AUDIO: Readings & Sermon for Wednesday October 23, 2024

View the Bulletin for Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Worship Service: 2:00 p.m.
Bible Study: 2:30 p.m. — The Book of Hebrews
All are welcome, bring a friend, neighbor or relative

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Deuteronomy 24:10—25:10 
“When you make your neighbor a loan of any sort, you shall not go into his house to collect his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you make the loan shall bring the pledge out to you. And if he is a poor man, you shall not sleep in his pledge. You shall restore to him the pledge as the sun sets, that he may sleep in his cloak and bless you. And it shall be righteousness for you before the LORD your God. 

“You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. You shall give him his wages on the same day, before the sun sets (for he is poor and counts on it), lest he cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin. 

“Fathers shall not be put to death because of their children, nor shall children be put to death because of their fathers. Each one shall be put to death for his own sin. 

“You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow's garment in pledge, but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this. 

“When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt; therefore I command you to do this. 

“If there is a dispute between men and they come into court and the judges decide between them, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty, then if the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall cause him to lie down and be beaten in his presence with a number of stripes in proportion to his offense. Forty stripes may be given him, but not more, lest, if one should go on to beat him with more stripes than these, your brother be degraded in your sight. 

“You shall not muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain. 

“If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the wife of the dead man shall not be married outside the family to a stranger. Her husband's brother shall go in to her and take her as his wife and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. And the first son whom she bears shall succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. And if the man does not wish to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders and say, ‘My husband's brother refuses to perpetuate his brother's name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me.’ Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him, and if he persists, saying, ‘I do not wish to take her,’ then his brother's wife shall go up to him in the presence of the elders and pull his sandal off his foot and spit in his face. And she shall answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house.’ And the name of his house shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal pulled off.’ 

Matthew 16:13-28 
Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. 

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” 

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” 

The Creed
What is the second article? 
And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell. The third day He rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty. From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
What does this mean?
I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned person, purchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, just as He is risen from the dead, lives and reigns to all eternity. 

This is most certainly true. 

Did You Know it's Pastor Appreciation Month?

October is Pastor Appreciation Month!
October is a great time to bless Pastor Grimenstein and family in gratitude for the many ways they bless Zion! 

“‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. Jeremiah 3:15 

Pastor’s Mailing Address:
Rev. Dr. Edward O. Grimenstein
3199 Washington Pike
Bridgevillle, PA 15017

Bulletin: Wednesday October 23, 2024

View the Bulletin for Wednesday, October 23, 2024
Worship Service: 2:00 p.m.
Bible Study: 2:30 p.m. — The Book of Hebrews
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.

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What is Effective Outreach (Part one of a four-part series)

“What is ‘effective outreach’?” Someone asked me that question recently. It’s a good question. Some people might answer that question by pointing to results. If more people are attending worship, participating in Bible studies, or joining the congregation, what you’re doing for outreach must be effective, right? Maybe. But numbers don’t tell the story. In fact, in some cases the numbers look really good even when outreach is not very effective at all.

A congregation located in a high growth area might be bad at outreach but still experiencing increases in worship attendance and membership. Sometimes the pastor and some lay people are having a positive impact even though the congregation as a whole is doing a poor job of outreach. On the other hand, a congregation may be doing outreach very well with little to show for it in terms of numbers because the community is decreasing in population (imagine doing outreach in a town that has shuttered the plant of its major employer.) Numbers are not the measure of effective outreach. If not the numbers, then what is?

Effective outreach begins with a good understanding of what outreach is. I find that people often confuse outreach and witness. That’s understandable because they are closely related and share the same goal. But confusing them can undermine effective outreach. So, what’s the difference between witness and outreach? Witness is what we do as individual believers to share the Good News of Jesus with people in our everyday lives. Think of it as the work of the “Church scattered.”

