Septuagesima Service

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I would like to welcome you all to Kongsvinger Lutheran Church.
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Today we begin pre -Lent, and so the name here, if I butcher this in the pronunciation, my apologies in advance,
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Septuagissima is the Sunday, which kind of roughly translates out to 70th. We're about 70 days out from Easter, and you'll note that the readings start to take a turn towards the penitential, but not wholeheartedly, but definitely moving in that direction.
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And then you'll note that the opening hymn and the sermon hymn are the exact same number, 555, which means
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I've had mercy on you, and I've split it up into two. Don't ever say
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I wasn't merciful. That one Sunday, it made you sing the whole thing.
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We're going to do the first five verses for the opening, and then for the sermon hymn, we will do verses six through ten.
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So if you are, oh I should also tell you, for the intro, we will be using psalm tone
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E as an excellent, and that's what we'll be doing.
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So opening hymn 555 verses one through five, if you are physically present. I didn't give you 555?
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Hang on a second here, there's a discrepancy. I need to fix something here. Let me see if I gave you the wrong one.
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Okay, hold on. That's not good.
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Okay, hang on a second here. Technical difficulties, the senile pastor gave the wrong thing.
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Okay, why is it doing that? It was correct yesterday. Hold on a second here. Is there a quick share here?
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Yeah, let's see if that works.
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There we go. My apologies for the technical difficulties.
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If you are physically present here at Kongsbringer, please rise. Divine service setting two.
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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.
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Let us then confess our sins to God our Father. Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean.
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We have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone.
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We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.
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We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment. For the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.
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Forgive us, renew us, and lead us, so that we may delight in your will, and walk in your ways.
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To the glory of your holy name, amen. Almighty God, in his mercy, has given his
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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,
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I therefore forgive you all of your sins. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
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Psalm tone E. The cords of Sheol entangled me.
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In my distress, I called upon the Lord.
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I love you, O Lord, my strength. For you save a humble people.
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You have equipped me with strength. For this,
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I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations.
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Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the
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Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.
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Amen. The cords of Sheol entangled me.
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In my distress, I called upon the Lord. In peace, let us pray to the
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Lord. For the peace from above, and for our salvation, let us pray to the
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Lord. For the peace of the whole world, for the well -being of the
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Church of God, and for the unity of all, let us pray to the
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Lord. For this holy house, and for all who offer here their worship and praise, let us pray to the
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Lord. Help, save, comfort, and defend us, gracious Lord.
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Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth.
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The Lord be with you.
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Let us pray. O Lord, graciously hear the prayers of your people, that we who justly suffer the consequence of our sin may be mercifully delivered by your goodness to the glory of your name.
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Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
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Amen. You may be seated. The Old Testament reading for Septuagintima is taken from the book of Exodus chapter 17.
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All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages according to the commandment of the
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Lord, and camped at Rephidim. But there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said,
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Give us water to drink. Moses said to them, Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the
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Lord? But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?
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So Moses cried to the Lord, What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.
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And the Lord said to Moses, Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the
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Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.
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And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place
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Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, because they tested the
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Lord by saying, Is the Lord among us or not? This is the word of the Lord. We'll speak the gradual together by half verse.
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The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, and those who know your name put their trust in you.
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For the needy shall not always be forgotten. Arise, O Lord.
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The Epistle text is taken from 1st Corinthians chapters 9 and 10.
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Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize?
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So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self -control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
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So I do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others
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I myself should be disqualified. I want you to know, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, all drank the same spiritual drink.
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For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them
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God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. This is the word of the Lord.
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The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 20th chapter. Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard, and after agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard, and going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, you go into the vineyard too, and whatever is right
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I will give you. So they went. Going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour, he did the same.
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And about the eleventh hour, he went out and found others standing, and he said to them, why do you stand here idle all day?
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They said to him, because no one's hired us. And he said to them, you go into the vineyard too. And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last up to the first.
