Readings, Devotion, and Prayers for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost, October 11, 2020, for both MLLC and Waldeck Evangelical Lutheran Church

We continue to offer in-person and Facebook Live services following the normal Sunday schedule for both MLLC and Waldeck.  The Facebook Live services will be offered on Sundays at 8:00 a.m. from Waldeck, and at 10:00 a.m. from MLLC.  The Saturday 6:00 p.m. service at MLLC is in-person only.

Below are the readings, prayers, and Sunday sermon.

Remember Your Regular Offerings

For both of our congregations, Waldeck and MLLC, please remember that our expenses continue even when we are unable to meet as usual.  Please make a point to give your offerings as you would on a typical week.  Here are some ideas of what to do:

For Waldeck Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ledbetter:

– send your offering by mail to the church office  – Waldeck Evangelical Lutheran Church; 6915 Waldeck Church Lane; Ledbetter, TX 78946

– set aside your offerings each week, and then bring these to church when you can be at worship again.

For MLLC in Carmine:

– send your offering by mail to the church office  – MLLC, P O BOX 362, Carmine, TX 78932-0362

– set aside your offerings each week, and then bring these to church when you can be at worship again.

– give offerings through the church web site:  mllccarmine.com/online-giving  This page has a link to our secure giving page.  Offerings can be made by bank draft, debit card, or credit card through this special web site.

October 10^th & 11^th, 2020

nineteenth SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

First Reading: Isaiah 25:1-9

R:  A reading from Isaiah, the 25^th Chapter.

After a hymn of praise acknowledging God as a shelter for the poor, the prophet portrays a wonderful victory banquet at which death—which in ancient Canaan was depicted as a monster swallowing up everyone—will be swallowed up forever. The prophet urges celebration of this victory of salvation.

And now the reading.

¹O Lord, you are my God;
I will exalt you, I will praise your name;
for you have done wonderful things,
plans formed of old, faithful and sure.
²For you have made the city a heap,
the fortified city a ruin;
the palace of aliens is a city no more,
it will never be rebuilt.
³Therefore strong peoples will glorify you;
cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
⁴For you have been a refuge to the poor,
a refuge to the needy in their distress,
a shelter from the rainstorm and a shade from the heat.
When the blast of the ruthless was like a winter rainstorm,
⁵the noise of aliens like heat in a dry place,
you subdued the heat with the shade of clouds;
the song of the ruthless was stilled.
⁶On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
⁷And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
⁸he will swallow up death forever.
Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the Lord has spoken.
⁹It will be said on that day,
Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us.
This is the Lord for whom we have waited;
let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.    (4)

Psalm: Psalm 23 King James Version

R: Psalm 23, read in unison.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

he leadeth me beside the still waters.

He restoreth my soul:

he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness

for his name’s sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley

of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;

thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me

in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil;

my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy

shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

Second Reading: Philippians 4:1-9

R: A reading from Philippians, the 4^th chapter.

Though writing from prison and facing an uncertain future, Paul calls on the Philippians to rejoice and give thanks to God no matter what the circumstance. God’s peace is with us and binds together our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ, especially when things around us do not seem peaceful.

And now the reading.

1My brothers and sisters, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, my beloved.

2I urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. 3Yes, and I ask you also, my loyal companion, help these women, for they have struggled beside me in the work of the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my co-workers, whose names are in the book of life.

4Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6Do not

(5)

worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

*Gospel: Matthew 22:1-14

P: The holy gospel according to St. Matthew, the 22^nd chapter.

Glory to you, O Lord.

Jesus tells a parable indicating that the blessings of God’s kingdom are available to all, but the invitation is not to be taken lightly.

And now the reading.

