifully hear our prayers, and having set us free from the bonds of our sins, deliver us from every evil.

Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen. You may be seated. The Old Testament reading for Quinquagisima is taken from 1

Samuel 16. The Lord said to Samuel, How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel?

Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.

And Samuel said, How can I go if Saul hears that he will kill me? And the Lord said,

Take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. And invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do.

And you shall anoint for me him whom I declare to you. Samuel did what the

Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him, trembling, and said, Do you come peaceably?

And he said, Peaceably I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice.

And he consecrated Jesse and his sons, and invited them to the sacrifice. When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought,

Surely the Lord's anointed is before him. But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.

For the Lord sees not as a man sees, but looks on the outward appearance.

But the Lord looks at the heart. And then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said,

Neither has the Lord chosen this one. Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, Neither has the

Lord chosen this one. And Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said to Jesse, The Lord has not chosen these.

Then Samuel said to Jesse, Are all your sons here? And he said, Well, there remains yet the youngest, but behold, he is keeping the sheep.

And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and get him, for we will not sit down until he comes here. And he sent and brought him in.

And now he was ready and had beautiful eyes and was handsome. And the Lord said, Arise and anoint him, for this is he.

Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the

Spirit of the Lord rushed upon David from that day forward. And Samuel rose up and went to Ramah. This is the word of the

Lord. We'll speak the gradual together by half a verse.

You are the God who works wonders. You with your arm redeemed your people.

The epistle is taken from 1 Corinthians chapter 13.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but I have not love,

I am nothing. If I give away all that I have, if I deliver up my body to be burned but have not love,

I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love does not envy or boast.

It is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful.

It does not rejoice at wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease.

As for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.

When I was a child, I spoke like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child.

When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. And now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face.

Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three, but the greatest of these is love.

This is the word of the Lord. The Holy Gospel according to St.

Luke, the 18th chapter. Taking the twelve,

Jesus said to them, See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished, for he will be delivered over to the

Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon, and after flogging him they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.

But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said.

As he drew near to Jericho, a blind man was sitting by the roadside, begging, and hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant.

They told him, Jesus of Nazareth is passing by. And he cried out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.

And those who were in the front rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more,

Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and commanded him to be brought to him, and when he came near, he asked him,

What do you want me to do for you? He said, Lord, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him,

Recover your sight. Your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying

God. And all the people when they saw it gave praise to God. This is the Gospel of the

Lord. Praise to Christ.

Sermon hymn is 849. You may be seated. In the name of Jesus.

Amen. So this has been an interesting week in technology. People have been receiving via UPS and FedEx a new device,

Apple Vision Pro. And all the buzz is talking about augmented reality.

Looks like a pair of ski goggles put over someone's face. And what does it do? Well, it changes reality.

All of a sudden you can see screens in places where there are no screens. And you can watch television in rooms where there is no television.

You can compute and do things and work and do tasks and put timers and all this kind of stuff in augmented reality.

Which has to kind of beg the question, is augmented reality reality? And have you ever considered the impact that sin has had on our perception of reality?

I would note that sin has definitely augmented our perception of reality. And it becomes very clear in our

Gospel text that sight is kind of one of these things that is a major theme here. The disciples.

Jesus speaks plainly words about what's about to take place. And it doesn't register with them at all.

They are completely oblivious to what Jesus meant when he said, Listen, boys, we're going up to Jerusalem.

Everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. He will be delivered over to the

Gentiles. He will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him on the third day he will rise.

And they're sitting there going, Is this one of Jesus' parables? Because we know what's going to happen to Jesus. We're on our way to Jerusalem and he's the king.

He's going to be coronated. We're going to kick the Romans out. We're going to establish a glorious government that's going to just fill the earth with Jesus' teaching, his love, and his miracles.

And it's going to be fantastic. And how do I know this is the case? Well, cross -references help here.

In the Gospel of Matthew, this same journey that they're on towards Jerusalem, a stupid thing happens on the way to Jerusalem.

In fact, I thought about naming this sermon A Stupid Thing Happened on the Way to Jerusalem. It didn't quite have the same kick to it.

But that being the case, let me read this to you. This is from Matthew 20. Then the mother of the sons of Zebedee came up to Jesus with her sons and kneeling before him, oh, how pious, she asked him for something.

