The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost
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Prelude, Welcome, and Information Hymn
#647 Glorious
Things of You Are Spoken |
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The grace of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you
all. And also with
you. Psalm: Psalm 49:
1-12 Hear this,
all you peoples; give ear, all
inhabitants of the world, both low and high, rich and poor together. My mouth
shall speak wisdom; the meditation of my heart shall be understanding. I will
incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the harp. Why should
I fear in times of trouble, when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds me, those who
trust in their wealth and boast of the abundance of their riches? Truly, no
ransom avails for one’s life, there is no price one can give to God for it. For the
ransom of life is costly, and can never suffice that one should live on forever and never see the
grave. When we
look at the wise, they die; fool and
dolt perish together and leave their wealth to others. Their
graves are their homes forever, their
dwelling places to all generations, though they named lands their own. Mortals
cannot abide in their pomp; they are like the animals that perish. |
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The Lord be with you. And
also with you. Let us pray. Benevolent God, you are the
source, the guide, and the goal of our lives. Teach us to love what is worth
loving, to reject what is offensive to you, and to treasure what is precious
in your sight, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen. |
Reading:
Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23
A reading from the book of Ecclesiastes
Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.
I, the Teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, applied my mind
to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an
unhappy business that God has given to human beings to be busy with. I saw
all the deeds that are done under the sun; and see, all is vanity and a chasing
after wind. I hated all my toil in which I had toiled under the sun,
seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me —and who knows
whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which
I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity. So I
turned and gave my heart up to despair concerning all the toil of my labors
under the sun, because sometimes one who has toiled with wisdom and
knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by another who did not toil
for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What do mortals get from all
the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days
are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do
not rest. This also is vanity.
The Word of the Lord
Reading:
Colossians 3:1-11
A reading from the Letter to the Colossians
So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above,
where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things
that are above, not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and
your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life is
revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
Put to death, therefore, whatever in you is earthly: fornication,
impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed (which is idolatry). On account
of these the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient. These
are the ways you also once followed, when you were living that life.
But now you must get rid of all such things—anger, wrath, malice,
slander, and abusive language from your mouth. Do not lie to one another,
seeing that you have stripped off the old self with its practices and have
clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge
according to the image of its creator. In that renewal there is no longer
Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and
free; but Christ is all and in all!
The Word of the Lord.
Gospel
Verse:
Alleluia! Blessed are the poor
in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Alleluia! (Matt. 5:3)
Gospel Reading: Luke 12:13-21
A reading from the Gospel of Luke
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the
family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be
a judge or arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on
your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the
abundance of possessions.” Then he told them a parable: “The land of a
rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I
do, for I have no place to store my crops?’ Then he said, ‘I will do this:
I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my
grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods
laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him,
‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things
you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up
treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
This is the Gospel of the Lord. Praise
to you, O Christ.
Sermon
(added at the end of the document)
Hymn
#793 Be Thou
My Vision
Thanks and Offertory
Prayers of the Church:
Gracious God, you are the giver of all good things
and for that, we thank you. In gratitude, we offer our prayers for the world,
the church, and for all people according to their needs.
[Short
pause]
Gracious
God, help us to remember your goodness to us and help us to be grateful. Lord,
in your mercy, Hear our prayer.
Gracious
God, you have made us free in Christ. Grant that we may share the message of
that freedom. Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.
Gracious
God, grant us rain and good weather for the sake of feeding a hungry world. Lord,
in your mercy, Hear our prayer.
Gracious
God, you are the giver of peace. We ask for peace for the peoples of Ukraine
and Russia and wherever there is war and struggle. Lord, in your mercy, Hear
our prayer.
Gracious
God, you are the giver of life and health. Be with all who suffer pain and
sickness and strengthen all who work for healing. Lord, in your mercy, Hear
our prayer.
Gracious
God, help all efforts toward reconciliation with those who have settled here
and those who are the first peoples here. Lord, in your mercy, Hear
our prayer.
Gracious God, we long to hear the Good News. Look with favor on all who minister in the name of your Son. Bless Bishop Susan Johnson, her associates and the support staff of the ELCIC office. Lord in your mercy, Hear our prayer.
