Bulletin: 2nd Sunday in Lent – Online Church at Home

SECOND SUNDAY IN LENT

February 28, 2021

God Has Made an Everlasting Covenant with You

The old Latin name for this, the Second Sunday in Lent, is Reminiscere, because the Introit pleads, “Remember Your mercy, O Lord.” Confidently, it continues by encouraging us to trust Him because “He has remembered us; He will bless us.” Indeed, God’s promises to Abram in today’s Old Testament Reading were kept as Jesus moved unswervingly toward the cross, as He does in today’s Gospel. As a result, we can be sure, Paul reminds us in the Epistle, that we have peace with God. Even in suffering, we know that hope will not disappoint us, for we remember that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

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+ PREPARATION +

OPENING HYMN: What Wondrous Love Is This

INVOCATION

Pastor: In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

People: Amen.

CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION

(Incorporating Genesis 17:7; Psalm 22:27; Romans 5:6, 9–10)

Pastor: God established an everlasting covenant with Abraham,

People: but our faith has waxed and waned. O Lord, forgive our forgetfulness of Your unchanging grace.

Pastor: David wrote, “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord,”

People: but we have failed to remind one another of God’s mercy and love. O Lord, forgive our hesitancy to share the news of Your gracious presence.

Pastor: Paul wrote that because Christ died for the ungodly, we are justified by His blood,

People: but we have tried to hide our sinfulness. O Lord, forgive our blindness to the necessary sacrifice of our Savior.

Pastor: God sent His Son into the world with one purpose: to save us from the wrath of God. “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life.” As a called and ordained servant of Christ, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.

People: Amen. Thanks be to God.

+ WORD +

PSALM Psalm 22:23–31; antiphon: v. 22)

²³You who fear the Lord, praise him!

All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him,

and stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!

²⁴For he has not despised or abhorred

the affliction of the afflicted,

and he has not hidden his face from him,

but has heard, when he cried to him.

²⁵From you comes my praise in the great congregation;

my vows I will perform before those who fear him.

²⁶The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied;

those who seek him shall praise the Lord!

May your hearts live forever!

²⁷All the ends of the earth shall remember

and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations

shall worship before you.

²⁸For kingship belongs to the Lord,

and he rules over the nations.

²⁹All the prosperous of the earth eat and worship;

before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,

even the one who could not keep himself alive.

³⁰Posterity shall serve him;

it shall be told of the Lord to the coming generation;

³¹they shall come and proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn,

that he has done it.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;

as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

KYRIE

Pastor: In peace, let us pray to the Lord.

People: Lord, have mercy.

Pastor: For the peace we have with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, let us pray to the Lord.

People: Lord, have mercy.

Pastor: For peace among the families of the nations and in coming generations, let us pray to the Lord.

People: Lord, have mercy.

Pastor: For all who rejoice here for our access by faith into this grace in which we stand, let us pray to the Lord.

People: Lord, have mercy.

Pastor: By Your purposeful suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection—help, save, comfort, and defend us, gracious Lord.

People: Amen.

SALUTATION and PRAYER OF THE DAY

Pastor: The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Pastor: Let us pray.
O God, who sent Your Son into the flesh so that He might pay for our sins and open eternal life to us, grant us strong faith so that we may purposefully take up our crosses and follow where He has led the way; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

People: Amen.

OLD TESTAMENT READING Genesis 17:1–16

(God makes a covenant promise to Abram.)

¹When 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, ²that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” ³Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, ⁴“Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. ⁵No 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. ⁶I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. ⁷And 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. ⁸And 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.”

⁹And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. ¹⁰This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. ¹¹You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. ¹²He 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, ¹³both 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. ¹⁴Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”

¹⁵And God said to Abraham, “As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. ¹⁶I 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.”

Lector: This is the Word of the Lord.

People: Thanks be to God.

GRADUAL Hebrews 12:2

O come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus,
the founder and perfecter of our faith,
who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,
and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

EPISTLE Romans 5:1–11

(Grace: Christ died for the ungodly.)

¹Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. ²Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. ³More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, ⁴and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, ⁵and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

⁶For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. ¹¹More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Lector: This is the Word of the Lord.

People: Thanks be to God.

VERSE Mark 8:34b

If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

HOLY GOSPEL Mark 8:27–38

(Truly knowing Christ means following Him.)

Pastor: The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the eighth chapter.

People: Glory to You, O Lord.

²⁷And Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. And on the way he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” ²⁸And they told him, “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets.” ²⁹And he asked them, “But who do you say that I am?” Peter answered him, “You are the Christ.” ³⁰And he strictly charged them to tell no one about him.

³¹And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³²And he said this plainly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ³³But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.”

³⁴And he called to him the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ³⁵For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will save it. ³⁶For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? ³⁷For what can a man give in return for his life? ³⁸For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Pastor: This is the Gospel of the Lord.

People: Praise to You, O Christ.

HYMN OF THE DAY: Today Your Mercy Calls Us

SERMON

Apostles’ Creed

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 + everlasting. Amen.

PRAYER OF THE CHURCH

After each petition:

Pastor: … let us pray to the Lord:

People: Lord, have mercy.

At conclusion:

Pastor: … Jesus Christ, our Lord, in whose name we pray.

People: Amen.

LORD’S PRAYER Matthew 6:9–13

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

Pastor: Let us pray.
O God, You see that of ourselves we have no strength. By Your mighty power defend us from all adversities that may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

People: Amen.

BENEDICTION Numbers 6:24–26

Pastor: The blessing of God almighty—the Father, the + Son, and the Holy Spirit—be with you now and forever.

People: Amen.

CLOSING HYMN: ‘Come, Follow Me,’ the Savior Spake

DISMISSAL

Pastor: Go in peace as you serve the Lord.

People: Thanks be to God!