05 Oct Worship Bulletin: 10/8/23
Welcome to Worship at the McPherson Church of the Brethren
We invite your active participation in the life of this congregation, as together we continue to grow in grace and seek justice for God’s creation.
Sunday, October 8, 2023 @ 10:15 a.m.
Gathering Music | “You Are Mine” (I Will Come to You in the Silence) | David Haas
Worship Band with Congregation & Bryan Hess on violin
Video Welcome
Sharing Time: Joys & Concerns | LeRoy Weddle
Centering Music | “We Are Called” | David Haas
Worship Band with Bryan Hess on violin
Come, live in the light. Shine with the joy and the love of the Lord.
We are called to be light for the kingdom; to live in the freedom of the city of God.
REFRAIN
We are called to act with justice. We are called to love tenderly.
We are called to serve one another; to walk humbly with God.
Come, open your heart. Show your mercy to all those in fear.
We are called to be hope for the hopeless; so all hatred and blindness will be no more.
REFRAIN
Sing, sing a new song. Sing of that great day when all will be one.
God will reign and we’ll walk with each other as sisters and brothers united in love
REFRAIN X2
Responsive Opening Scripture – Prayer of Petition | Psalm 80: 7-15
Restore us, God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.
8 You transplanted a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
9 You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land.
10 The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches.
11 Its branches reached as far as the Sea, and its shoots as far as the River.
12 Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes?
13 Boars from the forest ravage it, and insects from the fields feed on it.
14 Return to us, God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see!
Watch over this vine;
15 the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself.
Opening Song | “O Blessed Spring” | Voices Together #522
Story for the Children | Barbara Wagoner
Video Invitation to Give
Give online or send a check made payable to “McPherson Church of the Brethren,” 200 N. Carrie, McPherson, KS 67460
Musical Offering | “Give Me Jesus” | arr. Lloyd Larson
Ellen Gilbert, piano
Scripture Focus | Matthew 21: 33-46 | The Parable of the Tenants
33 “Listen to another parable:
There was a landowner who planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a winepress in it and built a
watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 34 When the harvest
time approached, he sent his servants to the tenants to collect his fruit.
35 The tenants seized his servants; they beat one, killed another, and stoned a third.
36 Then he sent other servants to them, more than the first time, and the tenants treated them
the same way. 37 Last of all, he sent his son to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said.
38 “But when the tenants saw the son, they said to each other, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him
and take his inheritance.’ 39 So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.
40 Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?”
41 they replied, “He will bring those wretches to a wretched end, and he will rent the vineyard to other
tenants, who will give him his share of the crop at harvest time.”
42 Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:
‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone;
God has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes’
43 “Therefore I tell you that the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people
who will produce its fruit. 44 Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone
on whom it falls will be crushed.”
45 When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables,
they knew he was talking about them.
46 They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd
because the people held that he was a prophet.
Scripture Song | “Thou True Vine, That Heals” | #373
Message | “Should We Plant a Vineyard?” | Jerry Bowen
Sending Song | “I Love to Tell the Story” | #398
Sending Words
Sending Music | “Bourree” from the Water Music Suite | G. F. Handel
Ellen Gilbert, organ
Videography and Editing: Eric Goering
Music Coordinator: Ellen Gilbert
Choir Director: Becky Snell
Technical Crew: Eric Goering, Ryan Goering, Shane Kirchner, Steve Lolling & Chris Whitacre
Chancel Decoration Team: Jill Brax, Colleen Gustafson, Michele Johnson, Shane Kirchner & Lara Schoming