St Ansgar Lutheran Church, London

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Sunday Morning

We invite you to join us for the following worship services:

Sundays
10:30 a.m. Worship service

Hand sanitizer will be available at the entrance and other locations in the church for
your use.

Washrooms will be available for use.

In the service: The service will be shown on the screen. The offering will not be gathered and presented, but there will be an offering plate at the back of the sanctuary where you can put your offering as you enter or leave. Pastor David distributes the communion wafers and an Assisting Minister distributes wine or grape juice in individual glasses.

We have coffee and fellowship time available again in Luther Hall after the service.

We will continue to evaluate our worship service procedures on a monthly basis.

SEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST, JULY 12 2026

St. Ansgar Lutheran Church, Outline for Worship (with sermon)
July 12, 2026 – Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Based on ELW Setting Four

GATHERING

WELCOME & ANNOUNCEMENTS

BRIEF ORDER FOR CONFESSION AND FORGIVENESS
P: Blessed be the holy Trinity, one God, whose compassion endures forever. ☩
C: Amen.

P: Let us confess our sin to God.

Silence is kept for reflection.

P: Compassionate God,
C: we confess to you all our sins.
Our burden is heavy, and we cannot free ourselves.
In your mercy, call us back to you.
Your yoke is easy and your burden is light.
Restore us to dwell in your peace. In Christ’s name we pray.
Amen.

P: Jesus says, “Come to me, all who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest.”
In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, your sins are forgiven. Rest ☩
in God’s love.
C: Amen.

ENTRANCE HYMN - Open Now Thy Gates of Beauty (ELW #533)

GREETING
P: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion
of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
C: And also with you

KYRIE
A: In peace, let us pray to the Lord.
C: Lord, have mercy.

A: For the peace from above, and for our salvation, let us pray to the Lord.
C: Lord, have mercy.

A: For the peace of the whole world, for the well-being of the Church of God,
and for the unity of all, let us pray to the Lord.
C: Lord, have mercy.

A: For this holy house, and for all who offer here their worship and praise,
let us pray to the Lord.
C: Lord, have mercy.

A: Help, save, comfort, and defend us, gracious Lord.
C: Amen.

HYMN OF PRAISE (ELW p. 149)
P: This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia.
C: Worthy is Christ, the Lamb who was slain,
whose blood set us free to be people of God.
Power and riches and wisdom and strength,
and honour and blessing and glory are his.
This is the feast of victory for our God. Alleluia.
Sing with all the people of God
and join in the hymn of all creation:
Blessing and honour and glory and might
be to God and the Lamb forever. Amen.
This is the feast of victory for our God,
for the Lamb who was slain has begun his reign.
Alleluia. Alleluia.

PRAYER OF THE DAY
P: Let us pray.
P: Almighty God, we thank you for planting in us the seed of your word. By your
Holy Spirit help us to receive it with joy, live according to it, and grow in faith and
hope and love, through Jesus Christ, our Saviour and Lord.
C: Amen

WORD

FIRST READING: Isaiah 55:10-13
10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return
there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving
seed to the sower and bread to the eater, 11 so shall my word be that goes out
from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which
I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. 12 For you shall go out in
joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst
into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. 13 Instead of the
thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;
and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not
be cut off.

A: The word of the Lord.
C: Thanks be to God.

PSALM: Psalm 65
1 You are to be praised, O God, in Zion;
to you shall vows be fulfilled.
2 To you, the one who answers prayer,
to you all flesh shall come.
3 Our sins are stronger than we are,
but you blot out our transgressions.
4 Happy are they whom you choose and draw to your courts to dwell there!
They will be satisfied by the beauty of your house, by the holiness of
your temple.
5 Awesome things will you show us in your righteousness, O God of our
salvation,
O hope of all the ends of the ends of the earth and of the oceans far away.
6 You make firm the mountains by your power;
you are girded about with might.
7 You still the roaring of the seas,
the roaring of their waves, and the clamour of the peoples.
8 Those who dwell at the ends of the earth will tremble at your marvelous
signs;
you make the dawn and the dusk to sing for joy.
9 You visit the earth and water it abundantly; you make it very plenteous; the
river of God is full of water.
You prepare the grain, for so you provide for the earth.
10 You drench the furrows and smooth out the ridges;
with heavy rain you soften the ground and bless its increase.
11 You crown the year with your goodness,
and your paths overflow with plenty.
12 May the fields of the wilderness be rich for grazing,
and the hills be clothed with joy.
13 May the meadows cover themselves with flocks, and the valleys cloak
themselves with grain;
let them shout for joy and sing.

