The Service in PDF format is at: March 12, 2023 Service
Video of service is at: YouTube
Peace Lutheran Church
We welcome you in the name of the Lord Jesus. We are honored with your presence. If you do not have a church home, you are invited to join us regularly. Please introduce yourself to Pastor Jeremy Lucke or one of the Ushers as you leave today and sign the guest book in the entryway. We continue to observe the guidelines for health safety. If you have any questions, please see an usher. Everyone is welcome.
The ringing of the bell and the lighting of the Christ candle mark the beginning of our service and a time for quiet meditation, prayer and inward reflection as we begin our worship.
Children are welcome at our worship services. If you prefer, Peace Lutheran has a playroom equipped for children three years old and younger. The room is unstaffed and can be accessed in the fellowship hall where the service is also being live streamed for your convenience and enjoyment.
Holy Communion is celebrated every first and third Sunday and will follow the order of service in the bulletin. If you are a baptized Christian and share our faith in Jesus as Savior and have been instructed in the meaning and use of the Lord’s Supper, you are invited to partake. We have pre-wrapped communion wine or juice and wafers. We also have gluten-free wafers available. If you desire a gluten-free wafer, ask the server. May the body and blood of Jesus, present in the bread and wine, be a blessing to you.
There are times during the service when you will be asked to stand if you are able. Please feel free to remain seated if standing is difficult.
Offering. Peace Lutheran Church understands and teaches that Offerings are voluntary and to be from the heart. Whether we give or do not give does not determine our salvation. Whether we give much or little does not determine our standing before God. Sharing an Offering is an opportunity to quietly practice generosity with our neighbors. Offerings may be placed in the plates by the doors as we exit the sanctuary.
Serving You
Pastor Pastor Jeremy Lucke
Music Director Colleen Schulze
Choir Director Diane Crocker
Supt. Of Sunday School Brandy Stokes & Karyn Stanley
Admin Assistant Daniel Dusek
Parish Nurse Kathy Durling
Webmaster Jim Holroyd
Audio-Visual Johnathon Holroyd, George Abele, Nicholas Abele, Merv Munster, Callie Santora, Caleb Santora, Joyce Long, Oscar Gutbrod, Sam Worth, Rick Durling, Jim Holroyd, Nora Stanley, Debbi Weiler, Daniel Dusek
Today, March 12, 2023
Musician Colleen Schulze
Reader Debbi Weiler
Children’s Message Merv Munster
AS WE GATHER… God’s mercy and grace are revealed to those who deserve anything but. The Israelites who wandered the wilderness complained of no water. They didn’t deserve anything because of their sinfulness, yet God responds in mercy and grace, providing water from a rock. A marginalized Samaritan woman didn’t receive compassion from her community and didn’t deserve it from our Savior Jesus Christ, yet she was given and shown mercy and grace and came to believe He is the Savior of the world. We, too, have gone astray and deserve much less than mercy and grace from God Himself. Yet, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
RINGING OF THE BELL… Following the ringing of the bell, we take a few moments in silence to prepare our hearts and minds for today’s worship.
Leader: In the name of the Father and of the X Son and of the Holy Spirit.
People: Amen.
Leader: Almighty God, we know and admit that we are sinners. We are conceived and born sinful and we continue in that sin by our heedless thoughts, careless words, and loveless deeds. Indeed, we deserve God’s punishment now and eternally. When we reflect honestly on our lives, we readily see that we are in need of repentance and renewal that come only through our Lord Jesus. Let us then make confession to our gracious God.
People: Almighty God, we repent of our sins in thought and in word and in deed. You know our failings and our transgressions. Be merciful to us, and for the sake of Jesus, grant us Your forgiveness so that, as Your redeemed people, we may find rest in You and with refreshed hearts serve You in time and in eternity.
Leader: In the mercy of almighty God, Jesus Christ was given to die for you, and for his sake God forgives you all your sins. To those who believe in Jesus Christ he gives the power to become the children of God and bestows on them the Holy Spirit.
People: Amen.
SONG OF CONFIDENCE “Healer of Our Every Ill”
ALL (Refrain): Healer of our ev’ry ill,
Light of each tomorrow,
give us peace beyond our fear,
And hope beyond our sorrow.
Leader: You who know our fears and sadness,
Grace us with your peace and gladness,
Spirit of all comfort: fill our hearts.
Refrain
Leader: In the pain and joy beholding,
How your grace is still unfolding,
Give us all your vision: God of love.
Refrain
Leader: Give us strength to love each other,
Ev’ry sisiter, ev’ry brother,
Spirit of all kindness: be our guide.
