Holy Trinity Lutheran Church

Transcription

1 LITTLE FREE LIBRARY Our free library will soon be open for business! We have registered our library and will receive a sign which will display our church name, established date, and the title "Little Free Library". It's time now to gather materials to fill our library. These materials will be made available to the community. We'd like to offer Christian materials for adults and children, We'd also like a variety of reading materials other than religious books. Please consider donating those appropriate books that you no longer need. In the Narthex there'll be a container available that you may place your materials in. Thank you! Your Evangelism Team A LIFE BEYOND AMAZING Why were first century people so attracted to Jesus? They'd never experienced someone whose character included traits of being loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, compassionate, generous, faithful, humble and self controlled all at the same time. This study, written by Dr. David Jeremiah, explores what the Apostle Paul referred to as the fruits of the Spirit. Plan to join the Women's Bible Study group on January 8, 2018 in Hobby Library at 6:30 p.m. Order your book "A Life Beyond Amazing" by Dec. 31. A sign up sheet will be in the Narthex. Come give this group a try!, Holy Trinity Lutheran Church December 24, 2017 Our Mission Statement: Marked with the cross of Christ forever, we are claimed, gathered, and sent for the sake of the world. 20 SALVATION ARMY Food Theme for December " Christmas Dinner and Christmas Cookies" Suggestions for donations: * instant mashed potatoes *gravy *mac & cheese *vegetables / fruit *baking ingredients *pie crust/ pie filling *cookie mix *icing / sprinkles *cookie cutters Check out a full list of suggested food donations in the Narthex. Thank you! The Rev. Matthew Masko Pastor

2 W E L C O M E TO W O R S H I P O N T H I S FOURTH Sunday of advent God keeps the promise made to David, to give him an everlasting throne. The angel tells Mary that God will give David s throne to her son Jesus. She is perplexed by Gabriel s greeting and by the news of her coming pregnancy, but she is able still to say, Count me in. We who know that Jesus is called king only as he is executed still find it a mystery hard to fathom, but with Mary today we hear the news of what God is up to and say, Count us in. In our prayers Erin Kitchell Julie Potter (daughter-in-law of Lois Hamilton s friends) Bonnie Linville Ron Stanley (Donna Stanley s son) Carol and Mark McQueeney Jane (Brenda Armstrong s friend) Travis Wenning (Jim Wenning s great-nephew) Jackie Jones Stan (Beth Stamper s father) Prelude Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, ELCA 535 S. 14th St., New Castle, IN (765) htlc2421@sbcglobal.net Pastor Matthew Masko (765) Cell: (563) Pastor@holytrinitync.org GATHERING The Holy Spirit calls us together as the people of God. Bring a Torch, Jeannette, Isabella 17th-century French Provencal carol/ Arr. Mark Hayes Welcome and Announcements Men of Holy Trinity: A very special mission trip is on the way! Training for the next four-day Kairos Weekend at New Castle Correctional Facility begins on Saturday, Jan. 6, 2018 and the Weekend is March 1-4, David Burns and/or Ken Nordstrom will be happy to visit with you about this opportunity and explain the details. While prison ministry is not for everyone, please prayerfully consider if sharing your Christian faith with this special group might be a good fit for YOU. NEW YEAR, NEW ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS!!!! On Sunday, January 7 th, the adult Sunday school class will begin a new study titled Making Sense of the Christian Faith, by Dr. David J. Lose. This study is similar in structure to the one we did in 2016 by Dr. Lose called Making Sense of Scripture. It is not necessary for you to have participated in the previous study to enjoy this one. In this study, Dr. Lose attempts to answer many of the hard questions that nonbelievers, lapsed believers, and believers with doubts have about Christianity. If God loves us, why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? Did God really stop creating after only six days? What is original sin, and what really happened in the Garden of Eden? What is the purpose of all those covenants in the Old Testament? Why did Jesus really come into the world, and what does incarnation mean? Why did Jesus have to die and rise again for my atonement? What are the real purposes of the Christian church and regular worship? What is the Book of Revelation really saying about the end times? How can one Bible study, with only 8 chapters and 235 pages, answer all these questions, spanning Genesis through Revelation? 2 If you are intrigued by these questions, but want more information, contact Karen Yancey at karenjy75@comcast.net or Or, come to a preview session on Sunday, December 31 st! Worship Meditation 19

