03 Oct Bulletin – Sunday, October 4, 2026
WELCOME to MESSIAH & ST. PETER LUTHERAN CHURCHES
Rev. Nancy Brody, Pastor
Greta Wright, Organist
Sunday, October 4, 2026
Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost
ANNOUNCEMENTS
PRELUDE
ORDER OF CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS
Blessed be the holy Trinity, ☩ one God, who pours love into our hearts and healing upon the earth. Amen.
Confident that God justifies us by grace through faith, let us confess our sin. Compassionate God,
we confess that we struggle to embody your goodness in the world and in our own hearts. Creation groans from overuse. Jealousy and bitterness strain our relationships. Indifference keeps us from seeking justice. Divisions disrupt your call to show genuine love to others. Turn our hearts back to you. Restore our world and reconcile us to one another. Renew us to live as your holy people, following the way of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Hear this good news: We have peace with God through ☩ Jesus Christ, in whom there is no condemnation, only forgiveness and the promise of eternal life. Receive freely this healing gift of grace. Amen.
ENTRANCE HYMN
Jesus Calls Us; O’er the Tumult #494
PRAYER OF THE DAY
Beloved God, from you come all things good. Lead us by the inspiration of your Spirit and your merciful guidance to know and do those things that are right, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
FIRST READING Isaiah 5:1-7
I will sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine vat in it; he expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded rotten grapes. And now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it? When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield rotten grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. I will make it a wasteland; it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns; I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his cherished garden; he expected justice but saw bloodshed; righteousness but heard a cry!
PSALM 80:7-15
Restore us, O God of hosts; let your face shine upon us, and we shall be saved.
You have brought a vine out of Egypt; you cast out the nations and planted it.
You cleared the ground for it; it took root and filled the land.
The mountains were covered by its shadow and the towering cedar trees by its boughs.
You stretched out its tendrils to the sea and its branches to the river.
Why have you broken down its wall, so that all who pass by pluck off its grapes?
The wild boar of the forest has ravaged it, and the beasts of the field have grazed upon it.
Turn now, O God of hosts, look down from heaven;
behold and tend this vine; preserve what your right hand has planted.
SPECIAL MUSIC Brad Crum
SECOND READING Philippians 3:4b-14
[Paul writes:] If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow, I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to lay hold of that for which Christ has laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, but one thing I have laid hold of: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal, toward the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.
GOSPEL ACCLAMATION
🎶Alleluia, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Alleluia. Alleluia.
The Holy Gospel according to Saint Matthew, the 21st chapter.
🎶Glory to you, O Lord.
GOSPEL Matthew 21:33-46
[Jesus said:] “Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a winepress in it, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenants and went away. When the harvest time had come, he sent his slaves to the tenants to collect his produce. But the tenants seized his slaves and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other slaves, more than the first, and they treated them in the same way. Then he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and get his inheritance.’ So they seized him, threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. Now when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and lease the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the produce at the harvest time.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is amazing in our eyes’? “Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people that produces its fruits. The one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they realized that he was speaking about them. They wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowds, because they regarded him as a prophet.
🎶Glory to you, O Christ.
SERMON
HYMN OF THE DAY
My Song Is Love Unknown #94
PRAYERS of INTERCESSION
Addressing the Spirit of God who gives life and makes all things new, we pray for the church and world.
God of every generation, we give thanks for all who have sought to renew and transform your holy church. Inspire us to follow their example in our own day. Behold and tend your church; pre- serve what your right hand has planted.
God of every creature, bless and protect the earth and all those who dwell within it. We give thanks for those who have helped us to see your Spirit in creation (especially Francis of Assisi, renewer of the church). Behold and tend your world; preserve what your right hand has planted.
God of every tribe and nation, restore peace to every zone of conflict or war. Shelter those living within them. Keep safe and give refuge to those who have been displaced. Behold and tend people’s aching hearts and devastated homes; defend them with your mighty right hand.
God of every comfort, you made us in your own image. Grant healing and relief to all who are sick or suffering (especially those on our prayer list.) Behold and tend your people; preserve those in need with the power of your right hand.
God of all truth, draw us near to you through your holy word. Inspire teachers and those willing to learn. Supply patience and compassion. Behold and tend systems of education, help them succeed and improve as needed.
God of every soul, you are the one who calls us home. We give thanks for all the saints restored to perfect unity with you. Behold and tend our connections throughout time; preserve love and the relationships we cherish. Replace hurtful or broken memories w/something good.
O God, we place our trust in your tender mercies, steadfast love and boundless grace. We know that you behold us and tend to our every need. These prayers are lifted up, spoken and unspoken in our hearts through the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
EXCHANGE of PEACE
OFFERING
OFFERTORY
🎶Let the vineyards be fruitful, Lord and fill to the brim our cup of blessing. Gather a harvest of the seeds that were sown, that we may be fed with the bread of life. Gather the hopes and the dreams of all; unite them with the prayer we offer now. Grace our table with your presence, and give us a foretaste of the feast to come.
OFFERING PRAYER
LITURGY OF HOLY COMMUNION
🎶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 him thanks and praise.
🎶It is indeed right and salutary….we praise your name and join their unending hymn.
🎶Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might; heaven and earth are full of your glory, Hosana, Hosana, Hosana in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosana in the highest.
INVITATION TO COMMUNION
LORD’S PRAYER
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 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.
POST-COMMUNION CANTICLE
🎶Thank the Lord and sing his praise; tell everyone what he has done. Let all who seek the Lord rejoice and proudly bear his name. He recalls his promises and leads his people forth in joy with shouts of thanksgiving. Aleluia, Aleluia.
POST-COMMUNION PRAYER
BLESSING
CLOSING HYMN
O Living Bread from Heaven #197
DISMISSAL
POSTLUDE
Revised Common Lectionary copyright © 1992 Consultation on Common Texts. Used by permission. Prayers adapted from Sundays and Seasons, copyright © 2019, Augsburg Fortress. Used with permission. Psalm readings from Lutheran Book of Worship, copyright © 1978. Reprinted by permission under Augsburg Fortress Liturgies Annual Subscription #SB160715 Other quotations from Scripture from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, National Council of Churches in Christ in the United States of America. Used with permission. All rights reserved.
Altar flowers at St. Peter are presented by Dave and Lori Ritter in memory of our parents.