Bulletin for 26 June 2016

The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost June 26, 2016         Service of The Word

GUIDE TO WORSHIP

Prelude		Ringing the Bell
O Lord, send out your Spirit…		And you shall renew the face of the earth.
Announcements
Confession & Forgiveness	*	Pg. 211
Gathering Hymn	*	#798  Will You Come and Follow Me
The Apostolic Greeting	*	Pg. 213  (Service of the Word)
Kyrie	*	Pg. 213
Hymn of Praise	*	Pg. 213ff
Prayer of the Day	*	Celebrate Pg. 1 - Pray together
First Reading		1 Kings 19:15-16, 19-21  (Celebrate Pg. 1)
Responsorial		Psalm 16  (Spoken)  (Celebrate Pg. 2)
Second Reading		Galatians 5:1, 13-25  (Celebrate Pg. 3)
Gospel Acclamation	*	Pg. 216  “Alleluia”
HOLY GOSPEL	*	Luke 9: 51-62  (Celebrate Pg.3)
Sermon
Hymn of the Day	*	Choose-your-own-Hymn-of-the Day (5 hymns, 2 verses each )
The Apostles’ Creed	*	Pg. 217
Prayers of Intercession	*	(Celebrate  Pg. 4)
The Sharing of the Peace	*
Presentation of  the Offering	*	#470  Draw Us by the Spirit’s Tether
Canticle of Thanksgiving	*	Pg. 219
Thanksgiving for the Word	*	Pg. 220
The Lord’s Prayer	*	Pg. 221  {prayed together}
Benediction & Sending	*	Pg. 221
Closing Hymn	*	#767  Lord, Take My Hand and Lead Me
Dismissal	*	Pg. 222 (Rsp:“Thanks be to God”)
Postlude

* = congregation stands (as able)

St. John’s Evangelical Lutheran Church

448 Talbot Street West,  Aylmer, Ontario  N5H 1L1

P & F:  519-773-2175     E-mail:  info@stjohnsaylmer.ca

Rev. John Goldsworthy  519 -207-2224

E-mail:  Jgoldsw00@aol.com

Organist:  Karin Barrie

  

“For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”  There’s not much else that can be said.  This is the Law and the prophets in simplest terms.  Simple, not easy.

  

Welcome!

Everyone is invited to stay for fellowship after the service.

  

We pray today for all the sick in our congregation, especially Beth Goldsworthy, Else Kalmbach and her son, John Seimen Jr. and John Weninger.  May God grant all of them His healing grace in Jesus Christ.  Amen.  (Since this bulletin was written, John Seimen Jr. has passed away. God be with his entire family.)

  

Offering Envelopes – If you need more envelopes, there are some in the Fellowship Hall.  Everyone has unnumbered envelopes, so please remember to put your name, date and donation amount on the front of each envelope so you get credit for your donations.

  

PAR – Pre-Authorized Remittance – Your church needs you!  Signing up for PAR allows you to make donations on a monthly basis even if you’re not in church.  Application forms are available on the table in the Fellowship Hall.  All you have to do is complete the form, attach a VOID cheque and put it in the offering plate or in the church office.

  

Communion Cards are required to be completed once per year per person.  If you have not completed one yet this year, please ask the usher for one.

LCW Annual Yard / Bake / Cabbage Roll Sale

Saturday, August 27 from 8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.

Start saving your stuff.  Items can be dropped off when you come to church on the Sundays in August and on August 22-26 from 7-8 pm.  Volunteers are needed to organize items, make meat pies (contact Marg Guenther), make cabbage rolls (contact Gertie Croft), sell at the yard sale and pack up afterwards.  For more information, contact Karin Barrie 519-673-2137 or barriek@rogers.com.

