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Proper 25 | Ordinary Time 30

Worship
Lectionary Worship Workbook
Series IV, Cycle A
Hymns
O God, Our Help In Ages Past (CBH328, NCH25, UM117, LBW320, PH210)
Lord Of Our Growing Years (CBH479, PH279)
On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand (CBH610, NCH598, UM724, PH10)
Un Mandamiento Nuevo/Jesus A New Commandment (NCH389)
O Jesus Christ, May Grateful Hymns (NCH212, CBH404, PH424)
Spirit Of God, Descend Upon My Heart (NCH290, CBH502, UM500, LBW486, PH326)
Eternal God, Whose Power Upholds (PH412)
Come My Way, My Truth, My Life (LBW513, NCH331, UM164, CBH587)

Anthems
Precious Lord, Take My Hand, Roy Ringwald, Shawnee, SATB
O God, Our Help In Ages Past, Alan Hovhaness, C. F. Peters, SATB
I Will Love The Lord, Michael Bedford, CGA, Unison/2--part
To The Glory Of Our King, Robert Leaf, CGA, Unison

Call to Worship
Leader:Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.
Men:Before the mountains were brought forth
Women:Or ever you had formed the earth and the world,
People:From everlasting to everlasting you are God.
Leader:Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us,
People:And prosper for us the work of our hands,
All:O prosper the work of our hands! Amen.

Call to Confession
God knows who we are and what we do even before we know it ourselves. And yet we need to stand before God as God's people and confess our sins together, knowing that we cannot be perfect people. Let us pray together, asking for forgiveness.

Prayer of Confession
Oh Lord, how long? Your people have been asking this question forever. The ancient Israelites asked it as Moses led them across the desert. The psalmists wrote of both personal and corporate sufferings. The early Christians asked it on a daily basis, and still there are people suffering. We ask it, God. How long must we be sick or have loved ones who are ill? How long must we grieve? How long must we send our young men and women to war? How long must there be people sleeping on the street, children starving, and men and women dying from fatal diseases? We know much of the world's suffering comes from people, O God. We turn our backs on others, thinking too much of ourselves. We waste resources and plunder the earth. We don't love each other as you would have us love. Forgive us, God. Help us to look around, see the injustices, and work toward peace in your world. How long, O Lord, will we need to be forgiven? Amen.

Assurance of Forgiveness
Jesus was asked, "How many times should we forgive another?" and he replied seventy times seven. God forgives us every time we sin if we repent and turn to Jesus for strength. Jesus was born for us, died for us, rose again for us. Alleluia! Our sins have been forgiven.

Scripture Readings
Psalm 90:1--6, 13--17: The Pslam can be read in addition to either the Deuteronomy text or the Matthew text. Have the choral speaking choir read the Psalm; they should stand in a straight line across the chancel.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

All Voices: Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

Voices 1--3: Before the mountains were brought forth,

Voices 4--6: Or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

Voices 7--9: From everlasting to everlasting

All: You are God.

Voices 1--5: You turn us back to dust, and say,

Voices 6--9: Turn back, you mortals.

All: For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past, or like a watch in the night.

Voices 1--5: You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning;

Voices 6--9: In the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.

All: Turn, O Lord! How long? Have compassion on your servants!

Voices 1--3: Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days.

Voices 4--6: Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us, and as many years as we have seen evil.

Voices 7--9: Let your work be manifest to your servants, and your glorious power to their children.

All: Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us, and prosper for us the work of our hands - O prosper the work of our hands!

Matthew 22:34--46: This passage has the Pharisees testing Jesus. It could be done by the choral speaking choir acting as the Pharisees, gathered in a semicircle around Jesus, like this:
4 5
3 6
2 7
1 8
J

All Voices: When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together,

Voice 1: And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him,

Voice 8: Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?

Voice 2: Jesus said to him,

Jesus: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Voice 7: Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question:

Jesus: What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?

Voice 3: They said to him,

All Voices: The son of David.

Voice 6: He said to them,

Jesus: How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying, "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet' "? If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?

Voices 4 and 5: No one was able to give him an answer,

All Voices: Nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Benediction
Leader: Share the gospel of Jesus Christ in all you do and say; share yourselves with those whom you meet. Don't let fear of the unknown overtake you. Be brave and loving in all circumstances, and know that God is with you always. Amen.

UPCOMING WEEKS
In addition to the lectionary resources there are thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...
Proper 7 | OT 12 | Pentecost 2
30 – Sermons
160+ – Illustrations / Stories
30 – Children's Sermons / Resources
29 – Worship Resources
34 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Proper 8 | OT 13 | Pentecost 3
29 – Sermons
160+ – Illustrations / Stories
27 – Children's Sermons / Resources
20 – Worship Resources
29 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
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Proper 9 | OT 14 | Pentecost 4
34 – Sermons
160+ – Illustrations / Stories
32 – Children's Sermons / Resources
26 – Worship Resources
31 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Plus thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...

