Advent Lutheran Church - Anoka, Minnesota

01/30/2023

The Advent Lutheran Church Annual Meeting of the Congregation
will be held Sunday, February 5, 2023 following 9:15 worship.

A special congregational meeting
for the sole purpose of voting on a resolution from the congregation
will be held Sunday February 5, 2023
immediately before the annual meeting.

12/13/2022

Pastor Bob is retiring at the end of the year! We are having a retirement party this coming Sunday the 18th, after the 9:15 a.m. service. Please come and celebrate Pastor Bob!

09/11/2021

Most merciful God, as we remember 9/11, bring comfort to those who mourn, relief to those who witness devastation, healing to those still suffering physical pain or emotional trauma, and reconciliation to a world in need of peace; through Christ our Lord, the resurrection and the life. Amen.

09/05/2021

Send your Spirit of truth, O God; rekindle your gifts within us: renew our faith, increase our hope, and deepen our love, for the sake of a world in need. Faithful to your Word, O God, draw near to all who call on you; through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen. (ELW, p. 220)

08/10/2021

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32).

07/14/2021

A little bit of for this morning. 🙏

06/30/2021

Today we commemorate St. Peter and St. Paul. These great apostles symbolize two complementary aspects of Christian discipleship: Peter as a leader in church organization and Paul as an evangelist to the outside world.

As we commemorate their ministry, discipleship and eventual martyrdoms, we pray:
Almighty God, we praise you that your blessed apostles Peter and Paul glorified you by their martyrdoms. Grant that your church throughout the world may always be instructed by their teaching and example, be knit together in unity by your Spirit, and ever stand firm upon the one foundation who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (ELW, p.56)

06/28/2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPtq6KNFk00 (part 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUb_QQgPHrU&t=233s (part 2)

This will be our last recorded service for the moment, since we are fully reopened. Come join us on Sunday mornings at 9:15 for the service and coffee hour afterwards!!

June 27 Welcome to Worship

Confession: Forgive us Lord when we prefer darkness over light, when we hide your truth in the shadows. Forgive us when we are embarrassed to share our faith in you with others.

Absolution: God gives us the gift of the Gospel. The gift is for all who repent and believe, even for me, even for you. Amen.

Greeting: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all…
Prayer of the Day: Almighty God we implore you to hear the prayers of your people. Be our strong defense against all harm and danger, that we may live and grow in faith and hope, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