¹Once more Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying: ²“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son. ³He sent his slaves to call those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they would not come. ⁴Again he sent other slaves, saying, ‘Tell those who have been invited: Look, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready; come to the wedding banquet.’ ⁵But they made light of it and went away, one to his farm, another to his business, ⁶while the rest seized his slaves, mistreated them, and killed them. ⁷The king was enraged. He sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. ⁸Then he said to his slaves, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. ⁹Go therefore into the main streets, and invite everyone you find to the wedding banquet.’ ¹⁰Those slaves went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both good and bad; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.

(6)

¹¹“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing a wedding robe, ¹²and he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding robe?’ And he was speechless. ¹³Then the king said to the attendants, ‘Bind him hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ ¹⁴For many are called, but few are chosen.”

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Devotion, by Pastor David Tinker

“Connecting with Jesus and Each Other”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This COVID19 situation has made everything difficult.  One of the most significant difficulties has been interpersonal connections.  Some of us barely ever see anybody.  Others have limited or mediated connections with each other.  For the sake of everybody, we continue to practice social distancing in any context outside of our household.

One place where I often am around many people during this time is the grocery store.  This has been an odd experience for the past 7 months.  It is getting a tiny bit better in recent months.  There are a few things I notice.

1. People rarely look each other in the eye, compared to before.
2. People are in their own little world.
3. Sometimes, if a stranger speaks to another, the second person is likely to be wildly surprised, and my not even reply.
4. People are doing their best to social distance.
5. The masks covering mouth and nose make it hard to recognize friends and neighbors. People sometimes don’t even greet those they know, so as to avoid embarrassment if it is not one’s friend.

God made us to be in connection with one another.  We need each other, yet right now it is very hard to be together.  With God’s help, we can work to give each other the connection we need.

Today’s reading from the book of Philippians is about interpersonal relationships.  Philippians is a very personal and encouraging letter from Paul to the Christians in the Greek city of Philippi.  He celebrates their ministry. He refers to them as “my joy and my crown.”  Paul is close to these people “in spirit”, even though he must write to them from a Roman prison cell.  He had a deep and powerful relationship with these children of God, and it clearly shows in his writings.  He was comforted by the mere thought of these brothers and sisters.  He was strengthened and nurtured by them, even from afar.

Relationships are important to us as well. There are three primary relationship areas which we foster for relational health.  These three types of relationships point us in three directions:

Outward:  these are our purely social encounters with friends, family and others.

Inward:  this is how we relate to our inner self – the person we are, even when no one is watching.

Upward:  Our response to God who first reaches to us in love – it is how we meet and experience the Divine in everyday life.

We see in our reading from Philippians that he had a positive connection with the people of the church at Philippi.  He worked to foster an environment in which people worked for the common goal of spreading the Gospel.  They worked together well, and Paul worked to encourage the people to work out their differences and problems.  He was encouraging healthy relationships.

Relationships among Christians are especially important.  The Christian life itself is founded in being in relationship with others.  It is first about God’s blessing of a restored relationship with him through the work of Jesus.

Ultimately, the only way we can be at peace with ourselves, with others, and with God is through the work of Jesus Christ. God saw how we had stopped drawing near to him and to others.  Life’s essential elements were broken, so he sent God the Son, Jesus Christ, to be broken instead. His death on the cross opened the door to forgiveness and healing between one’s self and God, and thus, with one another.  His rising from the tomb paved the way for us to follow him into eternity. His love stirs us to reach out to one another for reconciliation and care.  In response to God’s love, and stirred by the Holy Spirit, we move closer to God, and thus closer to one another.

As we are drawn closer to God and closer to each other we are reminded of this truth:  The Body of Christ, the Church, is all about life together.  In the reading from Philippians, in verse 2, we see Paul’s encouragement of two fellow believers.  These two women in the church, Euodia and Syntyche, had some sort of quarrel.  We don’t know the details, but we do know that it was worthy of Paul’s mention in this letter.  He knew them well, for they had worked together in ministry.  In this passage he is encouraging these two to reconcile and resume working together.  Paul says, “I urge Euodia and Syntyche to be of the same mind.”

