Wednesday Words for May 21, 2014
From Pastor Carrie Smith
*** scroll down for the Bethany Weekly Newsletter link! ***
Thought for the Day:
“We were never told that it would not hurt, only that nothing would ever finally go wrong; not that it would not often go hard with us but that there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.”
Robert Farrar Capon,
Between Noon & Three: Romance, Law & the Outrage of Grace
***
Today at Bethany: Congratulations to the students who graduated from Bethany Preschool today! (and please pass the word that we are still actively seeking students for the preschool. Check out their website at http://bethanypreschool.weebly.com/ )
Saturday at Bethany: Property Team needs YOU! We’re ready to mulch the Bethany property on Saturday morning, May 24th, beginning at 8:00 a.m. We need many hands to make light work! Craig Gaffney of US Lawns Landscaping will be providing 3 wheelbarrows and some tools. Please bring your own wheelbarrow if you have one. Also gloves, and rakes. We will have coffee and donuts. Let's get the property looking fabulous just in case summer actually arrives this year! For more information contact Bob DeGroot at 773 805-1675.
VBS is coming! Vacation Bible School is coming soon….check out the details here: http://www.bethanylc.com/vbs/
Eco-Fair/Garage Sale Reminders: Secure Paper Shredding will be offered again this year at the eco-fair. For more information see the newsletter.
Garage Sale Donation Start Date: Thursday, May 22
Please do not leave garage sale donations on the landing during office hours.
Please bring donations downstairs to the Community Room. Thank you!
“Where in the world is Sandi?” If you’ve come looking for our lay ministry coordinator, Sandi Teiken, and have been surprised not to find her at her desk—do not fear! Sandi is fine! As of May 1st, at her request, she is working only 3 days a week, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.
Sandi has been an important part of the ministries here at Bethany for more than 25 years. She has supported many projects and people through the years. Reducing her hours is part of Sandi’s “intentional interim” plan to have more people become actively involved as she looks toward retirement. Now it’s time for us to support her as she prepares to pass her job on to the next person! As Sandi often says, “many hands make light the work” as we live into the ELCA motto: “God’s Work, Our Hands.”
This week’s texts: 6th Sunday of Easter
Prayer of the Day:
Almighty and ever-living God,
you hold together all things in heaven and on earth.
In your great mercy receive the prayers of all your children,
and give to all the world the Spirit of your truth and peace,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever. Amen.
FIRST READING Acts 17:22–31
In Athens, Paul faces the challenge of proclaiming the gospel to Greeks who know nothing of either Jewish or Christian tradition. He proclaims that the "unknown god" whom they worship is the true Lord of heaven and earth who will judge the world with justice through Jesus, whom God has raised from the dead.
22Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, "Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. 23For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. 24The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, 25nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. 26From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him — though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28For 'In him we live and move and have our being'; as even some of your own poets have said,
'For we too are his offspring.'
29Since we are God's offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. 30While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, 31because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."
Psalm 66:8-20 (Message Version)
Bless our God, O peoples!
Give him a thunderous welcome!
Didn’t he set us on the road to life?
Didn’t he keep us out of the ditch?
He trained us first,
passed us like silver through refining fires,
Brought us into hardscrabble country,
pushed us to our very limit,
Road-tested us inside and out,
took us to hell and back;
Finally he brought us
to this well-watered place.
13-15 I’m bringing my prizes and presents to your house.
I’m doing what I said I’d do,
What I solemnly swore I’d do
that day when I was in so much trouble:
The choicest cuts of meat
for the sacrificial meal;
Even the fragrance
of roasted lamb is like a meal!
Or make it an ox
garnished with goat meat!
16-20 All believers, come here and listen,
let me tell you what God did for me.
I called out to him with my mouth,
my tongue shaped the sounds of music.
If I had been cozy with evil,
the Lord would never have listened.
But he most surely did listen,
he came on the double when he heard my prayer.
Blessed be God: he didn’t turn a deaf ear,
he stayed with me, loyal in his love.
SECOND READING 1 Peter 3:13–22
Christians have a zeal for doing what is right in God's eyes no matter what the circumstances because in baptism we are saved and made alive. Thus our Christian beliefs and behavior are to be a matter of public record just as our baptism is.
13Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?
14But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, 15but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; 16yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. 17For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil.
18For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, 19in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, 20who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. 21And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you — not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
GOSPEL John 14:15–21
In final words to his disciples on the night of his arrest, Jesus encourages obedience to his commandments and speaks of the Spirit, who will be with them forever.
15If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. 17This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
18I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. 19In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. 20On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."
Peace,
Pastor Carrie Smith