3 Acolyte/Crucifer Ushers Altar Guild Building Steward Teller Lector Greeter SERVING TODAY Steve Hamilton, Michael Mahoney, Todd Hiday Tim Atkinson Callie Yanos, Nancy Fisher, Linda Adams Gerry Yanos/Melissa HIday Bethany Phillips Carlos Gray The Hidays Attendance Last week: 63 THE LIGHTING OF THE ADVENT CANDLES Song: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (verse 1) O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel, that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel. Litany P At every beginning there is a yearning for the one who is coming. O Emmanuel, C Surprise us by your coming. WEEKLY CALENDAR Sunday 12/24 10:30 a.m. Worship with Communion 7:00 p.m. Candlelight worship with Communion Monday 12/25 Christmas Day Office Closed Tuesday 12/26 Office Closed Sunday 12/31 10:30 a.m. Lessons and Carols with Communion P We gather together to let God s good news reorient our lives. O Emmanuel, C Surprise us by your coming. P We wait for the day when all the world will see the sign that God is with us. O Emmanuel, C Surprise us by your coming. P We are shocked by how God comes close, even at this very moment. O Emmanuel, C Surprise us by your coming. 18 Next week s readings are: Isaiah 61:10-62:3; Psalm 148; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2: The 2018 sign-up sheets are now posted! Please consider hosting coffee fellowship or give flowers in honor or in memory of someone special. Sign-up sheets are posted on the bulletin board outside the church office. Cost for the altar flowers is $ Also please check the 2017 Flower chart to make sure that you have paid for your flowers. You might have intended to or possibly thought you did, but did not. Thank you. P Jesus, we welcome your presence now with the lighting of these candles, whose flames bring warmth to winter and fill this place with the glow of hope. Four candles are lit. Silence for reflection Song: O Come, O Come, Emmanuel (verse 5) O come, O Key of David, come, and open wide our heav'nly home; make safe the way that leads on high, and close the path to misery. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you, O Israel. 3

4 greeting P The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. C And also with you. Prayer of the Day P Let us pray. Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. With your abundant grace and might, free us from the sin that would obstruct your mercy, that willingly we may bear your redeeming love to all the world, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. WORD God speaks to us in scripture reading, preaching, and song. Worship Notes (continued) December 24, 2017 (Advent 4) Though all of us are tempted to act otherwise, now is the time for slowing down and leaning together. As with the ancients, we gather in the darkness to wait for the light. If our ancestors removed a wagon wheel for torchlight, consider what it would be like for us to take a wheel off our car, truck, or minivan. Instead of rushing to the mall, we d stay home but also gather with friends to sing ancient hymns and hear readings of prophecy and promise. In the dead of winter, we need one another and we need signs that the sun (and the Son) will come again life returning to dark and dormant land and lives. Like the ancients who gathered together for courage and hope that the sun would return, we gather each week to hear the word that does not pass away. The season s texts give us voice for our brokenness and the promise of a savior. Mary is the focus of the fourth Sunday of Advent as the angel Gabriel tells her that God will keep God s promise to continue the reign of David. Although perplexed, Mary ponders the angel s word and with confidence is able to say, Count me in, to the continuation of this salvation story. 4 17

5 Worship Notes December 24, 2017 (Advent 4) Advent is both a wonderful and a challenging liturgical season. We begin a new church year while the world is busy finishing a calendar year and the month is filled with shopping, pageants, and parties beyond what our energy and time can handle. But while society urges us to hurry and spend, scripture and tradition beckon us to slow down and wait. Congregational leaders have an important and particular responsibility and yes, challenge to help members (and themselves) focus and wait. Enter the wheel. Author, theologian, and artist Gertrud Mueller Nelson doesn t tire in her enthusiasm for the Advent wreath as the season s most powerful symbol. She wrote about its significance in her groundbreaking book, To Dance with God(Paulist Press, 1986), and now in her eighties speaks of it with the same passion. The wreath can be traced to the Romans ancient rite of waiting in the darkness for the return of the sun, and for the Feast of the Sun on December 25. The ancients, Nelson says, took a wheel off their wagons and fastened torches to it to see them through the darkness. The only thing alive in the winter, evergreen, was brought inside and fastened to the wheel. To those huddled in darkness, it was a sign of vegetation and springtime. More than three hundred years ago, German Christians fashioned the same elements into the Advent wreath the greens a sign of hope and eternity. What was once a Feast of the Sun has become for us the Feast of the Son. Today our Advent wreaths are often purchased, as are Advent calendars. Even the local secular bookstore has those (sometimes filled with chocolate). Both are symbols and tools of what Advent urges us to do: mark the passage of time as we wait. Despite all evidence to the contrary, Advent is about the art of waiting. But holiday decorations have been on the shelves at Target since well before Halloween, and the world declares everything after Thanksgiving Day the Christmas season. First Reading: 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 Instead of David building a house (temple) for the Lord, the Lord promises to establish David s house (dynasty) forever. Centuries later, after the Babylonian exile, no king sat on the throne. Even then, however, the people of Israel remembered this promise and continued to hope for a king, the messiah, the Lord s anointed. 1Now when the king was settled in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him, 2 the king said to the prophet Nathan, See now, I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of God stays in a tent. 3 Nathan said to the king, Go, do all that you have in mind; for the Lord is with you. 4But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan: 5 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: Are you the one to build me a house to live in? 6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle. 7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? 8Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep to be prince over my people Israel; 9 and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you; and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me; your throne shall be established forever. The reading is concluded: L The word of the Lord. C Thanks be to God. 16 5