Dorotheos of Gaza was a sixth century AD teacher and monk.  He once preached a sermon for the monks in his monastery who were grumbling that they were unable to love God properly.  Why?  Because they had to put up with one another’s ordinary, irritating presence.  No, Dorotheos told them, they were wrong.  He asked them to visualize the world as a great circle whose center is God. Also, upon the circumference of that circle lie human lives.  “Imagine now,” he asked his fellow monks, “that there are straight lines connecting from the outside of the circle all human lives to God at the center.  Can’t you see that there is no way to move closer to God without drawing closer to other people, and no way to approach other people without coming near to God?”

As we respond to the love of God with worship and love for God, we are called and empowered to love one another.  This self-giving care for one another is essential for the building up of our fellowship and for the spread of the Gospel.  In the early church, there was a response of others to seeing the Christians in action.  They said, “See how they love one another.”  They lived out their work of love and reconciliation by following the teaching of Paul in First Corinthians 13, where he wrote, “4 Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

Our relationships with others are always part of living out the Christian life.  Paul knew it as he encouraged the community at Philippi.  Jesus knew it for he was constantly building relationships with others.  He willed it when he created the church.  We know that relationships are essential to the Christian life, for we have lived it.

For a healthy and positive future as a congregation we must all strive to live out love for one another. As God draws us to himself, we are also drawn to each other.  Through this we are a blessing to one-another and we give glory to God.

Let us pray – Loving God, we pray that your Holy Spirit will draw us together around you both in this world and in our heavenly home.  Bring healing and reconciliation between people.  Help us to seek and care for those who are struggling, lonely, and forgotten.  We pray this in the Holy Name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

*Prayers of Intercession

A:  Let us pray for the whole people of God in Christ Jesus, and for all people according to their needs.

A brief silence.

Almighty God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit:  we worship you, for you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.  Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

Grant us renewed connections with one another. Heal the divisions between one person and another.  Help us to love one another as Christ has loved us.  Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

We remember in prayer those who have recently passed away.  Grant peace and comfort to those who mourn, (especially the family and friends of …) Help us to care for one another in our time of loss.  Lord, in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

We pray that you would bring healing, strength and hope to those who struggle in body, mind or spirit, especially . . .  and those whom we name aloud or in quiet prayer…  May your comforting Spirit strengthen all for whom we pray.   Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

Other petitions may be added here.

We give thanks for our partnership with Waldeck Evangelical Lutheran Church.  Help us to continue to grow in our ministry together.  Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

We pray for all who have been affected by recent violence and natural disasters.  Bring courage, determination and strength to all emergency responders who serve those in need. Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

P:  Into your hands, O Lord, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in your mercy; through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen

Lord’s Prayer

HARVEST FESTIVAL will be held on October 18 at the Carmine Hall.  No confirmation reunion will be held this year.  Worship service (no communion) will be at 10:15 a.m. with the Praise Team leading Country Gospel songs.  The kettle fried chicken dinner will be drive-through only from 11-12:30. Desserts will be available.  Tickets must be purchased in advance for $10.  Members may contact Shelby Vaughn at 979-203-4313 if they wish to take tickets to sell.  Tickets are available in the church office.  Members are also asked to take posters to place at businesses in different towns.

Raffle tickets are $10 with 6 big prizes.  Karen Roemer has those available and are also being sold in the church office.

DESSERTS ARE NEEDED Please bring them to the hall around 8:30 or 9 a.m. so they may be cut and placed in containers.

