The Service in PDF format is at: October 22, 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.
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, Rick Durling
Today October 22, 2023
Musician Colleen Schulze
Reader Youth Reader
Flowers Benton / Jan Lane
Children’s Message Pastor J.
As We Gather…………… Countless times during Christ’s mission in human flesh for the sins of the world, the Pharisees and others tried to test, trap and trick Jesus, thinking He would suffer a setback to his ministry. Time and time again, Jesus in His divine wisdom and teaching would instead turn those times into a setup for teaching about many things regarding life on earth and the kingdom of heaven. We, too, face times of testing, trapping, and tricking, though not from the Pharisees, but from this world, the devil, and our own sinful flesh, and often we face setbacks. We are wise to turn to the one who has set us up for forgiveness, mercy and a new life through His own life, death and rising. Rejoicing in His grace, in response to His love, we faithfully, “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21).
CHORAL ANTHEM “Don’t Look Back”
Joseph M. Martin
We’ll work, we’ll work till Jesus comes.
We’ll work, we’ll work till Jesus comes.
We’ll work, we’ll work till Jesus comes,
and we’ll be carried home.
Chorus: O put your hand to the plow, don’t look back.
O put your hand to the plow, don’t look back.
O put your hand to the plow, don’t look back
and be strong in the work of the Lord.
O put your hand to the plow, don’t look back.
O put your hand to the plow, don’t look back.
O put your hand to the plow, don’t look back,
and be strong in the work of the Lord.
Servant, be faithful in the calling.
Can you hear the Master call?
Trust God and He will lead the way, the way.
The Lord will lead the way.
Surrender all in faith, the harvest will be great.
Let service be your song of praise!
Chorus
Don’t look back, don’t look back
We’ll work till Jesus comes again.
O put your hand to the plow, work, work!
Don’t look back, don’t look back.
Never looking back.
Never looking back, look back.
Chorus
O put your hand to the plow, don’t look back.
O put your hand to the plow, don’t look back.
O put your hand to the plow, don’t look back
O put your hand to the plow,
hand to the plow, hand to the plow,
hand to the plow, don’t look back.
INVOCATION AND OPENING SENTENCES
Leader: In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
People: Amen.
CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS Psalm 51
Leader: Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love;
People: according to Your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Leader: Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin!
People: For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
Leader: As we come and bow before the Lord to confess our sins, we admit that we have bowed down to other gods of this world and gods of our own choosing.
People: We confess we have trusted in ourselves and others rather than in You.
Leader: We have failed to rely on You in all times. We have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, and against others in what we have done and left undone. We have not loved You with our whole heart
People: and have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We confess we have trusted in ourselves and others rather than in You.
~~~~~ Silence for personal reflection ~~~~~
Leader: Brothers and sister in Christ Jesus, God is a merciful and loving Father, of whom “There is no other, besides Him there is no God.” He has chosen you in the Gospel, which has come not only in word but with full conviction in power and in the Holy Spirit. Jesus died on the cross to redeem You. Through Him, in His stead, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, I forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
People: Amen.
(twice through)
Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus,
To reach out and touch Him,
And say that we love Him.
Open our ears, Lord, and help us to listen.
Open our eyes, Lord, we want to see Jesus.
Leader: Let us pray. O God, the protector of all who trust in You, have mercy on us that with You as our ruler and guide we may so pass through things temporal that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
People: Amen.
SCRIPTURE LESSONS
Reader: Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other,
besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.
Reader: This is the Word of the Lord.
People: Thanks be to God!
Reader: Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius.And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.
Leader: This is the Gospel of the Lord.
People: Praise to You, O Christ!
Text: George W. Doane, 1799-1859. Tune: Psalter, Edinburgh, 1615
You are the way; thro’ you alone
can we the Father find;
in you, O Christ, has God revealed
his heart and will and mind.
.
You are the truth; your Word alone
true wisdom can impart;
you only can inform the mind
and purify the heart.
.
You are the life; the empty tomb
proclaims your conqu’ring arm,
and those who put their trust in you
nor death nor hell shall harm.
.
You are the way, the truth, the life;
grant us that way to know,
that truth to keep, that life to win,
whose joys eternal flow.
MESSAGE
Pastor Jeremy Lucke
ALL: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again 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.
OFFERING
We offer our thanksgiving for what God has first given us— our selves, our time, our possessions.
Leader: Let us pray for the whole Church of God in Christ Jesus and for all people according to their needs.
Leader: God of our salvation, You deliver Your truth through Your Word and the Holy Spirit. Open our ears to hear this truth when it is shared. Increase our faith so that we may respond in love, steadfast in hope. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Leader: God our Father, You appointed Cyrus as Your instrument to return Your people to Jerusalem. Uphold the authorities of our nation in wisdom and integrity, that we might live in peace with a good conscience. Grant that they would make salutary use of the taxes we render, and lead us to recognize them as Your instruments, honoring them as You command. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Leader: O Lord, our help comes from You, who made heaven and earth. You preserve our life. Have mercy on [_____________ and] all who are afflicted. Keep them from all evil and shade them from all harm. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Leader: Almighty God, guard those who travel. Keep their going out and their coming in. Protect them from every trouble, prosper their journey according to Your will and make their homecomings joyful. Lord, in Your mercy,
People: hear our prayer.
Leader: Into Your hands, O Lord, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in Your mercy; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
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 Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor and + give you peace.
People: Amen.
CLOSING SONG “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.
Leader: Go in Peace. Serve the Lord.
People: Thanks be to God!
Announcements
Holiday Bazaar Update. Bazaar News…
Items are due today through October 29! (basket items are due today)!
Swing by anytime this week and drop off your handcrafted items or Granny’s Attic donations. They can be placed in the classrooms in the fellowship hall. Check the signs on the doors for guidance.
If you need assistance, please see Janette, Colleen, or Sally for bazaar items, and Jani for Granny’s Attic items.
Crafters, please include a list of items and quantities of the items you made.
We can’t wait to see your talented creations!
More to come…
Decorating for Fall. It certainly feels like fall is upon us. We will soon start decorating the church to celebrate the season. Pumpkins and gourds always make the church look festive, so if you happen to have any of those growing in your garden or would like to pick some up at the store, it would be a great help. Please drop your pumpkins, gourds, or other fall decorations off at church or give them Sally or Colleen.
Livestreaming of Service in the Fellowship Hall. Did you know… every Sunday we livestream the worship service to the TV in the Fellowship Hall. If you would be more comfortable, you can watch the service live from there.
Cookies for the bazaar. Please bring cookies for the Bazaar by November 3rd. Also, please label your cookies with the type and note if they contain nuts. Lastly, we would like to know who donated the yummy treats, so please put your names on your cookie donations.
Possible Mission Trip Next Summer. Do you have interest or know of someone who has an interest in taking part in a mission trip? Peace is exploring the idea of taking a mission trip in partnership with Child Beyond International next summer. Child Beyond International seeks to catalyze American youth and adults to care for the needs of marginalized and vulnerable people–particularly children. For more information, check out Child Beyond’s website at www.childbeyond.org. See Pastor Lucke if you have an interest. All are welcome to hear more on Wednesday, October 25 at 7 pm as we will connect with Child Beyond’s Director and clarify a plan!