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And when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius. Now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius.
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And on receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house, saying, these last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.
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But he replied to one of them, friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius?
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Take what belongs to you and go. I choose to give to this last worker as I give to you.
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Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or do you begrudge my generosity?
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So the last will be first and the first last. This is the gospel of the Lord. You may be seated.
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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. You may be seated. In the name of Jesus.
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It's not fair. Any of you who've raised kids or been kids, you've heard those words before.
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And boy, the things that are not fair. It's not fair. He got more ice cream than I did.
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It's not fair. She never has to wash the dishes. Why do I always have to wash the dishes, right?
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It's not fair. And you just hear it in this voice, and every one of us knows exactly what this is all about.
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This is how the world operates. And you'll note that this carries over into the working world.
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Now one of the things I find fascinating about social media is the artificial intelligence behind it and the algorithms that are created.
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They've nailed me. I never took out a questionnaire, things that I'm interested in.
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But somehow the algorithm knows. And if you know me, I've spent some time in the corporate world.
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I have an MBA from Pepperdine University. I'm a former CEO of a healthcare management company.
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And all that being said, I get pushed into my social media feed videos regarding HR.
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Now, I know the algorithm thinks I'm interested in corporate things, but I must say this here.
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I believe that HR is the office of Antichrist, okay? That's a whole other story.
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But all of that being said, I saw a video this past week, and I thought, boy, that would just fit perfectly into the sermon.
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And it was a guy who, on his social media, what he does is he evaluates emails sent to bosses by employees.
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And what happened is that this fellow went and had a meal with some of his fellow employees.
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And it turns out that this particular employee, among all of those who had the same title and position that he had, he was the best performing.
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He managed more accounts, brought in more money. And after having some conversations with some of his fellow employees, found out that he was making 13 % less money than they were.
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And people who had been at the same job the same amount of time that he had been there.
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That being the case, you can hear, it's not fair, right? Because what do we expect? What's the big mantra nowadays?
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Equal pay for equal work, right? That's what we want. This is how the world operates.
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This is what we're pushing for. And so the guy sent an email to his boss and let him know that he was aware of the disparity and he expected his boss to fix it.
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And the boss making a bone headed move. And I mean, just because you're a manager doesn't mean you're smart.
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I just want to put that out there. Just because you're in management doesn't mean you know what you're doing. So his boss fires back an email and says, it is against company policy for employees to discuss their pay with other employees.
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And I can hear my alarm bells going off because in my MBA, we have to pay attention to things like this.
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It is against the law to forbid your employees to discuss their pay with each other. When a corporation has a policy like that, it's because they're ignorant and they don't know the law.
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The guy didn't do anything wrong. And he says, if you continue to ask me questions along this line, we will have to bring you up and consider some disciplinary action against you.
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But then a couple of weeks later, what did the guy do? He tendered his resignation. He says,
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I'm officially giving my two weeks notice and I'm expecting, because I have so much PTO and I have some vacation time to take care of these things, that you will not see my face.
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But I'm officially gone as of two weeks from now. And I expect to be paid the end. And you sit there and go, yeah, stick it to the man.
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Yeah, what a boneheaded thing. And the thing is, this is how the world operates. Okay, everything has got to be fair and everything measured out equal pay, equal work.
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This is how everybody thinks. But that's not how the kingdom of heaven operates.
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And it's important for us to keep this in mind so that we do not grumble against God.
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Let me kind of give another example here. I'm assuming that you all read your
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Bibles, right? Some of you maybe read your Bibles more than others. How many of you are praying every day? I'd like to show of hands.
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And that being the case, how many verses have you been reading in your Bible? And maybe what we should do is, rather than me giving a general absolution,
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I as a called and ordained servant of the word, I forgive you all of your sins. I will say this week, Stephen Elliot, David Fagerlund, and the
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DeBoer family, their sins are forgiven. The rest of you, try harder next week.