Lessons: Lam. 3:22-33 Psalm 30 2 Cor. 8:7-15 Mark 4:21-43

Sermon: Grace and peace to from the risen Lord Jesus. Amen
Notice the banner off to my left. It was made by our beloved former member, Lorraine Oeshlager. I hope she knew how to spell her name, because I don’t think anyone else figured it out. After she moved to Florida she used to call me on days we had minus twenty Fahrenheit to tell me it was sunny and 73 degrees there. I didn’t appreciate that. But with that banner she nailed it. “I have called you by name. You are mine.” That’s the crux of baptism. It’s the official start of a loving relationship. This is God’s wet and wonderful love with an exclamation point, signed and sealed. We rejoice to share in that sacrament today as witnesses of that love active in water and Word.
Our reading of Psalm 30 describes a death and life moment. “What profit is there in my death… will the dust praise thee? You have turned my mourning into dancing… O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever.” In baptism we die to sin and rise to eternal life. That life begins now, and it’s a forever thing. We are joined with Christ in his death and resurrection, blessed with the hope of unending life... Our days are filled with little things – bills to pay, appointments to keep, errands to run. We seldom think beyond those momentary things. How about thinking big today! What could be bigger than death and life?
Let’s consider baptism for a moment. We gather around the font. I say a few words, maybe a few too many, I splash some water on Noah’s head, and just like that he is baptized. There’s no voice from heaven. No great drama that we observe. Frankly, it doesn’t look like much at all… You could easily miss the presence of God’s Spirit, naming and claiming this little guy as God’s child. You could easily nod off as promises of forgiveness, family, faith, and an eternal future are announced. But rest assured, this is the biggest thing that will ever happen in Noah’s life – bigger than his first steps, his high school graduation, his wedding day, his coronary bypass surgery. This moment at the font is Almighty God’s pledge to love Noah all the way into forever. Nothing will be more important than that. I hope you’ll impress that upon him. Frame his baptism certificate and hang it in his room, so you can explain to him one day how big this day was and still is… Model for him a life that includes worship and the study of God’s Word, and service to people in need. Walk the Jesus walk. I know, lots of important milestones will come along, with thousands and thousands of photos taken– Noah on his first bicycle, Noah with his prom date, Noah beaming with his lovely bride, Noah holding his grandbabies. That’s important in this all- too -brief life.
But in baptism we’re dealing with the Almighty, the Creator of all that is. He’s a very busy guy. He has famines and wars, hurricanes and pandemics on his mind. He has seven billion children and counting to care about and provide for. Yet the Almighty is taking time this morning to claim Noah as his own, to announce his love for him, all in the presence of this community of faith, that stands ready to cherish him as one of God’s children.
A few weeks ago, we heard the story of the Ethiopian official intercepted by the disciple Philip on the road to Gaza. Philip explained the scriptures, how they foretell Jesus crucified and raised from the dead for our sake. The Ethiopian saw some water along the road, and asked Philip to baptize him, which Philip gladly did. The text says the Ethiopian ‘went on his way rejoicing.’ Today’s baptism is not just something to check off the list, like vaccinations and pediatrician appointments. This is a dramatic beginning, a moment for JOY and celebration. It is the biggest day of Noah’s life. And for each of us who were brought to a font in some church, or in some preacher’s living room, that was the biggest day in our lives. It’s taken me 64 years to fully appreciate that. God will never go back on his baptismal promise. We live out the covenant of baptism each day, as we ask God to forgive our mis-steps, which are many, and we rejoice in God’s gracious, unending love, which is as big and wondrous as the Universe He created. Forgiveness and love are as basic to human existence as air and water. We gotta have’em. And God supplies forgiveness and love freely and graciously.
One thing we know is that little guys like Noah crave love. They want to be held and kissed and treasured by people. On the grand stage of life, don’t all of us have that primordial need to be loved? God made us that way. God is love, and we are made in God’s image. When Noah is 98 years old, nearing the end of his life, what will really matter to him? Not his life achievements, no matter how great. Not his bank account or his possessions, cause--spoiler alert- -you can’t take it with you. I’ve seen it time and time again. Family, friends, and this baptismal assurance of God’s eternal love will be everything.
AMEN

Prayers: God of love and promise, bless Noah and his family on his baptism day, the first day of an eternal baptismal covenant. Walk with him and guide him toward a life of love for you and service to others. Lord in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

We give you thanks for all the blessings of this day – food and shelter, home and family, the mission of sharing your love in the world. Lord in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

Give hope and renewal to a weary world that has struggled long and hard through the pandemic. Comfort families as they grieve the death of loved ones. Give rest and peace to exhausted health care workers. Give hope to countries still awaiting vaccines. Lord in your mercy, Hear our prayer.

Lords’ Prayer: Our Father…. Amen.

Benediction: The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor, and give you peace. Amen.

Last recorded service. Thank you to all of our viewers and recorders! God Bless:-)Used with permission from Augsburg Fortress, license to...

06/19/2021

06/07/2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNy38IX9SzY

June 6 Pentecost 2 Welcome to Worship

Confession and Absolution: Forgive us Lord for neglecting our neighbors in need, for following other gods, for failing to worship and serve you. Show us the way again, that we might please you and serve to your glory.

Absolution: God is eager to forgive and restore us to a right relationship with Him and each other. The Spirit of Christ is ever near, working out our salvation. amen

Greeting: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Prayer of the Day: All powerful God, in Jesus Christ you turned death into life and defeat into victory. Increase our faith and our trust in him, that we may triumph over all evil in the strength of the same Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