Outreach, on the other hand, is what we do as a congregation to engage the non-churched people in our community. It is the collective effort of the congregation as an organization to make disciples. Outreach is the work of the “Church gathered.” 1 Corinthians 3:5-9 provides insights into effective outreach:

[5] What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. [6] I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. [7] So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. [8] He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. [9] For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

Practically speaking, outreach is focused on planting and watering through various activities, ministries, events, human care, etc. Outreach understands that when it comes to the growth (i.e., the numbers) “neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything.” The growth is the Holy Spirit’s concern. Through outreach, we plant, we water, and we prayerfully anticipate the growth. This means that “effective outreach” is outreach through which we are actively and intentionally planting and watering.

That raises some additional questions. So, here’s a fuller definition: Effective outreach is the “planting and watering” (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:5-9) through which a congregation intentionally engages nonchurched people in ways that:

• Provide the congregation with means of continuing contact with the non-churched people.

• Foster relationship-building between non-churched people and the congregation’s members.

• Offer appropriate, appealing entry points (other than worship and traditional Bible studies) that encourage non-churched people to participate in the Word & Sacrament ministry of the congregation.

There’s a lot to this definition. I’ll start unpacking it in the next article in this series in the November issue.

By Rev. Dr. Mark Wood, LCMS Managing Director

News from the Preschool

Meet Ditya. Ditya is 4 1/2 years old, and has been a Zion Lutheran Preschool student for 3 years, and is a student in Mrs. Peggy’s PreK Plus class. Her older brother Dhariya also attended Zion. Ditya and her family are Hindu, and their beliefs are clearly different than ours, as Lutherans, and from Christians overall. 

I love to visit the classrooms each day to see what the children are busy working on. Depending on the class, they could be coloring and learning their shapes, learning the upper case letters, or in Ditya’s case, practicing writing her name D-i-t-y-a . Since this is the PreK Plus class, the children are now learning both the upper and lower case letters. When I looked over Ditya’s shoulder, she could not wait to tell me that the “t” in her name was Jesus’ cross. “Look Mrs. Tracey, I made Jesus’ cross!” She probably said it three times with that huge smile on her face. I believe she was happier about the cross in her name, than actually writing her full name successfully! 

This made me think about the parable of the sower and seed. Our job as Christians and educators is to plant the seed (word of God) in the good soil, (our little students) so that it may grow and expand. Ditya told me that Jesus died on the cross, but that He is alive again. Yes! Seed planted! Our hope is that the planted seed will stay with Ditya and that she will come to know Jesus even more throughout her life. 

Blessings, 

Tracey 

VIDEO: Sunday October 20, 2024

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AUDIO: Announcements, Readings, Sermon & Adult Choir for Sunday October 20, 2024

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Od Testament Reading -- Ecclesiastes 5:10–20 
He who loves money will not be satisfied with money, nor he who loves wealth with his income; this also is vanity. When goods increase, they increase who eat them, and what advantage has their owner but to see them with his eyes? Sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much, but the full stomach of the rich will not let him sleep. 

There is a grievous evil that I have seen under the sun: riches were kept by their owner to his hurt, and those riches were lost in a bad venture. And he is father of a son, but he has nothing in his hand. As he came from his mother’s womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand. This also is a grievous evil: just as he came, so shall he go, and what gain is there to him who toils for the wind? Moreover, all his days he eats in darkness in much vexation and sickness and anger. 

Behold, what I have seen to be good and fitting is to eat and drink and find enjoyment in all the toil with which one toils under the sun the few days of his life that God has given him, for this is his lot. Everyone also to whom God has given wealth and possessions and power to enjoy them, and to accept his lot and rejoice in his toil—this is the gift of God. For he will not much remember the days of his life because God keeps him occupied with joy in his heart. 

Epistle Reading -- Hebrews 4:1–13 
Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, 

“As I swore in my wrath,
‘They shall not enter my rest,’” 

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” And again in this passage he said, 

“They shall not enter my rest.” 

Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience, again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, 

“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts.” 

For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. 

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. 

The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the tenth chapter
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” 

Choir -- My Hope is Built on Nothing Less (8 am)