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I don't think that would go over very well. But Fagerlund's happy that for once I've said something positive, right?
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So you'll note the kingdom of God doesn't work like that.
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And that's the point that Jesus is getting at in part. And so there's wonderful layers to this particular parable.
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But partway through the sermon, what I'm going to do is I'm going to back up into the context. So I'll put the thesis out here first.
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This is about salvation by grace through faith alone apart from works. This is how the kingdom of God operates.
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Now, I know this because of the context, but let me take the passage at face value apart from the context, and you'll still see how this works.
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So Jesus says, for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.
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Now you'll note, that beginning of the sentence, for the kingdom of heaven is like, for the kingdom of heaven is like, that means that there's something else going on.
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The context comes into play. So here we've got this master who goes out early in the morning to hire laborers for the vineyard.
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Now, since this is about salvation by grace through faith apart from works, that does not mean that we
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Christians do not have works to do. Again, Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10, for by grace you have been saved through faith.
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This is not your own doing. This is the gift of God, so that no one may boast.
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For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, and I want you to know this, that God has prepared those good works in advance for us to do, and we are saved unto good works.
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We are not saved by our good works. Anybody who thinks they're saved by their good works is a self -righteous person who does not rightly understand the proper distinction of law and gospel, and the self -righteous are inherently haughty, arrogant, and on top of it they grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble, grumble against God because they always think that they're in the right.
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Think of them like spiritual Karens, okay? This is what we're talking about here. So here we've got this master of the house.
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Now consider the scenario, and the scenario goes something like this. Who planted the vineyard?
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The master did. Who made sure that those vines were doing their business, pruned them and all that kind of stuff, and made sure that they were producing fruit?
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The master did. So the guys who were hired, all they had to do is come and pick the fruit that was all the work done by the master.
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Keep that in mind as we work our way through this. So he went out and hired laborers in the morning, and after agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them out into the vineyard, and going out about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace.
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This is important when you kind of consider the greater meaning of this, and that is that when you do not trust in Christ, you are not doing the good works that God has called you to do because Hebrews says, without faith it is impossible to please
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God. It's not difficult. It's not hard. It's not a challenge. It's impossible.
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So that being the case, you'll note that the unbelievers are likened as those who are sitting idly, not doing the works that God has called them to, whereas those who trust in Christ are doing the good works that God has prepared in advance for them to do, and they are busy about the work of doing the business that Christians do because they're
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Christians. So you'll note this this master is dead set on getting as many people into this vineyard as humanly possible, working in his vineyard, and so he goes out the third hour, he goes out the ninth hour, and he says to the people, you go into the vineyard too, whatever's right
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I will give you. So they went going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour.
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He did the same, and about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he said to them, why do you stand here idle?
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They said to him, well because no one's hired us, and he said, then you go into the vineyard too. These guys are going to work a bona fide hour, that's it.
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It's not the heat of the day, things are cooling off, they're only going to work an hour, okay, but watch the generosity of the master because this isn't about how this world operates, this is about how the kingdom operates.
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So when those hired, the text goes on to say, when the evening came the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, call the laborers and pay them their wages beginning with the last up to the first, and when those hired about the eleventh hour came, each of them received a denarius, and you can just hear the buzz in the line, right?
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The guys at the back of the line who were hired first in the morning, they're sitting there going, he's giving out a denarius an hour.
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All right, we're going to be rich, this is going to be awful, it's going to be awesome, right? And so when they came to the front of the line, they also received a denarius, and then they grumbled at the master of the house, as if the master of the house had done something wrong, as if this, it's not fair, yeah, right?
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And here's their complaint, these last, they only worked one hour, you made them equal to us who've borne the burden of the day of the scorching heat.
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Equal? Are we not all equal in Christ? God shows no partiality.
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And so here I think it would be a good idea to back up into the context, so that you can see how this is connected, because there's something really important going on.
