Wednesday Words for October 15, 2014
From Interim Senior Pastor Len Hoffmann
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Worship 8:00, 9:00, and 10:30 am
Children’s Church, Sunday School and Adult Education at 9:00 am.
9:00 am Adult Class Bad Girls of the Bible (Men are Welcome!)
New Adult Class October 12 9:20 am in the Community Room (lower level) – Stretch and Pray
New Coffee and Get Acquainted hour 10:00 am.
Sunday Evening Worship, October 19 at 5:00 p.m. Holden Evening Prayer
Men’s Chili Supper 5:00 – 7:00 Support the Youth!
Our next Fanning the Flame event will be held Thursday, October 30. Please RSVP! Soup Supper 5:45 -6:15 pm
Purpose and Planning Session 6:30 – 8:30 pm – Identifying Our Core Values.
Find a new opportunity for supporting God’s Mission. Go to our website and click on “Give on Line.”
Thought for the Day:
Ascribe to the LORD the honor due the | holy name;
bring offerings and enter the courts of the LORD. Psalm 96:8
Sunday at Bethany:
Our scripture readings for this Sunday point us to a God who gives so abundantly and then invites us to give thanks to the one who is Lord of all.
Historically, the people of God have been called to give God the things that belong to God. Offerings have been part of the worship of God’s people since the beginning. One of the first things we read about once the first man and woman had children was those children making offerings to God.
Instead of having Abraham sacrificing his son, God provides the sacrifice that substituted for his son, Isaac.
In the fullness of time God sent his son and Martin Luther reminds us that we are saved, “not with gold or silver, but with his holy and precious blood and his innocent suffering and death.”
We have been given this gift of grace so that we might respond to these great gifts by returning first fruits to God through our offerings.
When we support God’s Mission through our financial resources we support our congregation’s ministry of word and sacrament, worship, education, outreach an d service to our neighbors both locally and globally. We give with joy and thanksgiving because God has first given us ourselves, our lives and everything that we claim is ours.
We are but stewards of these gifts. Managing everything we have on behalf of God, and returning to God with joy our offerings to “ascribe to the LORD the honor due the holy name.
Pr. Len
Lectionary 29 - Proper 24
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost
Prayer of the Day: Sovereign God, raise your throne in our hearts. Created by you, let us live in your image; created for you, let us act for your glory; redeemed by you, let us give you what is yours, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.
First Reading Isaiah 5:1-7
The prophet announces that Cyrus the Persian emperor is the one the Lord has anointed to end Israel's exile. The Lord makes this choice so that the whole world will recognize this Lord as the only God. Persia had a god of light and a god of darkness; the Lord claims sovereignty over both light and darkness.
Thus says the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus,
whose right hand I have grasped
to subdue nations before him
and strip kings of their robes,
to open doors before him —
and the gates shall not be closed:
2I will go before you
and level the mountains,
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze
and cut through the bars of iron,
3I will give you the treasures of darkness
and riches hidden in secret places,
so that you may know that it is I, the LORD,
the God of Israel, who call you by your name.
4For the sake of my servant Jacob,
and Israel my chosen,
I call you by your name,
I surname you, though you do not know me.
5I am the LORD, and there is no other;
besides me there is no god.
I arm you, though you do not know me,
6so that they may know, from the rising of the sun
and from the west, that there is no one besides me;
I am the LORD, and there is no other.
7I form light and create darkness,
I make weal and create woe;
I the LORD do all these things.
Second Reading 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
Most likely this letter is the first written by Paul. Paul is giving pastoral encouragement and reassurances to new Christians living in an antagonistic pagan environment. Their commitment of faith, love, and hope makes them a model for other new Christian communities.
Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
Grace to you and peace.
2We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly 3remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. 6And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, 7so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. 9For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead — Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.
The Gospel Matthew 22:15-22
After Jesus begins teaching in the temple, religious leaders try to trap him with questions. First they ask if God's people should pay taxes to an earthly tyrant like Caesar.
15Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap him in what he said. 16So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. 17Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?" 18But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? 19Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought him a denarius. 20Then he said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?" 21They answered, "The emperor's." Then he said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's." 22When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.
