Little Zion Lutheran Church February 2017 Rev. Erika Wesch Poking Holes in the Darkness Church Council Staff

Transcription

1 The Messenger Little Zion Lutheran Church 267 Morwood Rd Telford, PA February 2017 Rev. Erika Wesch Church Council Barry Bowman Donna Haskins Monica Hoover Jan Johnson Jane Kershaw Joe Leiss George Moyer David Nyce Randy Pforter John Scott Patty Slater Lee Smeltz Staff Denise Famularo, Financial Secretary Doug Johnson, Treasurer Lee Smeltz, Facilities Manager Lisa Travis, Director of Music Ministries Cheryl Gustafson, Administrative Assistant Poking Holes in the Darkness As Christians, we are called to share the good news, especially in our society where the news, as we have come to know it, is so often negative. Bearers of good news have become a rare breed. I often turn to one of my favorite Bible passages, Isaiah 52:7-8, for motivation. A great sermon in Peter J. Flamming s book, Poking Holes in the Darkness, published by Monument Avenue Press, 1992, reflects upon the Isaiah 52 passage and inspired this letter. Robert Lewis Stevenson, best known for his adventure story Treasure Island, was in poor health during much of his childhood and youth. One night, his nurse found him with his nose pressed against the frosty pane of his bedroom window. Child, come away from there. You ll catch your death of cold, she fussed. But young Robert wouldn t budge. He sat, mesmerized, as he watched an old lamplighter slowly working his way through the black night, lighting each street lamp along his route. Pointing, Robert exclaimed, See, look there; there s a man poking holes in the darkness. There were no street lamps, cobblestone streets, or frosty windows in Isaiah s day, yet ancient Israel had its own kind of lamplighters who poked holes in the darkness. Isaiah sang: How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, Your God reigns! Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. (Isaiah 52:7-8)

2 (Continued from pg 1) Isaiah wasn t writing about messengers or lamp-lighters in general. In those days, runners carried news. As the runners approached a city or town, they could be seen off in the distance crossing the mountains. They would disappear from view as they ran down into the valleys, and reappear again as they climbed to the mountaintops. When Isaiah sang, How beautiful upon the mountains he was referring to the runner s approach. When does good news become beautiful? Good news becomes beautiful when it is shared. The Lord has a mysterious way of using our light our songs, our words, our joy to penetrate dark corners. The words of Bernadette Farrell s hymn, Christ, Be Our Light (ELW 715) are a beautiful prayer: Christ, be our light! Shine in our hearts. Shine through the darkness. Christ, be our light! Shine in your church gathered today. May God give us the courage to poke holes in the darkness with the good news of the light of Christ. Pastor Wesch Highlights of the January council meeting: Church Council voted to use $3,000 from the Christmas 2015 and Christmas 2016 offerings to help Bear Creek Camp in their efforts to build cabins to replace tents. For more information or questions, please speak to any council member. Pork & Sauerkraut Supper Saturday, February 4 All are welcome to join us for our annual pork and sauerkraut supper! Dinner will be served at 5:30 pm. We will accept an offering and ask you to bring a dessert to share if you are able. Stop by the Sign up Center to let us know you will attend. Snow date is Saturday, February 11. Bear Creek Camp and Scout Sunday, February 5 On Sunday, February 5, Little Zion will highlight two important youth ministries, celebrating both Bear Creek Camp and Scout Sunday! We welcome all Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts to wear their uniforms. During our worship services, we will sing some camp songs and lift up prayers of thanks for Scouting and Bear Creek Camp. At the 9:00 am learning hour, all ages are invited to enjoy an interactive presentation about Bear Creek Camp. Bear Creek campers will be selling $5.00 containers of chili with cornbread to raise money to go directly to Bear Creek Camp.