LUTHERAN WORLD RELIEF UPDATE The church received word on September 11 that the Lutheran World Relief items in the Beirut explosion were damaged, but not completely destroyed as initially believed.  Some of the items did come from our congregation.  To make a monetary contribution go to the MLLC website with the following link:

https://mllccarmine.com/2020/08/10/beirut-explosion-and-lutheran-world-relief/

Carmine Night OUT – Thursday, October 15. The Carmine Chamber of Commerce invites you to a Flag Retirement Ceremony on Thursday, October 15, the annual Carmine Night Out, beginning at 6:00 p.m. Collection bins are located at the Carmine State Bank, JW’s Steakhouse, and Village Market.  You can deposit American, Texas, or any branch of the military flag for retirement.  There will be free hot dogs on cart, drinks, and desserts that evening as well as door prizes for youngsters and adults, and kids’ activities as well.  Come hear dignitaries and candidates speak.  For questions, call/text 979-451-1507.

Hurricane Relief for Louisiana.  Our synod and the ELCA have ongoing relief work going on in Louisiana.  With another storm heading to this easter part of synod, the needs will only increase.  You can give through your offerings.  Designate it as “Hurricane Relief – ELCA,” or “Hurricane Relief – Synod.”  See the web site for more information:  https://mllccarmine.com/2020/08/31/hurricane-laura-relief/

Readings, Devotion, and Prayers for the 18th Sunday after Pentecost, October 4, 2020, for both MLLC and Waldeck Evangelical Lutheran Church

We continue to offer in-person and Facebook Live services following the normal Sunday schedule for both MLLC and Waldeck.  The Facebook Live services will be offered on Sundays at 8:00 a.m. from Waldeck, and at 10:00 a.m. from MLLC.  The Saturday 6:00 p.m. service at MLLC is in-person only.

Below are the readings, prayers, and Sunday sermon.

Remember Your Regular Offerings

For both of our congregations, Waldeck and MLLC, please remember that our expenses continue even when we are unable to meet as usual.  Please make a point to give your offerings as you would on a typical week.  Here are some ideas of what to do:

For Waldeck Evangelical Lutheran Church in Ledbetter:

– send your offering by mail to the church office  – Waldeck Evangelical Lutheran Church; 6915 Waldeck Church Lane; Ledbetter, TX 78946

– set aside your offerings each week, and then bring these to church when you can be at worship again.

For MLLC in Carmine:

– send your offering by mail to the church office  – MLLC, P O BOX 362, Carmine, TX 78932-0362

– set aside your offerings each week, and then bring these to church when you can be at worship again.

– give offerings through the church web site:  mllccarmine.com/online-giving  This page has a link to our secure giving page.  Offerings can be made by bank draft, debit card, or credit card through this special web site.

October 03 & 04, 2020

EIGHTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

First Reading: Isaiah 5:1-7

R:  A reading from Isaiah, The Fifth Chapter

The prophet sings a sad, parable-like love song about the relationship between God and Israel. In this song Israel is compared to a promising vineyard. Despite God’s loving care, the vineyard that is Israel has brought forth “wild grapes” of injustice and distress, when fine grapes of justice and righteousness were expected.

¹Let me sing for my beloved
my love-song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
²He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
he expected it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.
³And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem
and people of Judah,
judge between me
and my vineyard.
⁴What more was there to do for my vineyard
that I have not done in it?
When I expected it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?
⁵And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
⁶I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.
⁷For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the people of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
he expected justice,
but saw bloodshed;
righteousness,
but heard a cry!

Psalm: Psalm 80:7-15

⁷Restore us, O | God of hosts;
let your face shine upon us, and we | shall be saved.
⁸You have brought a vine | out of Egypt;
you cast out the nations and | planted it.
⁹You cleared the | ground for it;
it took root and | filled the land.
¹⁰The mountains were covered | by its shadow
and the towering cedar trees | by its boughs. R
¹¹You stretched out its tendrils | to the sea
and its branches | to the river.
¹²Why have you broken | down its wall,
so that all who pass by pluck | off its grapes?
¹³The wild boar of the forest has | ravaged it,
and the beasts of the field have | grazed upon it.
¹⁴Turn now, O | God of hosts,
look | down from heaven;
¹⁵behold and | tend this vine;
preserve what your right | hand has planted. R

Second Reading: Philippians 3:4b-14

A reading from Philippians.