Lessons: Genesis 3:8-15 2 Cor. 4:13-5:1 Mark 3:20-35

Sermon: Friends in Christ, grace and peace to you,
Surely this can’t be our dear sweet Jesus that’s described in today’s gospel lesson! The Jesus we know and love is kind, compassionate, self-sacrificing. He is not the Devil himself. He is not ‘beside himself,” deranged. As Jesus says in his own defense, “the devil doesn’t cast out demons – you can’t be divided against yourself.” Yet people are saying Jesus has an evil spirit. This is long before social media or even the telephone, but everyone is buzzing with this juicy gossip – even though it’s clearly false. The scribes and Pharisees are delighted at all the buzz, because they are out to get Jesus. His own family thinks Jesus has a screw loose, and they’ve come to rescue him – before the crowd decides to kill him. Jesus has come home to Nazareth. Usually we think of home as a place of safety, a place where you can let your hair down and relax.
People know you and care about you at home. Sadly, for Jesus as an adult, home is anything but that... First off, you’ve got this large crowd of people pressing in tightly. They want to be healed of their diseases. They want their demons to be cast out. Maybe they want a free fish sandwich. They want to get close to this new sensation, this rock star of 1st century Palestine. Remember a few weeks ago there was that crowd at a religious festival in Israel, where several people died after being trampled. The same thing has happened at soccer stadiums in Europe. It’s a dangerous thing when that many people try to occupy a limited amount of space. If you doubt that, get on Interstate 94 northbound out of the city at 4:30 in the afternoon. The crowd surrounding Jesus is so tightly packed, they can’t even reach for something to eat. Without saying a word, Jesus faces an anxious, volatile scene.
Then you’ve got the hungry ‘wolves,’ the scribes from far away Jerusalem who have come down among the common people to get dirt on Jesus. Yes, already two thousand years ago it was a thing, gathering dirt on your opponent to discredit him. It doesn’t matter if the charges are true. What a surprise to Barack Obama to hear that he is of the Moslem faith and is not an American citizen! Anything you can manufacture out of thin air to raise questions and suspicions will be helpful in the fight. The ‘dirt’ on Jesus is that he’s the Devil himself. The dirty politics of power were at work even in the Garden of Eden, as the serpent challenged the authority of God and won over Adam and Eve with lies and a piece of forbidden fruit. The end game for the scribes and Pharisees is to see Jesus dead, by whatever means necessary. They despise him that much. Already in chapter 3 of Mark’s gospel, Jesus is a threat to the religious and political powers that be. None of that is very surprising to us, knowing what eventually happens to Jesus at Golgotha.
What is surprising, and a little disturbing, is the family dynamics in this story. Jesus’ mother and brothers hear that he’s back in town. They know the rumors being spread about him. So they come to do an intervention. You know, like the alcoholic who is in heavy denial; a danger to himself and others. He’s on his third DUI, and has frequent black-outs. Family members, his employer, his best friend, maybe his pastor or priest gather to confront him about his drinking. The goal is to save him, and the plan is to take him directly to a treatment center. It’s a really tense situation, because denial is such a powerful force. It can make you defy even your mother and your brothers. But Jesus’ mother and brothers are ready to put him in handcuffs and drag him away from the crowd.
I think it’s easy to miss that when we hear this story. We assume that they’ve come to welcome Jesus home and invite him to dinner, reminisce about old times... But that’s not how the story goes. Then it gets even weirder when people tell Jesus that his family is outside wanting to see him. Jesus, perhaps sensing his family’s intentions, asks the jarring question: “Who are my mother and my brothers?” Looking at the crowd he says “Here they are…whoever does the will of God is my brother, sister, mother.” I don’t know how that little nugget of wisdom played outside with Jesus’ blood relatives, even his mother Mary, but it’s upsetting to us. Here we are, perched between Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, times of love and gratitude for our parents. To think that Jesus could be so cold to his own family! Just think about this. If Jesus had gone out to that family intervention, that would be like an admission that he was indeed beside himself, demon possessed. And so, he ignores his own family’s wishes, and defers to the ‘family of faith,’ those who do the will of his heavenly Father.
Jesus had crowds of people pressing in on him everywhere he went. But this story reinforces for me how lonely he must have been. He knew that Judas would betray him, that all his disciples would desert him, that Peter would even deny knowing him. He felt distanced from his own flesh and blood mother and siblings, because they could not begin to understand who he truly was or what he must do. We find some comfort knowing that Mary and the disciple John were present in Jesus’ dying hour, and Jesus showed compassion on them. ‘Behold your mother, behold your son.’
Jesus was laser focused on the Kingdom of God and his mission. Nothing could get in the way. Jesus is Isaiah’s Suffering Servant. He came from the glories of heaven to die our death and be raised back to life, so that we too could live forever. Let the nay-sayers do their thing, let the authorities plot to kill him, let his own family stand outside the door heartbroken. Jesus is going to a cross for all of them, and even for us. Amen.

