Wednesday Words for October 31, 2012
from Pastor Carrie Smith
Thoughts for the Day:
“Be not afraid!” – Jesus.
“I more fear what is within me than what comes from without.” – Martin Luther
Have a Happy Halloween – and a Blessed Reformation Day!
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In our prayers: Mike Bagby at the death of his aunt; Cole Gaffney, complications from Crohn’s; John Michaels; Larry Kohn; Gary Summers; the east coast as it recovers from Superstorm Sandy; Pastor Tolzmann, Ron & Pat Henning, Cheryl Reimer and others who are traveling as a group to France today; Robert Smith who travels to Jerusalem today; and all others whose travel plans have been disrupted by the storm.
Fall Back! Don’t forget: On Sunday morning you should turn your clocks back one hour. “Get me to the church on time!”
Tonight at Bethany: No Confirmation, no worship. Enjoy the spooky evening with your family and neighbors!
Sunday at Bethany: This is All Saints Sunday, and we will be joined by special musicians to help celebrate those who have gone before us. The Bethany Vision Dancers will also be performing during the choir anthem. I will be preaching and the newly ordained Pastor Paul will preside at the table.
Come a bit early to worship to light a candle in honor of a loved one during the prelude. Worship will begin with the Litany of the Saints, an ancient chanted hymn which names the saints from Abraham and Sarah to Mary, mother of our Lord. The names of Bethany community members who have died in the past year will be read aloud, and there will be a time for you to also speak the names of others you are remembering this day.
7:45 am worshippers, we will meet in Luther Hall for worship.
A great Reformation Day sermon from Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber: Why the Gospel is more Wizard of Oz-y than the Law
“Sounds of Faith” this Sunday: Sunday, November 4th at 5:30 pm, at First Congregational . Church, 461 Pierson Street, CLSome of Chicago's most recognizable performers in sacred music, chant and recitation will offer Jewish cantillation, Qurânic recitation, and Christian hymnody at his special interfaith concert. Donations will be accepted at the door. $20 donations are suggested for adults, $15 for students. This event is co-sponsored by and for the benefit of FaithBridge and The Harran Foundation.
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This Week’s Texts: All Saints Day
Isaiah 25:6-9
6On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear. 7And he will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever. 8Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces, and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. 9It will be said on that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, so that he might save us. This is the Lord for whom we have waited; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.
Psalm 24 (Message Version)
God claims Earth and everything in it,
God claims World and all who live on it.
He built it on Ocean foundations,
laid it out on River girders.
Who can climb Mount God?
Who can scale the holy north-face?
Only the clean-handed,
only the pure-hearted;
Men who won’t cheat,
women who won’t seduce.
God is at their side;
with God’s help they make it.
This, Jacob, is what happens
to God-seekers, God-questers.
Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
King-Glory is ready to enter.
Who is this King-Glory?
God, armed
and battle-ready.
Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
King-Glory is ready to enter.
Who is this King-Glory?
God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
he is King-Glory.
Revelation 21:1-6a
21Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” 5And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
John 11:32-44
32When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus began to weep. 36So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” 38Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Peace,
+ Pastor Carrie Smith
carrie.smith@bethanylc.com
