FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

Hallelujah. Bless our land Through storm and night ring by thy great might. Oh, shall our prayers arise to God the whom we waiting with to the cry.

the I invite you to stand as you were able and join me for the confessions. Blessed be the Holy Trinity, one God, whose compassion endures forever. >> Amen.

>> Let us confess our sin to God. Compassionate God, we confess to you all our sins. Our burden is heavy and we cannot ourselves.

In your mercy, call us back to you. >> Your yoke is easy and your burden is light. Restore us to dwell in peace.

In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Jesus says, "Come to me all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest." In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, your sins are forgiven.

Rest in God's love. >> Amen. Oh, the power of Jesus Christ.

before the Lord will die again and glory and oh The other pre who saves you by his grace and crown all him who saves you by his grace and crown. Lord of all the light, the God incarnate as he went and all the God and divine and Lord of all sinners for good and all spread your trousers. at his feet and round.

>> The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. >> And also with you. Peace in peace.

Let us pray to the Lord have mercy. Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy.

For the reign of God and for peace throughout the world, for the unity of all. Let us pray to the Lord. Have mercy.

Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy for the people here who have come to give you praise for the strength to live your word. Let us pray to the Lord.

Christ have mercy. Lord have mercy. Help save and defend us, oh God.

and celebration. All of creation sings joy to the God of high freedom. Praise and glory forever.

Thou is the feast the lamb will slave and united us to be one great people of God. of feast and celebration. All of creation sings joy to the God of life and love and freedom.

Praise and glory forever. Power and riches, wisdom and light, all honor and glory to Christ forever. Now feast of cation.

All creation sings joy to the God of might and glory freedom. Praise and glory forever. For God has come to dwell with us to make us people of God to make all things new.

feast and celebration. All of creation sings for joy to the God of life, the God of freedom. Praise and glory forever.

>> The Lord be with you. >> And also with you. >> Let us pray together.

You are great, oh God, and greatly to be praised. You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you. >> Grant that we may believe in you, call upon you, know you, and serve you through your son Jesus Christ, our savior and lord.

Amen. >> Please be seated. If there are children who would like to visit with me, I welcome that.

>> Let's continue with the lessons. >> Good morning. First lesson is a reading from the prophet Zechariah.

Rejoice greatly, oh daughter Zion. Shout aloud, oh daughter Jerusalem. See your king comes to you.

Triumphant and victorious is he. Humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, a f of a donkey. He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the waror from Jerusalem and the battle shall be cut off.

And he shall command peace to the nations. His dominion shall be from sea to sea and the river to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.

Return to your stronghold, oh prisoners of hope. Today I declare that I will restore you to you doubly. The word of the Lord.

>> Thanks be to God. is gracious and full of compassion. The Lord is full of compassion.

The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. The Lord is full of compassion. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Lord, you are good to all and your compassion is over all your words. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. The Lord is full of compassion.

All your works shall praise you, oh Lord, and your faithful shall bless you. They shall tell the glory of your kingdom and speak of your power. that all people may know of your power and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Your dominion endures throughout all ages. You Lord are faithful in all your works and loving in all your words.

The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. The Lord is full of compassion.

This second lesson you really have to pay attention to. This one I had to read three times before I got it, but you'll get it. I'll try to read it slow.

It's a reading from Paul's letter to the Romans. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

Now, if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact, it is no longer that I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. I know that the good does not dwell within me, that is, in my flesh.

For the desire to do the good lies close at hand, but not the ability. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now, if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self. But I see in my members another law of war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Wretched person that I am, who will rescue me from this body of death. Thanks to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. >> The word of the Lord.

>> Thanks be to God. >> Hallelu. You have the words of eternal life.

Hallelu. Hallelu. Hallelu.

Shall we go? You have the words of etal life. Hallelu.

>> The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew, the 11th chapter. >> Glory to you, O Lord.

>> Jesus spoke to the crowd, saying, "To what will I compare this generation?" It's like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another. We played the flute for you and you did not dance. We wailed and you did not mourn.

Or John came neither eating nor drinking and they say he has a demon. The son of man came eating and drinking and they say, "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners." Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds. At this time, Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you've hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants." Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.

All things have been handed over to me by my father. And no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. The Gospel of the Lord.

>> Praise to you, Christ. Please be seated. Last Sunday afternoon, wrote Robert Fulgum in his third book, From Beginning to End: The Rituals of Our Lives.

I went through my drawer ritual. Restless with time on my hands and many things to do in my mind, I paced around the house, trying unsuccessfully to get my energy focused. I turned almost unconsciously to the drawers, or as I've come to think of them, the somewhere drawers, as in it's in here somewhere.

