WELCOME

OPENING LITANY[1]
Seeking One, you are the beginning and the end of our search.
Finding One, you are the alpha and omega of all discovery.
Asking One, you are the voice and the silence of our exploration.
Giving One, you are the fullness and the emptiness of all yearning.
Persistent One, you never abandon your search for us,
nor tire of our repetitive to-ings and fro-ings.
Receiving One, you endlessly welcome us home,
and spread before us a feast in the face of our constant requests for mere morsels of bread.
Search us, O God, and find within us the secrets we hide.

Ask us, O God, and receive from within us the pain we bear. Keep knocking at the door of our lives until we open our wills to your purpose, our lives to your life, and our yearning to your hope.

CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS
Blessed be the holy Trinity, + one God,
whose steadfast love is everlasting,
whose faithfulness endures from generation to generation.

Amen.

Trusting in the mercy of God, let us confess our sin.

Silence is kept for reflection.

Reconciling God,
we confess that we do not trust your abundance, and we deny your presence in our lives. We place our hope in ourselves and rely on our own efforts. We fail to believe that you provide enough for all. We abuse your good creation for our own benefit. We too often fear difference and do not welcome others as you have welcomed us. We sin in thought, word, and deed. By your grace, forgive us; through your love, renew us; and in your Spirit, lead us; so that we may live and serve you in newness of life.
Amen.

Beloved of God, by the radical abundance of divine mercy we have peace with God through + Christ Jesus, through whom we have obtained grace upon grace. Our sins are forgiven. Let us live now in hope, for hope does not disappoint, since God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

PRAYER OF THE DAY
Let us pray.
Teach us, good Lord God, to serve you as you deserve, to give and not to count the cost, to toil and trust in you for rest, to labor without expectation for reward except for the knowledge that we are doing your will, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord.
Amen.

FIRST READING: Romans 6:1-11
¹What then are we to say? Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? ²By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it? ³Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. ⁷For whoever has died is freed from sin. ⁸But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

The word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God.

This is the Holy Gospel according to Matthew, the 7th chapter.
Glory to you, O Lord.

GOSPEL: Matthew 7:7-12
⁷“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ⁹Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? ¹⁰Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? ¹¹If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

¹²In everything do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.”

This is the Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.

CHILDREN’S SERMON

SERMON: The Rev. Scott Lingenfelter

HYMN OF THE DAY

APOSTLE’S CREED
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.*
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

PRAYER OF INTERCESSION
http://www.pilgrimpaths.co.uk/Finger%20Labyrinth%20and%20Prayer%20Guide%20Leaflet.pdf

Called into unity with one another and the whole creation, let us pray for our shared world.

. . . Hear us, O God.
Your mercy is great.

Receive these prayers, O God, and those too deep for words; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

SHARING OF THE PEACE

ANNOUNCEMENTS

OFFERING
https://tithe.ly/give_new/www/#/tithely/give-one-time/468062

SENDING PRAYER [2]
God of the impossible,
We pray for peace, justice, and reconciliation. When the tasks seem too many, remind us of your resurrection power. When the challenges seem overwhelming, reassure us of the miracle of your limitless love. When apathy threatens us, urge us again with your vision of this world made whole. Help us to rest in the hope that in you the impossible happens, and stir us anew to join you in making it so.
Amen.

LORD’S PRAYER
Gathered into one by the Holy Spirit, let us pray as Jesus taught us saying:
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.

BENEDICTION
Finally, brothers and sister, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace with be with you.
+ Amen

DISMISSAL
Go in peace. Christ is with you!
Thanks be to God!

 

PRAYER REQUESTS: Frank Danowsky, Marie Tanner, Sonja Noll, Irene Stark, Peg Swinehart, Alice Snyder, Greg Seibert, Harold Snyder, family and friends of Bill Krause, Colette Richards, Carlie Shaffer and baby Abi, Pat Thomas, family and friends of George Guffey, Gladys Guffey, Terry Funk, Darv Krouse, Rosemary Fernsler, Rob Lockwood, Kevin Hosey, Terry Smith, Rodney Heckert, Barbara Neilson, and Rebecca Otuszewski.

 

Portions reprinted from Evangelical Lutheran Worship, copyright 2006. Used by permission of Augsburg Fortress, license #SBL09796L. Music reprinted from the ELW, by permission of OneLicense, license #A712349. Scripture quotations are from the 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.

[1] Adapted from Anita Monro and posted on the MAD-e-Lena blog. http://mad-e-lena.blogspot.com/

[2] from Creation Sings Your Praise, edited by Annabel Shilson-Thomas, Canterbury Press, 2010. Posted on the Monthly Prayers page of the Christian Aid website. http://www.christianaid.org.uk/