Join us at 11:00 AM as we celebrate the Second Sunday after Pentecost. As we enter the season of Ordinary Time, be renewed through the teaching of Scripture and the celebration of the Lord's Supper.
First Reading: Hosea 5:15-6:6.
Hosea prophesied during a time of political turmoil, social injustice, and religious apostasy in Israel, which he viewed as evidence of the nation's failure to remain faithful to its covenant with God. In Hosea 5:15–6:6, God withdraws from Israel until the people acknowledge their guilt and return to him. Although Israel voices repentance and expects restoration, its devotion is fleeting and insincere. God therefore calls for steadfast covenant love and a true knowledge of him rather than mere religious sacrifices and rituals.
Psalm: Psalm 50:7-15.
Here God rebukes Israel not for failing to offer sacrifices but for misunderstanding their relationship to him. Because all creation already belongs to God, he has no need of material offerings; rather, he desires thankful hearts that trust him and call upon him in times of trouble. True worship consists in grateful dependence upon God, who alone delivers and sustains his people.
Second Reading: Romans 4:13-25
For Paul, God's promise to Abraham serves as the pattern for the promise of salvation given to all people through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. A promise is received by faith, not earned by works; while the law commands and exposes transgression, God's promise freely grants the righteousness it requires. The universal scope of this promise is seen in Abraham's calling as “the father of many nations,” and in Christ, who was handed over for our trespasses and raised for our justification. To be right with God is to trust that, through Christ's death and resurrection, God forgives sinners and counts them as righteous.
Gospel: Matthew 28: 16-20
In Matthew 9:9–26, the calling of Matthew, the raising of the ruler's daughter, and the healing of the woman with the hemorrhage reveal the distinctive character of Jesus' ministry. Those whom society regarded as sinners, unclean, or beyond help are met not with rejection but with mercy, fulfilling Jesus' declaration, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." Jesus forgives, heals, and even raises the dead, demonstrating that no human condition lies beyond God's saving power. In each case, faith becomes an essential response to Jesus' mercy, drawing people into a trusting relationship with him and opening them to the new life he brings.
Gathering Hymn: ELW 836 – Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee
Henry van Dyke was guest preaching at Williams College and so inspired by the beauty of the Berkshire Mountains that in one night he wrote this now famous text. The tune: HYMN TO JOY is drawn from the last movement of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, music he never heard because he was totally deaf by the time he wrote it.
Hymn of the Day: ELW 607 – Come, Ye Disconsolate
Sending Hymn: ELW 661 – I Love to Tell the Story
The text of this popular hymn was written by English author and teacher Katherine Hankey who gave all monies she earned by writing to the church’s foreign missions.
Organ Voluntaries will include two chorale preludes on Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee by Don Hustad and Richard Ellsasser and Homer Whiteford’s transcription of JS Bach’s “Jesu, Fount of Consolation”.
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