Prayers: Lord, your son endured so much for us. We give our humble thanks for all that he sacrificed, even forsaking his own family for the sake of the Kingdom. Lord in your mercy…. Hear our prayer.

God of healing and wholeness, the covid19 pandemic rages on around the world. Give people everywhere the wisdom to battle against this plague, to ignore the false reports on vaccines, to do their part in ending this scourge. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Help your Church around the world recover from this time of isolation. It’s been challenging holding our faith communities together. Give your Spirit free reign among us. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Lord’s Prayer: Our Father who art in heaven….. Amen.

Benediction: The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.

Advent Lutheran Church Anoka, MN Service For 6-6/2021PENTECOST 2Setting 5ELW used with permission from Augsburg Fortress, License to podc...

06/01/2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnTWDGAwkM4

Trinity Sunday May 30, 2021 Welcome to Worship

Greeting: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Prayer of the Day: Almighty Creator and ever-living God: we worship your glory, eternal Three –in-One, and we praise your power, majestic One-in Three. Keep us steadfast in this faith, defend us in all adversity, and bring us at last into your presence, where you live in endless joy and love, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Lessons: Isaiah 6:1-8 Romans 8:12-17 John 3:1-17

Sermon: Dear friends in Christ,
Trinity Sunday tempts us to ponder, “How can One be Three and Three be One? I think we need to begin with the One God to get that much clear. Isaiah unknowingly gave us a beloved hymn text when he said, “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts.” You maybe sang that hymn every Sunday growing up. Among the religions that people have followed through the course of human history, it was a jarring development when monotheism first appeared, the worship of only One God. Most religions worship a hodge-podge of gods devoted to various human needs or concerns. If you are crossing the Mediterranean Sea in a rickety old boat, you best say a prayer to Poseidon, the god of the seas. If you were a farmer, you’d want to appease the gods of sun and rain. You get the idea. The average person needed a dozen or more gods to manage all the various details and dangers of their everyday lives.
The trouble with these religious systems is that they were built by human hands. ‘We need good crops, so we’ll invent a god who takes care of that. We need to raise children to carry on our lineage, so we’ll invent a fertility god to bless us with descendants. We need an explanation for the wonders of creation, so we’ll invent a Creator god as an answer to our many questions.’ These gods were spun out of the imagination of human beings to meet their needs.
Monotheism, in contrast, is a belief in One God. We do not create this God to do our bidding. This God creates us, and He meets our needs and desires where and when He chooses. The Christian understanding is that God chooses to be gracious toward us – giving us far more than we could ever deserve. God crosses that chasm between heaven and earth, becomes one of us, suffers and dies to accomplish our salvation from death and sin. This God desires and initiates a relationship with the human beings he created in His own image. It all sounds fantastic…
The trouble is, we are as they say, a hot mess. It’s a measure of God’s unconditional love for us that we stumble and rebel and doubt and complain regularly, and still God stands by His covenant of grace that He fashioned in the person of Jesus Christ. We are ‘high maintenance’ in our relationship with the Almighty. We demand so much from God. We expect God will fix everything that’s broken in our lives, even if we’re the ones who broke it. We can enter the world with a perfectly healthy body, abuse it for fifty years, and then blame God when we become seriously ill. God shows us nothing but love and mercy and generosity, and we will still have an endless list of needs and wants. God has billions of needy people in His life. Remember the story about Jesus being so overwhelmed by the crowd pressing in on him, wanting healings and miracles of various kinds – he climbs in the boat with the disciples and tries to escape to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. But the crowds simply walk ten miles around the lake and vie for his attention once again. Jesus could well have been angry and frustrated. Surprisingly he has compassion for the people, because they are like sheep without a shepherd. God does meet our needs. But we are also called to think beyond our needs. God wants disciples who will serve others selflessly, even as Jesus sacrificed himself for us.
Ironically, God also faces the problem of people who are fiercely independent. These individuals tend to insist that everything must go their way. You always have to give in when there’s a disagreement between you. Any time you take the initiative to do something, it’s likely that the controlling person will have to do it over, so it’s done right. Think, for example, of the visually challenged elderly person who should no longer be driving a car, but insists on doing so. Does God have anyone like that to deal with?
The Bible is filled with headstrong, independent-minded people. Adam and Eve couldn’t even handle God’s one rule in the Garden of Eden. So, they made their own rules – ‘every tree in the Garden is fair game.’ Ever since then human beings have been going their own way, making their own rules, stretching and breaking God’s rules – and paying a hefty price for their independence from God.
Again, God could react with rage and wrath. Thankfully, God was gracious to Noah and his family and his multitude of pets, but we’d hate to be among the multitude that perished in that Flood of divine anger. It was no party for S***m or Gomorrah either. It was no party being carted off to Babylon in chains either. All of God’s attempts to clearly communicate his will through the prophets fell on deaf ears… After centuries of bitter experience with His ‘stiff necked’ people, God held a high level meeting with himself—Father, Son, and Spirit----and created a brand new covenant with us. The cornerstone of this new covenant is the grace of God in Jesus Christ, who suffers for our proud rebellion. The Holy Spirit plants faith in the hearts of sinners, turning them back to God in repentance. One true God shows us once and for all that He is God, the source of life and the path to eternal life. Our independent streak leads to death. Faith in Jesus Christ leads to life. Only a patient, merciful God could put up with a stiff-necked people like us…
God continues in His gracious, generous ways with us. Through the Word and the Sacraments, God’s Spirit works faith in our stubborn and wayward hearts.
The Spirit leads us to repent, turn around 180 degrees, so we can receive the gifts of faith, righteousness, love, and hope from God. Of course, not everyone responds. God is offering the free gifts of salvation and eternal life to any and all who believe – and people turn up their noses at those gifts. Imagine the prodigal son returning home and spitting in his Father’s face – it happens every day to our Heavenly Father.
Still God wants all to be saved and none lost. God wants us to be at peace with Him and with each other. Using us, His Church, he casts the net, he tends the sheep, he sows the seed, he harvests the wheat so the whole world might gather in His loving embrace. This is the One Holy God--- revealed to us as Father, Son, and Spirit---working tirelessly, sacrificially, patiently to give us hope and life… By the grace of God we can say with Isaiah, “Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.” AMEN.