Refrain
Leader: You who know each thought and feeling
Teach us all your way of healing,
Spirit of compassion: fill each heart.
Refrain
Leader: Almighty God, You show the light of Your truth to those in darkness. Give strength to all believers to reject what erodes their faith and follow Your Son, Jesus, the perfect offering for sin, who has brought us salvation and who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
People: Amen.
SCRIPTURE LESSONS
Christ died for us while we were still sinners.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Leader: This is the Word of the Lord.
People: Thanks be to God.
Jesus meets with the Samaritan woman.
5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?
12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;
18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”
Leader: This is the Gospel of the Lord.
People: Praise to You, O Christ.
SERMON HYMN: “Children of the Heav’nly Father”
Text: Caroline V. Sandell Berg, 1832-1903; tr. Ernst W. Olson, 1870-1958
Children of the heav’nly Father
Safely in his bosom gather,
Nestling bird or star in heaven
Such a refuge ne’er was given.
.
God his own doth tend and nourish,
In his holy courts they flourish,
From all evil things he spares them,
In his mighty arms he bears them.
.
Neither life nor death shall ever
From the Lord his children sever;
From all evil things he spares them,
In his mighty arms he bears them.
.
Though he giveth or he taketh,
God his children ne’er forsaketh;
His the loving purpose solely
To preserve them pure and holy.
SERMON
“The Difference between being Right and Correct.”
Pastor Jeremy Lucke
People: I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ,
His 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 into hell.
The third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.
From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Christian Church,
the communion of saints,
The forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
Leader: Gracious Father, we ask Your blessing on Your Church throughout the world. Fill the Church with all truth and peace. Where it is in error, reform it; where it is in need, supply it; where it is right, strengthen and confirm it; and where it is in conflict, heal its divisions. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Leader: We pray this day for the fellowship of faith and love that we enjoy as God’s holy people, asking that we may gather for worship with great joy and full anticipation of the blessings of God that come to us through it. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Leader: We also make our petitions for the sick, the homebound, the sorrowing, those undergoing hardship or challenges, and all who this day are in need of our prayers, (especially………), that their prayers may soon be answered and that they may be supported by God’s people as they experience His good and gracious will for their lives. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Leader: Almighty God, since You have given us grace to make our requests to You and have promised that when two or three are gathered in Your name You will hear their requests. Fulfill now, O Lord, the desires and petitions of Your servants, as may be best for them; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
People: Amen.
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
Leader: The blessing of God Almighty—the Father, who gave His Son for the life of the world; the Son, who has revealed to us God’s grace, mercy and love; and the Spirit, by whose fruit we are seen to be children of God—bless you now and forever.
People: Amen.
CLOSING HYMN: “Now Thank We All Our God”
Text: Martin Rinkhart, 1586-1649; tr. Catherine Winkworth, 1829-1878; Tune: Johann Cruger, 1598-1662
Now thank we all our God
with hearts and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done,
in whom his world rejoices,
Who, from our mothers’ arms,
has blest us on our way
With countless gifts of love,
and still is ours today.
.
Oh, may this bounteous God
through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts
and blessed peace to cheer us,
And keep us in his grace,
and guide us when perplexed,
And free us from all harm
in this world and the next.
.
All praise and thanks to God
the Father now be given,
The Son, and him who reigns
with them in highest heaven,
The one eternal God,
whom earth and heav’n adore;
For thus it was, is now,
and shall be evermore.
DISMISSAL
Pastor: Go in Peace. Serve the Lord.
People: Thanks be to God.
Announcements
LENTEN SOUP SUPPERS. We will be continuing Soup Supper this week on Wednesday, March 15. The supper will start at 5:00pm and service at 6:00pm. Please check the sign-up sheets are in the hallway between the Narthex and Fellowship Hall to see if you can bring something to share.
New Lenten Devotion Book. We have some new devotional books titled “Man of Sorrows, People of Joy” for the season of Lent. They are available on the table in the Narthex.
New Bible Study. David Leding will be leading a new Bible Study starting next Sunday, March 19th. His study is based on the book, “On Being a Theologian of the Cross” by Gerhard Forde. This study helps us to better understand suffering and what exactly Jesus’ death on the cross means for living today.
Church Cleanup Day. Saturday, March 25 will be the annual church cleanup day. The event will start at 8:00 and go until we are finished. We should be done by 11:00 or 12:00. We will be cleaning up both the inside and outside of the church. If you are available, we would enjoy having you help – many hands make light work.
Change to Easter Schedule. We will not be having the Easter morning breakfast as originally planned. Everything else for Holy Week is a go.
