Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Order of Worship

Download today's bulletin PDF for the entire order of worship and more. 

Let us pray for the whole people of God in Christ Jesus, and for all people according to their needs.

Lord of all, grant us the grace to stop making excuses and blaming others—even you—for our transgressions. We even blame the past for our failures, or lament that this is just the way we were born. Yet here we are before the God who offers us new hearts and new spirits. Because our iniquity can be our ruin, and because you take no pleasure in the death of anyone, but since you do take great pleasure when people turn to you and live, we ask you to give us these new hearts. Give us spirits that long to taste and see your goodness and to know your word is sweeter than honey. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

To you, Lord God, we lift up our souls and place our trust. Only you can keep sin, death, and the evil one from prevailing over us. Show us your ways, Lord, and teach us your paths; remember not our youthful sins or even those of yesterday, but according to your steadfast love, guide us in the goodness of friendship with you. We ask particularly that those among us who are suffering in body, soul, or spirit may know the sweetness of your friendship. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Loving Father, who exalted your Son after he humbled himself to the point of death on a cross, produce that same mind of Christ in us, that doing nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit, we members of St. Paul’s may put the needs of others before our own. And may we realize the salvation that you have already won for us, holding fast to the word of life and turning to you freshly each day, so that in the day of Christ, we may be found to have been the very children of the Living God. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord of all, keep us from offering you religious lip service while our hearts refuse to labor in your vineyard, even in these last hours. Change our minds when we fall into disobedience, that like those tax collectors and prostitutes who repented at the preaching of John, and like the willful son who changed his mind and obeyed his father’s will, your will would be done among us also and that your kingdom would come among us. Lord, in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Into your hands, O Lord, we commend all for whom we pray, trusting in your mercy through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

Teaching

Open or download this week's preview of the lessons. We send this to our homebound with a bulletin each week and thought you might like to have a copy as well. You may read it online or print it out. It includes prayers, brief teaching on each of the four lessons for Sunday, an overview, and an additional Word Search based on the Gospel Lesson. 

Vespers

The readings for the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost: Job 38:1,18–41;  Revelation 18:1–8; and Matthew 5:21–26. These readings are also found on page 893 in For All the Saints, volume IV. Note this new page that offers a fuller text of readings that correspond to the Daily Lectionary.