Wednesday Words for July 2, 2014
From Interim Senior Pastor Len Hoffmann
Scroll down to find the link to your Bethany Weekly Newsletter!
Thought for the Day:
Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens,
and I will give you rest.
Matthew 11:28
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Pastoral Care Needs: Please let the pastors know if you would like a pastoral visit, especially before, during or after hospitalization. HIPPA laws require confidentiality, so if you do not inform the hospital of your congregational affiliation, or the pastors we will not be aware of your desire for pastoral care. All are invited to make us aware of those in need of prayer. It is best to obtain permission of the person being prayed for if the prayer is to be made public.
Christmas in July: It’s the annual Christmas in July outreach opportunity. There are items that are needed this time of year for a variety of social ministry organizations. Please take an “ornament” with a desired gift and return it to the church by the last Sunday in July when gifts will be dedicated and distributed by the Social Action Committee. Christmas Hymns will be sung on July 27.
Next Week: VBS “Wade in the Water” will begin Monday, July 7 at 9:00 a.m. until Noon. Register for VBS on the Bethany website, or use the forms on the Welcome Desk in the gathering area. Sunday we will install the VBS Leaders. Leaders may attend either worship service.
Seniors Ice Cream Social next Wednesday beginning at 6:00 pm. Tickets are available in the gathering space or at the door. Come and enjoy time together and invite some family or friends.
Sunday Morning Announcements: Please consider entering the Sanctuary a few minutes early for Welcome and Announcements. We want to welcome everyone, especially our guests. Worship will begin with the Prelude as a time to center ourselves and prepare for worship. It is very helpful to get announcements into the Bethany Weekly Newsletter and they need to be in the church office by Tuesday morning.
Sunday at Bethany: I wish all of you a safe and joyful July 4th weekend. As US citizens we celebrate this Independence Day as a day when 13 colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. They believed in the words of Thomas Jefferson that all people were endowed by their creator with certain rights including life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
In Baptism we were declared independent from sin, death and the power of evil through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Through the Word and Sacrament we are given the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation.
Although the Declaration of Independence declared our separation from England, it bound the Colonists together in a way they had not been bound before and ultimately they established the United States of America.
As followers of Jesus, we have been declared independent from the powers that separate us from God, but we are bound together as the people of God in baptism. It is for this reason that worship is important to the community of faith. We cannot go it alone in the Christian walk. We need to continually be connected to the power of Christ and to the strength of one another. Worship is that place where we declare our independence from the power of sin, death and the power of evil, and our dependence on Christ and interdependence on one another.
Pastor Len
Lectionary 14
Proper 9
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost
Prayer of the Day
You are great, O God, and greatly to be praised.
You have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.
Grant that we may believe in you, call upon you,
know you, and serve you,
through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
First Reading Zechariah 9:9-12
The coming messianic king will inaugurate an era of disarmament and prosperity. Because of God's covenant with Israel, they are designated as "prisoners of hope."
9Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem!
Lo, your king comes to you;
triumphant and victorious is he,
humble and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10He will cut off the chariot from Ephraim
and the war-horse from Jerusalem;
and the battle bow shall be cut off,
and he shall command peace to the nations;
his dominion shall be from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
11As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
12Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
today I declare that I will restore to you double.
Second Reading Romans 7:15-25a
Life enslaved under sin is a catch-22 existence in which we know good but do not do it and do things we know to be bad. Through Jesus Christ, God has set us free from such a futile existence.
15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.
21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!
The Gospel Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30
Jesus chides people who find fault with both his ministry and that of John the Baptist. He thanks God that wisdom and intelligence are not needed to receive what God has to offer.
16But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another,
17'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance;
we wailed, and you did not mourn.'
18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon'; 19the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds."
25At that time Jesus said, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
