Preparing for Worship | Sunday, September 18

Live StreamSeptember 18 is the 15th Sunday after Pentecost, and this year uses Proper 20 from Year C. You can prepare for worship with the resources included below by clicking "Read More."

​View this week's worship folder here.

Watch worship live on Sunday at 9 a.m. or anytime after on demand here.

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LCMS Lectionary Summary

Readings
 
​Amos 8:4–7
1 Timothy 2:1–15
Luke 16:1–15
 
The Lord Is Rich in His Grace and Mercy
 
Because God, our Savior, “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), He urges “that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people” (1 Tim. 2:1). Christians should so pray “without anger or quarreling,” but “adorn themselves in respectable apparel, with modesty and self-control” (1 Tim. 2:8, 9). For the Lord does not forget “the poor of the land” (Amos 8:4). He remembers them according to the foolishness of the cross. “For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God” (Luke 16:15). Though we try to justify ourselves “before men,” God knows our sinful hearts and calls us to repentance (Luke 16:15). Though we are “not strong enough to dig,” and we are “ashamed to beg” (Luke 16:3), He justifies us by His grace and welcomes us into His “eternal dwellings” (Luke 16:9). More shrewd than even “the sons of this world” (Luke 16:8), He requires His stewards of the Gospel to bestow forgiveness freely.

Worship

We are continuing to use Divine Service, Setting 4, which is a contemporary setting of the historic liturgy. The great songs of the Divine Service (Kyrie, Gloria, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei) are hymn paraphrases composed by Rev. Stephen Starke.

Our entrance rite will begin with Psalm 113. The Gradual is a seasonal verse and will separate the Old Testament Reading from the Epistle. The Common Alleluia and Verse from John 20:31 will prepare us to hear the Holy Gospel. 

This week we will also have a Rite of Installation for our Deaconess field work students from Concordia University Chicago.

The communion liturgy of Setting 4 also includes a seasonal prayer of thanksgiving. This week the prayer reads: ​

In Your righteous judgment You condemned the sin of Adam and Eve, who ate the forbidden fruit, and You justly barred them and all their children from the tree of life. Yet, in Your great mercy, You promised salvation by a second Adam, Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, and made His cross a life-giving tree for all who trust in Him.
 
We give You thanks for the redemption You have prepared for us through Jesus Christ. Grant us Your Holy Spirit that we may faithfully eat and drink of the fruits of His cross and receive the blessings of forgiveness, life, and salvation that come to us in His body and blood.

Hymns

Hymns this week will focus on vocation, especially the vocations that God gives to the women of His church, following the Epistle Reading.

The hymn numbers are for Lutheran Service Book (LSB).

The Hymn of the Day is Seek Where You May to Find a Way (LSB 557).




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​The Hymn of Invocation is The Tree of Life, which takes us back to the first instructions that God gave to the man and the woman, and how their inversion ushered in sin (LSB 561)

​Because we are welcoming our new Deaconess field workers, For All the Faithful Women will be one of our communion hymns this week, by which we will recognize the service of women in the church (LSB 855). We will also sing How Clear Is Our Vocation, Lord (LSB 853), and Sent Forth by God's Blessing (LSB 643) as communion hymns.

Rise, Shine, You People will serve as our Hymn to Depart in the morning. It is also our theme hymn for the school year at St. John's Lutheran School.

Finally, our Evening Hymn is a plainsong hymn from the 6th century, O Christ, Who Art the Light and Day (LSB 882).