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Proper 23 / OT 28 / Pentecost 19

Worship
Matthew 22:1-14
Isaiah 25:1-9
Philippians 4:1-9
Psalm 23
Proper 23 | Ordinary Time 28 - A
Amy C. Schifrin
Lectionary Worship Workbook
Series III, Cycle A
Prayer Of Confession And Absolution
P: We hold back your goodness from one another.
We hold back, pretending it is our own.
C: Break open the tombs of pride and fear that we build,
so that in giving what is yours,
we might find what we truly need.

Silence for reflection and self-examination

P: The Lord is your shepherd: you shall never be in want.
Such goodness and mercy will seek you,
and they will find you;
so that in the banquet of love, you will forever be filled.
Your sins are forgiven in the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit.
C: Amen.

Prayer Of The Day
P: Holy God, you have chosen us as your own. Prepare us for the great banquet to come where your righteousness and justice will satisfy all. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
C: Amen.

Intercessory Prayer/Prayer Of The Church
P: Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

After each petition:
L: O Lord, wipe away our tears,
C: that we might rejoice.

P: Now may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
C: Amen.

Offertory Prayer
A: Bring your best to the wedding banquet, lift your hearts in song, rejoice with the king;
C: clothe us with your righteousness, clothe us with your joy, that we might give glory to you with every gift that has been entrusted to us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Sending
Speak Philippians 4:8-9 using different voices on each phrase for verse 8. (Have your teenagers be the speakers.) Then pastor/leader speaks verse 9, omitting the words "in me" on verse 9c.

Hymns And Songs
Lord Jesus Christ, You Have Prepared -- LBW 208
At The Lamb's High Feast We Sing -- LBW 210; MBW 216; G&P 394
Come, Let Us Eat -- LBW 214; UMH 625; MBW 423
Come With Us, O Blessed Jesus -- LBW 219
Oh, Sing Jubilee To The Lord -- LBW 256
Where Cross The Crowded Ways Of Life -- LBW 429; UMH 427; PH 408; MBW 581
Rejoice, O Pilgrim Throng -- LBW 553; UMH 160/161; PH 145/146; MBW 786
Go, My Children, With My Blessing -- WOV 721
O God Beyond All Praising -- WOV 797
Thine The Amen, Thine The Praise -- WOV 801
I'm a-Goin'a Eat At The Welcome Table -- TFF 263
I've Got Peace Like A River -- TFF 258; PH 368; MBW 592
Come, Sinners, To The Gospel Feast -- UMH 339/616
Rain Down -- G&P 713
In the Day Of The Lord -- G&P 722

Psalm Settings
The Lord Is My Shepherd -- TFF 3
Gentle Shepherd/Jesus, Pastor Tan Dulce -- G&P 512

Choral Music
"In Remembrance" -- Buryl Red (Broadman Press)
"Rejoice In The Lord Always" -- Richard W. Gieske (Morning Star Publishers)
"The Lord Is My Shepherd" -- Malcolm Acher (GIA)
"The Lord Is My Shepherd" -- John Rutter (Oxford University Press)

Liturgical Dance/Service Notes
Begin your service with joyous instrumental music as one voice repeatedly proclaims, "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say, rejoice." Let the dancers dressed in white with flower garlands enter first, strewing flower petals about. Following them, bring in a chuppa, which is an arch made of four poles and a tallis (prayer shawl) or white lace cloth that is used at Jewish weddings. Later in the service you may preach under the chuppa and then have the congregation pass through it on their way to receive Holy Communion.
UPCOMING WEEKS
In addition to the lectionary resources there are thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...
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Mariann Edgar Budde
And he said to me, "You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified." But I said, "I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my cause is with the Lord, and my reward with my God." And now the Lord says, who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him ...
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COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS

Lesson 1: Isaiah 49:1-7 (C, E); Isaiah 49:3, 5-6 (RC)
Paul E. Robinson
A man by the name of Kevin Trudeau has marketed a memory course called "Mega-Memory." In the beginning of the course he quizzes the participants about their "teachability quotient." He says it consists of two parts. First, on a scale of one to ten "where would you put your motivation to learn?" Most people would put themselves pretty high, say about nine to ten, he says.
Charles L. Aaron, Jr.
The first chapter of John bears some similarity to the pilot episode of a television series. In that first episode, the writers and director want to introduce all of the main characters. In a television series, what we learn about the main characters in the first episode helps us understand them for the rest of the time the show is on the air and to see how they develop over the course of the series. John's narrative begins after the prologue, a hymn or poem that sets John's theological agenda. Once the narrative begins in verse 19, John focuses on identifying the characters of his gospel.
Dallas A. Brauninger
E-mail
From: KDM
To: God
Subject: Enriched
Message: I could never be a saint, God. Lauds, KDM

The e-mail chats KDM has with God are talks that you or I might likely have with God. Today's e-mail is no exception: I could never be a saint, God. Lauds, KDM. The conversation might continue in the following vein: Just so you know, God, I am very human. Enriched, yes; educated, yes; goal-oriented, yes; high-minded, yes; perfect, no.
Robert A. Beringer
Charles Swindoll in his popular book, Improving Your Serve, tells of how he was at first haunted and then convicted by the Bible's insistence that Jesus came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45)." The more he studied what the Bible says about servanthood, the more convinced Swindoll became that our task in this world, like that of Jesus, is not to be served, not to grab the spotlight, and not to become successful or famous or powerful or idolized.
Wayne H. Keller
Adoration And Praise

Invitation to the Celebration

(In advance, ask five or six people if you can use their names in the call to worship.) Remember the tobacco radio ad, "Call for Phillip Morris!"? Piggyback on this idea from the balcony, rear of the sanctuary, or on a megaphone. "Call for (name each person)." After finishing, offer one minute of silence, after asking, "How many of you received God's call as obviously as that?" (Show of hands.) Now, silently, consider how you did receive God's call. Was it somewhere between the call of Peter and Paul?
B. David Hostetter
CALL TO WORSHIP
Do not keep the goodness of God hidden in your heart: proclaim God's faithfulness and saving power.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION

Emphasis Preaching Journal

William H. Shepherd
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R. Craig Maccreary
One of my favorite British situation comedies is Keeping Up Appearances. It chronicles the attempts of Hyacinth Bucket, pronounced "bouquet" on the show, to appear to have entered the British upper class by maintaining the manners and mores of that social set. The nearby presence of her sisters, Daisy and Rose, serve as a constant reminder that she has not gotten far from her origins in anything but the upper class.

At first I was quite put off by the show's title with an instant dislike for Hyacinth, and a

CSSPlus

Good morning, boys and girls. Do you remember a few weeks ago when we were talking about the meaning of names? (let them answer) Some names mean "beautiful" or "bright as the morning sun." Almost every name has a special meaning.

Good morning! What do I have here? (Show the stuffed animal
or the picture.) Yes, this is a lamb, and the lamb has a very
special meaning to Christians. Who is often called a lamb in the
Bible? (Let them answer.)

Once, when John the Baptist was baptizing people in the
river, he saw Jesus walking toward him and he said, "Here is the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" Why do you
think he would call Jesus a lamb? (Let them answer.)

To understand why Jesus is called a lamb, we have to go back
Good morning! How many of you are really rich? How many of
you have all the money you could ever want so that you can buy
anything you want? (Let them answer.) I didn't think so. If any
of you were that rich, I was hoping you would consider giving a
generous gift to the church.

Let's just pretend we are rich for a moment. Let's say this
toy car is real and it's worth $50,000. And let's say this toy
boat is real and it's worth $100,000, and this toy airplane is a

Special Occasion

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