SECOND READING: Romans 8:1-11
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin
and of death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could
not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with
sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the just requirement of the law
might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the
Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of
the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things
of the Spirit. 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the
Spirit is life and peace. 7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is
hostile to God; it does not submit to God's law--indeed it cannot, 8 and those
who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in
the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the
Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, though the body
is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit
of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from
the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in
you.

A: The word of the Lord.
C: Thanks be to God.

GOSPEL ACCLAMATION
C: Alleluia. Lord, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life. Alleluia.

GOSPEL
P: The Holy Gospel according Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
C: Glory to you, O Lord.

1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 Such
great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while
the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in
parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some
seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Other seeds fell
on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly,
since they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched;
and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among
thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil
and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let
anyone with ears listen!"
18 "Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the
kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away
what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20 As for what was
sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately
receives it with joy; 21 yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a
while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that
person immediately falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is
the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth
choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23 But as for what was sown on good soil,
this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit
and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."

P: The Gospel of the Lord.
C: Praise to you, O Christ.

SERMON
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
The sermon for today has been prepared by Rev. Elina Singh, Assistant to the
Bishop & Executive Administrator for the British Columbia Synod of the ELCIC.
Let us pray: May the words of my mouth, and the prayers of our hearts, always
be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our Strength and our Redeemer. AMEN
Grace to you and peace from God who is our Creator, our Redeemer, and our
Sustainer.
I am a farmer’s daughter. Spring was always a busy time in my family. In a few
short weeks, all the fields had to be tilled and harrowed. When the soil was soft
and ready, my dad would fill up the seed drill with seeds and spend days sowing
the fields.
Farming in Jesus’s time was similar. It was on a smaller scale, certainly, and
without the machines and the tractors that pull them. The fields were plowed
either by hand or with a plow pulled by oxen. Harrowing and seeding were
likewise done by hand.
Each year during harvest season, the farmer would take some of the grains they
had gathered from the fields and set them aside to be planted the following year.
Each year’s planting depended on the previous year’s harvest. Seeds were a
valuable commodity, not to be wasted.
When a farmer goes out to sow, now as in biblical times, they do not
intentionally spread the seeds among the rocks, under the weeds, or along the
path. They spread the seeds in the good, well-prepared soil that can support
their growth.
When those listening to Jesus heard this parable and its explanation, they all
knew what a farmer’s job entailed. They knew how much work was needed for
their daily bread. They knew that a farmer wouldn’t waste any of the seeds.
In our telling and teaching of the parable, we have often focused on the seeds
that did not grow. There were the ones that fell on the path, or between the
rocks, or among the weeds. We’ve heard the parable many times, and may
have nodded our heads – yes, sowing the seed of God’s word is hard work, and
most seeds don’t grow. There are, after all, three examples of why they wouldn’t
grow, and only one where they do grow.
But the seeds that fell on the path, between the rocks, among the weeds, were
not sown there intentionally. Perhaps the farmer flung a handful a bit too
forcefully, and some of the seeds landed outside the tilled area. Perhaps the
farmer had a few seeds left in his sack at the end of the day when he was
stretching his back and his arms, and those seeds spilled on the path. All
accidental.
So what if, instead of focusing on the seeds that didn’t grow, we would shift our
focus on the ones that did? There were the seeds, after all, that landed in the
good soil and produced grain – hundredfold, or sixty, or thirty. Some stalks grew
stronger than others, some heads carried more grain, all of them valuable.
All of them grew because God gave them the growth.
Just like a seed can’t force itself to grow, faith is not something we muster from
ourselves. Faith is God’s gift to God’s people, given to us through the Holy
Spirit. We can nurture our faith, or that of others – we can pray and encourage
and study the Scriptures, and help faith grow, like we would nurture a plant in
the garden. But in the end, faith is God’s gift.
Maybe you have someone in your life, a friend, or a child, or a grandchild, whom
you are worried about. Maybe you’ve been praying for this person. Maybe
you’ve been tilling the soil with kindness and love, and sowing the seed of God’s
word, and you have seen no signs of faith in their life. You’ve invited them to
church but they don’t want to attend.
Or maybe you’re worried about the church as a whole. It seems church
attendance is just not important to people anymore, and so our Sunday
mornings are getting quieter and our volunteers are fewer. Maybe you’re
wondering what went wrong – did we not sow the seeds of God’s word enough?
Granted, we Lutherans have not always been too comfortable talking about our
faith. We’ve often been afraid of being seen as “those” Christians – the ones
who will talk to every stranger about Jesus in a way that makes everyone
uncomfortable. So we have often erred on the side of caution, and not spoken
about our faith, not sowed the seed. And that’s something we need to learn to
do better.
But even when we have talked about our faith, it might seem to be for nothing.
Even when we have tried to raise our children and grandchildren in the church,
or invited our neighbours and friends to come, very little might have come of it.
But as every farmer knows, sometimes seeds lie dormant for a while before they
grow.
Some seeds need time. They need time to rest in the dark soil, they need just
the right amount of rain or perfect temperature before they begin to grow roots,
before the green sprouts appear.
At times we get to see the fruits of someone else’s planting and nurturing.
Prayers answered decades later, childhood faith rekindled, relationships
restored. All that growth that was hidden for a long time has appeared.
We can never fully know what God is up to. Because God is the one who gives
the growth, to the seed and to faith. God is the one who can nudge even the
most stubborn hearts to believing. And God does not abandon God’s children,
even when we can’t always see God at work.
And so we trust that God will take our efforts of sowing the seeds and bring
them to bear fruit. We will continue to till the soil with kindness, love, and
compassion for all the people we meet. We will continue to sow the seeds – to
share our story of how God’s love and grace have changed us and how knowing
Jesus makes a difference in our lives. And we trust that while we might not see
the growth, the seeds may just be lying dormant for a while.
God is always at work, in the church and in the world. God’s loving purpose for
us is life and abundance, and while often rocks and weeds get in the way, God’s
grace continues to surround us every day. Thanks be to God.
Amen.

