The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost fell on September 13, and when people opened their bulletins they found the hymn spaces empty. The boards at the front of the nave were blank too. That was on purpose. We held a hymn sing, which means the congregation picked every hymn from the pew, out loud, while the rest of us waited to see what we were about to sing. Pastor Christopher Ramstad set one rule from the front. Anything goes, as long as Betty says it is okay. Organist Betty Lingenfelter kept the right of refusal and never used it.
Most weeks the hymns are chosen in advance and printed in the bulletin, and this was the exception rather than the rule. The rest of the morning ran the way it always does.
The liturgy was the Service of Prayer and Preaching, an order out of the red hymnal in the pew racks, the Lutheran Service Book. This was a second Sunday, so there was no Communion. We commune on the first and third Sundays of the month. If you have not been here before, the shape of the morning is easy to follow. Page numbers are announced, and the words are printed and on the screens. Following a beat behind is normal. There is more on our What to Expect page, and every service is on our live stream.
The hymns the congregation picked
Because the hymns came from the floor, the two services went different directions. The early service opened with Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus, LSB 660, and later sang Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise, LSB 802. Amazing Grace, LSB 744, came right after the sermon. We went out on Savior, Again to Thy Dear Name We Raise, LSB 917. At 10:30 the opening hymn was Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness, LSB 563, followed by Thy Strong Word, LSB 578. The closing hymn was Go, My Children, with My Blessing, LSB 922.
One pick took two tries. Somebody at the late service asked for Great Is Thy Faithfulness and offered 806, which turns out to be Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart. The right number is 809. We got there. When the last note was done Pastor Ramstad said what half the room had already noticed. Morning by morning, new mercies I see. That was a perfect pick for the parable of the merciful master.
The readings were fixed even if the hymns were not. Joseph meets his brothers in Genesis 50, after their father has died and they are certain the bill is finally coming due. Paul spends Romans 14 on the judgments Christians pass on each other over things that are not the faith. Then Matthew 18, where Peter asks Jesus to put a number on forgiveness.
The parable of the merciful master — the sermon on the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Pastor Ramstad opened both services by telling the parable the way we wish it went. A king settles accounts. A man who owes everything begs for patience. The king forgives the whole debt, and the man goes jumping and skipping and leaping out of the room. He runs home and tells his family they are free. He finds everyone who owes him anything and clears the books. And they all lived happily ever after. The end, Pastor Ramstad said, or do we say amen? Then he let the room sit with it for a second. That is not the way the story goes.
Peter’s question does not come out of nowhere. Last Sunday we heard the twenty verses in front of it, where Jesus set a small child in the middle of the disciples and talked about what sin costs and how to go to a brother who has wronged you. Forgive your brother. So Peter tries to be helpful and asks for a number. Seven times? It sounds generous, and it was meant to. The Pharisees had settled on three, drawn from the first chapters of Amos, and taught the people the fourth offense was the end of it. Peter more than doubles them. Jesus answers seventy times seven, which is four hundred and ninety, and then makes it clear the arithmetic was never the point.
The man in the parable owes ten thousand talents. Pastor Ramstad put that in wages: two hundred thousand days of work. He falls on his knees and says have patience with me and I will repay you everything, and Pastor Ramstad stopped to name that for what it is. It is a lie. There is no payment this man could make that would even dent the number. Everyone in the story knows it, the king included. He has earned prison. He gets something else instead. That is what mercy is, Pastor Ramstad said. We deserve one thing and receive something far better.
Then the same man walks out and finds someone who owes him a hundred days’ wages. He takes him by the throat. Pay what you owe. And the second man says the same sentence the first man had just said: have patience with me and I will pay you back. Pastor Ramstad pointed at the phrase the Gospel uses, that same servant. The debt was gone. The heart was not. He had the man thrown in prison until the money appeared.
“And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?”
Matthew 18:33 (ESV)
The other servants tell the king, and the king calls the first man back in, and the word he uses is wicked. We had prayed that same petition out loud earlier in the service without much trouble. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Pastor Ramstad called the ending a tragedy, and gave the reason plainly: it was so easily fixed.
