Rev. Franke's Theme Thoughts

Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost                                                                                            November 4, 2012

                                                               

Lessons for Proper 26     

Deuteronomy 6:1–9 ~ God’s commands guide our thoughts and our actions at home and away.

Psalm 119:1–8 (antiphon: v. 5)

Hebrews 9:11–14 (15–22) ~ Jesus won an eternal inheritance for us, cleansing us from our sin by His blood.

        Mark 12:28–37 ~ When Jesus judged a scribe who evaluated His teaching, everyone was silenced.

GATHERING THE TEXTS: God’s Covenant and Inheritance of Grace

God has placed us into families where His commands may be passed on through our children to guide our living together.  They also pass judgment on our lives where we fail to live in His love and with love toward each other.  To free us from that condemnation, God has sent the Christ, David’s son and David’s Lord, Who has made us inheritors of God’s grace in the family of His love by establishing a new covenant with us through the shedding of His blood.

PRAYER BEFORE THE SERVICE:  Loving Father, You have guaranteed an inheritance of grace to me by the blood of Your Son.   As You have included me in Your eternal family, so may I be guided in word and deed, as I come and go through all my doings in this world, until I receive the blessing You have prepared for all Your children in the world to come.  Amen.

STEWARDSHIP THOUGHT: God has blessed us with resources in a land of plenty.  How we use them is a measure of our love for God and neighbor.

OFFERING PRAYER:      You call us, Lord, to live by Your commands;

                                                You bless us with the bounty from our lands.

                                                        Provide us with Your love that we may be

                                                        Channels of Your grace for all to see.

CONVICTION AND COMFORT:  We know God’s commandments of love and readily use them to evaluate the lives of others, but we only come close to the Kingdom of God because we fail to keep His will in our own living.   Thanks be to God,  He has drawn us into the holy place of His love and made us heirs of His grace through the new covenant established by the sacrificed blood of the Christ. He is the One who has defeated all His enemies and is seated on the throne of God’s mercy.