Because the space in our housebo is limited, he continued, "My wife and I share a small room that serves as a kind of focus for personal life. The room is carefully and clearly divided between us by a long table, and our respective sides each have a closet and a chest of drawers. This common room, Fulgrim wrote, also serves as the family's loading dock, where we leave the baggage we carry back and forth from work.

briefcases, books, umbrellas, mail, and coats. There's several small baskets distributed among the drawers to keep things efficiently ordered and handy. Impressed?

Yes. Don't be, he responded. Over time, he confessed, in the daily scramble of coming and going, anything small and loose gets dumped into the drawers.

Here, this is yours. Put it somewhere in the somewhere drawers. Of course, inevitably, there comes the crisis when what I put somewhere is nowhere to be found.

Last Sunday, he admitted, I carefully emptied all the drawers and I laid out the pieces as if they had been found in an archaeological dig, a smallcale museum display of my life. He washed the drawers and he dumped a sack of potentially useful items into a larger drawer in the basket. The drawer ritual carefully and thoughtfully led him to put the remaining items in various wicker baskets in the drawers.

The drawer ritual is now complete. He announced, "The drawers are clean. They are neat and worthy of respect.

And on some level, Fulgrim used, so is my life." The ritual of the drawers is deeply satisfying. "How can something so mundane seem so important?" because he confessed this is but a symbolic manifestation of the paragotical nature of my life in general. Order and purpose giving way to disorder and structure.

Disorder and confusion giving away to getting organized all over again. Pulgum's ritual of revival, he called it. Almost 2,000 years ago, another man wrote a painfully honest confession to people he had yet to meet of the conflict in his head and in his heart.

We heard the confession a few minutes ago. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.

Paul in his earlier life, a deeply pious Jew devoted to faithfully doing he thought all that God demanded of him after his encounter with the risen Lord Jesus on the Damascus road experience the inner conflict of all of us who want to live the Christlike life. a conflict between willing and doing. This July 4 holiday weekend reveals the struggle on a national level.

How many will hear the words of the pledge of allegiance, a nation under God, and assume that America is a Christian nation? Idealism led us to stamp in God we trust on our coins and on our bills. But the realism reflected in our attitudes and our actions indicates that we rely on armaments and alliances.

National as well as personal crises remind us that we can trust completely neither our armaments nor our alliances. We live in a state of tension personally and nationally. It's Sunday and we're restless enough to want to clean drawers again.

That's okay. Holy scriptures remind us that a people cannot become God's people simply by deciding to serve God. People become God's people because God calls them.

A Christian nation in the biblical sense would be a nation that seeks as an entire nation to respond to the call of God. But just as today local and national leaders can't consider all the options and then conclude that for the good of the economy and the health of the moral fiber of the nation for the nation Christianity would be a good national selection. So wrote St.

Paul so very long ago. Neither can we. St.

Paul in the second half of his life, a deeply devoted follower of the risen Lord Jesus, confessed his daily struggle to live the Christlike life to all of us who know the painful conflict of trying to live faithfully in this sinful world. This seventh chapter of Paul's letter to Christians in Rome is considered by many to be perhaps the most ignatic confession of the great apostle. But there's something more here than just the first person babbling of a deeply divided personality.

There is deep tension, anguished confession in Paul's powerful words in today's second reading. It's not the result of a split personality, a separation of body and soul, of good and bad within us. Paul has something important to say to Jesus followers in the 21st century.

Though we belong to Christ through our baptism, he reminds us in this letter, when I want to do good, evil lies close at hand. Evil is always our bed partner. The word literally means, think about it.

Though we through our baptism into the death and resurrection of the risen Lord Jesus Christ belong to Christ, as long as we live in this world, evil is always close to conflict the good we seek to do. 30 years ago this month, PBSSU Huitt conducted a series of interviews with leading American religious leaders. The Searching for God in America series began with an interview with the late Charles Coulson in 1974, chief counsel to President Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal, who after his release from federal prison, founded Prison Fellowship, America's largest nonprofit ministry to current and former prison prisoners.

Many know him from his memoir, Born Again. With Coulson was the late Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of Why Bad Things Happen to Good People, written after the death of his firstborn child. The contrast was significant.

Coulson married St. Paul when he confessed I can't do right I can't choose rightly Rabbi Krishna con declared the good freely chosen pleases God Paul's anguished personal confession is key to understanding the letter his way of reminding us that just as America cannot not on its own initiative make itself Christian. So we cannot by our own intentions and actions fully and perfectly live the life God intends to be righteous and worthy of God's rewards.

That's what all of those eye statements suggest in this chapter. It's Paul's admission mirrored in fulgum somewhere drawers. I I I Paul writes here and there is no sentence in that letter that begins with I that ends somewhere with salvation and freedom.