3 Attention: Fabulous Fastnacht Crew World Vision s 30 Hour Famine: Students Loving God and Fighting Hunger. Love God. Serve the hungry. Do the Famine. Every year, hundreds of thousands of students in the United States and around the world unite to do the World Vision 30 Hour Famine. Little Zion s youth in 7th through 12th grade and their friends are invited to participate with the youth at Zwingli UCC Friday, February 17 through Saturday, February 18. Youth will learn about hunger, raise funds to help the hungry, then go hungry for 30 hours. Through the Famine, teens grow closer to Christ and each other all while helping to save the lives of hungry kids. Youth will gather at Zwingli UCC at 6:00 PM on Friday, February 17, sleep over, then do service projects and fun activities while keeping the fast throughout the day on Saturday. At 6:00 PM on Saturday, the youth and youth leaders will break the fast with a brief and meaningful worship service with communion, then have dinner together. For more information, contact Pastor Wesch, Kathy Brandis, or Jane Kershaw. Fasting buddies are needed to be prayer partners with a youth or youth leader. Fasting buddies do not give up food, and they will remain anonymous until the 6:00 PM worship service on Saturday at Zwingli UCC. To become a fasting buddy, contact Pastor Wesch. It is time to turn our thoughts toward making, selling, and eating fastnachts. This is our major fundraiser for the Bear Creek Campers Scholarship Fund. Mark your calendars now February 26, 27, & 28! Mixers, cutters, fryers, and packers are needed. Work sign-up sheets are in the narthex. Please try to order your fastnachts ahead of the sale. Orders may be made by phone ( ) or online by visiting our website, While we try to accommodate as many walk-ins as possible, we fill our orders first. Pick up times will be Monday, February 27 and Tuesday, February 28. Fastnachts will be $6.00 per dozen and $4.00 per half dozen. This is your chance to become a Flour Child of Little Zion. If you have any question, please ask Patty Slater-Barndt or David and Betsy Snook. Giving Tree Thank you to all who donated to the Giving Tree over the past couple of months. We had so many donations that we had to make a couple of different trips to the Keystone Opportunity Center. In all, our donation consisted of 34 scarves, 54 hats, 58 gloves/mittens and 7 pair of socks-- many of which were hand-made. Think of everyone that we will help to keep warm during these cold winter months!

4 Celebrating and Commemorate Martin Luther on Sunday, Feb. 19 On Sunday, February 19, we will commemorate Martin Luther, who died February 18, Though he began his adult church life as a simple Augustinian monk, Luther challenged the abuses he saw in the church, and his work eventually led to the Protestant Reformation. Luther's accomplishments included liturgical reform, translation of the Bible, and creation of the Small and Large Catechisms. During worship, our music will be from the early years of the reformation, not only by Luther but many composers throughout Europe. We will have a Luther Celebration event for all ages too at 9:00 am in the Fellowship Hall. Reformation 500 In 2017 we commemorate the 500 th Anniversary of the Reformation. During January and February, the music in the liturgy (hymn of praise, gospel acclamation and offertory hymn) are hymns from the early years of the reformation. All Glory Be to God on High/Allen Gott in Der Hoh- This hymn, text and tune, was written by Nikolaus Decius ( ). He was from Upper Franconia in Bavaria and became a monk, but soon began to favor the opinions of Luther. His sudden death is suspected to have been at the hand of Roman Catholic enemies. We are using this as our hymn of praise (Glory to God). God s Word is our Great Heritage-This text by Nikolai Grundtvig ( Denmark) is sung to the tune of A Mighty Fortress/Ein Feste Burg(Martin Luther). We are using this as our gospel acclamation. Let All Together Praise our God/Lobt Gott Ihr Christen-This text and tune by Nikolaus Herman ( ) are from the Christmas section of our hymnal. We are using this as our offertory hymn. Altar Guild Meeting on Saturday, February 18 The Altar Guild has a meeting planned for Saturday, February 18th at 10:00 AM in the church nave. We are welcoming several new members, reviewing procedures, and confirming the monthly schedule, concentrating on the Lenten season through Easter Sunday. If you're curious about our responsibilities and may like to try this service group, please come to this meeting. We will re-schedule if the weather is uncooperative. Thank you, Monica Hoover

5 ABOUT THE LUTHERANS Martin Luther s German Bible What version of the Bible do you hear and read? Just in English, we have many to choose from. They range from translations that aim to be as accu rate as possible (such as the New Revised Standard Version) to others whose main objective is to be easy to understand, even if certain details get lost. Imagine, though, if there were no Bible available in English if such a thing didn t exist. What if the only Bible was in a language most didn t know and we had to rely on priests and scholars to tell us what was in the Bible? That was the situation in the Germany of Martin Luther s time. The Bible was most commonly found in Latin, though scholars could read it in the origi nal languages of Hebrew and Greek. An important part of Luther s reforms was recognizing that a German Bible was needed and then actually cre ating it! Sometimes things happen because it s the right time, and that seems to be the case with Luther s Bible. Johannes Gutenberg s invention of printing with movable type had come along a few decades earlier and was coming into widespread use. Luther recog nized the need to provide a Bible that ordinary, literate people could read. The many dialects of the German people were beginning to coalesce into a form that was widely understandable. Luther even had an artist friend, Lu cas Cranach, who could provide illustrations for the Bible, aiding people s understanding. And finally, Luther had the time to devote to the project. The Wartburg Castle as it would have appeared in Luther s time. The dispute with the Roman Catholic hier archy that had begun with indulgences and Luther s Ninety-Five Theses had expanded and now came to a head with the imperial council (or diet ) held at Worms. Luther strongly defended his writings but still was condemned as an outlaw (in addition to already being named a heretic). He could have been arrested and executed, but his prince, Frederick the Wise, kidnapped him in April 1521 and hid him away in the Wartburg Castle. There the reformer had little to do, so he set out to begin his translation of the Bible. Title page from an early printing of Luther s translation. He started with the New Testament. He had learned New Testament (koine) Greek, the original language, and so began with that, not Latin. Since the German language was still evolving, Luther would make trips into nearby towns to hear how people actually spoke. Luther returned to his home in Wittenberg in 1522, and within six months, his New Testament was pub lished. After that he worked with other pastors and scholars to prepare the Old Testament. The complete Bible, with 117 woodcut illustrations, was first published in He revised it several times up until his death. Luther s work on a German Bible was a landmark achievement. It influenced others in many countries, including England, to do the same. He brought the scriptures into the language of his people, and in so doing spread the gospel.