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So if you have your Bibles, go to Matthew chapter 19, starting at verse 16, and you'll see that this forms the context of this parable.
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It is a story of the rich young ruler. It says, behold, a man came up to Jesus saying, teacher, what good thing must
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I do to have eternal life? And Jesus says, well, you know, don't dance, drink, smoke, chew, make sure that you have your devotions twice a day, and be sure to tithe, and all that kind of stuff, and do charitable things, and no, he didn't say that, right?
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You're going to note that the question itself shows the problem, and this is a loaded question.
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It assumes something. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, my wife is like a master of the loaded question, and the loaded questions that she asks are not safe to answer.
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So if she asks a question like this, you're going to mow the lawn today, aren't you? No, that's a question, but I would be foolish to think that it was anything less than a command, okay?
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Because you're going to note that there's some assumptions going on here, and the answer to that question is yes, ma 'am, and don't make any eye contact.
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Keep your head down, mouth shut, okay? And just get the lawnmower running, okay? But you get the idea.
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So note the question. Teacher, what good thing must I do to have eternal life?
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Are we saved by our works? Is there something you can do? Must I travel to Rome and do a pilgrimage to Jerusalem?
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Must I give all of my money to somebody else? What must I do, right? And so Christ answers his question, but he ignores the answer.
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He says, why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. There is only one who is good, and ain't you.
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It's definitely not me. So if you would enter life, then keep the commandments, and Jesus isn't saying that you're saved by your works.
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He's now going to use the law to show this guy his sin. So he said to him, well, which ones? Jesus says, all right, and what
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Jesus does next is fascinating. He goes into the second table of the law. First table of the law has to do with our relationship with God, right?
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Second table has to do with our relationship with others, and he says, all right, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you should not bear false witness, honor your father and mother, you shall love your neighbors yourself.
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And the young man said to him, all these I've kept, what do I still lack? And each and every one of us hearing his answers, just sit there and go, really?
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Seriously? I mean, are you married? Let me talk to your wife. I mean, we'll get this sorted out pretty quick, right?
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I mean, who talks this way? I'll be blunt. The only people I've ever heard talk this way are those delusional enough to believe that they can somehow achieve sinless perfection in this life, and that's a heresy.
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The church actually condemned it as a heresy when Pelagius leered his ugly head in church history.
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You cannot, nobody has achieved sinless perfection. In fact, what does first John say?
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If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
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But if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
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There is not a single person on planet earth alive today who doesn't sin daily and sin much.
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This guy thinks he's pulling off the law. So Jesus, not really playing along, but really pushing the point in a very polite way, he says, all right, if you would be perfect, go sell what you possess and give it to the poor and you'll have treasure in heaven and then come follow me.
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And the text says, oh, when the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. Oh, that's a first commandment issue, isn't it?
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Uh -huh. And I would note this, a funny thing, self -righteousness and a love of money oftentimes goes hand in hand.
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It's a weird thing. Okay, well, the whole word of faith movement, it's a completely legalistic system and its entire focus is on what?
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Having prosperity and health and wealth and things like this. You can tell that you're really blessed from God because you have that private jet.
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Okay, I have a private jet. It's about this big and it fits on my desk and I have it in a box somewhere in my, but I have a private jet too and I have now four
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Aston Martins. Of course, you have to cremate me and put my ashes in the thimble in order for me to drive those things, but that's a whole other story, right?
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So you'll note that in the self -righteous way of thinking, I know that I'm obedient and I am being blessed by God because I have money,
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I have wealth, I have power, I have influence, I have affluence, and those who are cursed by God, what do they have to do?
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They struggle to put food on the table, they have to eat spam and things like this, and they buy their clothes from, you know, secondhand stores and things.
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They're truly cursed from God. The two go hand in hand in the way of thinking of people who are self -righteous, but you'll note this, this is no indicator of whether or not you are blessed of God.
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Those who are blessed of God who have their sins forgiven by Christ because Christ has bled and died for the ungodly.
