FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT

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April 3, 2022

In God’s Kingdom Only Losers Get the Trophy

That God has authority is not always in question, but how God uses His authority so often confuses and confounds us. Such is the way of mercy. We instinctively believe that mercy should be reserved for those who deserve it, but God shows His mercy even to those who reject it. The tenants in Jesus’ parable treat the servants of the vineyard owner shamefully, and yet he sends his own son. Is this not the story of the world since Adam and Even rebelled against God? Yet even as we rejoice in God’s mercy, we realize that the rejection of His mercy is not without consequence and those who reject the cornerstone will be crushed by it on the day of judgment.

+ PREPARATION +

OPENING HYMN: #644 – The Church’s One Foundation

INVOCATION

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

People: Amen.

CONFESSION AND ABSOLUTION Psalm 3:4, 8

Pastor: Salvation belongs to the Lord;

People: Your blessing be upon Your people!

Pastor: I cried aloud to the Lord,

People: and He answered me from His holy hill.

Silence for meditation and reflection.

Pastor: Deliver us, O Lord, from all our sin, and restore us by Your promise.

People: We confess to You, O Lord, that we have sinned against You in thought, word, and deed, by the evils we have done and by the good we have not done. We have rejected Your Word as You have sent it to us to call us to repentance and have refused Your mercy. Deliver us from our hardness of heart. Forgive us for the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Restore us by Your grace, that we may walk according to Your Word and delight in You in our inmost heart. Amen.

Pastor: Almighty God in His mercy has given His Son to die for you and for His sake forgives you all your sins. As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. To the impenitent and unbelieving I declare that so long as you continue in your impenitence, God will not forgive your sins and will visit your iniquity upon you until you turn from your sinful ways, come to repentance, and trust in the merits of Jesus Christ alone.

People: Amen.

Pastor: May the Lord, who has begun this good work in us, bring it to completion in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

People: Amen.

+ WORD +

PSALM Psalm 126; antiphon v. 3

(Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy.)

¹When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,

we were like those who dream.

²Then our mouth was filled with laughter,

and our tongue with shouts of joy;

then they said among the nations,

“The Lord has done great things for them.”

³The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad.

⁴Restore our fortunes, O Lord,

like streams in the Negeb!

⁵Those who sow in tears

shall reap with shouts of joy!

⁶He who goes out weeping,

bearing the seed for sowing,

shall come home with shouts of joy,

bringing his sheaves with him.

KYRIE LSB, p. 288

Pastor: O Lord,

People: have mercy.

Pastor: O Christ,

People: have mercy.

Pastor: O Lord,

People: have mercy.

Pastor: O Christ,

People: hear us.

Pastor: God the Father in heaven,

People: have mercy.

Pastor: God the Son, Redeemer of the world,

People: have mercy.

Pastor: God the Holy Spirit,

People: have mercy.

Pastor: Be gracious to us.

People: Spare us, good Lord.

Pastor: Be gracious to us.

People: Help us, good Lord.

Pastor: From all sin, from all error, from all evil;
From the crafts and assaults of the devil; from sudden and evil death;
From pestilence and famine; from war and bloodshed; from sedition and from rebellion;
From lightning and tempest; from all calamity by fire and water; and from everlasting death:

People: Good Lord, deliver us.

Pastor: By the mystery of Your holy incarnation; by Your holy nativity;
By Your Baptism, fasting, and temptation; by Your agony and bloody sweat; by Your cross and Passion; by Your precious death and burial;
By Your glorious resurrection and ascension; and by the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter:

People: Help us, good Lord.

Pastor: In all time of our tribulation; in all time of our prosperity; in the hour of death; and in the day of judgment:

People: Help us, good Lord.

Pastor: We poor sinners implore You

People: to hear us, O Lord.

Pastor: To rule and govern Your holy Christian Church; to preserve all pastors and ministers of Your Church in the true knowledge and understanding of Your wholesome Word and to sustain them in holy living;
To put an end to all schisms and causes of offense; to bring into the way of truth all who have erred and are deceived;
To beat down Satan under our feet; to send faithful laborers into Your harvest; and to accompany Your Word with Your grace and Spirit:

People: We implore You to hear us, good Lord.

Pastor: To raise those who fall and to strengthen those who stand; and to comfort and help the weakhearted and the distressed:

People: We implore You to hear us, good Lord.

