Hello Dear Friends,

We worship together this Sunday, the 4^th of July, through our recorded worship service here on our website.

It will be a great way to begin our family and community celebrations of our nation’s birthday, by offering our lives entirely and primarily to God first.  Over the centuries, humanity has often struggled between loyalty to God and loyalty to nationality. Today we are reminded in our holy scriptures that the two are never equal, but that God alone is to be worshipped and glorified first and foremost. Sometimes our good loyalty to country can be  in contrast to God’s call on our lives, as the Lutheran Church experienced in World War II Germany. At that time, good Lutheran Christian leaders and regular citizens allowed their loyalty to country to either supersede or be equal to their faith in God and the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There were only a relative few like Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer who were willing to speak God’s truth to the power of a tyrant like Adolf Hitler, while the vast majority of otherwise good but desperate people forgot their baptismal covenant and went about their normal lives while the smokestacks billowed the ashes of millions of people deemed “not worthy” by that nations government.

Dear People of God’s Spirit!,

We gather in spirit this 5^th Sunday of Pentecost and worship together through the recording here. The bulletin and Celebrate are attached.

Now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!  Now we are in the storm, the boat almost swamped; but Jesus is here now, and when we call him, he will calm the storm.  Even the wind and waves listen to him as they would to their creator.  We also listen to him and are called to believe in the power of God’s word in him, a power greater than all that we fear.

Our larger church expression, the ELCA, is producing a hymnal supplement called “All Creation Sings”. This Sunday, we introduce one of those hymns, so please plan on learning it with us. Selections of “All Creation Sings” can be found online (YouTube) by entering it in your search browser. As the Psalms often say: Sing a new song unto the Lord!

Dear People of God’s Spirit!

Jesus uses parables in today’s Gospel reading with images of sowing and growing to show the vitality of God’s reign here on earth.

The Memorial Service for Lu Sluiter was held Saturday, June 5^th at 11am in our sanctuary. This was was our first public gathering since March 15, 2020. It was recorded and is available here on our website.

Dear People of God’s Spirit!

Jesus reminds us in the Gospel Reading – “Here are my mother and my brothers!” as he begins his public ministry teaching that the inner life of the Spirit is more important than any other pursuit in our lives – even our family relationships. All are truly welcome in God’s family, which we belong to when we set our lives to seek God’s will.

We worship together through the recording here. The bulletin and Celebrate are attached.

Our larger church expression, the ELCA, is producing a hymnal supplement called “All Creation Sings”. This Sunday, we introduce one of those hymns, so please plan on learning it with us. Selections of “All Creation Sings” can be found online (YouTube) by entering it in your search browser. As the Psalms often say: Sing a new song unto the Lord!

The Memorial Service for Lu Sluiter was held Saturday, June 5^th at 11 am in our sanctuary. This was was our first public gathering since March 15, 2020. It was recorded and is available here.