HYMN OF THE DAY – We Plow the Fields and Scatter (ELW #681)

APOSTLES’ CREED
I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

PRAYERS OF INTERCESSION
A: Trusting in God’s steadfast love for all God has made, let us pray for the
church, the world, and all of creation.
A: God of our church, send forth your Spirit as we pray for our Bishops Larry and
Carla. Empower them with your wisdom to lead the church. We also pray for the
Thames Ministry area, especially Interim Pastor Paul Sodtke and the people of
Peace Christian Church, a Lutheran Fellowship in Chatham. God of grace,
C: hear our prayer.

A: God our gardener, you scatter grace like seed across the world. Continue to
cultivate the garden of your church with your abundant Spirit. God of grace,
C: hear our prayer.

A: God our joy, your bountiful creation reflects your commitment to life
despite our actions disregarding its wonder. We look toward Isaiah’s vision,
when all creation rejoices, and the trees will clap for joy at your salvation.
God of grace,
C: hear our prayer.

A: God our life, you give us the same Spirit by which you raised Christ from the
dead. Set our minds on that Spirit whenever fear or condemnation overwhelm
throughout the world. God of grace,
C: hear our prayer.

A: God our host and table, we pray for children who hunger and rely on school
meals, for all who toil under the hot sun without refreshment, for the chronically
ill who have exhausted their resources, and for all who struggle with illness, or
pain, or loneliness. We pray especially for Beth, Jean, Mary Margaret, Kristine,
Karen, Emma, Cathy, Lene, Lyra, Bud, Pastor Bob, Heather, Margaret, and those
others who are in our hearts. God of grace,
C: hear our prayer.

A: God our source, tend this assembly with your grace throughout this summer
season. May those who travel for work or recreation do so safely, and may
visitors find refreshment among us. God of grace,
C: hear our prayer.

A: Merciful God, we pray for peace as war continues in Ukraine and in the
Middle East. Shelter all living in fear; protect those seeking refuge in
neighbouring countries; sustain families separated by the horrors of war;
tend to those who are injured; comfort all who mourn their dead.
Direct your people into the way of peace. God of grace,
C: hear our prayer.

A: We give you thanks that the roots of your goodness run deep throughout
history. We remember those saints who have gone before us in faith. God of
grace,
C: hear our prayer.

A: Grateful for your abundant provision and trusting in your goodness, we cast
all our cares upon you, through the abundant grace of Christ Jesus.
C: Amen.

PEACE
P: The peace of Christ be with you always.
C: And also with you.

LORD’S PRAYER
P: Lord, remember us in your kingdom and teach us to pray.
C: 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 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.

SENDING

BLESSING
P: Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer, + one God, bless, heal, and hold you today
and always.
C: Amen.

SENDING HYMN – Sent Forth by God’s Blessing (ELW #547)

DISMISSAL
A: Heaven has come near. Go, share the good news!
C: Thanks be to God.

DISMISSAL HYMN – The Lord Now Sends Us Forth (ELW #538)
Verse 1
The Lord now sends us forth
with hands to serve and give,
to make of all the earth
a better place to live. Repeat (2X)

Verse 2
The angels are not sent
into our world of pain
to do what we were meant
to do in Jesus' name;
that falls to you and me
and all who are made free.
Help us, O Lord, we pray,
to do your will today. Repeat (2X)