And he said to her, What do you want? And she said to him, Say that these two sons of mine are to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left in your kingdom.

This is the augmented reality thing going on here. They hear Jesus say words like,

Listen, I'm going to be flogged, delivered over to the Gentiles, spit upon, killed, and on the third day rise.

And we look at this and we go, Yeah, Jesus meant exactly what he said. He wasn't pulling any punches.

There's no deeper spiritual meaning here. He's explaining the exact series of events as they're going to go down in a compressed form.

And the disciples are sitting there going, Jesus, we know that you're going to set up your kingdom when you get to Jerusalem. And so what do the

Zebedee brothers do? They send mommy. Oh, boy.

Talk about mommy issues here. They send mommy to beg

Jesus that her sons, one can sit on the right hand and one on the left, the most honored and powerful, princely positions of power in the kingdom.

She wants them to have the cushiest, most powerful cabinet positions in Jesus' kingdom.

And they send their mom. It's like, you know,

I want to point this out here. And that is that if this were not a true eyewitness account of what really happened, if this was some made -up story, the disciples would not be putting in all of this embarrassing information into the gospel text.

We have a tendency as human beings to want to make ourselves the heroes, to kind of put aside the stuff that has the blemishes and stuff like that and make ourselves look good.

I love the fact the gospel here makes the Zebedee brothers look like complete...

Yeah, but you'll note Jesus still being kind and loving, he says to the

Zebedee brothers' mother, you don't know what you're asking. And so with all three of them there, he asked the question, are you able to drink the cup that I am to drink?

And they don't know what's in this cup. So he said, yeah, we're able. All right, he said, all right, you will drink my cup, but to sit at my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my

Father. And we'll note here, Jesus is the only fellow there at this time that has a clear perception of reality.

They do not. They are taking Jesus' words that he's going to be delivered over to the Gentiles and stuff like this and saying, yeah, well, yeah, whatever, you're going to be king and we're going to be princes and it's going to be glorious.

They're just completely ignoring all of this. Their eyes have been covered with sin and ambition and pride and their hopes and expectations are not properly grounded in what

God's word says. Jesus knows full well what's going to happen to him and you'll note, despite the fact that Christ knows exactly what will happen to him, he is dead set on going to Jerusalem.

He knows full well the pain and the suffering and the anguish that he's about to experience.

The Scripture tells us that it's for the joy that was set before him that he endured the cross, despising its shame.

The joy that set before him of saving you and I, of redeeming us, reconciling us to God.

You'll note that over and again, Scripture talks about the fact that we will experience joy when we finally see heaven, when we see the new earth, when we see the glory of God.

We will experience joy. But the Scripture reveals that it was for that joy that was set before him that Christ endured the cross.

In other words, there's great joy in God, in the Trinity, in his lost children being reconciled and redeemed and set free from sin.

And that being the case, you'll note then that when Jesus does come into his kingdom, he truly is coronated.

But he ain't coronated the way we do coronations here. Did you guys watch the coronation of King Charles last year?

It was interesting. It was really kind of interesting. And I had to sit there.

There's a lot of pomp and circumstance. But the big moment is when they took that hunk and crown and stuck it on his head and he had the scepter and the others.

And you're sitting there going, this is a big deal. But you'll note, Christ in his coronation didn't choose to be crowned with a crown of gold, jewels.

Instead, he chose to be crowned in his coronation with a crown of thorns. And when he came into his kingdom, the two prime spots, one on his right and one on his left, that was reserved for those thieves that were beside him on his cross.

Christ didn't sit on a throne on the day of his coronation. He was nailed to a tree, bled, suffered, and died so that you and I can be forgiven, so that we can be reconciled.

And all of this, it is Christ's joy to do. This is why he endured it. And knowing full well what he's about to experience, he didn't turn away.

The disciples, even though Jesus was speaking to them plainly, they completely did not understand it.

And it wasn't until after the resurrection where they were kind of sitting around going, oh, he actually meant that he was going to rise bodily from the grave.

That's what he meant when he said, I will rise on the third day. Exactly! And you'll note then, one of the things we have to keep in mind as Christians is that sin blinds us.

Sin augments our perception of reality. And as a result of it, our sinful nature doesn't want to believe plain and simple words of God.

