Online Worship for September 20, 2020

Welcome to Church of the Holy Cross’s live streaming worship service for September 20th, 2020. Feel free to follow the service text by scrolling down, or you may download and print the service in PDF format below.

Online Worship, September 20, 2020
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Rev. Eric S. Anderson, Pastor

WE GATHER TO WORSHIP GOD

Welcome:                                                                                Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Prelude: Sing to the Lord – Smith                                            Kayleen Yuda

Call to Worship: based on Philippians 1:21-30                        Woody Kita
Leader: The Apostle Paul got tired. He got cranky. He got hurt.
All: In his weariness and irritation and pain, he held to the hope of a blessed life with God.
Leader: He did more than that. He looked at his work and its impact on others.
All: He was determined to bless and be a blessing for the people around him.
Leader: Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ,” he wrote, even though it led to his suffering.
All: May we so live our lives, and in so doing, bear witness to the graciousness of God.
Leader: In the same way, let us bear witness now in worship.

Please join me in the Invocation: based on Psalm 145               Woody Kita
We will extol you, our God and Ruler, and bless your name forever. On this day and on every day, we will praise your name forever. Your greatness is unsearchable, your mighty acts beyond our knowledge. Within and between generations we will celebrate your works. In this time together, over the different times and in our separate places, together we celebrate your abundant goodness and sing aloud of your righteousness. Praise to you, O God, for you are gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Amen.

Hymn Duet #532 Come, Labor On — Jane Laurie Borthwick & Thomas Tertius Noble
                                                                                                Eric Anderson
                                                                                                Doug Albertson
                                                                     Movement led by Genie Phillips

Scripture: Jonah 3:10-4:11                                                      Woody Kita
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And the Lord said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.

The Lord God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the bush, so that it withered. When the sun rose, God prepared a sultry east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint and asked that he might die. He said, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” And he said, “Yes, angry enough to die.” Then the Lord said, “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in a night. And should I not be concerned about Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?”

Matthew 20:1-16
“For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with the laborers for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. When he went out about nine o’clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace;  and he said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ So they went. When he went out again about noon and about three o’clock, he did the same. And about five o’clock he went out and found others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why are you standing here idle all day?’ They said to him, ‘Because no one has hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard.’ When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager, ‘Call the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and then going to the first.’ When those hired about five o’clock came, each of them received the usual daily wage. Now when the first came, they thought they would receive more; but each of them also received the usual daily wage. And when they received it, they grumbled against the landowner, saying, ‘These last worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat.’ But he replied to one of them, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage? Take what belongs to you and go; I choose to give to this last the same as I give to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me? Or are you envious because I am generous?’ So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

Story/Sermon                                                                         Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Pastoral Prayer:                                                                    Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Please join me in the 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 us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 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

Instrumental Anthem: Piano Sonata Op. 13 No. 8 2^nd mvt.–Beethoven      
                                                                                                Kanako Okita

Call to Offering:                                                                      Woody Kita
Once more we invite you to an offering. You cannot place your gifts in a calabash or a plate. Instead, they must make their way through the mail in an envelope sent to 440 West Lanikaula Street, Hilo, Hawai’i, 96720, or as information on the Internet submitted at holycrosshilo.com/donate. However you send them, let them be gifts of the heart that extend your love and compassion to your neighbors and your friends, and also to the stranger on the far side of the world. Let us pray together:

Please join me in the Offertory Prayer:                                  Woody Kita
Some of us have come early to you, O God, to know your love and to share in your work. Some of us came later in life to you, O God, to be blessed by your grace and to live your good news. Some of us have come to you only recently, O God, and we are still startled by your embrace and still finding our place in your mission. Whenever we came to you, O God, we offer you our gifts of treasure and talent and praise. Accept them, we ask, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Anthem: Grace Alone– Scott Wesley Brown & Jeff Nelson      
Eric Anderson
                                                                                                Doug Albertson
                                                                      Movement led by Genie Phillips

Announcements:                                                                Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Benediction:                                                                            Rev. Eric S. Anderson

Postlude: A Song for the Trumpet – Paxton                              Kayleen Yuda

Permissions:
“Grace Alone”
Words and Music by Scott Wesley Brown and Jeff Nelson
CCLI Song #2335524
(c) 1998 Universal Music – Brentwood Benson Publishing
Streamed by permission. CCLI License # 1595965