6 Kid s Page

7 Sunday Worship at 7:45 am & 10:15 am Sunday School for all ages at 9:00 am (unless otherwise specified) Every Monday: Boy Scout Troop 16, 7pm, Church House Every Monday: Cub Scout Pack 10, 7pm, Fellowship Hall Every other Tuesday: Girl Scout Troop 7077, 6:30 pm FH Every Wednesday: Deadheads, 9:00 am 3rd Wednesday: Eastern Star, 7pm Every Friday: AA & Al Anon, 8pm Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 1 2 Choir: Jr: 6:30 pm Sr: 7:30 pm 3 4 Pork & Sauerkraut Supper 5:30pm 5 Worship 7:45 am & 10:15 am Bear Creek Camp & Scout Sunday Property Committee 9:00 am-12:00 pm 9 Choir: Jr: 6:30 pm Sr: 7:30 pm Worship 7:45 am & 10:15 am 13 Finance Mtg. 7:00 pm 14 Church Council Meeting 7:00 pm Valentine s Day 15 Property Committee 9:00 am-12:00 pm 16 Choir: Jr: 6:30 pm Sr: 7:30 pm 17 Youth Event- 30 Hour Famine 6:00 pm Zwingli UCC 18 Youth Event- 30 Hour Famine 19 Worship 7:45 am & 10:15 am Luther Celebrationall ages at 9am FH Fastnacht Prep 20 Presidents Day 21 Faith Formation Meeting 7:30pm 22 Property Committee Women of LZ 12:00 pm 23 Choir: Jr: 6:30 pm Sr: 7:30 pm Junior Choir Festival- Abington Presbyterian Church 26 Worship 7:45 am & 10:15 am Transfiguration of Our Lord Fastnacht Sale 27 28

8 Dear Church Community. I cannot begin to mention a thanks to individuals, because the support I have received while going through the cancer surgery and radiation is a testament to what a great community of sisters and brothers we are honored to know. Thank you for the Christmas cookies, the flowers, the calls and cards, the meals, the transportation to Fox Chase, managed by Donna Haskins, the vigilance of Erika always expressing love and concern and all the many prayers you have extended as well as prayers you asked from others. Both Ralph and I are so grateful. Please know I am requesting continued prayers. This week will be the worst, since the radiation in my body is at its peak, but this, too, shall pass. The investment is easily worth the return. God s Blessing and Love, Jan Barndt A Note of Thanks- We want to thank everyone for their prayers, cards, and expressions of sympathy since the passing of Ruth Bishop. A big thank you to Pastor Wesch and the women and men who helped with the luncheon. It was very much appreciated. Kathy Casey & Family (Ruth s daughter) February 01 February 02 February 02 February 05 February 08 February 10 February 10 February 12 February 12 February 16 February 16 February 19 February 22 February 23 February 23 February 24 February 27 February 27 February 29 Abigail Packard Rebecca Guthre Patty Barndt-Slater Nevin Barndt Shirley Wolfgang Joanne Gilbert Betsy Snook Jane Kershaw Elizabeth Sodomin Charles Pizza Zachary Travis Joanne Brandis Pekter Lena Magill Allan Barndt Violet Bleam Kathryn Haskins Eric Jr. Krebs Katherine Scott Rick Hunsberger Gladys Kazalonis & Shirley Schanely (sisters) Looking ahead to coming months... Upcoming Camper Fundraisers February 5: Chili Sale April 9: Hoagie Sale March 1: Ash Wednesday March 8, 15, 22, 29, April 5: Midweek Lent Soup supper at 6:00 pm Worship at 7:00 pm March 19: Land & Seasons service April 9: Palm Sunday April 16: Easter Sunday