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So Christ points this out, he runs away sorrowful, and at this point the the disciples are just looking at like going, what's going on?
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So Jesus said to his disciples, truly I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven.
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And so Jesus takes him C4, puts it up against the self -righteous beliefs of the
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Pharisees, and just goes boom, blows the whole thing up, and he then says, and again
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I tell you it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven, and when the disciples heard this they were astonished greatly.
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Who then can be saved is their question. What do you mean the rich aren't blessed of God?
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Who can be saved? And then Jesus says, with man this is impossible. Salvation is impossible apart from God, but with God all things are possible.
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And then Peter legitimately starts to add a few things up, and he asks a very interesting question.
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He says to Jesus, we've left everything and followed you. In fact we don't even have anything now.
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They don't even have a house to stay in. They are living off the charity of others, traipsing about the Judean wilderness and going to village to village, listening and supporting
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Christ's preaching and teaching. We've left everything to follow you. What then will we have?
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Jesus said to them, truly I say to you, in the new world, note the emphasis, in the new world when the
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Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on 12 thrones.
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And you who have followed me, you will judge the 12 tribes of Israel, and everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name's sake they will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
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But many who are first will be last, and the last first. And here's note the emphasis here, everyone who has left houses, brothers, sisters, who's sacrificed, has paid the price for their confession of Christ, whether they be rich or poor, whether they be male or female, whether they had great health or they were infirmed for most of their life, everyone will receive from Christ a hundredfold.
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Note that we all will receive that, and we are all equally then given by Christ in mercy, in forgiveness, in grace, and inheritance in the world to come, and I can gladly say that we are all equals.
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This is how the kingdom of God operates. This is why then verse 1 of chapter 20 begins, for the kingdom of heaven is like a master who went out early in the morning.
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Jesus is punctuating the point, and then we hear the parable, and then we hear the guys grumbling, they're grumbling saying, you've made us equal with them who bore the heat of the day.
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But listen, master says, friend, I am doing you no wrong.
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Did you not agree with me for a denarius? And then you'll note that this is important for our thinking, this, because we can legitimately say as Christians that somebody is saved and has received from Christ as a gift eternal life, whether they are baptized as an infant and they have been a
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Christian their entire life, or whether they confess Christ on their death bed.
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And for the first time in my life, I have legitimately heard of a fellow who confessed
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Christ in the last days of his life, and I can tell you this, it showed in his good works as well.
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And I'm humbled by the thought, and I'm really looking forward to the day that that man as my equal will be with me in heaven and in the new earth, and we are all equals.
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And if you sit there and say it's not fair, you're right, it isn't fair.
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It isn't fair because God isn't fair in the kingdom. Think of it this way, what sin did
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Christ commit? What wrong did he do that he was crucified?
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Not one. He was the only sinless man in all of human history, and yet God gave him something he didn't deserve, your sin, my sin.
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As Isaiah said, God has laid on him the iniquity of us all. You want fair?
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Then you want hell. But in Christ's kingdom, it isn't fair.
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And thank God it isn't fair because it says that Christ died for the ungodly.
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That's me, and that's you. And God laid on him the iniquity of us all.
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God made him to be sin who knew no sin. It's not fair that Christ was hanging on the cross in order to give you something you do not deserve.
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The wages that he won in his sinless, spotless, perfect life and in his sacrifice, he gives to you because he is generous.
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Who would you be to grumble against such generosity, against such love, against such grace?
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And it is true that we all in Christ, we have work to do.
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And some of us do that work for longer than others. And some of us do more of it than others. So what?
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Work is freedom in the kingdom of God. It isn't slavery. Work is a blessing, not a curse in the kingdom of God.
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Obeying God's laws and his commandment is freedom. Disobeying them is slavery. If you are grumbling, you still have not yet understood how the kingdom operates.
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So let us thank God that he is not fair. Not fair to save sinners like you and I.
