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Fifth Sunday in Lent – March 29

Click on the bulletin cover to open the bulletin. Remember to have some bread and wine or grape juice ready for when I celebrate Holy Communion.

Please click on the Celebrate first page to open the Celebrate with today’s Scripture readings.

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From Pastor Jim: Insightful Article

Dear Fellow Captives of an Unseen Threat,

In my efforts to continue to draw us together in these ways while we endure these times, I feel called to lift up Martin Luther’s main question in his Catechism: “What does this mean?”

It is the task of all Christians to seek God’s will and discover God’s voice each day and in every circumstance. So as we all wonder how this unimaginable circumstance we find ourselves in right now will play out, I offer the attached article by David Brooks (which we read as COPA leaders trying to support one another), as a way to begin to figure out what all this might mean for our lives and for our lives together in the human community.

Let me know what you think. I found it very helpful and hopeful.
Pastor Jim

Fourth Sunday in Lent – March 22

Per Pastor Jim’s e-mail of March 20th, here is the video of the service made on Saturday, March 21st. The bulletin is linked at the right, the video below. From the e-mail: “I hope you will sing out loud with me, say your parts when they come up and gather some bread and wine or grape juice for Holy Communion and share that when its time! It is important that we take some time to gather in this kind of way on Sunday – God’s day – and attempt to connect in the Spirit through a common worship experience, just like we have always done.”

Please send comments or issues to Kent Madsen.

Pastoral Letter from Pastor Jim

Dear Beloved Community at St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church,

Not too long ago we received the ashes of previous palm crosses on our foreheads in the shape of the cross, with the words: “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”. 

It turns out that was not just the standard ritual that we go through each year to begin the season of Lent. In these last few weeks the meaning of what we did on Ash Wednesday has become a very important spiritual preparation for the unprecedented matters we are all being affected by now. When we face our human limitations during Lent specifically, and throughout our lives as Christians, we are more understanding and able to live well through difficult times like these and the many others that inevitably come.

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