Plain and simple stuff. You ask the average person nowadays, is it true that the earth was created in six days?

No, of course not. We know that it says six days. And Yom is Day and all this kind of stuff.

But remember with the Lord, one day is as a thousand years. So those six days could be a bazillion years.

Right? Uh -huh. I'm pretty sure that it means what it says and it says what it means.

Are you saying that anybody who believes in Christ, that all of their sins are forgiven?

Yup. Are you saying that when we received the Lord's Supper, we received the body and blood of Jesus Christ given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins?

Well, that's what Jesus said. Well, don't you think he meant something else? Nope. I don't believe that at all.

This is my body, he said. He didn't say, this symbolizes my body. Right?

This symbolizes my body. He says, this is my body, this is my blood. Well...

And remember in John chapter 6 that people had that exact same response. Cannibalism.

Right? And what does Jesus say? He doubles down and says, yeah, unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life in you.

Hmm. Are you saying that when Jesus returns, he's going to return and he's going to actually raise the dead from the grave?

You betcha. That's how this works. In fact, Jesus says, I make all things new.

Oh, I can't wait to be made new because this 1968 model Caucasian has got a lot of miles on it.

Right? You get the idea. So you'll note that many people bristle at these ideas.

They bristle at the words of God and they try to discount them, they try to discredit them.

They do not understand what they mean and because they don't understand according to the way they perceive reality, they try to change

God's word so it says something different. That's what the disciples did here and we need to be aware that our sinful nature augments reality and we need to start taking the goggles off so that we can see the truth.

And to take the goggles off, open up the word of God and let it speak to you and don't put the goggles back on and say, well, that's not reasonable.

No, it can't be that. Take them off. See it for what it is. And you'll note then in that same theme, we have an interesting fellow here, blind

Bartimaeus. Now, it doesn't name him in our Luke text, but we know from other gospel accounts that this fellow is named

Bartimaeus and that's a good thing to know. And one of the things we can say about blind

Bartimaeus is that he made a living doing what? Begging.

Right? You'll note that in our way of thinking, a person is reduced to their lowest level when the only thing they can do in order to make ends meet is to beg and to rely on the charity and the kindness of others.

That sounds a lot like being a Christian. Right? And you'll note that we live in a world where people in the visible church bristle at the idea of being beggars, especially when it comes to God.

And like the disciples who were thinking about glory and power and positions and things like this, there are whole ranks within the visible church now who when you ask them about prayer, they say praying goes like this,

I decree and I declare and I command and I control. Cancer, you get out of this building and we're going to get rid of all mental illness.

And are you struggling with poverty? I take poverty and I rebuke you. Right? This is how they talk.

And you know what? They have the same augmented reality that the disciples had thinking that they were going to Jerusalem for glory and power.

Oh, we're going to have positions of power. We're going to be able to give commands, write laws and pass policy and clean up this town.

Right? But that's not what we're called to do as Christians. That is not prayer. Prayer is recognizing that you're a beggar and that we need to be about the business of petitioning, asking, begging

God for help in our time of need. And our time of need always comes.

Our time of need is even today. Does not Christ teach us in the petitions, in the

Lord's Prayer to pray for daily bread? If I'm having to ask

God for daily bread, then doesn't that mean that every meal that I eat is in fact a gift, a gracious gift from God given to me out of His kindness,

His mercy and His love? It is. And so we have a lot to learn from Blind Bartimaeus because here's the funny thing about this fellow.

His sin hasn't augmented his reality. Although he cannot see, he sees exactly who

Jesus is. You know, go figure. The blind man sees while the men with sight have to send mommy to blindly and stupidly ask for positions of power that aren't even coming.

So as Jesus then drew near to Jericho, he's getting close to Jerusalem now. A blind man was sitting by the roadside begging right on.

And hearing a crowd going by, he inquired what this meant. They told him Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.

And he cried out. Oh, this is a good prayer. Son of David, have mercy on me.

Wait a second. Isn't that what we just prayed during the Kyrie? In peace let us pray to the

Lord. Lord, have mercy. For the peace from above and for our salvation, let us pray to the Lord. Lord, have mercy.

Oh, we've learned how to pray like him. Have you ever considered the Kyrie a bunch of petitions begging

God for the very things we need? In fact, it is. So, Son of David, have mercy on me.

