Wednesday Words for September 10, 2014
From Interim Senior Pastor Len Hoffmann
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Thought for the Day
All the ends of the earth have seen the victory for our God.
Psalm 98:3b
Our new schedule starts on September 14, Holy Cross Day, 8:00, 9:00, and 10:30 am with Children’s Church, Sunday School and Adult Education at 9:00 am. Children are to go to their classrooms and then they will go as classes to children’s church. Social Hour at 10:00 am.
Adult Classes at 9:00 a.m. Parenting Class – Bad Girls of the Bible (Men are Welcome!)
This is a priceless opportunity. Financial Peace University (adults) beginning on Wednesday, September 17 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm. Child care available.
Thursday, September 18, Experience Palestinian culture right here in Chicago! Purchase tickets for $75 a person at chicago-roomforhope.eventbrite.com. 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. at Grace Lutheran Church, 7300 Division Street, River Forest. For more information about these festivals, please contact Sue Foran at sforan4@comcast.net or call 815-315-0682. For more information on Bright Stars of Bethlehem, visit www.brightstarsbethlehem.org.
Sunday at Bethany:
At Wrigley Field (Home of the Chicago Cubs) it has been a long standing tradition to wave a blue “W” flag after every Cubs win. In our imaginations and on video tape we can still hear the voice of Harry Caray yelling, “Cubs Win! Cubs Win! Cubs Win”!
As we celebrate Holy Cross Day we are encouraged to “Lift High the Cross” and proclaim, “God Wins! God Wins! God Wins”! The Psalmist says, “all have seen the victory of our God.” The ultimate victory for us is the Cross of Christ. It is there that Christ died once for all.
However, Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians that this is foolishness and a stumbling block. It looks like foolishness, because an instrument of death becomes the gateway to eternal life. A cross becomes a “W” flag for those who are connected to Christ through word and sacrament.
The world wants clear choices – winners and losers. The world seeks victory in power and glory. The cross reminds us that power comes in the midst of our weakness and strengthens us to face the reality of our losses.
It is for this reason that our reredos (the area behind the altar) is decorated with crosses and connected with the word W.I.R.E.D. It is in the cross that we are plugged into God’s power and we become W.I.R.E.D. for Outreach and Service. Worship, Involvement, Renewal, Education and Discipleship connects us to the victory of the cross emboldens us to reach out to share and invite others to plug into this victory; a victory that has eternal implications greater than the “W” at Wrigley Field.
Pr. Len
Holy Cross Day
This festival, which originated in the fourth century, celebrates the triumph of the cross. Paul reminds us that Christ crucified is the power and wisdom of God. As Moses put a serpent on a pole to be a source of healing for the Israelites, we lift high the cross as the sign of our health and salvation. Each time we make the sign of the cross we remember our baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ.
Almighty God, your Son Jesus Christ was lifted high upon the cross so that he might draw the whole world to himself. To those who look upon the cross, grant your wisdom, healing, and eternal life, 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 Numbers 21:4b-9
When the people spoke against God and Moses, the Lord sent poisonous snakes against them. Moses interceded for the people, and the Lord ordered him to erect a serpent of bronze on a pole. All who looked at it after having been bitten by a serpent would live.
4bBut the people became impatient on the way. 5The people spoke against God and against Moses, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food." 6Then the LORD sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died. 7The people came to Moses and said, "We have sinned by speaking against the LORD and against you; pray to the LORD to take away the serpents from us." So Moses prayed for the people. 8And the LORD said to Moses, "Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live." 9So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.
Second Reading 1 Corinthians 1:18-24
At the heart of the Christian message is the word of the cross. This proclamation seems foolish to many because it reveals true divine power in the absolute weakness of Christ's crucifixion. True wisdom understands how ours is a God who suffers for and with humankind in the cross.
18For the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19For it is written,
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."
20Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. 22For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, 23but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
The Gospel John 3:13-17
After explaining to Nicodemus that one must be born of water and Spirit, Jesus speaks of being lifted up on the cross, with reference to the bronze serpent lifted up by Moses in the desert. Here the Son of God is revealed as the source of healing.
13No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. 14And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
