Sunday, March 13, 2016 Fifth Sunday in Lent Christ Lutheran Church Community of Faith location: 126 Front Street (corner of Front and North First on the lake) mailing address: P.O. Box 166 Cottonwood, Minnesota 56229 Church Office Phone and Voice Mail: 507-423-5100 www.christcottonwood.org e-mail: christlutheran@christcotton.com PASTOR JIM DEMKE SEE OFFICE PHONE [Cell 605-370-2206] PASTORAL ASST. GWEN ARNESON SEE OFFICE PHONE [Cell 612-280-5987] ADMIN. ASST. RHODA SCHMIDT SEE OFFICE PHONE [Cell 507-829-1426] CUSTODIANS JON & JEANNETTE MYRVIK Cell 507-828-2401; 828-2407 T h i s W e e k a t C h r i s t L u t h e r a n, M a r c h 1 3, 2 0 1 6 Today, March 13 9 a.m. Sunday Morning Live (SML) 9 a.m. Fellowship/Refreshments 10:15 a.m. Worship 11:45 a.m. (approx.) Worship on Cable 180 March 20 Palm/Passion Sunday 9 a.m. Sunday Morning Live (SML) 9 a.m. Fellowship/Refreshments 10:15 a.m. Worship Holy Communion 11:45 a.m. (approx.) Worship on Cable 180 6:30 p.m. Council Meeting (officers, deacons, trustees) Tuesday, March 15 9 a.m. Quilting 1:30 p.m. Community Bible Study 3:30, 5 p.m. Esther s Kitchen serving Wednesday, March 16 7 p.m. Lenten/Holden Evening Prayer Worship (through March 16) Aired on Cable Access Channel at 8 p.m. 7:45 p.m. 1st Communion Instruction 8 p.m. Choir Friday, March 18 Articles are due to Rhoda for April/May Connections newsletter
GREAT CHILDREN S EASTER E STORY BOOKS & DVD! Give your kids or grandkids (and yourself) something much more valuable than chocolate and eggs! Go to www.sparkhouse.org (a branch of Augsburg-Fortress), click on Shop, and order the items shown on today s insert, OR, Purchase The Holy Moly Story Bible and get the Holy Moly Easter DVD + Easter picture book for FREE! Just add The Holy Moly Bible to your shopping cart and enter promo code RISEN16 to receive your two bonus items. See the sample story books and DVD on display in the Fireside Room. (Sorry, we don t have a Holy Moly Story Bible to display.) Bible-Storybook-DVD offer valid through 3/15/16. Storybooks and DVD offer valid through 3/28/16. Thank You For Serving Our Lord Today - March 13, 2016 Ushers *Alton Huso, Jon Brower, Kally Brower, Jon Hoehne, Marvin Kremin, Erik Lundberg Greeter Barb Crouse Accompanist Amy Jo Remmele Acolytes Trenton Crain Jackson Klocow Assisting Minister Neil Dovre PA Operator Jonathan Olson Video Operator Gary Morken Offering Counters Jessica Laleman Linda VanUden Altar Care Barb Crouse Joyce Warnke Christ Lutheran has also made a commitment to support feeding the hungry by asking its members to give a freewill offering that will be used for providing food for the local food shelf and for meals that are served at Esther s Kitchen. 1. Food shelf offering may be placed in the offering plate, left at the church office, or given online through our CLC website. Remember March s contributions get an added boost because of Minnesota FoodShare grants. 2. For Esther s Kitchen, a container is located in the back of the sanctuary dedicated to receiving monies that will be given to EK s sponsor Loaves & Fishes; checks are payable to Loaves & Fishes. We will be serving at Esther s Kitchen this Tuesday, March 15. You are invited to sign up online at our website, (christcottonwood.org), OR, by using the sheet at the rear of the Sanctuary. Future serving dates: April 21 (Thurs.) and May 17 (Tues.) If you are not familiar with Esther s Kitchen and wish to know more, contact Becky and Terry Timm: catimm@charter.net or phone 507 828 7628. Page 2
Fifth Sunday in Lent March 13, 2016 Christ Lutheran Church Cottonwood, Minnesota The Lord our God makes all things new. In the first reading God promises it. In the gospel Mary anticipates it, anointing Jesus feet with costly perfume in preparation for the day of his burial. In the second reading we recall the transformation of Saul, the persecutor, into Paul, the apostle. In baptism, God s new person (you!) rises daily from the deadly mire of trespasses and sins. (Sundays and Seasons, Augsburg Fortress, 2015) GATHERING The page number notations in the worship bulletin refer to the pages in the front portion of the hymnal. The hymn numbers in brackets are found in the latter half of the hymnal. Prelude Call to Worship Welcome and Announcements Please stand as you are able. Confession and Forgiveness P: Blessed be the holy Trinity, + one God, who brings us safely through the sea, who gives us water from the rock, and who leads us into the land of milk and honey. C: Amen. P: Let us come home to God, confessing our sin. Silence is kept for reflection. Merciful Father, C: we have sinned against heaven and before you. We do not fully live as your sons and daughters. We use your gifts to our own ends. Forgive us and restore us, that we may resist all that draws us away from you, and be at peace with one another. Amen. P: We are reconciled to God through Christ; for his sake, God does not count our trespasses against us. Once dead in sin, we are now alive to God. Once lost, we now are found. God clothes you in the finest robe of all, the righteousness of + Jesus Christ, forgiving you all your sins and making of you a new creation. C: Amen. Gathering Hymn When I Survey the Wondrous Cross [803] 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. Page 3
