You may make the sign of the cross T in remembrance of your Baptism and say:
Invocation
P In
the name of the Father and of the T Son
and of the Holy Spirit.
C Amen.
Collect
Almighty
God, grant that we, who have been redeemed from the old life of sin
by our Baptism into the death and resurrection of Your Son, Jesus
Christ, may be renewed by Your Holy Spirit to live in righteousness
and true holiness; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Reading
the Bible
Because
Jesus is the focus of all of God's Word, the books of Scripture have
remarkable agreement. The stories, proverbs, teachings, and other
passages present the Law, which drives us to Christ, and the gospel,
which proclaims Christ.
When
readers miss the Law and Gospel distinction in Scripture, the
Scripture may appear contradictory to them. For example, one might
read Genesis 17 today and conclude that God intended Abraham to save
himself by his obedience to the Law of circumcision and not
through faith in the promised Christ; however, we already read
(Genesis 15:6) that Abraham was counted righteous before God on
account of trusting in God's covenant promises prefiguring
Christ and ultimately fulfilled by Christ. Circumcision itself
is a matter of being included in the promise and giving testimony to
the promise, not a strategy to be saved by the Law apart
from the Gospel promise.
Reading
Genesis
Abraham
and Sarai become impatient with God's plan. They come up with
a scheme to help God out. It must be said that God had not
yet specifically named Sarai as the Mother of the child of promise.
Up to Chapter 16 God had been reassuring Abraham that he would have a
son from his own body. Now they come to the idea that perhaps they
should help God out. Nothing about this situation works out well; it's a mess. After Hagar returns, God reaffirms His promise and
clarifies that Sarai is to be the mother. Circumcision affirms for
Abraham that his body is not his own, to do with whatever he wants. He
belongs to the Lord for the sake of the Lord's mission to bring
Christ into the world, and He belongs to Sarai and Sarai to him in
testimony of what faithful marriage shouts out to the world.
Abraham's story is filled with his geographical wanderings, but
also his wandering in and out of faith-the good news is that the Lord
always seeks after him and renews his promise for all of our sakes,
so that the countdown to Christmas never gets interrupted.
Reading Genesis
16:1—17:27
Now Sarai,
Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian
servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now,
the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant;
it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened
to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the
land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her
servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in
to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived,
she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram,
“May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your
embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me
with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” But Abram
said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as
you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from
her.
The angel
of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the
spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai,
where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I
am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the Lord said to
her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel of
the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring
so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” And the angel of
the Lord said to her,
“Behold,
you are pregnant
and shall
bear a son.
You shall
call his name Ishmael,
because
the Lord has listened to your affliction.
He shall
be a wild donkey of a man,
his hand
against everyone
and
everyone’s hand against him,
and he
shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”
So she
called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of
seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks
after me.” Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies
between Kadesh and Bered.
And Hagar
bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar
bore, Ishmael. Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael
to Abram.
When Abram
was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him,
“I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, that I may
make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.”
Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, “Behold, my
covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of
nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name
shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of
nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you
into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my
covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout
their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and
to your offspring after you. And I will give to you and to your
offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of
Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
And God
said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and
your offspring after you throughout their generations. This is my
covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring
after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be
circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of
the covenant between me and you. He who is eight days old among you
shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether
born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who
is not of your offspring, both he who is born in your house and he
who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall
my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. Any
uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his
foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my
covenant.”
And God
said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her
name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her, and
moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she
shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.” Then
Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, “Shall a
child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who
is ninety years old, bear a child?” And Abraham said to God, “Oh
that Ishmael might live before you!” God said, “No, but Sarah
your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I
will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for
his offspring after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I
have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly.
He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great
nation. But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall
bear to you at this time next year.”
When he
had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. Then Abraham
took Ishmael his son and all those born in his house or bought with
his money, every male among the men of Abraham’s house, and he
circumcised the flesh of their foreskins that very day, as God had
said to him. Abraham was ninety-nine years old when he was
circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin. And Ishmael his son was
thirteen years old when he was circumcised in the flesh of his
foreskin. That very day Abraham and his son Ishmael were circumcised.
And all the men of his house, those born in the house and those
bought with money from a foreigner, were circumcised with him.
936
Sing Praise to the God of Israel Piano
© 1992 Stephen P. Starke. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License .NET, no. 100011178.
Public domain
Apostles'
Creed
C 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 T everlasting. Amen.
The Ninth
Commandment
You shall
not covet your neighbor's house.
What
does this mean?
We should
fear and love God so that we do not scheme to get our neighbor's
inheritance or house, or get it in a way which only appears right,
but help and be of service to him in keeping it.
Luther's
Morning Prayer
C I
thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son,
that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray
that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that
all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend
myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with
me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen.
Luther's
Evening Prayer
C I
thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son,
that You have graciously kept me this day; and I pray that You would
forgive me all my sins where I have done wrong, and graciously keep
me this night. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and
soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil
foe may have no power over me. Amen
Prayers
for others and ourselves:
- For marriage and family, that husbands and wives, parents and children live in ordered harmony according to the Word of God;
- for parents who must raise children alone;
- for our communities and neighborhoods;
- for all our leaders and those campaigning for office that they may serve and act with integrity, humility, wisdom and look to the Triune God for light and life;
- for all for whom death is near that they be welcomed into the Father's care, not on their own merit, but on Jesus Christ's merit - His perfect Life, Death, and Resurrection;
- for our congregational, District and Synodical leaders who desire always to show the glory of Jesus Christ;
- for the Reign of God in our hearts and minds, that we would always and in true faith call upon the Lord.
Lord's
Prayer
C 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 T forever and ever. Amen.
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 T forever and ever. Amen.
Benediction
(Pauline)
P The
grace of the Lord T Jesus Christ and
the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you
all.
C Amen.
Acknowledgments
Unless
otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations are from The
Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by
Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
Created by
Lutheran Service Builder © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.
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