Announcements

St. John’s Lutheran Church

109 Maple St. Burt, Iowa|Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod

Pastor: Rev. Thomas Cowell                                             Secretary: Rosann Shipler

Pastor’s Cell: 319-464-5548                                                 Church Office: 515-924-3344   stjohnsburt.org              

Pastor’s Email: pastor@stjohnsburt.org                          Church Email: churchoffice@stjohnsburt.org               

FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY

February 9, 2020

 

O Lord, keep Your family the Church continually in the true faith that, relying on the hope of Your heavenly grace, we may ever be defended by Your mighty power; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

 

THIS WEEK AT ST. JOHN’S Today, February 9    8:00  a.m.       Sunday School/Adult Class      9:00  a.m.       Divine Service (Epiphany 5)                                    Tuesday, February 11   8:30 p.m.       Pastor’s Conference, Swea City Wednesday, February 12    6:00 p.m.       Religion School Thursday, February 12     L.F.S. Pastor’s Day on the Hill, Des Moines     Pastor at PALS, Des Moines  Sunday, February 16    8:00 a.m.        Sunday School/Adult Class    9:00 a.m.        Divine Service (Epiphany 6)  (C)

THIS WEEK IN THE CHURCH YEAR   February 10     Commemoration of Silas, Fellow Worker       with Paul     February 13     Commemoration of Aquila, Priscilla,Apollos     February 14     Commemoration of Valentine, Martyr     February 15     Commemoration of Philemon and Onesimus

 

ST. JOHN’S NEWS

 

Organist Today:  Marcia Hanna              Ushers for February:  Lucas Parsons & Terry Briggs                                                                                    

                                                                                                              Boyd Shipler

Acolyte: Caelum Blocker & Zack Steven   Elder for February:        Jerry Koestler

Greeters: Terry and Vicki Briggs                Greeters Next Week:     Gordon and Mary Oleson

 

Welcome New Member - St. John’s rejoices to receive Sheryl Weaklend, mother of Teresa Christensen, as a member of our congregation.  Sheryl is transferring from Immanuel Lutheran, LCMS in Osceola, IA.  

 

Adult Bible Study - Our Sunday morning adult Bible study class is studying the Biblical roots of the liturgy of the Divine Service, with special focus on the unique features of our Lutheran liturgy. 

 

Ash Wednesday Service with Communion will be February 26th at 6:00 p.m.

 

Lenten Services - All our evening services for Lent will be held at 6:00 p.m.  Note the new time!

 

Lenten Schedules - A copy of our full schedule of services at St. John’s for the season of Lent are in your box.  If you don’t have a box, they are on the table.  Feel free to take a schedule out of a friend’s box or off the table and give them a personal invitation to come to church with you. There are also blank schedules on the table for you to give to non-members. 

 

Tuesday Morning Lenten Prayer - In addition to our Wednesday evening Lenten services, you will also have the opportunity to pray and hear Scripture on several Tuesday mornings at 9:00 during Lent.  This will be a spoken Matins service and will be a time for you to bring prayer requests for us to pray together.  See the purple schedule in your box for the dates of these services. 

 

Lutheran Witness Subscriptions are due by March 2.  The cost of a subscription will be $22.70 for the year.  If you are receiving a Lutheran Witness now just pay by putting that in a separate marked envelope in the offering plate. Make checks out to the church and those subscriptions will continue.  If you wish to cancel or begin getting the Witness, please be sure to let the church office know.

 

SYNOD, DISTRICT, & PARTNERSHIP NEWS

 

Shrove Tuesday Partnership Event - Our St. John's/Trinity partnership is hosting a Shrove Tuesday pancake supper again this year on Tuesday, February 25th at 6:00 p.m. at Trinity.  The event will begin in the sanctuary at 6:00 with a time of prayer and confession and absolution, and continue with a pancake supper in the Life Center at 6:15.  During the supper we will also have fliers available with suggestions for how you might pray, fast, and show mercy during the upcoming season of Lent.  This event is free and the community is welcome to attend. 