By the way, that's a pretty darn good prayer on another level. He has a really good Christology here. He knows exactly who

Jesus is. He knows that he's the Son of David. That means he knows he's the Messiah.

And what happened? The people who were in front rebuked Brian Bartimaeus, telling him to be silent.

Shut up, beggar. Be quiet. Put a cork in it.

Don't be so loud about that Messiah stuff. The Pharisees will get upset. Who knows what their motive was, but they were telling him to shut up.

Well, you know, if you're good at begging, and he was a beggar for a living, do you think somebody telling you to shut up is going to sit there and go, well, maybe

I need to rethink my career choices here. No way. Brian Bartimaeus knows full well that sometimes persistence in begging gets you exactly what you want.

And so rather than being silent, he cried out all the more. He basically took his volume, cranked it up to 11, and let it out.

Son of David, have mercy on me. And those words just hit the atmosphere.

I had to use that, because charismatics always use that word. Had to find a way to weave it into my sermon.

It hits the atmosphere, and Jesus stops. He hears his begging.

And so Jesus commanded, no, he's the commander here. Jesus commanded him to be brought to him.

You bring that blind man here to me. And so when he came near, he asked him, what do you want me to do for you?

He said, Lord, let me recover my sight. Now, that is quite a huge request.

Is it not? But have you ever stopped to think that every time one of us falls ill and gets a diagnosis that is pretty negative, that each and every time that we're near death, when we lift up somebody before Christ and in our prayer time beg that God would have mercy on them and heal them?

Are we not doing the same? Indeed we are. So you'll note that we can ask

God for something as small as a meal, our daily bread, and as big as our physical recovery from a huge problem in our bodies.

Now, God being God, has the prerogative to say yes or to say no.

And sometimes God says no for our own good. Keep that in mind. And sometimes God says no because he has something better for you.

You know, I remember praying for people that God would heal them and they died. I consider that to be a better answer to prayer because those people are now with Christ.

You got to remember, my goal as a pastor is not to get you to cross some finished line of faith. Oh, we got the person to confess

Jesus and believe in him for the forgiveness of sin. We got that person baptized. My job's over.

No, my job here is to safely deliver you into the yard over there in the faith.

Keep that in mind. That's a pretty grim task, right? You're not safe until you're out of this world and in the arms of Christ.

And in this world, we have to what? Pray. Beg. And you'll note that that requires you to humble yourself.

But again, you'll note blind Bartimaeus didn't have any goggles over his face, augmenting reality that kept him from perceiving who

Jesus truly was. He knew exactly who he was even though he couldn't see him. How'd he figure that out? Well, he stuck his eyes in his ears.

And his ears became very attuned to what the truth was that he was hearing. And as a result of it, he believed and trusted in Christ.

So, Lord, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him, recover your sight. Your faith has made you well.

Actually, the Greek's more like your faith has saved you. And when

Jesus commands, things happen. Immediately, he recovered his sight and he followed

Jesus, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God. So, brothers and sisters, we are about to embark in Lent.

It is coming up Wednesday night. It begins with Ash Wednesday. And it is a 40 -day penitential season.

A time for us to honestly look at our lives and to recognize the sin that we still struggle with and to beg

God for mercy and to cry out to the Holy Spirit to give us strength to mortify our sinful flesh.

You'll note the word mortification. It's a wonderful word, by the way. It means put your sinful nature to death.

Well, how often am I supposed to murder that fellow? Daily? Hourly if necessary?

Minute by minute? Second by second? That's the point. You'll note that we are called by God to mortify our sinful flesh.

To kill it. To not negotiate with it. Sit there and go, well, listen, if you give me a little bit of what

I want, I'll give you a little bit of that sin that you want. Come to terms with your sin and live in harmony with it.

Nope. We are called by Scripture to mortify our sinful flesh. And so we must recognize here that the reason why we are in the pickle that we're in, in the suffering that we're in, in the difficulty, in the warfare that we find ourselves in is because of our sin and our participation in sin and the ways of the devil.

We have to recognize the impact of this is so devastating and so complex and so far -reaching that even

Jesus' closest disciples who spent three years with him were still blinded by the augmented reality that their sin put over their eyes.

And we are capable of that same problem too. And so this is a time for us to cry out to God and beg for mercy.

