Welcome! Thank you for joining us for worship today. In our services we gather before our almighty God to receive his gifts and to offer him our worship and praise. Through God’s powerful Word and Sacraments he renews our faith and strengthens us to serve in joy.

We think of distraction and focus as opposites. If we turn our eyes away from what we’re focusing on we’ll lose our attention to what’s important. In the Christian faith, though, focusing on Christ finds us looking at others in Christ-like love. This week, Jesus teaches us that he has set us free to live a life of these kind of “distraction”. No matter the neighbor and no matter their need, we are free to give them our undivided attention. We can bear any cost and go any distance to serve a neighbor as Christ would serve them himself.