The Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost, At-Home Service for October 3rd

The sermon focuses on the first line we heard in the reading from Genesis. “The LORD God said, ‘It is not good that the human should be alone…” That line also raises the question of how one determines if something is good or bad.

Click here to view the at-home version of the service.

Pastor Rike’s Sermon

Most people classify something as good based on its utility or usefulness. We generally think something is good if we can derive some benefit for ourselves from that thing. For example, in a drawer in the kitchen where I live there is a can opener my wife purchased several years ago at a Pampered Chef party. She thought that the can opener was good because it is designed to separate the top of the can from the body of the can, leaving a smooth edge without the possibility of anyone cutting themselves on the can. I don’t think that can opener is good. I have never been able to make it work. When I used that can opener the gears would slip and jump, leaving only a small opening in the can that I would try to pry open while the rest of the lid remained tightly fastened to the rest of the can. As the years passed, the cutting edge of that can opener became dull, and not even Tonya can make it work now. Despite all of that, the old Pampered Chef can opener remains in the drawer in the kitchen. Again, the point is that if something is useful to us we generally consider it to be good. Conversely, if something is not useful to us we say it is not good.

Click here to read Pastor Rike’s sermon.

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Video Options

Follow along with the service on video led by Pastor Rike, with music performed by Randy Broker.

The Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost Service for October 3rd includes: 
Intro 
Hymn- For the Beauty of the Earth performed by the Randy Broker 
First Reading- Genesis 2:18-24
Holy Gospel- Mark 10:2-16
Sermon by Pastor David Rike 
Hymn- Blest Be the Tie That Binds performed by Randy Broker 
Prayers 
Blessing