LOVELY LANE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
Thirteenth Sunday After Pentecost, Year A
August 23, 2026
†Stand as you are able
Organ Prelude
Welcome and Announcements John Strawbridge
Introit “There’s A Song” (Hanson) TFWS 2141
†Call to Worship
Come, people of God, to worship the One who calls us into confessing Christ.
We come with open hearts, ready to receive grace.
Christ meets us in Word, prayer, song, and service.
The Spirit gathers us and sends us in love.
Let us worship God with joy and expectation. Amen
†Opening Hymn “My Hope is Built” UMH 368
Prayer of Illumination
Holy Spirit, open the Scriptures to us. Let the words read and proclaimed become a living word, so that we may hear Christ, trust your promise, and practice confessing Christ in the life of the church. Amen.
A Reading from the Old Testament Exodus 1:8-2:10 NRSV
Now a new king arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph. He said to his people, “Look, the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we. Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, or they will increase and, in the event of war, join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” Therefore they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor. They built supply cities, Pithom and Rameses, for Pharaoh. But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites. The Egyptians subjected the Israelites to hard servitude, and made their lives bitter with hard servitude in mortar and bricks and in every kind of field labor. They were ruthless in all the tasks that they imposed on them. The king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, “When you act as midwives to the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.” But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but they let the boys live. So the king of Egypt summoned the midwives and said to them, “Why have you done this and allowed the boys to live?” The midwives said to Pharaoh, “Because the Hebrew women are not like the Egyptian women, for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife comes to them.” So God dealt well with the midwives, and the people multiplied and became very strong. And because the midwives feared God, he gave them families. Then Pharaoh commanded all his people, “Every son that is born to the Hebrews you shall throw into the Nile, but you shall let every daughter live.” Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine baby, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer she got a papyrus basket for him and plastered it with bitumen and pitch; she put the child in it and placed it among the reeds on the bank of the river. His sister stood at a distance, to see what would happen to him. The daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her attendants walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her maid to bring it. When she opened it, she saw the child. He was crying, and she took pity on him. “This must be one of the Hebrews’ children,” she said. Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and get you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Yes.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child and nurse it for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed it. When the child grew up, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
The word of God, for the people of God. Thanks be to God!
Congregational Prayer
Merciful God, we pray for the church, for our neighbors, and for all who carry heavy burdens. Where there is weariness, give strength; where there is division, give peace; where there is grief, give comfort; where there is injustice, give courage. Form us as a people who embody confessing Christ, and make Lovely Lane a witness of beloved community for Baltimore and beyond. Amen.
Passing of the Peace “Sweet, Sweet Spirit” UMH 334
Sharing Joys and Concerns
Pastoral Prayer
The Lord’s Prayer
Response “Sanctuary” TFSW 2164
A Reading from the Epistles Romans 11:1-2a, 29-32 NRSV
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God–what is good and acceptable and perfect. For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. For as in one body we have many members and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the encourager, in encouragement; the giver, in sincerity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
The word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God!
Sermon Reverend Levon D. Sutton, Pastor
†Responsive Hymn “I Surrender All” UMH 354
Invitation to Offering
Offertory Change My Heart, O God” Espinosa
Change my heart, O God,
Make it ever true;
Change y heart, O God,
May I be like You.
You are the potter, I am the clay,
Mold me and make me,
this is what I pray.
Change my heart, O God,
Make it ever true;
Change y heart, O God,
May I be like You.
Offering Prayer
Generous God, receive these gifts as signs of gratitude and trust. Use them to strengthen worship, deepen discipleship, serve our neighbors, and bear witness to confessing Christ in Jesus’ name. Amen.
†Closing Hymn “We Are the Church” UMH 529
†Benediction
Go in peace. Practice hospitality, do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God. Amen.
†Benediction Response “Now We Our Vow of Faith Renew” Huber
Now we our vow of faith renew,
Stretch wide our sights to global view,
And claim with Christians far and near
A larger family held dear.
Ringing the Bicentennial Bell
Organ Postlude