September 24, 2023 The Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost

<p><strong>Entrance Hymn #690 <em>Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah</em></strong></p><p><strong> Sequence Hymn #411 <em>O Bless the Lord, My Soul</em></strong></p><p><strong> Offertory Anthem <em>God Be In My Head (Wilby)</em></strong></p><p><strong> Communion Anthem <em>For The Bread Which You Have Broken (Franck)</em></strong></p><p><strong> Post-Communion Hymn #344 <em>Lord, Dismiss Us With Thy Blessing</em></strong></p><p><strong>THE COLLECT OF THE DAY</strong></p><p>Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.&nbsp;<em>Amen.</em></p><p><strong>FIRST READING&nbsp;<em>Jonah 3:10-4:11&nbsp;</em></strong>A Reading from the Prophet Jonah.</p><p>When God saw what the people of Nineveh did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it.</p><p>But this was very displeasing to Jonah, and he became angry. He prayed to the LORD&nbsp;and said, “O&nbsp;LORD! Is not this what I said while I was still in my own country? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing. And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” And</p><p>the LORD&nbsp;said, “Is it right for you to be angry?” Then Jonah went out of the city and sat down east of the city, and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, waiting to see what would become of the city.</p><p>The LORD&nbsp;God appointed a bush, and made it come up over Jonah, to give shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort; so Jonah was very happy about the bush. But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the b