He was honest about why this is hard. Sometimes we look at the person who keeps wronging us and think our life would be simpler without them, and the sinful self is happy to promote that person to enemy. Jesus keeps calling him a brother. The debt we could not pay was covered, as we had confessed earlier that morning in the words of the catechism, not with gold or silver but with his holy, precious blood and his innocent suffering and death. God has written your story, Pastor Ramstad said at the end, and he has covered it in his mercy.
The children’s message
DCE Jason Glaskey came up with a small whiteboard and started making tally marks. Four lines and a slash, the way you count things you expect to lose track of. He explained forgiveness first, with the version children recognize: somebody takes your toy, or the last chocolate donut, and says sorry, and you decide not to hold it over them anymore. Then he tried to draw all four hundred and ninety of Peter’s forgivenesses. He ran out of board at thirty-five.
That was the lesson. Jesus wanted Peter to quit counting. Mr. Glaskey tied it to the water of Baptism, where forgiveness was handed over before any of us had done anything to earn it, and to Joseph, whose brothers spent years waiting for a bill that never came. Then he gave the whole congregation a job. Get the children’s bulletin and a pencil, and make a mark every time you hear the word forgive. He had already found it ten times in the bulletin.
People actually did it. Between services the count came back: forty-four in the sermon alone. Jocelyn had forty-seven for the morning, and somebody else called out forty-eight. Mr. Glaskey admitted he had been hoping for one more so he could close the last set of five.
After the service
There was rain Saturday night, the first real rain in a while. It came up twice. Pastor Ramstad opened with it, and the Prayer of the Church gave thanks for it.
Wednesday youth meals are feeding about thirty young people a week. They come from the church, from Martin Luther School, and from the neighborhood in roughly equal numbers. Gifts for the meals came in the offering plate again this week. That is what keeps it going. Sponsors and cooks can sign up online.
Two things next week put the church and the school in the same room. VIP Day at Martin Luther School is Friday, September 18, for grandparents and other special guests. A few students have no grandparent close enough to come. The school office would gladly match a member with a child for the morning. The Better Together Breakfast is Sunday, September 20, in the gym. Sunday School and Bible classes pause that day. Martin Luther School students sing at the late service.
One change is worth writing down for next Sunday. Communion will be at the 8:00 service only. The 10:30 service will not have it. The children are singing, and a lot of school families will be visiting. Pastor Ramstad called that a departure from the usual pattern. He wanted everyone to hear it twice.
A study of the Lutheran Confessions starts Thursday, September 24, at 5:30 in the Fellowship Hall. Christopher Killebrew can tell you about it. The book comes with it. Further out, the church picnic and worship in the park is Sunday, October 11. Lutheran Women in Mission is still collecting Thrivent clean water kits. Members watched a few of the ladies work out the assembly on a Thursday morning. Everything else is on the events calendar.
Read it again this week
The three readings, in the English Standard Version we read and print:
- Genesis 50:15–21 — Joseph’s brothers expect the reckoning, and get a promise instead.
- Romans 14:1–12 — Paul on judging the brother next to you over matters that are not the faith.
- Matthew 18:21–35 — seventy times seven, and the servant who was forgiven everything.
Three questions from Sunday’s sermon:
- The man in the parable said have patience with me and I will repay you everything, and Pastor Ramstad called it a lie. What would it change to stop offering God a payment plan?
- Pastor Ramstad said the tragedy was that it was so easily fixed. What is the easily fixed thing you have left alone?
- Jesus keeps calling the offender a brother while we are busy calling him something else. Who is that for you right now?
From the catechism: the Fifth Petition of the Lord’s Prayer is the shortest form of this parable. We ask the Father to forgive us, and in the same breath we promise to forgive those who sin against us. Luther’s Small Catechism is free to read online.
Last week was the Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost, the first half of this same chapter of Matthew. For the Sunday before that, see the Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Earlier services are in the sermon archive.