Even God's law, Paul said elsewhere, was intended for our good became through sin our downfall. Sin deceives us into believing that we really can fulfill the laws of God, that on our own we can live a sinfree life. That's Paul's point.

There is just no way I can be capable of living up to my own expectations, much less of God's intentions for me. Martin Luther taught us to sing truth. Did we in our own strength confide?

Our strivings would turn to losing. My somewhere drawers rapidly fall into chaos, filled with trash and trivia and really good for very little. I clean them and I trash them repeatedly.

wretched person that I am fulgum Paul and I cry who will rescue me from this body of death. Paul responds with testimony. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In holy baptism, God put me, you put us beyond the authority and the rule of law. That doesn't mean that Christ give gave us the ability to do completely what God requires of us in this sinful world. Rather, we are put right with God.

We are justified by faith in Christ. Not by what we do, not by what we say, not by what we are. Does this relationship with our creator in holy baptism erase the tension in our lives as Christians?

Not at all. In fact, it increases it. In baptism, we belong to Christ.

As long as we live in this sinful world, sin is everywhere. Sin exerts a powerful force. Evil is, as Paul says, our bed partner.

There is no decision we make. There is no action we take that is not clouded by sin. In the world of sin, we can't make a perfect decision.

We can't take a perfect action. We do the best we can each day and pray each night as Luther taught us for forgiveness. There are no easy answers.

There never really were. We are as we Lutheran confess at one and the same time saint and sinner. The good news Paul proclaimed earlier to Christians in Corenth is that God's grace is sufficient.

God is with us in our daily struggles. God sends us out as full participants in this sinful world to be in but not of this world because the outcome has been decided. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Paul told us earlier in this confessional letter, God's work is never done by perfect people. Throughout history, God works through redeemed sinner saints. Earlier in his ministry, God told Paul good news for his physical struggle.

It's good news for us, too. My grace is sufficient for you. for power is made perfect in weakness to which he and we respond.

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Amazing gra and save our shall be.

I was lost, but now was blind, but now I see. was grace that my heart to and grace my gift and gra our must sorrow and sis the and praise. as long as life and we will might be to see us face.

with the whole church. Let us confess our faith using the words of the Apostles Creed. >> I believe in God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontious Pilot, was crucified, died, and was buried. >> He descended to the dead. >> On the third day, he rose again.

>> He ascended into he is seated at the right hand of the father. And he will come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.

Amen. >> Trusting in God's steadfast love for all God has made, let us pray for the church, the world, and all of creation. God, our unity.

Your church flourishes in different languages, cultures, and movements. Grant us wisdom to discern when our yolks are too heavy that we may live and serve in the freedom of your rest. God of grace, here our pray.

God our lifegiver. We grieve the pains placed upon our common home through war and neglect. What you have love lovingly crafted guide us to lovingly tend.

God of grace here our pray. >> God our freedom. You are no tyrant but bring peace.

As this nation marks its declaration of independence. Teach us our part in announcing peace for future generations. God of grace, >> here our pray.

>> God our comfort, liberate all of in our community who are captive to fear, who have become isolated or ill or who are in need, especially those we lift before you now, whether silently or aloud. God of grace, here our prayer. >> God our guide, we do not always have the strength to do the good we wish to do.

Free us from the cycles of violence that bind us. That all know your liberation. God of grace, >> here our pray.

>> God, our home, you model freedom through the love shared across communities of trust and goodwill. As we remember those now gone to eternal rest, we thank you for the gifts of life together. God of grace, here our pray.

>> Grateful for your abundant pro provisions and trusting in your goodness, we cast all our cares upon you through the abundant grace of Jesus Christ. >> Amen. >> Peace of the Lord be with you always.

>> And also with you. >> As you're comfortable, share a sign of God's peace with others. I'm just going to hear This is my song.

Oh God of all nations, oh for this country where my heart is here are my hopes. My dreams, my hope in the land of hopes and dreams as true and as mine. or blue ocean and some over As Christ as our soul, oh God of all the nations, the song of This is my Oh God, your kingom come on earth will be done.

Oh God be lifted up till all shall serve you and you never hear my pray oh God of all the nations. I give you will be done. scattered on the hill to become our breath.

So may all your people from all the ends of earth be gathered into one you bless our midst of your graattered into one to become our bread. So may all your people from all the ends of earth be in you. Let this all come when all creation shares this with you.

As the grains of wheat scattered on the hill were gathered into one to become our bread. So may your people from all the ends of earth. Let us pray together.

Loving God, we offer at your table the gifts of our hearts. >> Help us take part in you and share freely of your love so that all creation can taste your abundance. We ask this in the name of Jesus through the spirit abiding with us now and forever.

>> Amen. >> The Lord be with you. >> And also with you.

