Immanuel Lutheran Church LCMS

In a Time of Social Distancing | Sermon for March 22, 2020

Worship Service for the Fourth Sunday in Lent

Rev. Gregory Mech | Sunday, March 22, 2020 | Immanuel Lutheran Church ONLINE – Joplin, MO

See how Immanuel is responding to Coronavirus. Click here.

“When we are feeling disowned, depressed, deceitful, dishonest, devastated, disappointed… Jesus comes and touches us and sends us to the water, and says, ‘Fear not, I am with you. I never leave you or forsake you. I never will.'” —Pastor Mech from Today’s Sermon, “In a Time of Social Distancing”

Opening Hymn

“God, Whose Almighty Word” LSB 905, st. 1, 2, 4

God, whose almighty Word Chaos and darkness heard And took their flight: Hear us, we humbly pray, And where the Gospel day Sheds not its Glorious ray, Let there be light!

Lord, who once came to bring, On Your redeeming wing, Healing and sight, Health to the sick in mind, Sight to the inly blind: Oh, now to humankind, Let there be light!

Δ Holy and blessed Three, Glorious Trinity, Wisdom, love, might! Boundless as ocean’s tide Rolling in fullest pride Through the earth far and wide, Let there be light!

Verses

This is the day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 From the rising of the sun to its setting, The name of the Lord is to be praised. Psalm 113:3 Better is one day in Your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. Psalm 84:10 Make me to know Your ways, O Lord, Teach me Your ways. Psalm 25: 4 Sanctify us on Your truth. Your Word is truth. John 17:17 From the rising of the sun to its setting, The name of the Lord is to be praised. Psalm 113:3 Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit; As it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.

(10:30) Holy Baptism of Andrea Sutton Mello

Readings from Holy Scripture

Ephesians 5:8-14

For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret. But when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

John 9

As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth. And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” Having said these things, he spit on the ground and made mud with the saliva. Then he anointed the man’s eyes with the mud and said to him, “Go, wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means Sent). So he went and washed and came back seeing.

The neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar were saying, “Is this not the man who used to sit and beg?” Some said, “It is he.” Others said, “No, but he is like him.” He kept saying, “I am the man.” So they said to him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed and received my sight.” They said to him, “Where is he?” He said, “I do not know.”

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on