Wednesday Words for August 29, 2012
from Pastor Carrie Smith
Thought for the Day: Labor Day Poem
by Bobby Gilles
God of shop and marketplace,
Of farm and studio,
Factory and shipping lane,
Of school and busy home:
Bless the produce of our hands.
Redeem our work for Kingdom-use.
By Your grace, our efforts stand,
All offered up to You.
There in Eden, You proclaimed
That we should work the earth –
Stewards over all we named,
Delighting in their worth.
Through our fall we brought decay,
Lost access to Jehovah’s rest.
Through the cross, we rest in faith
And all our labor’s blessed.
In Your image we are made:
Creative like You are,
Forming goods for use and trade
Just like You formed the stars.
Send us out in power and skill
To worship through each task assigned.
By Your Spirit we fulfill
The holy, grand design.
***
In our prayers: We especially pray this week for the many church members and loved ones who are struggling with cancer. We pray for all students, teachers, parents and school employees as the school year gets underway.
Prayer update: For many months now we have been praying for Maggie Youel, a Crystal Lake teenager who suffered a massive stroke in the spring. On Sunday, our organist (Allison Boccia) told me: “I just saw a miracle walking down the street!” Maggie and her father were taking a walk past the church. This is truly a miracle—doctors did not expect Maggie to survive her stroke, much less be able to walk. Just as we joined others in praying for Maggie, it’s good to now join her family in thanking God for her ongoing recovery!
This Sunday at Bethany: Pastor Paul will be preaching and I will be presiding at the communion table. Since Labor Day is not just a reason to have a barbeque, we will say some special prayers for the workers of the world. Worship is at 8:30 am and 10 am (summer schedule for one last week!)
A few more teachers needed: Our Sunday School superintendent tells me we still need at least 2 more teachers or helpers. If you have been considering teaching this year, please contact Barb to find out more! 815-459-2690 or Barb.Buczek@bethanylc.com
Confirmation Orientation: Next Wednesday, Sept. 5 is Confirmation Orientation for parents and students, from 6-7:30 pm. Dinner will be provided! If you did not receive a letter about Confirmation and your child is in 7th or 8th grade, please let me know: carrie.smith@bethanylc.com
The 2012 Bethany Women’s Event is Sunday, September 23rd! Women, if you have not RSVP’d for this event, please do so ASAP. We have an exciting evening planned, with a catered meal (at no cost to you!), a guest speaker, and the Bethany Vision Dancers. Please RSVP to sandi.teiken@bethanylc.com
Only one week until the Back-to-Church Bluegrass Round-Up! On Sunday, September 9, the fall schedule begins with worship at 7:45, 9, and 10:45 am. Sunday School registration begins at 8:30 am, and you can check out many ministry opportunities at the Ministry Round-Up all morning long. The Chordfields Bluegrass Band will be playing at the 9 and 10:45 services. Y’all come back to church now, y’hear?
This Week’s Texts: 14th Sunday after Pentecost
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
4So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.
6You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!” 7For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? 8And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today? 9But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.
Psalm 15 (Message Version)
1 God, who gets invited to dinner at your place?
How do we get on your guest list?
2 "Walk straight, act right, tell the truth.
3-4 "Don't hurt your friend, don't blame your neighbor; despise the despicable.
5 "Keep your word even when it costs you, make an honest living, never take a bribe.
"You'll never get blacklisted if you live like this."
James 1:17-27
17Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. 18In fulfillment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
19You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 20for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. 21Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls. 22But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. 23For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; 24for they look at themselves and, on going away, immediately forget what they were like. 25But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing. 26If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. 27Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Mark 7:1-23
7Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, 2they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. 3(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; 4and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) 5So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” 6He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
7in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’
8You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”
14Then he called the crowd again and said to them, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: 15there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”
21For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, 22adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. 23All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”
Peace,
+ Pastor Carrie Smith
carrie.smith@bethanylc.com