Lift up your hearts. >> We lift them to the Lord. >> Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

>> It is right to give our thanks and praise. It is indeed right, our duty and our joy that we should at all times and in all places give thanks and praise to you, almighty and merciful God, through our Savior Jesus Christ, who on this day overcame death and the grave, and by his glorious resurrection opened to us the way of everlasting life. And so with all the choirs of angels, with the church on earth and the hosts of heaven, we praise your name and join their unending hymn.

>> Holy, holy, holy are you God of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosana in the highest.

Blessed is the one who comes in your name. Hosana in the highestana in the highest. >> Holy, mighty, and merciful Lord.

Heaven and earth are full of your glory. In great love, you came to us in Jesus, your son, who reached out to heal the sick and suffering, who preached good news to the poor, and who on the cross opened his arms to all. In the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat.

This is my body given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me. Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people, for the forgiveness of sin.

Do this for the remembrance of me. Remembering therefore his death, resurrection, and ascension, we await his coming in glory. Pour out upon us the spirit of your love, O Lord, and unite the wills of those who share this heavenly food, the body and blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

To whom with you and the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory, now and forever. >> Amen. >> Lord, remember us in your kingdom and teach us to pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven, 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. 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. >> Heaven has come near.

Share in the feast. >> Thanks be to God. Lamb of God, you take the world, have mercy on us.

Mercy on us, mercy on us. Lamb of God, have mercy on us. Mercy on us.

Mercy on us. God, you are the way of peace. Have mercy on us.

Mercy on us. Mercy. Have mercy on us.

Mercy. Grand us peace. me to my anious soul.

Day by day the blessings you send me to my heavenly home to the burdens of my lead me to the home I treure where at last I'll find eternal rest day by day I know you will provide me and wisdom to oying will guide me. I struggle day by day. I will fear the evil of theorrow.

I will trust in your enduring grace. Savior help me and sorrow till I behold your face. Oh my go.

Oh, what joy to know that you will hear me when I come to you in pray. You will hold me ever in your hand. Savior with your presence here tonight.

I will bless the promised land. Christendus is glory. call and for me and watching for you and for Come along.

Come who are we tending to s Why should we Jesus is for you and for me? Why should we linger and not his mercies for you and for me you are tenderly Jesus is calling sinner for the wonderful love he has promised for you and for Though we have sless and pardon for you and for me you are Come and Jesus is calling home. The body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ strengthen you and keep you in his grace.

>> Amen. >> Let us pray together. Compassionate God, through the gift of bread and wine, our hearts are filled with the abundance of your love.

>> Strengthen us that we through this holy meal may share your love freely as you have shared with us. >> We ask this in the name of Jesus through your spirit nourishing us now and forever. Amen.

It's a holy privilege on this the first Sunday of the month to extend this table of the sacrament to homebound members. If you're delivering the sacrament, I invite you to come. Let us pray.

Gracious God, loving all your family with a mother's tender care, as you sent the angel to feed Elijah with heavenly bread, assist us in this ministry on which we set forth. In your love and care, nourish and strengthen those to whom we bring this sacrament, that through the body and blood of your son, we all may know the comfort of your abiding presence. Amen.

>> Amen. Creator, redeemer, sustainer, one God, bless, heal, and hold you today and always. >> Amen.

Oh, beautiful forever way of praise. for purple mountainstye and crown my good with brotherhood. Earth from sea to shining sea.

Oh, beautiful for heroes in each self. America. America shall thy still be no and great divine.

Oh beautiful for dream that sees beyond the I was in my Every fall conference for this morning we announce we welcome and are thankful for all of you who have worshiped together here in person and online. And thank you to all who participated in hosting our family promise families this past week. If you're unable to help this week, please consider volunteering the next time.

VBS 2026 registration is open. Rainforest Falls VBS will be July 13th through the 17th. ages three up to rising sixth grade are invited.

Also, invite your family and friends to join. We need your help to build our BBS jumble this week, July 6th through the 12th, and see weeks this week's Grace notes for details. Members of Grace will be providing and serving a meal at the men at Bethl's men's shelter in Rock Hill on this Thursday, July 9th at 6 p.m.

Please consider helping serve the meal or providing food or supplies. Sign up link is provided in this week's grace notes. If you would like a printed copy of the first draft of the congregational directory, please call the church office.

However, We have had some additional corrections come in. We have decided to update this draft to create a finalized directory to be distributed in August. Please take a look at the directory draft and communicate your updated information to the church office by July 26th.

And please continue to use your name tags and fill out the teran shares each Sunday. Now let us read our mission statement together. We share God share God's grace by welcoming all people growing together in faith and joining God's work in our community.

>> Heaven has come near share good news. >> Thanks be to God. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. is hallelujah.

Heat.