Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Not sure where I should start. I think I will just go in order (the best I can).
- I am not sure how many “angels” were on the tree, but instead of a chalkboard, you wiped out the Christmas tree in the corner. Jan Hauger spent a great deal of time getting everything organized so the children’s sponsors could pick them up last Tuesday. Great work St. John’s and great work Jan. Thank you all.
- We had the altar guild elves come in last week to decorate the church. It looks beautiful. Thank you to all for your help. A special thank you goes out to Karen Sohl who got everything organized. The church looks wonderful.
- I am not sure how many we had at the Blood Drive this Saturday. I will make sure we will put something in the bulletin next week. Thank you to all those who donated. A very beautiful gift. Thank you.
- Holiday gift baskets have been collected. We will make the final purchase on Tuesday. A total of 14 baskets will be bought. That does NOT include the food that was brought to the church. Your “open-handedness is truly inspiring. A special thank you goes out to Kay Raineri and the Evangelism Committee.
- So many cookies were baked and brought in to put together cookie plates for our homebound. Many of our Sunday School children decorated them. They were very generous with the frosting which happens to be your Pastor’s favorite. Thank you to all those who brought cookies and a special thank you goes out to the all who helped Sunday morning. If you missed it (I did not), we had a few cookie elves walking around handing out extras after the service. Thank you also for those who delivered them.
Again, I want to thank all of you who helped in one or several of these activities. It’s just St. John’s way. This is what we do. What a generous congregation we have. Thank you.
No, I did not forget. I just wanted to do a special shout-out to all the choir members. You all performed beautifully at the Advent Cantata. It was a truly wonderful performance. You can tell that you all worked very hard for this weekend. The one who deserves a special thank you is Barb Kromphardt. Barb put together this program. Did you see the crowds? We had to scramble to have two stations for communion. We haven’t had that for a while. You should have seen all the new faces. People who came to our church to see this performance. Again, another St. John’s thing. Thank you choir and Barb.
It may be time to remember our manger in the Narthex. So far, it has a little bit of straw in it. The rule is if you do an act of kindness, any act of kindness, you get to put a piece of straw in the manger. Every act of kindness, another piece of straw is placed. Those of you who decorated cookies and delivered them, I hope you put a piece of straw in. If you forgot, you can do it when you come to church. Wouldn’t it be great that we would have to move everyone out of the manger because there was no room (Sorry, I think I’m getting my stories mixed up).
Can you believe that we are just getting started. Next week on Sunday, December. 15th, we will be welcoming new members to our church. I am banking on you to continue to show St. John’s hospitality to our new members.
The last weekend of Advent, we will host our annual Children’s Christmas pageant. We will only have one service that weekend. Let’s all come out and support our children. For some of you, it was a long time ago when your children performed at their pageant. And, I am sure there were many adults in the crowd whose children had already grown up. However, they came and supported your children. For some, it is your turn.
Our Christmas Eve service will be on Tuesday, at 5:30 p.m. It might be a really good time to invite a friend who doesn’t usually come to church.
Finally, on December 28th and 29th we are going to have an old-fashioned Hymn Sing. It will be another opportunity to sing those Christmas Hymns that we know and love.
And then, we turn the page over on the calendar to January.
What God mostly does is love you. (excerpt from Mostly What God Does by Savannah Guthrie)
Pastor Tom
815-223-1144
Readings for 3rd Weekend of Advent – December 14 & 15
Zephaniah 3:14-20 Isaiah 12:2-6 Philippians 4:4-7 Luke 3:7-18
Reading the Bible in a Year- Monday, December 9 to Sunday December 15
Day Deuteronomy Psalms Proverbs Luke
Monday Ch 9-Ch 10 42:7-11 Ch 12:1-34
Tuesday Ch 11-Ch 12 43:1-5 Ch 12:35-59
Wednesday Ch 13-Ch14 9:1-12 Ch 13:1-30
Thursday Ch 15-Ch 16:1-20 44:1-12 Ch 13:31 – Ch 14:14
Friday Ch 16:21-22- Ch 18 44:13-26 Ch 14:15-35
Saturday Ch 19-Ch 20 45:1-9 Ch 15:1-32
Sunday Ch 21-Ch 22 9:13-18 Ch 16:1-18
Deuteronomy – I saw a lot of “when” and “ifs” in this section. God was speaking through Moses in this section. It was very specific. When the Jewish people did this, then if they followed God’s instructions, things would turn out very well. If they didn’t, it would not be good. Most items were a rehash of Exodus with few twists. If this was Bible Study, we would look at those differences. God gave the Jewish people a huge warning as they entered the promised land. Do NOT conform to the ways of the people you were conquering. Especially do NOT follow their gods.
Psalms – It is amazing to me that regardless of the circumstances, the Psalmist would trust in God. God is given many names in this section. I am drawn to Psalm 27:1.
Proverbs-Wisdom is the main theme of our section this week. Who/what is Wisdom? It is actually wisdom or something else. Could it be Jesus, the Son of God?
Luke- Jesus is doing a lot of teaching in this section. He doesn’t hesitate to speak in parables. You don’t find Jesus, explaining these parables as much as the other gospel writers recorded. There were additional passages that were not written in other gospels. Luke 15 is a chapter to remember. It has one theme. Jesus does a number of healings within this section. I read it a couple of times. It was an ominous warning. Jesus is headed to Jerusalem.