6 LUKE 1:46b-55 Psalm is to be spoken responsively. 46bMy soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, 47my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48for you, Lord, have looked with favor on your lowly servant. From this day all generations will call me blessed: 49you, the Almighty, have done great things for me and holy is your name. 50You have mercy on those who fear you, from generation to generation. 51You have shown strength with your arm and scattered the proud in their conceit, 52casting down the mighty from their thrones and lifting up the lowly. 53You have filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. 54You have come to the aid of your servant Israel, to remember the prom- ise of mercy, 55the promise made to our forbears, to Abraham and his chil- dren forever. CHILDREN'S SERMON 6 15

7 Prayer after Communion P Let us pray. God for whom we wait, you come to us in the broken bread and the cup we share. Make us ready always to welcome Christ into our hearts, and send us forth to be your people in the world, announcing your coming among us in Jesus Christ our Lord. Blessing SENDING God blesses us and sends us in mission to the world. P May Christ, the Sun of righteousness, shine upon you and scatter the darkness from before your path. Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bless you now and forever. SENDING HYMN ELW 267 On Next Page Second Reading: Romans 16:25-27 Paul closes his letter to the Romans by praising God because in the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ God has revealed the promised, divine plan of salvation for all humanity. Paul proclaims this gospel of Christ in order to bring about the obedience of faith among all nations. 25Now to God who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages 26 but is now disclosed, and through the prophetic writings is made known to all the Gentiles, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith 27 to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever! Amen. The reading is concluded: L The word of the Lord. C Thanks be to God. Gospel acclamation Dismissal P Go in peace. Prepare the way of the Lord. C Thanks be to God. 14 7

8 The gospel is announced: P The Holy Gospel according to Luke. C Glory to you, O Lord. Gospel: Luke 1:26-38 In this annunciation, Luke makes clear that God comes with good news for ordinary people (Mary) from little-known places (Nazareth). This king will not be born to royalty in a palace, but to common folk in a stall. Here Luke highlights the role of the Spirit, a special emphasis in his gospel. 26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, 27 to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin s name was Mary. 28 And he came to her and said, Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. 29 But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. 30 The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. 33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. 34 Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I am a virgin? 35 The angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. 36 And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God. 38 Then Mary said, Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word. Then the angel departed from her. Lord s Prayer Lord, remember us in your kingdom and teach us to pray. : Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen. INVITATION TO COMMUNION Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to you. Share in the feast of salvation. Distribution of Holy Communion Please be seated P The Gospel of the Lord. C Praise to you, O Christ. 8 sermon 13

9 Thanksgiving at the table Holy God, the Beginning and the End, our Salvation and our Hope, we praise you for creating a world of order and beauty. HYMN OF THE DAY ELW 723 When we brought on chaos, cruelty and despair, you sent the prophets to proclaim your justice and mercy. At this end of the ages your Son Jesus came to bring us your love and to heal all the suffering world. In the night in which he was betrayed, our Lord Jesus took bread, and gave thanks; broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying: Take and eat; this is my body, given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me. Again, after supper, he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it for all to drink, saying: This cup is the new covenant in my blood, shed for you and for all people for the forgiveness of sin. Do this for the remembrance of me. Remembering, therefore, his life, death, and resurrection, we await his coming again in righteousness and peace. Send your Spirit on us and on this bread and wine we share: strengthen our faith, increase our hope, and bring to birth the justice and joy of your Son. Through him all glory and honor is yours, Almighty Father, with the Holy Spirit, in your holy Church, both now and forever. Amen. 12 9

10 Prayers of Intercession P Guided by the light of Christ, let us pray for the coming dawn of joy, healing, and comfort for all God s people. A brief silence. Your eternal reign has come into the world. Give us ears to hear your call to serve your kingdom, and send us out to those who are hurting and in need of good news. Lord, in your mercy, C hear our prayer. P We raise our prayers to you, O God, in the name of the one who is, who was, and who is to come, Jesus Christ our Lord. Peace P The peace of Christ be with you always. C And also with you. The leaders and congregation may greet one another with a gesture of peace using these or similar words: Peace be with you. Offertory prayer P Let us pray. Savior of the nations, come. Make your home here in us. Feed us with your love, that our faith shine ever new and our lives reveal your light. Great thanksgiving P The Lord be with you. C And also with you. P Lift up your hearts. C We lift them to the Lord. P Let us give thanks to the Lord our God. C It is right to give our thanks and praise. MEAL God feeds us with the presence of Jesus Christ. Offertory Coventry Carol/What Child Is This? arr. Jay Rouse 10 11