Paul reviews some of his supposed credentials, which no longer have any bearing in comparison to the right relationship he has been given through the death of Christ. The power of Christ’s resurrection motivates him to press on toward the ultimate goal, eternal life with Christ.

[Paul writes:] ^4bIf anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
⁷Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. ⁸More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him,

not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. ¹⁰I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, ¹¹if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
¹²Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.

The word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Gospel: Matthew 21:33-46

The holy gospel according to Matthew.

Glory to you, O Lord.

Jesus tells a parable to the religious leaders who are plotting his death, revealing that their plans will, ironically, bring about the fulfillment of scripture.

[Jesus said to the people:] ³³“Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went to another country. ³⁴When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. ³⁵But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. ³⁶Again he sent other slaves, more than the first; and they treated them in the same way. ³⁷Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ ³⁸But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ ³⁹So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. ⁴⁰Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” ⁴¹They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.”
⁴²Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures:
‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone;
this was the Lord’s doing,
and it is amazing in our eyes’?
⁴³Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces the fruits of the kingdom. ⁴⁴The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.”
⁴⁵When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. ⁴⁶They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

SERMON   Pastor Tinker

“Whose Resumé”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Many of us have seen the famous movie, “The Wizard of Oz”.  This movie is full of beautiful colors and interesting characters. One of the more interesting characters in the movie is the Wicked Witch of the West, and she has quite a résumé to her credit.  Let’s look at the Wicked resumé of the Wicked Witch of the West.

• Kidnapping and harassment of children
• Threatening people smaller than herself
• Cruelty to animals – especially to cowardly lions
• Damaging farm property – especially scare crows
• Trespassing in the land of Oz
• Casting evil spells
• Enslaving men and flying monkeys

She was a very evil witch. In the end of the story the Wicked Witch of the West captures Dorothy and her friends, and she makes plans to kill them.

She starts with the Scarecrow.  Since he is made of straw, she chooses fire to kill him.  She catches his arm on fire.  In desperation, little Dorothy grabs a nearby bucket of water and splashes the Scarecrow.  The fire is put out, but much of the water lands on the witch.  Little did anybody know, but water melts witches.  As the Witch slowly melts away she proclaims a short form of her résumé: “Who would have thought that a good little girl like you could destroy my Beautiful Wickedness?”  Yes, her beautiful wickedness.  Even in her dying woes she tries to justify herself by her résumé.  In the end, her résumé didn’t help her, for she still died.

We attempt this as well.  We generally don’t celebrate our wickedness, but we do try to point out how good we are.  Before God and others, we sometimes point out our religious and moral résumé.  We think, and sometimes even say, things such as:

I’m basically a good person.

I’ve followed the 10 Commandments… most of the time.

I’ve never killed anybody.

I’ve never cheated on my spouse.

Often, we give these items as reasons why we are going to heaven, and why God is pleased with us.  We stack up our credentials as if we must present a résumé to God for his acceptance and eternal judgment.

In our reading from Paul’s letter to the Philippian Church we see Paul’s spiritual resumé as well.  What is different about his resumé is that he follows it up in a much different way.  He counters the popular religious ideas of his day and of our day.  Popular religion often says, “I’m basically a good person, therefore I’m going to heaven.”

We see in verses three through six of our reading from Philippians that Paul is sharing his religious resumé.  He states that he has great “reason to be confident in the flesh.”  By this he means that if he wanted to, he could have every reason to trust in human efforts to please God in order to gain heavenly acceptance.

Paul’s ancestry is in the chosen people of God.  His parents fulfilled all the laws regarding his childhood.  As an adult, he did his best to follow God’s law to the letter.  Paul was passionate to any challenges to his way of religious understanding.  He saw himself as above reproach:  nobody could challenge his goodness.

