Newsletter
St. Paul Lutheran LCMS
Julesburg, CO
970.474.2592
The Pathlight
Your word is a lamp to my feet and
A light to my path
Ps 119:105
September 15, 2024
Zion Lutheran LCMS
Big Springs, NE
308.289.5148
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09082024 Vol.5 Issue 40
An End to Groaning
“And looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha,’ that is, ‘Be opened.’” Mark 7:34
Jesus puts His fingers in the deaf ears of a man and touches the man’s tongue, looks up to heaven and sighs. “Sighs” comes from the Greek word that means “to groan inwardly”. Just as Jesus wept at the grave of His friend Lazarus, here He groans at ears and a tongue that do not do what He made them to do.
It was not always that way. In the beginning, there was no sighing, no groaning. But it was not long before groans and sighs show up. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament in Genesis 3 and the curse that follows sin, God says to Eve that He would multiply her “groaning”. Groaning goes along with sin. In Romans 8, Paul says that the whole creation groans together, and not only the creation but we groan also (8:22-23). If you’ve ever gotten to the end of a day, or a week, or a semester, or a year and found yourself groaning; if you’ve ever found yourself grieving, struggling, guilty, or ashamed, and you groan because you can’t see a way out or a light at the end of the tunnel, you know that things are not the way they’re supposed to be.
Jesus knows, too. Just as God heard the groaning of Israel in slavery (Exodus 2:24; 6:5) and their groaning under their oppressors (Judges 2:18), God has heard your groans. Not only are all things made through Him, but He entered this world in a human body, and though He is without sin, He groans because He is in the midst of it. It is all around Him, and it is not the way He wants it to be. He groans and weeps and suffers, dies, and He rises from the dead. As a sign of the resurrection (a restoration to way things are supposed to be), He puts His fingers in the deaf man’s ears and frees his tongue with a touch.
Jesus has opened your ears to hear His promises and your tongue to sing His praise. Yep, that’s a sign of the coming resurrection too! God promises through Isaiah, “the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and groaning shall flee away” (Isaiah 51:11) Pastor Christensen
For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 1 Cor. 13:12
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost – September 15,2024
Words, shaped by the holy decrees of God, rightfully teach, admonish, and bless. When instruction is thoroughly informed by the Word of God, people turn from darkness and walk in the light. Jesus, the Word incarnate, was confessed to be the true Teacher, able to cast out demons. In response to unwavering faith, Christ has compassion and rebukes an unclean spirit. Our tongues let loose cursing and pain: Christ’s words unleash truth and healing.
DIVINE WORSHIP SERVICE pg.151 with Communion
OPENING HYMN #611 “Chief of Sinners Though I BE”
OLD TESTAMENT READING: Isaiah 50:4-10
EPISTLE: James 3:1-12
HOLY GOSPEL Mark 9:14-29
NICENE CREED pg.158
HYMN #849 “Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness”
SERMON
OFFERING
OFFERTORY pg.192
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH
SERVICE OF THWE SACRAMENT pg. 160
# 628 “Your Table I Approach”
# 684 “Come unto Me, Ye Weary”
LORD’S PRAYER pg. 162
BENEDICTION pg. 166
HYMN #919 “Abide, O Dearest Jesus”
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SERVANTS
ST. PAUL
USHERS / GREETERS – Dennis Aulston / Brad Ehmke
ORGANIST – Jeanie Boehm
MEETINGS– September 16 – 7:00 Council Meeting
September 18 - 5:00 Midweek (note time change)
September 21 – LWML FALL RALLY
Steadfast Shepherd
When I was five, we moved. I wanted to help, but my parents didn’t want
me getting underfoot or injured. I was “too little” to move furniture. My older sister got to ride in the big truck, but I was “too little” to safely ride in a front seat.
We have all been told we are too little -to small, too weak, too young, too old. Or we say someone else is too little.
The world says Bethlehem is too little for a king. Yet God knew our need for a Savior. Out of unfathomable, undeserved love, He sent His incarnate Son to be born in Bethlehem. God uses those the world deems too little a boy to fell a giant, a prostitute to save a nation, an unwed virgin to bear the King, the Lord’s persecutor you proclaim His World.
God declared through Micah that too-little Bethlehem would be the birthplace of the promised Messiah – Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the King. We have, through Baptism, been brought into that Kingdom.
My moving day task was “Official Hugger.” God even uses you and me for His purpose. Why? Because He is our God; He is our Good Shepherd. We are the people of His pasture, His Sheep. Thanks be to God.
Jesus, Good shepherd, uses even little me to Your Glory. Amen
“O Bethlehem… from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd My people Israel.” Matthew 2:6
When Life gets too hard to handle
Kneel in PRAYER