AUDIO: Readings & Sermon for Wednesday, February 21, 2024
View the Bulletin forWednesday, February 21, 2024
2:00 p.m. - Worship Service with Communion
2:30 p.m. - 30 min. Bible Study following the 2:00 p.m. service
7:00 p.m. - Worship Service with Communion
All are welcome, bring a friend, neighbor or relative
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First Reading -- Psalm 103:1-14
A reading from Psalms, the 103rd chapter.
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all His benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.
The Lord works righteousness
and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known His ways to Moses,
His acts to the people of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
nor will He keep His anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to our sins,
nor repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does He remove our transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his children,
so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him.
For He knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust.
Second Reading -- James 5:7-18
Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your “yes” be yes and your “no” be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.
Third Reading -- Matthew 8:14-17
And when Jesus entered Peter’s house, He saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve Him. That evening they brought to Him many who were oppressed by demons, and He cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”
Bulletin: Wednesday February 21, 2024
View the Bulletin forWednesday, February 21, 2024
2:00 p.m. - Worship Service with Communion
2:30 p.m. - 30 min. Bible Study following the 2:00 p.m. service
7:00 p.m. - Worship Service with Communion
All are welcome, bring a friend, neighbor or relative
Visit our YouTube channel — Click the red “subscribe” box, and then click on the “bell” next to that box to receive Live Streaming notifications. You must be logged into YouTube to activate these features.
Archive of AUDIO “Readings & Sermons”
Archive of VIDEO “Complete Service”
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Bingo Night: Friday March 1, 2024
Join us for Bingo Night
Friday March 1, 2024 at 6:15 p.m
in the Fellowship Hall
Potluck Dinner
Sign-up in the Narthex
Everyone welcome! Adults and Kids!
There will be prizes
The Lutheran Witness: Community in Worship, Part I
Community in Worship, Part I:
Worship Reveals a Community Created by the Holy Spirit
By Phillip Magness
The word “community” calls up a variety of meanings and associations. Communities are formed in various ways as people come together to do different things.
The most obvious type of community is the geographically based one, in which people live near one another for their shared benefit in a city, town, or neighborhood. In more recent times, the term has been used to refer to cross-sections of people who may reside over a broader area but who share common interests or activities such as a sport, an artistic endeavor, or an academic interest. Such communities are even sometimes centered on shared illnesses, pathologies or “identities.” With the advent of the internet, these kinds of communities have gained a global reach.
All these types of communities have one thing in common: They are rooted in human activity. They are people engaged in common purposes. Each of us belongs to multiple communities as we live, work and pursue our interests in this world. Sometimes our various communities intersect or, as some might say, “collide,” and sometimes they don’t. We may share a physical community with our neighbors and so work together with them on cleaning up the local playground or addressing a common nuisance. Yet we may not be in community with them when it comes to our professional vocations or recreational activities. As we depart our neighborhood, we head to different jobs, different friends, different extended family and likely different churches — if our neighbor goes to church at all.
And this — churchgoing — is where our Lutheran understanding leads to a radically different kind of community from all the others. This is because the Christian congregation is not formed out of our will but out of the will of God. As we learn in Luther’s Small Catechism, it is the Holy Spirit who “calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.” The community that comes together in the Divine Service is gathered by God. Yes, we are the ones who sing, pray, hear, and receive in worship, and so we are active participants in worship, but the chief actor is God Himself, who both gathers His Church in and cares for us as He forgives our sins, enlightens us with His Word, and nourishes our faith in His Holy Supper.
This may seem like a basic teaching for any Trinitarian church — after all, it is fundamental to the sanctifying work of the Spirit — and yet many today, including some Lutherans, think that it is up to us to use worship to create a community rather than see worship as a manifestation of the community that has already been created for us in Christ Jesus.
Missing this fundamental difference leads to two errors, however well-intentioned. On the one hand, many liberal denominations have open communion, teaching that communion is a means to “create community.” This understanding is sung in many modern hymns that are not in our Lutheran Service Book but, for example, form the bulk of communion hymns in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, the hymnal of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.
On the other hand, this misunderstanding also shapes many activities of conservative, evangelical churches, in that they pursue what liturgical scholars call “an attractional model” that designs worship on the basis of what seekers and visitors may desire. Thus, “whatever works” is accepted as long as numbers come in. Sadly, this means the purposes of worship outlined in Scripture — the reading of Scripture, the praying for all in authority, the singing of psalms, hymns, and canticles, the preaching of the Gospel, and the Lord’s Supper — are often compromised.
Yet Scripture is clear that worship is for the believers. One cannot find any prescription or description of the Means of Grace being adapted for the pagans or unbelievers. It is the saints who “should not give up meeting together” (Heb. 10:25), the believers who should address one another in Scripture and song (Eph. 5:18; Col. 3:16), and those who faithfully confess Christ who are to be admitted to the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor. 11:26). Indeed, for centuries, even the catechumens — those being instructed in the faith to prepare for Baptism — had to leave the service before Holy Communion, as only the confirmed were allowed to view the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper.
But what, you may ask, about my unbelieving neighbors? Does this mean they shouldn’t come to the Divine Service? The short answer is “it certainly does not mean that!” We are called to love our neighbor, and bringing them to worship is perhaps the most loving thing we can do for them. The same Word that enlivens and sanctifies you in worship is proclaimed for all to hear. Because you have heard, tasted, and seen the goodness of the Lord, you share His desire for all to be saved. Your invitation to them is the Spirit active in you, using your lips to call and gather your neighbor — that He might become active in them.
Future installments in this series will continue in the March and April newsletters, and will consider how worship nurtures a community that is alien to this world and how worship is incomplete without you.
VIDEO: Sunday February 18, 2024 - Complete Service
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Old Testament Reading — Genesis 22:1–18
Epistle Reading — James 1:12–18
Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the first chapter
AUDIO: Announcements, Readings & Sermon for Sunday February 18, 2024
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Old Testament Reading — Genesis 22:1–18
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him. On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.” And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here am I, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.
When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here am I.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”
And the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven and said, “By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
Epistle Reading — James 1:12–18
Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.
Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the first chapter
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opening and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
Free Lenten Daily Devotions Available in the Narthex
Forty-seven daily devotions that repeatedly build on Psalm 41 and supporting Scripture passages that together paint a picture of how David's words are now your reality through Christ and your Baptism. These devotions, starting with Ash Wednesday and concluding on Easter Sunday, are meant to be used with the Lenten Preaching and Worship Series Be Gracious to Me.
About the Theme
Be Gracious to Me centers around Psalm 41 where God’s grace wells up and King David exults God, tracing the flow of divine grace from the source to its believers. He watches the current flow and spring forth in the lives of all believers through Baptism. Discover how Christ’s sufferings are your sufferings, and more importantly, how David’s words in Psalm 41 have become your reality through Christ. In the day of trouble, the Lord delivers you. The Lord protects you and keeps you alive. You are called blessed in the land.