Worship Service – Sunday at 9:30am
Adult Bible Study – 8:30am
Worship – 9:30am
Sunday School – 10:45am
Fellowship – Immediately following worship
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 15, 2024 – 9:30am
The Common Thread
Help my unbelief. Can anything more faithful be uttered? We want to believe but cannot do so with our natural reason or power. God must help us, to the point of giving us faith. With these mouths that both bless and curse, we may at least ask for the faith to believe. He will hear and answer. Why? Because he is listening; since he loves us, he wants to hear our prayers. So, we may trust in the name of the Lord, and rely upon God to be faithful toward us, even when we find faith impossible on our own.
First Reading – Isaiah 50:4-10
Hear is the call of all the people of God: Shema! Hear, O Israel! (Deut 6:4) Yet, while all of Israel seems to turn a deaf ear, the Servant listens. What the Servant hears from God, is what he will speak. The weary people of God will then be sustained by the word of the listening Servant, even as his example leads them in the way. Those in darkness may trust in the Servant Lord and rely upon his God.
Psalm – Psalm 116:1-9
Death was near the psalmist; he was in torment over his situation. Yet he declared his love for the Lord. He called upon the Lord when he was distressed and found the Lord nearer than his anguish. God graciously delivered him because of his righteous mercy. Even in the face of death and other adversity, the psalmist learned to return to the Lord, who is rest and peace for anxious souls.
Second Reading – James 3:1-12
False teaching can destroy a church by weakening faith of the people. Therefore, not everyone should teach. This protects the students as well as the teacher. For the teacher will be held to a higher standard. So teachers must guard their words, seeing that by them, great things are accomplished for both good and evil. We bless and curse with the same tongue. In the same way, teachers may edify or destroy, depending on the words they choose and whether they teach right doctrine or heresy.
Gospel – Mark 9:14-29
Jesus had just been transfigured. That may be the reason that the disciples were inspired to the point that they accepted a father’s request to heal a possessed boy. When they were unable to cast out the demon, the crowd became contentious. Jesus told them that faithlessness was the problem but that all things are possible for those who believe. It was then that the boy’s father did something remarkably faithful. In the midst of his obviously lacking faith, he asked for a faith to believe. Only Jesus can give us the faith to overcome our doubts and drive away our demons.