A time for us to consider what Christ has done and to consider this, that Jesus knew full well

He was going to the cross and He didn't even flinch. He went straight there to suffer for you and I so that we can be reconciled and that finally the augmented reality of sin would be lifted from our eyes and so we can see

God for who He really is. And we can see the truth and that the truth,

Jesus would set us free from slavery to sin, death and the devil. So let us humble ourselves yet again daily.

Cry out to God for mercy and for strength to mortify our sinful flesh and let us ask this

Lenten tide for God to show us where reality truly is so that we no longer believe the augments of sin.

Trusting then that God hearing our begging petitions would answer us according to His grace.

In the name of Jesus, Amen. We rise to confess our faith together in the words of the

Apostles Creed. I believe in God the

Father Almighty maker of heaven and earth and in Jesus Christ His 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 into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the

Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the

Holy Spirit the Holy Christian Church the communion of saints the forgiveness of sins the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.

Amen. We continue with the prayers of the church. In peace let us pray to the

Lord. For humble and contrite hearts that cry to God our rock of refuge and for grace to follow

Christ our Savior with joy. Let us pray to the Lord. For the church as she prepares for Lent that our

God who opened the eyes of the blind to see and the ears of the deaf to hear would open our eyes and ears anew through the preaching of law and gospel and that we would see and hear

His Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Let us pray to the Lord. For the family and all godly

Christian homes that God would give parents diligence and persistence in their duties to teach the faith in word and example that He would keep adults and children alike in the promises of holy baptism and that the patience kindness and endurance of Christian love would have no end among us.

Let us pray to the Lord. We pray for those who serve in law enforcement and in our armed forces especially today to remember

Matt Sylvester that God would protect them and give courage to all who serve in hazardous situations and that God would bestow wisdom on our leaders so that we may live in peace according to His will.

Let us pray to the Lord. We pray for the sick and for the dying.

Today we lift up before you Jonathan, Scott Judy, Steve, Elizabeth Jeremy, Allen, Debbie Paul, Carrie, Becky Jim, Steve Christopher, Sheila Ron, Melba, Bill Michael, Cameron, Troy Jim, Chloe Ellen, Brooks Gary, Natalie Deb, Taryn, Candy Todd, Bonnie, Brent Roger, Kevin Mark, Jeff Joan, Sarah, Jessica Josh, Ryan Tim, Lori Mike, Shirley and Carol We pray for Annie and Ethan, Sheila, David, Judy Linda Jean, Tom Dawson, Jim, Ellen, Pam Chuck, Charmaine, Robin Colin, Bill, Colleen Heather and Rich and we also lift before you

Hope, Ronnie the Goodry family Debbie, Estella, John Rebecca, Jonathan, Miranda Gerald, Renee Martha, Susan, Una Dick, Wolfgang, Rosanna The Lang family

Danielle, Aubrey, Luke, Justin Caroline, Jack, Stephen Robert, Irmano, Rich, Luis Tim, Cam Cindy, Barbara, Gloria Karen, Tara, Robert Linda, Charita, Robin, Luis Patty, Jeff, Marco Selina, Rachel, Mason, Aaron Ashley, Elizabeth, Sane, Lou Robin and Carrie We ask that our compassionate

Father would ease their pain, remove their anxiety and comfort them by his forgiving love.

Let us pray to the Lord. For all who gather for worship this day, that we would eagerly receive

God's gifts of word and sacrament with thanksgiving and through them joyously obtain the forgiveness of sins and behold his glory.

Let us pray to the Lord. Lord God, Heavenly Father, which you foretold through the holy prophets has been fulfilled and accomplished in the suffering and the death and the resurrection of your son.

You have set forth his passion and resurrection as the firm foundation and content for our faith.

Have mercy on us and fix our eyes on the son of David at all times. Give us courage to follow him through all adversity and every assault of the devil and to view his passion with repentant hearts and delight.

For by it you have redeemed us from all sin and evil. Comfort us with the certainty of Christ's resurrection by which we have confidence of eternal life through the same

Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen. We continue with the offertory. Now, a little bit of a note.

You're going to note I'm going to use the holy hand sanitizer today. Earlier this week, I had a stomach flu and it's been three days since I've had a problem, but I don't know if I'm contagious or not.