Pastor: To give to all peoples concord and peace; to preserve our land from discord and strife; to give our country Your protection in every time of need;
To direct and defend our president and all in authority; to bless and protect our magistrates and all our people;
To watch over and help all who are in danger, necessity, and tribulation; to protect and guide all who travel;
To grant all women with child, and all mothers with infant children, increasing happiness in their blessings; to defend all orphans and widows and provide for them;
To strengthen and keep all sick persons and young children; to free those in bondage; and to have mercy on us all:

People: We implore You to hear us, good Lord.

Pastor: To forgive our enemies, persecutors, and slanderers and to turn their hearts; to give and preserve for our use the kindly fruits of the earth; and graciously to hear our prayers:

People: We implore You to hear us, good Lord.

Pastor: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,

People: we implore You to hear us.

Pastor: Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,

People: have mercy.

Pastor: Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,

People: have mercy.

Pastor: Christ, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,

People: grant us Your peace.

Pastor: O Christ,

People: hear us.

Pastor: O Lord,

People: have mercy.

Pastor: O Christ,

People: have mercy.

Pastor: O Lord,

People: have mercy. Amen.

SALUTATION and PRAYER OF THE DAY

Pastor: The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Pastor: Let us pray.
O almighty God, Your authority is great, but You exercise Your authority by showing mercy to us sinners and forgiving our sins for the sake of Your Son. Grant that we may know with joy Your grace and respond with thankful hearts before the day when Your mercy will cease and the day of judgment has come; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray.

People: Amen.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE DAY

Pastor: This is the last Sunday before we enter Holy Week. On this day, we hear the warning of the Lord against those who refuse His mercy as well as the promise that those who trust in Him will never be forsaken. Isaiah gives us the promise of a new thing that the people God has formed to be His own might declare His praise forever. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul urges us to press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God. In the Gospel, the Lord tells another parable in which He warns that the same cornerstone that holds up the house of God’s mercy will become the stone that crushes those who reject it.

OLD TESTAMENT READING Isaiah 43:16–21

(Behold, I am doing a new thing!)

¹⁶Thus says the Lord,
            who makes a way in the sea,
            a path in the mighty waters,
¹⁷who brings forth chariot and horse,
            army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
            they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
¹⁸“Remember not the former things,
            nor consider the things of old.
¹⁹Behold, I am doing a new thing;
            now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
            and rivers in the desert.
²⁰The wild beasts will honor me,
            the jackals and the ostriches,
for I give water in the wilderness,
            rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people,
            ²¹the people whom I formed for myself
that they might declare my praise.”

Lector: This is the Word of the Lord.

People: Thanks be to God.

EPISTLE Philippians 3: (4b-7)8–14

(Press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God.)

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: ⁵circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness, under the law blameless. ⁷But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— ¹⁰that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

¹²Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Lector: This is the Word of the Lord.

People: Thanks be to God.

VERSE Luke 20:17b

The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.

HOLY GOSPEL Luke 20:9–20

(The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.)

Pastor: The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the twentieth chapter.

People: Glory to You, O Lord.

⁹[Jesus] began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. ¹⁰When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. ¹¹And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. ¹²And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. ¹³Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ ¹⁴But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ ¹⁵And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? ¹⁶He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!” ¹⁷But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written:

‘The stone that the builders rejected
has become the cornerstone’?

¹⁸Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”

¹⁹The scribes and the chief priests sought to lay hands on him at that very hour, for they perceived that he had told this parable against them, but they feared the people. ²⁰So they watched him and sent spies, who pretended to be sincere, that they might catch him in something he said, so as to deliver him up to the authority and jurisdiction of the governor.

Pastor: This is the Gospel of the Lord.

People: Praise to You, O Christ.

HYMN OF THE DAY: #575 – My Hope Is Built on Nothing Less

1 My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
No merit of my own I claim
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name. Refrain

ref On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

2 When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In ev’ry high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil. Refrain

3 His oath, His covenant and blood
Support me in the raging flood;
When ev’ry earthly prop gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay. Refrain

4 When He shall come with trumpet sound,
Oh, may I then in Him be found,
Clothed in His righteousness alone,
Redeemed to stand before His throne! Refrain

Text: Edward Mote, 1797–1874, alt.

Text: Public domain

SERMON: In God’s Kingdom Only Losers Get the Trophy

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: … Lord, in Your mercy:

People: hear our prayer.

At conclusion:

Pastor: … through Jesus Christ, our Lord, 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.
Almighty God, by Your great goodness, mercifully look upon Your people that we may be governed and preserved evermore in body and 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 Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you.
The Lord look upon you with favor and + give you peace.

People: Amen.

DISMISSAL

Pastor: Go in peace! Serve the Lord!

People: Thanks be to God.

FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT – Online Church at Home Service Bulletin