Golden Confirmation 2016 – Sunday, September 25

The class of 1966, confirmed by Pastor Joachim Knaak (known), included:  John Patrick Ungar, Michael Heinz Hesch, John Binder, George Wilhelm Tinnes (deceased), Raymond Andriekus

Anyone with knowledge of how to contact them is asked to contact Rita Rupar at 519-473-9303 or the church office at 519-773-2175 or info@stjohnsaylmer.ca

The following people have made donations to the New Roof Fund:  L.C.W. (x2), Bob & Bonnie McCrae, Tony & Rita Rupar, Alison Barrie, Don & Rose Fick, Katie Ungar, Diane Corns, Fred & Nancy Neukamm, Herb & Jeannette Kebbel, John Seimen, Karin Barrie, Pr. John & Beth Goldsworthy, Frieda Neukamm, Rick & Dita Cornelissen, Mike & Helga Ungar

Canadian Lutheran World Relief – Fort McMurray Wildfire Relief

Donations are needed to support the victims of the Fort McMurray Wildfire.  You can donate by phone:  1-800-661-2597 or online: 

http://clwr.donorshops.com/product/78BA79A/fortmcmurraywildfirerelief.php

The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost ---- 26 June 2016

Galatians 5:1, 13-25

1 For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. ¹³ For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. ¹⁴ For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." ¹⁵ If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. ¹⁶ Live by the Spirit, I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh; for these are opposed to each other, to prevent you from doing what you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law. ¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are obvious: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions, factions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. I am warning you, as I warned you before: those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. ²² By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. ²⁴ And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

·        What Paul says here in the letter to the Galatians is not something new. He is quoting the book of Leviticus from the Hebrew Bible and we know that this is the answer Jesus agreed with when he was asked what the greatest Commandment was.

·        Paul is writing to the Galatian Christian community because they have fallen under the influence of some Christian preachers who told them that circumcision and the observation of the entire Mosaic Law was required of all Christians, no matter what their origin. Of course, this goes against what Paul’s teaching. Paul felt that the Galatians, a rather fickle and impressionable people, were falling back into a slavery to the law of works, the law that requires works, deeds, and things beyond grace and faith. Paul considered this a type of slavery and he told the Galatians this: For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. 

·        The shackles of this sort of slavery could be two-fold. For some the question will always be “Did I do enough? Have I kept the Law perfectly?” Since that is a question that can never have a good enough answer, the shackles of slavery to “being good enough” could hold us back. For these people, righteousness and salvation is always in doubt and what Paul might call the Law of Works works against them.

·        For others, the question becomes “How could anything else need be done?” For these people who feel that they have kept the law perfectly, nothing else is needed. They’ve achieved their salvation by their own efforts and they’ve earned the right to judge others by the standard of their own perfection. For them, the Law of Works is made to work for them, but their self-sufficiency works against them.

·        Paul is also working against another twisted Gospel, one that says that since Christians are freed from observance of the Law, no laws apply to them. About this, Paul says: For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence… There have always been those who disregard the Law and what it teaches and replace it with rules of self-indulgence. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul says Their god is the belly. , saying in a rather earthly way that these people follow their own way of the self.

·        Paul opposes all these ways of returning to slavery, whether it be to a warped view of the Law or to a warped idea of the self. He states that we are free, that we live by the Spirit, and are guided by the Spirit.

·        Our lives then are neither fear-filled nor self-filled. In fact, our lives are given over to the love of God that shows itself in the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

·        If we love our neighbor as ourselves, we wish no wrong to our neighbor and we do no conscious wrong to our neighbor. We treat them as we would wish to be treated. This becomes very hard when our neighbor does not reciprocate and treat us as they might not wish to be treated.

·        Paul speaks of the fruit of the Spirit. He is not talking about the gifts of the Spirit, those varied and wonderful gifts the Spirit gives to individuals for the good of the whole church. Here he is telling the Galatians… and telling us, by extension… that these virtues will be found where-ever the Spirit is. These are the fruit of the Spirit’s presence - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are not special manifestations of the power of the Spirit; these are the ordinary signs of the Spirit’s presence, ones that might be found in any disciple of Christ. These are worth praying about and praying for.

·        Those enslaved by self-doubt fear of the law ask “How good is good enough?”

·        Those shackled to their achievement and self-sufficiency in following the Law ask “What more could I do?”

·        Those who say they are free from any law in their self-indulgence ask “What wrong could I do?”

·        Those freed in Christ ask “What does love lead me to do?” They are freed of the self and rely on the grace of God that comes to them as a gift.

·        We who are freed in Christ are freed for more than selfish indulgence; we are freed for service, given to God in our service to those around us. Luther wrote in his document “On Christian Freedom”: A Christian is the most free lord of all, and subject to none; a Christian is the most dutiful servant of all, and subject to every one. (1520)

·        And so we are, today and every day.

For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."