In the service — Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost, September 13, 2026
| Liturgy | Service of Prayer and Preaching (Lutheran Service Book). No Communion — second Sunday. |
| First Reading | Genesis 50:15–21 |
| Epistle | Romans 14:1–12 |
| Holy Gospel | Matthew 18:21–35 |
| Hymns, 8:00 | LSB 660 — Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus; LSB 802 — Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise; LSB 744 — Amazing Grace; LSB 917 — Savior, Again to Thy Dear Name We Raise |
| Hymns, 10:30 | LSB 563 — Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness; LSB 578 — Thy Strong Word; LSB 809 — Great Is Thy Faithfulness; LSB 922 — Go, My Children, with My Blessing |
| Creed | Apostles’, with Luther’s explanation of the Second Article |
| Preacher | Rev. Christopher Ramstad |
| Children’s Message | DCE Jason Glaskey |
| Organist | Betty Lingenfelter |
| Also in the service | A congregational hymn sing — every hymn chosen from the pew; the Lord’s Prayer; the Prayer of the Church, with thanksgiving for Saturday night’s rain |
Questions about worship at Immanuel
What is the Service of Prayer and Preaching?
It is an order of worship in the Lutheran Service Book. It is built around the readings, the sermon, and prayer. There is no Communion in it. It is shorter than the Divine Service, and much of it is sung.
What is a hymn sing?
A hymn sing means the congregation chooses the hymns during the service instead of ahead of time. Someone calls out a number and we turn to it and sing it. The organist has to play it on sight, so she can decline.
Why was there no Communion?
We commune on the first and third Sundays of the month, at every service. September 13 was a second Sunday. Immanuel belongs to The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, and we commune with those who share our confession of the faith. If you are visiting and would like to commune, please talk with Pastor Ramstad before the service. He is glad to.
What time are services at Immanuel?
From September through May we worship at 8:00 and 10:30. The Christian Education Hour is between them at 9:15. In the summer there is one service at 9:00, with classes at 10:15.
What is the red book in the pew rack?
It is the Lutheran Service Book, the hymnal our congregation uses. Hymns are numbered, and the number is what people call out. The orders of service are in the front and the hymns are in the back.
Do I need to know when to stand or what to say?
No. Standing and sitting are marked in the book and announced out loud. The words are printed and on the screens. Nobody is keeping score.
Where do I park?
Immanuel has three lots, and any of them works. One is off 26th Street, north of the sanctuary. One is the main lot off Connecticut Avenue. A third, smaller lot sits near the Youth Center off 27th Street. Every lot has handicapped spaces. Signs just inside each door point toward the worship space, and our greeters are glad to walk you there. The campus map shows all three.
What should I wear?
There is no right way to dress here. On a normal Sunday you will see high heels and wingtips sitting next to sneakers and sandals. Dress the way you would for something that matters. Casual is fine. Dressier is fine.
Should I bring my children into the service?
We hope you will. Children are not just allowed in worship here, they are encouraged in it. Wiggling and noise do not bother anyone. A nursery is available for families who need it, though it is only occasionally staffed. Changing tables are in the nursery and in the family restroom in the narthex (the lobby). Kids’ pages and busy bags are in the lobby before church, and every service has a children’s message that the children come forward for.
Thinking about visiting?
Come any Sunday. From September through May we worship at 8:00 and 10:30, with Bible classes and Sunday School at 9:15 in between. From June through August there is one service, at 9:00, with classes at 10:15. Park in any of the three lots, come in any door, and follow the signs. If you stop at the Welcome Center just inside the church building, someone will get you a bulletin and point you to a seat.
- What to Expect — parking, dress, children, and how the service runs.
- Sunday Services — times through the year, including the summer schedule.
- Where We Meet — campus maps and the three parking lots.
- What We Believe — and Who Is Jesus? if you would rather start there.
- Staff and Leaders — the people you will meet.
- Watch a service online first, if you would like to see one before you come.
About Immanuel Lutheran Church
Immanuel Lutheran Church is a congregation of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod at 2616 S Connecticut Ave, Joplin, Missouri. We worship at 8:00 and 10:30 from September through May, with the Christian Education Hour at 9:15. We are also the home of Martin Luther School, serving children from age three through eighth grade. Jesus Brings Life. Meet Him Here.