Kyrie (Hymn #152 this immediately follows the Psalms and is at the start of the remainder of the hymns.) Prayer of the Day P: Let us pray. C: Creator God, you prepare a new way in the wilderness, and your grace waters our desert. Open our hearts to be transformed by the new thing you are doing, that our lives may proclaim the extravagance of your love given to all through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen. Please be seated. WORD First Reading Isaiah 43:16-21 16 Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, 17 who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: 18 Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. 19 I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. 20 The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 21 the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise. L: Word of God, word of life. C: Thanks be to God. Second Reading Philippians 3:4b-14 4b If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless. 7 Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11 if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. L: Word of God, word of life. C: Thanks be to God. Please stand as you are able. Page 4
Gospel Lenten Acclamation Gospel Reading P: The Holy Gospel according to John, the twelfth chapter. C: Glory to you, O Lord. 1 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor? 6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me. P: The Gospel of the Lord. C: Praise to you, O Christ. Please be seated. Sermon Pastor Jim Demke Hymn of the Day Beneath the Cross of Jesus [338] Please stand as you are able. Confession of Faith (The Apostles Creed is found inside the back cover of the hymnal.) Sharing of God s Peace P: The peace of the Lord be with you always. C: And also with you. Please share a sign of God s peace with your neighbors. Please be seated. THANKSGIVING Offering What costly treasures do we have that are good enough to offer to Jesus Christ? How sacrificial are our offerings of thanksgiving? Let us bring our gifts, not out of habit or as reluctant duty, but as joyous opportunity to share in the work to which Christ summons his church and every member. Page 5
Please stand as you are able. Offertory Prayer A: Let us pray. May nothing be worth more to us, O God, than the opportunity to know Jesus Christ, to share in Christ s suffering, and to know the transforming power of the resurrection. Bless these offerings, that our congregation s ministries may bear fruit and your mission may be accomplished, here and everywhere in the world. In Jesus name. C: Amen. Prayers of God s People The congregation will respond to the prayer petitions with, hear our prayer. Lord s Prayer (Our Father, who art in heaven ) SENDING Blessing and Dismissal P: The blessing of God Almighty, the wisdom and power of + Jesus Christ, and the light of the Holy Spirit be among you and remain with you always. C: Amen. A: Go in peace. Remember the poor. C: Thanks be to God. Sending Hymn O Master, Let Me Walk with You [818] Postlude Prayer for the Journey Awaken us, O God, to your promises and equip us to receive the life you offer. You are with us in our tears and in our shouts of joy! You uphold us in times of sowing and times of reaping. You stand by us when we complain and withhold, and when we are thankful and generous. Move us now to be more like Christ, in whose name we live and move and have our being. Amen. The Apostle Paul reminds us in Philippians 4:6-7 to, Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Your prayers are a gift to those requesting them, and encouragement for one another as we experience challenges, sorrows, or thanksgivings of any kind. We pray for those with Health Concerns, as well as Others In Our Hearts and On Our Minds: Desi Crain Erin Eaton (Jones) Esther Frank Sue Gropel Lisa Jones Anna (Olson) Meyer Julie Pederson Ruth Post, hospice care Cayson Rialson Mary Schwisow Eva Woodberry, Ferman s mother All those dealing with illness, addictions, depression, unemployment, underemployment, and any challenges in their lives. We lift up our prayers of thanksgiving for the birth of a granddaughter to Gary and Darla Morken on March 8 Kyla Genevieve was born to Eric and Mali Morken. Page 6