Pastor’s Day on the Hill - On February 13th Pastor Cowell along with many LCMS pastors from Iowa District West and East will join members of Lutheran Family Service in Des Moines to pray and show our support of God’s gift of life from conception to natural death.  During this time we will meet with and encourage our 10 LCMS Iowa legislatures in their work of defending life in our state.  The pastors will also have an opportunity to speak with their local representatives and let them know that the people of our congregations oppose murder in all instances, namely the abortion of infants and the assisted suicide of the elderly, depressed, and mentally disabled.  You can help by praying that God continue to bless the work of our 10 LCMS legislatures, our pro-life governor, and Lutheran Family Service in the field of defending the lives of the pre-born and the elderly.

 

Camp Okoboji Annual Meeting is scheduled for April 18, 2020 at 11 a.m.  Each Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod in Iowa District West has the privilege of sending one delegate to the Annual Meeting of Camp. Consider being a delegate from St. John’s. Let the office know if you can attend this one day meeting.

 

Building Healthy Families:  Valentine’s Day is coming soon! This year, try something new: Go through the entire day WITHOUT saying, “I love you!”  What? Instead, look for other ways to say it! How about, “My life is better because you are in it,” or “I am so proud that you are my daughter,” or “I am so thankful that God brought you into my life.” Be creative! And remember – on Valentine’s Day and always - how much you are loved by your Father (John 15:9-17) Lutheran Family Service  www.LutheranFamilyService.org

 

 COMMUNITY NEWS

 

Burt Summer Celebration Silent Auction and Luncheon will be held February 23 at the Burt Complex from 10:30 to 1:00 p.m. They are asking for any donations for the Silent Auction. All proceeds go to keeping Burt Summer Celebration a free event.  If you wish to donate something, please contact Burt City Hall. 

Alzheimer’s and Related disorders Support Group will meet on February 13 at 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. at Van Buren Terrace, Algona. The meeting will be held in theVBT Activity Room on the 2nd floor. We look forward to seeing you!

 

LECTIONARY SUMMARY 

 

Isaiah 58:3–9a; 1 Corinthians 2:1–16; Matthew 5:13–20

 

The Righteousness of Christ

Jesus warns that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:20), but He also calls His imperfect people “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world” (Matt. 5:13, 14). That’s because the Lord Jesus came not to abolish the Law or the Prophets, “but to fulfill them” (Matt. 5:17) in perfect faith and love. Since He does and teaches all of God’s commandments, He is “called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19). God manifests His “demonstration of the Spirit and of power” in “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2-4) and through the preaching of the Gospel gives His “secret and hidden wisdom” (1 Cor. 2:7). Christ gives this perfect righteousness to His people and it leads them to true fasting, which is “to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free” (Is. 58:6) and “to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house” (Is. 58:7).

FROM THE BOOK OF CONCORD

 

Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XXVII: Monastic Vows, paragraphs 4-6, 8-9

It is clear how much hypocrisy, ambition, and greed there are in the monasteries, how much ignorance and cruelty exists among all the unlearned, what pride there is in their sermons, and how they continually create new ways of making money. There are other faults, which we do not care to mention. Monasteries were schools for Christian instruction; now they have deteriorated… All the most wealthy monasteries support only a lazy crowd, which gorges itself upon the public alms of the Church. Christ, however, teaches that the salt that has lost its savor should be cast out and be trodden underfoot (Matthew 5:13). By such morals the monks are singing their own fate ‹a requiem, and it will soon be over with them›… Certainly we do not accuse every one of them, for here and there some good men in the monasteries decide fairly about human and "factitious" services, as some writers call them, and do not approve the cruelty exercised by the hypocrites among them.

 

Now we are discussing the kind of teaching that the writers of the Confutation defend: Can these services merit the forgiveness of sins and justification? Are they satisfactions for sins? Are they equal to Baptism? Are they the obedience to basic rules and counsels? Do they have the merits of super-abundance? Do these merits, when applied to others, save them?