What does the Apostle Paul say to all this?  It may come as a surprise to some folks.  Paul says in verses 7-9 that all his résumé is nothing.  It is all to be put aside.  Why? All his goodness is worthless garbage in comparison to the gracious and God founded gift of a relationship with Jesus Christ.  Also, our résumé is really that we are just sinners in need of God’s love.  The death of Jesus on the cross is the thing of absolute greatest value.  This death of Jesus brings about the forgiveness of our sin.  Paul’s attempts, and also our attempts, to earn that forgiveness are all worthless.

What truly matters is that the Lord has given us the faith to trust in him.  It is free.  There is no charge and there is no act of goodness which we can perform to earn it.  Why? This is because it is beyond our ability to impart God’s love and forgiveness in our own lives. Thankfully, God has given us the opportunity to have a right and clear relationship with himself through his ultimate act of self-giving love. On that Roman Torture Cross Jesus accepted our total résumé of sin as his own.  He went to a trash heap outside the city and became the trash of our self-deluded lives.  With the trash of human sin and pride on his shoulders he died on that cross.  All our rejection of God, all our struggles and pains, all our vain efforts to earn our way to heavenly glory – all of these were put where they belonged.  In exchange Jesus offers to us his forgiveness and the invitation to be with him, now and forever.

As forgiven sinners we are invited to follow the Risen Jesus, and to become his followers.  He has invited us to follow him through life and death, and into eternal life.

In the end, our résumé is trash.  It could be our goodness, or it could be our sinfulness.  Either way, with God, it doesn’t matter.  The only résumé that matters is that of Jesus.  He is the one who showed us how to live.  He is the one who suffered and died for the forgiveness of our sin. He is the one who is risen from the dead.  He is the one who is God with us, both now and forever.

Let us pray – Loving God, help us to understand that it is only by the power of your Son, Jesus Christ, that we can receive salvation.  By your Holy Spirit strengthen our faith and help us to live thankful lives for the gracious gift of forgiveness and eternal life.  We pray this in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

*Prayers of Intercession

A:  Let us pray for the whole people of God in Christ Jesus, and for all people according to their needs.

A brief silence.

Loving God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit:  you are the God of Wonders, full of Majesty and Glory. You have drawn us together for this time of thanksgiving and prayer.  By your Spirit turn our hearts toward you and also toward our neighbor in need.  Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

We lift in prayer the persecuted Christians in Iraq.  Keep them steadfast in your Word.  Help  them to stand firm in their faith despite the violence they endure. Lord, in your mercy,

Hear our prayer.

Other petitions may be added here.

Your steadfast love never ceases, your mercies never come to an end.  We pray that all who mourn will receive the comfort of the Holy Spirit.  (We especially remember…)   Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

We pray that you will bring healing, strength and hope to those who face struggles and changes of any kind, especially . . .  and also those whom we name aloud or in quiet prayer…   We ask that your comforting Spirit strengthen all for whom we pray.   Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

You are truly worthy to receive glory and honor and power.  Help all in this congregation to be faithful in worship attendance.  Give us a joy in praising you.    Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

We pray for all who suffer due to recent natural disasters. Help us to give of our time and resources to bring relief to those who have lost so much.  Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

Into your hands, O Lord, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in your mercy; through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen

*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.

Copyright © 2020 Augsburg Fortress. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission under Augsburg Fortress Liturgies Annual License #27061.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.                      

HARVEST FESTIVAL for Martin Luther Lutheran Church in Carmine will be held on October 18 at the Carmine Hall.  No confirmation reunion will be held this year.  Worship service (no communion) will be at 10:15 a.m. with the Praise Team leading Country Gospel songs.  The kettle fried chicken dinner will be drive-through only from 11-12:30. Desserts will be available.  Tickets must be purchased in advance for $10.  Members may contact Shelby Vaughn at 979-203-4313 if they wish to take tickets to sell.  Tickets are available in the church office.  Members are also asked to take posters to place at businesses in different towns.

Raffle tickets are $10 with 6 big prizes.  Karen Roemer has those available and are also being sold in the Carmine church office.