• Abstract and Figures
• Public Full-text

The Immanuel Messenger February, 2020 Worship Schedule Sunday, February 2 ~ Purification of Mary and Presentation of Our Lord 9 am Bible Study and Sunday School 10 am Divine Service with Holy Communion Sunday, February 9 ~ Fifth Sunday after Epiphany 9 am Bible Study and Sunday School 10 am Divine Service with Holy Communion Sunday, February 16 ~ Sixth Sunday after Epiphany 9 am Bible Study and Sunday School 10 am Divine Service with Holy Communion Sunday, February 23 ~ The Transfiguration of Our Lord 9 am Bible Study and Sunday School 10 am Divine Service with Holy Communion Wednesday, February 26 – First Midweek Lenten Service 6 pm Soup and Sandwiches 7 pm Ash Wednesday With Holy Communion From the Pastor’s Pen: Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Heavenly Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ – God was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Preached among the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory. 1 Timothy 3:16 Dear Saints of Immanuel, The text cited above illustrates why our Scripture reading lectionary follows a Church Year Calendar. It’s also why fully one half of that calendar year concerns and celebrates the life of Christ. After all, as Lutherans, who believe that the way Jesus lived and died and rose here overpowers and redeems the way we have lived, why wouldn’t half the Church year be about the events in His life? We have come through the season of Advent, when the hope and anticipation of His coming lifted us into the joy of Christmas, and the promised One is here, one of us. And now, in Epiphany (shining everywhere) season, we are, as were Jesus’ first disciples, taught through His words and signs, that this man is not only sent from God, but is God. And here is the genius of the Lectionary: Epiphany season comes to a climax, when Jesus is shining on the mountaintop, worshipped by apostles militant and prophets victorious, unmistakably the LORD – In the next moment He descends to Jerusalem, where the LORD Himself not only pays for our sin, but does so by becoming our sin. God, the only one in existence that is totally alive, tastes death for every human being. The cross is the lowest, the cross is the cruelest, the cross is the nightmare, for Jesus the most unfair, but the Church Year doesn’t end there! 2 We take this lectionary roller coaster with Jesus, because Jesus took the real-life roller coaster with us. He came to us in Advent and lifted our hopes. He took on our flesh and made it more glorious to be human. He showed Himself to us and lit up our darkness. He was humiliated beyond our guilt and died below our mortality, to bring us back to God. He rose from our death, and by His rising we must follow, because we are the only reason He’s still human! Enjoy Epiphany, soak up the revelation, until in deep royal purple we recall the size of Him who loved us more than His own life, pouring Himself out into our certain future . Thine the life eternally, Thine the promise let there be, Thine the vision, thine the tree, All the earth on bended knee, Gone the nailing, gone the railing Gone the pleading, gone the cry, Gone the sighing, gone the crying, What was loss, lifted high! LSB 680 v 2 In Jesus’ love, +Pastor 3 From the Elders… Who is actually praying the Psalms? Well, there is King David, the congregation in Jerusalem, sometimes a troubled soul, sometimes a joyous soul, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ himself. And occasionally there are several voices in the same Psalm. Blessed Martin Luther was neither the first nor the last to consider the Psalter as the prayer book of the Bible, for both teaching and use. Some of the Psalms can be hard to pray, but then real prayer is often hard work. During the Advent season, Pastor Colageo provided a series of Wednesday evening homilies on Waiting – which in the Scriptures means a combination of receiving, accepting and hoping. I have since been reading Psalm 130 regularly. Psalm 130 Revised Standard Version (RSV) Waiting for Divine Redemption Out of the depths I cry to thee, O Lord! 2 Lord, hear my voice! Let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! 3 If thou, O Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? 4 But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared. 5 I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; 6 my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. 4 7 O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plenteous redemption. 8 And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. In one homily, Pastor stated Verse 6, and no doubt many of us thought he was repeating himself as opposed to actually quoting the Holy Writ. The repetitive passage resonates with me, having stood many 04-08 watches at sea, either hungry or seasick, and waiting for the clarity of sunlight. That was my own anxiously waiting for the eventual inevitable. So often we wait for the inevitable as though it will not come. But there is more here than my mixed-emotion nostalgia. The Psalm begins “Out of the depths I cry to thee, O Lord!” Probably all of us may in response may think “Been there, done that.” Then there is the second verse: “Let thy ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!” Wow, it seems as though the author, or me if I am doing the praying, is telling the Almighty to listen to me – not asking, but telling. Now I know that prayer is not a tool whereby God becomes our obedient grantor. But nonetheless here is divine guidance to be direct and tough in our prayers to Him. In the penultimate Verse 7, we see that “with him is plenteous redemption.” I have recently thought that this plenteous redemption to mean not just the eternal redemption wrought by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, but even some redemption here on earth from sins of omission and commission. Perhaps the wait is not completely forever, or as John Milton mused “What if Earth be but the shadow of Heaven and things therein - each other like, more than on Earth is thought?” Ray Brown 5 Understanding Stewardship Members of Immanuel - Stewardship is a topic which rarely provokes a positive reaction; unfortunately, it typically brings disdain because it makes those who hear the message uncomfortable. Let’s face it: when someone says “stewardship,” we often hear “money!” Well, I am pleased to report that this association is not totally true. Sure, money is important, but only insofar as it is a portion of our lives. The LCMS defines stewardship as “the free and joyous acting of the child of God and God’s family, the Church in managing all of life and life’s resources for God’s purposes.” As Charles Lane notes in his book Ask, Thank, Tell, it is necessary for the Church to repent of the idea that stewardship and paying the bills are connected. Matthew 7:17 - a good tree bears good fruit. If we are living as good stewards, the bills will take care of themselves. So what is a steward anyway? Funny enough, “steward” is an old English word derived from the term sty-warden, whose job was to manage the ruler’s meat supply. A steward is simply one who manages or administers someone else’s household affairs, as we are managers of God’s resources. Pretty awesome responsibility, if you ask me! We may think of time and money as ours, but in truth, they are really His. The basic form of stewardship is our daily work, and one of the best places to see what stewardship looks like is in Luther’s Table of Duties in the Small Catechism. A good steward is not necessarily the person who throws the biggest cheque in the offering, but the faithful servant who is found by his master doing what is expected of him. Faithfulness is not marked by extraordinary effort but rather by consistency in the execution of the day to day duties which the master has given to his servants. One of our recent movie nights featured a faithful steward. Joseph managed both Potiphar’s house and the dungeon of Pharaoh, going about the tasks assigned to him, carrying out his faithfulness. Eventually, his stewardship was remembered by those who benefitted from it, and it allowed Joseph to save Potiphar, Pharaoh, and eventually his brothers. I think I read this story in a book somewhere, but being a millennial, I preferred the film! This year, I’m looking forward to writing about the biblical principles of stewardship, and I hope that will help the congregation, (myself certainly included!), respond with good stewardship of our lives and resources. God bless! Richard Malaby 6 Lift Every Voice February 2020 Edition O Rejoice, Ye Christians Loudly LSB # 897 Text: Christian Keimann (1607 – 1662 ) Music: Andreas Hammerschmidt (1611 – 1662) Tune: Freuect Euch Ihr Christen Scripture Ref.: Lu. 2: 10-14; 2 Cor. 8:3; Phil. 2: 5-8 This year, February starts out Liturgically with some notable exceptions. No, I don’t mean with the usual clamor over some somnolent marmot being aroused too early to be frightened (or not) by his shadow to be driven back into his den (or not) for another few weeks of winter.

Load more

  18

Copy Link