New & Featured This Week

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John Jamison
Object: This is a role play activity.

Note: You will need to select six children to play roles in this activity. If you have a smaller group, you might ask some older youth or even adults to play the parts of the two attackers and the man being attacked. I will give suggestions for how they can play their roles, but feel free to help your children make the story as fun and memorable as you can. I have used boys and girls in the various roles, but you can change those however you want to change them.

* * *

The Immediate Word

Dean Feldmeyer
Katy Stenta
Thomas Willadsen
Christopher Keating
George Reed
Mary Austin
Nazish Naseem
For July 13, 2025:
  • Samaritans Among Us by Dean Feldmeyer based on Acts 2:1-21. Samaritans were despised and dismissed by the original audience who first heard Jesus tell this parable. Who are the Samaritans in our lives and how does this parable apply today?

StoryShare

Frank Ramirez
I say, “You are gods,
    children of the Most High, all of you;
nevertheless, you shall die like mortals
    and fall like any prince….”
(vv. 6-7)

There have been any number of brother-sister acts that achieved a measure of fame. Take the Carpenters, famed for their singing, musicianship, and songwriting skills. Also worthy of mention are John and Joan Cusack who have acted together in over sixteen films.

Emphasis Preaching Journal

Wayne Brouwer
An ancient legend tells of a remote mountain village where people used to send their senior citizens out into the woods to die. The villagers had an eye to the future; they felt that those beyond a certain age would only slow down progress or use up valuable resources to no economically profitable end. Those who reached a certain age weren’t “put out to pasture” or “put out of their misery”; they were simply put out of other people’s way.
Mark Ellingsen
Bill Thomas
Frank Ramirez
Amos 7:7-17 and Psalm 82
The tallest building in the world is the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. It is more than 2,700 feet high—over half a mile tall. It has 160 floors and is twice as tall as the Empire State Building in New York City. It is home to the world’s fastest elevator which reaches speeds of forty miles an hour. The Burj Khalifa also hosts the world’s highest outdoor observation deck (on the 124th floor) and the world’s highest swimming pool (on the 76th floor).

The Village Shepherd

Janice B. Scott
Mabel hummed a familiar hymn tune as she made her way to church. She always enjoyed her Sunday morning walk. It was one of the few times she felt safe to walk alone through the inner city, for she knew nobody would be up at 7.45 in the morning. Today was a particularly beautiful morning, with blue sky, warm sunshine, and the song of a few intrepid blackbirds who still inhabited the city.

SermonStudio

James Evans
Often, a distinction is made between the pastoral or priestly work of the church and the prophetic work. Pastoral care has to do with the care of souls, the offering of comfort in times of loss. The priestly character of pastoral work seeks to mediate the presence of God to those who are hurting.

Schuyler Rhodes
Trusting is never easy. Even in the best of relationships, people step into trust slowly. There is wariness -- questioning -- worry. What happens if trust is betrayed? What if this doesn't work? Sometimes it's like a dance. We step in and out of trust, moving to the rhythms of fear. For many, the routine is achingly familiar. Indeed, it's not easy to trust.
John Jamison
It was back in the days when the railroad was the most common mode of transportation. There were automobiles, and some airplanes, but the steam locomotive was the way most folks traveled and the way that most of the goods were distributed around the country. After dinner, people sat in the drawing room and listened to the radio programs, fading in and out from some faraway location, over the magical broadcasting signal.
Robert Leslie Holmes
Not many tourists to Washington, D.C., look for the Federal Bureau of Standards offices. It's the Capitol and the White House, the Supreme Court Building or the Smithsonian most of us want to see when we go there. Yet, at the Bureau of Standards offices something very important is stored, something that impacts your life and mine every single day. Have you ever bought the materials for a new project? When you did, most likely you purchased so many inches or feet or yards. Or, you stopped to buy gasoline for your car and purchased it at a certain price per gallon.
David O. Bales
I have the two best jobs in the world. I teach social studies at Leon Griffith Junior High School (a fairly small junior high) and I am Sunday School Superintendent at Calvary Presbyterian Church (an enormous church school). Each job is my vocation. I tell people that at school they'll find my room where the halls cross. At church they can look but probably won't find me. I'll be in someone's classroom. At each job I practice what I most deeply believe: it's how you see the world that determines how you respond to it. I'll give you an example, actually, two examples.
Erskine White
O Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy hands have made,
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed,
Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!
(Stuart K. Hine)

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