Prayer of the Church:
* All-knowing God, you see us as we are, warts and wrinkles, good intentions and weaknesses combined. Help us to better see and know You as Creator and Savior. Lord in your mercy….. hear our prayer

*Keep us safe from all the dangers around us. Bless the work of medical professionals, police, firemen, and soldiers. Be with children who struggle to learn in the midst of a pandemic and teachers who struggle to teach. Lord in your mercy….. hear our prayer

*Give us strength and courage for the work of your Kingdom. Help us reach out with your love and your message of hope. Lord in your mercy….. hear our prayer

The Lord’s Prayer: Our Father who art in heaven…. Amen.

Benediction: The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, the Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace. Amen.

Used with permission from Augsburg Fortress, license to podcast, stream the music in this service obtained from ONE LICENSE #736842-AAll ...

05/24/2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGUB2oOv3jo

May 23 Pentecost Sunday Welcome to Worship

Greeting: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

Prayer of the Day: Mighty God, you breathe life into our bones, and your Spirit brings truth to the world. Send us this Spirit, transform us by your truth, and give us language to proclaim your gospel, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Lessons: Acts 2:1-21 Romans 8:22-27 John 15:26-27, 16:4b-15

Sermon: Dear friends in Christ, grace and peace to you.
Some of you remember the early days of televised professional wrestling. I was pretty young at the time, but I remember Verne Gagne and the beginnings of wrestling theatre. This was before the glitz and glamour and fakery of today’s wrestling matches. It was just two guys slamming each other on the mat, or pushing each other into the corner of the ring, while some helpless referee tried to keep them from killing each other. Great entertainment, I guess. As the sport, the melodrama grew, there came to be wrestling teams, with two or more people on a side, rotating in and out of the ring, referred to as a tag team. If your team mate was in trouble, you could tag him, enter the ring and take his place… kind of like a relief pitcher in baseball.
Well Jesus isn’t in trouble in today’s gospel lesson. In fact, he has been raised from the dead. He couldn’t be better. But his work among us on earth is done. He has taught and healed and suffered and died, and been raised triumphant over death – all for our sake. All so we might have the forgiveness of our sin and the gift of eternal life. He will soon ascend to be with his Heavenly Father. But he has no intention of leaving his followers to do the work of the Kingdom by themselves. It’s time for a divine tag team. It’s time for a team mate to enter the ring and take over. Jesus promises to send The Advocate. No, that’s not a Marvel Superhero, although it would make a great name for one. This Advocate is the Holy Spirit. Remember how Jesus comes to the disciples in the locked room and breathes on them, saying ‘receive the Holy Spirit.’ We celebrate Trinity Sunday next week, so it’s important to remember that we’re talking about co-equal persons of One God. Jesus clarifies that when he says ‘all that the Father has is mine…. The Advocate will take what is mine and declare it to you.’ The Holy Spirit is not a separate or lesser god. Jesus identifies himself as the Word and the Truth. The Spirit’s role is to communicate that Word, that truth to us and through us. The most overlooked aspect of the Pentecost story in Acts 2 is the wonder of people from here, there, and everywhere hearing the Galilean disciples in their own languages. How did that happen? Did Jesus’ disciples know how to speak Arab, Greek, Latin, and all the other languages represented in that diverse crowd? No, the Holy Spirit took the Aramean words of the disciples and miraculously communicated them in such a way that everyone could hear the message in their native tongue.
