Wednesday Words for November 19, 2014
From Interim Senior Pastor Len Hoffmann
Please click below to view Bethany Weekly Newsletter
Worship 8:00, 9:00, and 10:30 am
Children’s Church, Sunday School and Adult Education at 9:00 am.
New Coffee and Get Acquainted Hour 10:00 am.
Worship (Third Sunday of the Month) 5:00 pm.
Large Print Bulletins and Celebrates are available from the Ushers
Sunday, November 23 – Our Special Guest will be Pastor Dan Rift,
ELCA Director for World Hunger and Disaster Response
Thanksgiving Worship followed by Pie Fest 2014
Thursday, November 26 at 7:00 pm
Midweek Advent Worship Begins Wednesday, December 3 at 7:00 pm
Holden Evening Prayer
Our next Fanning the Flame event will be December 3. Soup Supper 5:45 - 6:15 pm
Purpose and Planning Session 6:30 – 7:00 pm – Sharing Our Gifts-Unlocking our Potential
Congregational Update on Purpose and Planning Process at 7:30 pm following Advent Worship
Mission Support Sunday
December 7, 2014
Dedication of Estimate of Giving Cards for 2015
Help us achieve our Annual Fund Giving Goal of $145,000 by December 31.
Go to our website and click on the green “Give Online” button.
All Gifts must be given or postmarked by December 31 to be credited to your 2014 giving.
Thought for the Day:
Empowered by God — Responding by Grace
“Now as you excel in everything — in faith,
in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness,
and in our love for you — so we want you to
excel also in this generous undertaking” (2 Cor. 8:7).
Sunday at Bethany:
In our first article as part of this year’s stewardship emphasis, we saw how God is our Source, how all that we have comes from God, how God empowers and enables us, and how we respond by grace through faith. We also saw that like the Macedonian Christians, we are to first give ourselves to the Lord as good stewards of the grace of God.
Sometimes, when stewardship is mentioned, people wrongly conclude that giving money is all that is involved. Not so. Giving does include our financial resources, but it goes far beyond money and actually encompasses three primary resources. These are what might be called “building blocks” in God’s “school of faith” which constitutes “lifestyle stewardship” or “total discipleship.”
This week we will focus on the second “building block” in our lifestyle of stewardship. This is the matter of our abilities, our talents. This is an area in which all of us have not been gifted equally. Some have been gifted by God to work with their hands, with machines, or with computers. Others excel in their ability to communicate orally or via the printed page. The effective outreach of the Gospel here at Bethany Lutheran Church is made possible only when God’s people who are part of this fellowship use their combined talents for God’s glory and for the good of this ministry.
During this time of our stewardship emphasis, you are invited to look at your abilities and talents and see how you might give them back to God for the sake of God’s mission in the world. Your gifts might be able to be shared in the area of worship, learning, witness, support or outreach. All of these areas are important to our mission of reflecting Christ in our message and actions.
Pr. Len
Sunday, November 23, 2014
Christ the King Sunday
Prayer of the Day: O God of power and might, your Son shows us the way of service, and in him we inherit the riches of your grace. Give us the wisdom to know what is right and the strength to serve the world you have made, 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 Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24
Since Israel's kings proved to be bad shepherds, Ezekiel declares that the Lord will assume the role of shepherd in Israel. The Lord will also set over them a shepherd-messiah, "my servant David," who will feed and care for the people.
11For thus says the Lord GOD: I myself will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. 12As shepherds seek out their flocks when they are among their scattered sheep, so I will seek out my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. 13I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the watercourses, and in all the inhabited parts of the land. 14I will feed them with good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel shall be their pasture; there they shall lie down in good grazing land, and they shall feed on rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. 16I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.
20Therefore, thus says the Lord GOD to them: I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21Because you pushed with flank and shoulder, and butted at all the weak animals with your horns until you scattered them far and wide, 22I will save my flock, and they shall no longer be ravaged; and I will judge between sheep and sheep.
23I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. 24And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the LORD, have spoken.
Psalm 95:1-7a
We are the people of God's pasture and the sheep of God's hand. (Ps. 95:7)
1Come, let us sing | to the LORD;
let us shout for joy to the rock of | our salvation.
2Let us come before God's presence | with thanksgiving
and raise a loud shout to the | LORD with psalms.
3For you, LORD, | are a great God,
and a great ruler a- | bove all gods.
4In your hand are the caverns | of the earth;
the heights of the hills are | also yours. R
5The sea is yours, | for you made it,
and your hands have molded | the dry land.
6Come, let us worship | and bow down,
let us kneel before the | LORD our maker.
7For the LORD | is our God,
and we are the people of God's pasture
and the sheep | of God's hand. R
Second Reading Ephesians 1:15-23
In this passage, God is praised for revealing ultimate divine power in raising Jesus from the dead. The resurrected, exalted Christ is Lord both of the church and the entire universe, now and in the age to come.
15I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason 16I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 20God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.
Gospel Matthew 25:31-46
Jesus compares himself to a king who moves among his subjects to see how he is treated: what is done for the least of those who belong to his family is truly done for him.
31When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. 32All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. 34Then the king will say to those at his right hand, 'Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' 37Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 38And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?' 40And the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.' 41Then he will say to those at his left hand, 'You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; 42for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' 44Then they also will answer, 'Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?' 45Then he will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