Gracious God, we ask you to hear our unspoken prayers for so many… * … Lord, in your mercy, Hear our prayer.
{*Gail Mauer, Deb Kirschner, Diane Corns}
Gracious
God, we trust that you will lead us to being “rich toward (you.)”
So, we commend to you all for whom we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Hymn #685 Take My Life, That I May Be
The
Lord’s Prayer
Finally let
us pray for all things as our Lord would have us ask:
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.
Closing prayer & Benediction
Gracious God,
you created us to worship you, and so we have gathered in this way to spend
time in your presence. As we prepare to go our various ways, we ask you to be
with us. Be our hiding place and shield us from every evil plan of the enemy.
In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
Hymn
#705 God of
Grace and God of Glory
Benediction & Sending
May the Lord
bless us and keep us.
May the
Lord’s face shine upon us with grace and mercy.
May the Lord
look upon us with favor and X give us peace.
Amen.
Go in peace. Serve the Lord. Thanks
be to God.
W
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Services
for the next few months will be on YouTube and accessible from an email link
or our church Facebook page. Services for August and September are shown
below: August 7 No service; Pastor’s summer holiday August 14 No
service; Pastor’s summer holiday August 21 Holy Communion, Saxonia Hall,
11:00am August 28 Holy Communion, Church, 11:00am September 4 Service on YouTube, 11:00am September 11 Holy Communion, Saxonia Hall, 11:00am September 18 Service on YouTube, 11:00am September 25 Holy Communion, Church, 11:00am |
So it is with those who store up
treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.
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There’s a
saying I’ve seen on bumper stickers, wall posters, and lapel buttons. It goes
like this: “Whoever dies with the most
toys, wins.” This sums up how many people live their lives. The
accumulation of goods, of items, of “stuff” is the main focus of their lives.
We’ve all met people like that and we’ve heard of more people than we’ve met.
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The rich man
in Jesus’ parable could be the poster boy, the best example of the warped idea
of winning through more and more. He isn’t satisfied with the harvest and his
barns, since there must have been a bumper crop. He’s going to tear down his
barns – where his last crop was stored – and build new ones. He’s not scared of
a famine but is intending to relax,
eat, drink, be merry since he has lots. He has no intention of
giving his surplus away to feed the hungry, nor does he want to release the
grain to the market because that would drive the price down. Basically, he’s
saying “I got mine; the rest of you can go
pound sand.” This reminds me of Scrooge McDuck from the comic books who
would swim daily in the money in his vault. We might also remember the stingy
miser, Ebenezer Scrooge from Dickens’ A
Christmas Carol.
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Now riches
are not necessarily an evil thing just as poverty is not necessarily a virtue.
A poor person can be just as grasping, nasty, and selfish as billionaire who
dickers over a nickel. The rich man in the parable is keeping the harvest all
for himself, not sharing it even to allow affordable grain to the community.
Although the parable has God telling the rich man This very night your life is being demanded of you, his
life has already been taken from him by his harvest and his possessions. Those
things run his life and colour all his decisions. They have corrupted him. His
possessions and the need to store them and to defend them have demanded his
life from him. He has to serve them despite the reality of his mortality and
their temporary nature.
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The true test
of riches is what is done with them. To be rich toward God could mean generosity toward those in
need. A person can only eat so much and can only sleep in one bed at a time. If
a person were to come to see themselves as part of a larger whole rather than
an isolated individual, they might see their riches as serving a larger purpose
than just accumulation.
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Being rich toward God could also
mean coming to a realization that all we have is given to us by God, even
earthly riches, and all that we have is at the service of the Kingdom of God.
One fact is always true; we leave this life with exactly what we came into this
life. Martin Luther’s last words were “We
are beggars; this is true.”
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What our rich
man lacks is any sort of gratitude, whether toward God or toward the workers
toiling in his fields and barns. When we come to realize our own poverty and
the riches God has given to us, we may come to true gratitude, a humbling
experience but one with a clear eye toward the reality of grace and God’s care
for us.
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I hope we can
all come to that realization as well as the knowledge that God’s grace and
God’s kingdom are all around us and as one theologian said, we swim in grace as
the fish in the sea.
So it is with those who store up
treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.
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| Scrooge McDuck in his money vault |