That is precisely the work of the Holy Spirit. The printed pages of the Bible come alive and speak to us, sometimes with great power. It might seem like a particular verse or passage was written just for you, or just for a particular circumstance in your life. That’s the Spirit bringing the ink on the page to life. I’m amazed at the occasional comment that my sermon really spoke to an individual listener, addressing something happening with them. Obviously, I didn’t know about that when I was writing the sermon. But the Spirit knew all about it, and directed my fingers to type the needed words on the manuscript. Frankly, it’s a little spooky how the Spirit works with a sermon that bores the dickens out of one person, or a lot of persons, and lights a fire under another and brings comfort to yet another. As preachers we truly are clay in the hands of the Potter.
Jesus tells his disciples that the Advocate will prove the world wrong about sin, righteousness, and judgment. The world has it all wrong when it denies the existence of sin, when it is surprised that the quiet neighbor next door turned out to be a mass murderer. Don’t we realize by now that we are all capable of doing horrendous things, and we regularly do things that disobey God’s commands. Envy, malice, pride, deceit, revenge, judgment – these are common everyday sins committed by all of us. The secular humanist vision of good people with unlimited potential is blind to the reality of sin. The Holy Spirit helps us see ourselves clearly. And seeing ourselves clearly, we have nowhere to go except the cross of our Lord, where we repent and receive mercy.
The world is wrong about righteousness, because it supposes we can or should achieve it on our own. Jesus is our righteousness. He goes to the Father having suffered for our sins. I wince at the eulogies at some funerals seeking to make the deceased sound like he or she was perfect in every way. Funerals should be a time to rejoice in the righteousness of Jesus and the hope of eternal life we have in Him. Yes, we loved that person who has died, and so did God. Beyond that, we celebrate the Good News of Jesus.
Finally, the Spirit will prove the world wrong about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned. Judgment has landed squarely on the shoulders of Satan, the serpent in the Garden of Eden, the Tempter of Jesus in the wilderness. He has been condemned. We waste so much energy judging each other, trying to guess who will make it through the Pearly Gates and who won’t. That’s not up to us. “Judgment is mine, says the Lord.” When we judge each other it shows a false pride, an assumption of our own innocence and righteousness. The Holy Spirit teaches us humility. It teaches us gratitude for the One who is judge of the living and the dead at the end of time.
Today we celebrate the work of the Spirit in and among us, calling, gathering, enlightening, and sanctifying the people of our Lord’s Church. We pray that the Spirit will lead us and enliven us for the ongoing work of God’s Kingdom.

Prayers: Spirit of God, lead, encourage, strengthen us as we share the love of Jesus with our neighbors and our world. Help us listen and truly hear the Word, so it changes us and makes us better, more faithful servants. Hear us O God, Your mercy is great.

Guide us on the long journey toward peace and justice. Help us find good trouble, as your disciples did in sharing the gospel, so that all lives matter equally. For they all matter to You. Hear us O God, Your mercy is great.

We pray for the sick, the hungry, the homeless, that they might have healing, food, shelter. Make us instruments of peace. Hear us O God, Your mercy is great.

Lord’s Prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven…… amen.

Benediction: The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord look upon you with favor and give you peace.

Setting 5; Hymns ELW #401, #407, with permission from Augsburg Fortress, license Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service ob...