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.

The wheat that grows in the Middle East is a variety that looks much like wild grass or weeds. It is difficult to tell wheat and weeds apart until shortly before harvest time, when the wheat stalks develop a head containing the kernels of grain. Pulling the weeds out of a wheat field could lead to accidentally pulling up a fair amount of wheat. People need to wait for the harvest to separate wheat from weeds. We might want God to take care of evil now, pulling up all the weeds. But he tells us to wait for the harvest of judgment day. So we live as wheat among weeds, being faithful, fruitful, and mindful of the coming harvest.