Wednesday Words for August 20, 2014
From Interim Senior Pastor Len Hoffmann
Scroll down to find the link to your Bethany Weekly Newsletter!
Thought for the Day
Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and the quarry from which you were dug.
Isaiah 56:1b
September 7 is Rally Day and Education Fair. W.I.R.E.D. for Outreach and Service (Worship, Involvement, Renewal, Education, Discipleship). Worship will be at 8:30 and 10:30. From 9:30 to 10:30 Sunday School Registration, Parent Orientation, and Adult Education Fair. Tables will be available so you can sample and register for fall adult education opportunities. Different nights of the week and Sunday mornings.
Confirmation (grades 6-8) will begin on Wednesday, September 10 from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm.
Financial Peace University (adults) begins on Wednesday, September 17 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm.
Our new schedule starts on September 14, Holy Cross Day, 8:00, 9:00, and 10:30 with Children’s Church, Sunday School and Adult Education at 9:00 a.m. Social Hour at 10:00.
Sunday at Bethany: Every time I make my way from Rockford to Crystal Lake and back again I notice the sign Bubbling Boulders. It is obviously a place that sells very large rocks for landscaping purposes. These large landscaping boulders have become a favorite for many and appear in yards all around us. I frequently ask Cathy if she would like a boulder for our yard and she always says “no”.
Boulders can be a beautiful thing to behold and they can also be a problem to be overcome. Out in some of our national parks boulders are both. When in nature they are a wonder to behold, when they become unstable and crash down onto roadways they snarl traffic for miles.
In the context of our scripture readings this week rocks and boulders when referring to our living God is nothing but a positive. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, is the rock of our salvation. He is the one we are able to cling to when the storms of life surround us. God forms a sure foundation, since in baptism we are claimed by God with the promise that even if we become faithless God is always faithful and seeks us and invites us to grab on to this rock of grace.
We can, however, put up boulders to block God’s involvement in our lives. Boulders can roll into our lives seemingly out of the blue and they may crash our relationship with God. In those cases Christ seeks to clear away those boulders as he rolled away the stone of the tomb on Easter morning. We are no longer trapped and lodged between sin and death, but are forgiven and set free to reach out and serve in Jesus name.
Pastor Len
Lectionary 21
Proper 16
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost
O God, with all your faithful followers of every age, we praise you, the rock of our life. Be our strong foundation and form us into the body of your Son, that we may gladly minister to all the world,
through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
First Reading Isaiah 51:1-6
Just as God had called Abraham and Sarah and given them many descendants, so now God offers comfort to Zion. God's deliverance will come soon and will never end.
Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness, you that seek the LORD. Look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug.2Look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who bore you; for he was but one when I called him, but I blessed him and made him many.
3For the LORD will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. 4Listen to me, my people, and give heed to me, my nation; for a teaching will go out from me, and my justice for a light to the peoples.5I will bring near my deliverance swiftly,
my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope.6Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look at the earth beneath; for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and those who live on it will die like gnats;
but my salvation will be forever, and my deliverance will never be ended.
Second Reading Romans 12:1-8
In response to God's merciful activity, we are to worship by living holistic, God-pleasing lives. Our values and viewpoints are not molded by this age, but are transformed by the Spirit's renewing work. God's grace empowers different forms of service among Christians, but all forms of ministry function to build up the body of Christ.
I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God — what is good and acceptable and perfect.
3For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned. 4For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, 5so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another. 6We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; 7ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; 8the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.
The Gospel Matthew 16:13-20
At a climactic point in Jesus' ministry, God reveals to Peter that Jesus is "the Messiah, the Son of the living God," and Jesus responds with the promise of a church that will overcome the very gates of Hades.
13Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" 14And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." 17And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." 20Then he sternly ordered the disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.
