Worship for Sunday, August 16, 2020
Sunday, August 16, 2020
the attached blue-colored link!
PRAYER OF THE DAY
God of all peoples, your arms reach out to embrace all those who call upon you. Teach us as disciples of your Son to love the world with compassion and constancy, that your name may be known throughout the earth, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
FIRST READING: Isaiah 56:1,
6-8
Thus says the Lord:
Maintain justice, and do what is right,
for soon my salvation will come,
and my
deliverance be revealed.
And the foreigners who join
themselves
to the Lord,
to
minister to him, to love
the name
of the Lord,
and to
be his servants,
all who keep the sabbath,
and do
not profane it,
and
hold fast my covenant—
these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and
make them joyful
in my
house of prayer;
their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices
will be
accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called
a house
of prayer
for all
peoples.
Thus says the Lord God,
who
gathers the outcasts of Israel,
I will gather others to them
besides
those already gathered.
PSALM: Psalm 67
May God be merciful to us and bless us;
may
the light of God’s face shine upon us.
Let
your way be known upon earth,
your
saving health among all nations.
Let
the peoples praise you, O God;
let
all the peoples praise you.
Let
the nations be glad and sing for joy,
for
you judge the peoples with equity
and guide all the nations on earth.
Let
the peoples praise you, O God;
let
all the peoples praise you.
The
earth has brought forth its increase;
God,
our own God, has blessed us.
May
God give us blessing,
and
may all the ends of the earth
stand in awe.
SECOND READING: Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32
I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By
no means! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the
tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew.
For the gifts and the calling of God are
irrevocable. Just as you were once disobedient to God but have now received
mercy because of their disobedience, so they have now been disobedient in order
that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy. For God has
imprisoned all in disobedience so that he may be merciful to all.
THE HOLY GOSPEL: Matthew 15:10-28
Then [Jesus]
called the crowd to him and said to them, ‘Listen and understand: it is not
what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the
mouth that defiles.’ Then the disciples approached and said to him, ‘Do you
know that the Pharisees took offence when they heard what you said?’ He
answered, ‘Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be
uprooted. Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind
person guides another, both will fall into a pit.’ But Peter said to him,
‘Explain this parable to us.’ Then he said, ‘Are you also still without
understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the
stomach, and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds
from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart come evil
intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These
are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.’
Jesus left
that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. Just then a
Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, ‘Have mercy on
me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon.’ But he did not
answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, ‘Send her
away, for she keeps shouting after us.’ He answered, ‘I was sent only to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel.’ But she came and knelt before him, saying,
‘Lord, help me.’ He answered, ‘It is not fair to take the children’s food and
throw it to the dogs.’ She said, ‘Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs
that fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered her, ‘Woman, great is
your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And her daughter was healed
instantly.
PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
Confident of your care and helped by the Holy Spirit, we pray for
the church, the world, and all who are in need.
A brief silence.
Lord, you gather the church to be part of your mission as
ambassadors of Jesus Christ. As Jesus acknowledged the great faith of a woman
from outside his people, help your church discover and find blessing in the
faith of people we might reject. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
You have blessed us with the bounty of the
earth. Grant your grace to all your creatures, that the earth will flourish.
Relieve waters choked by garbage, renew soils stripped of nutrients, and
refresh the air all creatures need to live. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
You call the nations to be glad and sing for
joy. Let your way be known among all the nations of the world, now divided by
competing interests, contending alliances, and consumed by enormous worry.
Bless us and make your face shine upon all. Lord, in your mercy, hear our
prayer.
You show unexpected mercy, kindness, and
generosity. We pray for those who do not have enough, for outcasts in our
villages, cities, and town, and for those who need your healing. (You may lift up the names of those for
whom you would like to pray here.) Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
In you we live and move and have our being.
Grant our congregation grace to find our life refreshed in you. Accompany us in
the rhythms of late summer. Give us rest and renewal, and strengthen us for
mission in your name. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
Your eternal promises are more than we could ever imagine. As you gather all the saints, join us also with them on the great day of your salvation. (You may lift up the names of those who have died in Christ here.) Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.
In the
certain hope that nothing can separate us from your love, we offer these
prayers to you; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
forever and ever. Amen.
Amen
CLOSING HYMN: "O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing" (Video Link): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7OvPF5hTuk
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