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And that he, that Jesus, he bore the scorching heat of God's wrath on the cross so that we can be forgiven.
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Christ says to those grumblers, am I not allowed to do with what I choose with what belongs to me? Salvation was won by Christ and it belongs to him.
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And you know what? He gives it to you freely out of his great love and compassion, out of his great mercy and kindness.
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God gives it to you and he can do whatever belongs to him. And that's what belongs to him.
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Salvation belongs to our God and he only gives it away for free. So do we begrudge
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God's generosity? May it never be. Let us not begrudge
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Christ's generosity and let us rejoice in the one who isn't fair. The one who makes sure that the last will be first and the first last.
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Because in that we have true hope of salvation. In the name of Jesus. Amen. I need a second.
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My apologies. We rise to confess our faith together in the words of the
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Apostles' Creed. I believe in God, the
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Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only son, our
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Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.
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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
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Father Almighty. From thence he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the
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Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
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Amen. We remain standing for the prayers of the church.
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Let us pray for the whole Church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs. Heavenly Father, you call your church to fruitful labor in your vineyard.
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Cause us to recognize our unworthiness for such a gracious gift, to rejoice in the salvation that we have in Christ, and to remain steadfast in your word.
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Lord, in your mercy. Father of all, you have built your one only holy church upon the rock of Christ and ordered her according to your gracious will.
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Instill in her pastors a godly wisdom to know your word thoroughly, and in her people a patient spirit that waits on your heavenly provision.
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Lord, in your mercy. Father in heaven, bless our congregation that we would love one another as Christ has loved us.
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Lead us to give generously in support of your mission here and abroad, to pray for our enemies, to put away all earthly grumbling, and to bask in your gracious providence.
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Lord, in your mercy. Master of the vineyard, you call us by your grace to work and to live in your kingdom, not as slaves, but as sons of the
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Most High and brothers of Christ. Work graciously through the teaching and example of fathers and mothers to preserve the faith of children and help them grow in Christ until life's end.
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Lord, in your mercy. Almighty God, you have established all authority upon earth to be a blessing, not a burden.
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Remember those entrusted with civil authority here and in all places, and enable them to serve with wisdom and integrity.
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Lord, in your mercy. Creator God, you have given your children the blessing of vocation.
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Remember the unemployed and the underemployed, especially those suffering serious financial distress.
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Help them to productive work and to continue to provide for their earthly needs. Lord, in your mercy.
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Heavenly Father, remember those in need. Today we especially remember and bring before you
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Steve, Elizabeth, Jeremy, Alan, 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, Laurie, Mike, Shirley, Carol, Annie, and Ethan, Sheila, David, Judy, Linda, Jean, Tom, Dawson, Jim, Ellen, Pam, Chuck, Charmaine, Robin, Colin, Bill, Colleen, Heather, and Rich.
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We pray for John, Rebecca, Jonathan, Miranda, Gerald, Renee, Martha, Susan, Una, Dick, Wolfgang, Rosanna, the
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Lang family, Danielle, Aubrey, Luke, Justin, Carolyn, Jack, Stephen, Robert, Armando, Luis, Rich, Tim, Cam, Cindy, Barbara, Gloria, Karen, Tara, Robert, Linda, Charita, Robin, Luis, Patty, Jeff, Marco, Selena, Rachel, Mason, Aaron, Ashley, Elizabeth, Shane, Lou, Robin, Lauren, and Carrie.
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Be the father of the lonely and the forsaken, the helper of the sick and the needy, the comforter of the distressed and the sorrowful.
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Lord, in your mercy. Lord God, you have made our way blameless by your word of absolution.
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By your holy word, you have equipped us to continue in the labor of our many callings. Now, O Lord, satisfy our hunger and thirst with your precious sacrament.
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Lord, in your mercy. Hear us, Heavenly Father, for the sake of Christ Jesus, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the
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Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. We continue now with the offertory.