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

 

 

THE FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT

December 20, 2020

 

Stir up Your power, O Lord, and come and help us by Your might, that the sins which weigh us down may be quickly lifted by Your grace and mercy; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

 

THIS WEEK AT ST. JOHN’S Today, December 20, 2020   8:00 a.m.    Sunday School/Adult Class   9:00 a.m.    Divine Service - (Advent 4) (C)  Thursday, December 24, 2020   4:30 p.m.   Christmas Eve Children’s Program Friday, December 25, 2020   9:00 a.m.   Christmas Day Divine Service Sunday, December 27, 2020   9:00 a.m.    Lessons & Carols Divine Service (C)

THIS WEEK IN THE CHURCH YEAR   December 20     Commemoration of Katharina von Bora         Luther   December 21     Feast of St. Thomas, Apostle    December 25     Feast of the Nativity of our Lord    December 26     Feast of St. Stephen, Martyr

 

ST. JOHN’S NEWS

 

Organist Today:  Marcia Hanna

Elder for December:  Boyd Shipler

Acolytes:  Caelum Blocker

                  Zack Steven

 

Altar Guild Change - We would like to thank Donna Haase for her many, many years of service on the Altar Guild as Donna has decided to retire at the end of this year.   We would also like to welcome Betty Koestler and Shirlee Alt to the Altar Guild starting January 2021.   Anyone wishing to volunteer, please contact the church office.  We don't turn anyone away!!

 

Thank You! I would like to thank everyone for all the many cards and phone calls that I received for my birthday. They warmed my heart. May God bless you all and have a Merry Christmas!  Bev Skadburg

 

Lutheran Family Service Donation - Our offering on Christmas Eve will be sent to Lutheran Family Service.  If you are not planning to attend church on Christmas Eve and would still like to donate, there will be an offering plate in the back of church today (12/20) for L.F.S.  You can also drop a donation off at the church office.  You can visit lutheranfamilyservice.org or see the several L.F.S. brochures and handouts in the church library for more information on the important work they do in the areas of marriage, family, adoption, mental health, and life issues.

 

Christmas Service Schedule: Here is our upcoming worship schedule going into the week of Christmas:

 

Wednesday, December 23, 6:00 p.m.                  

- ONLINE ONLY service of Scripture and prayer 

 

Thursday, December 24, 4:30 p.m.            

- Christmas Eve children’s program 

                (please bring a mask)

 

Friday, December 25, 9:00 a.m.

            - Christmas Day Divine Service 

 

Sunday, December 27, 9:00 a.m. 

            - Christmas Lessons and Carols and Divine Service 

                (no Sunday School or adult Bible class this morning)

 

Portals of Prayer for January-March are now available on the east table in the back. 

 

Devotion Books Available - On the guestbook stand in back are devotional booklets written to guide our faith during the continuance of the pandemic.  Feel free to take as many copies for yourself and others as you’d like! 

 

Parish Messenger Articles for the January/February edition are due to Linda Kerkove on Sunday, December 27.

 

Pastoral Care On Demand - Pastor Cowell would love to serve you Communion at church or at home, pray, read Scripture, offer Christian counsel, and/or just visit any time that works for you!  Call or text him any time at 319-464-5548. 

 

St. John’s Member Check-in Calls - Beginning in early January, we are going to begin a project at St. John’s of calling all our members to see if there is any way our congregation can be of any help to each other’s faith or life as the pandemic drags on into another year.  If you are interested in making some of these phone calls please let Pastor Cowell know. 

 

District Convention Lay Delegate - If you are interested in serving as the lay delegate representing St. John’s at the Iowa District West Convention on June 27-29, 2021, please contact the church office or Pastor Cowell.  We will need to select a lay delegate by the end of January.

 

Addresses: If you have a new address/phone number or your college students have a new address, will you please get that information into the church office so we can update our church roster.

 

Church Library - As snow days and winter break quickly come, don’t forget to stock up on a variety of fiction and non-fiction books from our church library!  Of special interest is our large selection of children’s books both in the library and in the basement book rack. 

 

Wednesday Catechesis - Wednesday Catechesis is off this Wednesday. We will resume class on January 6. 

 

Shopping through Amazon Smile - Sign up at Amazon Smile to have 0.5% of your eligible purchases donated to St. John’s! Click this link to sign up: smile.amazon.com/ch/42-0950037, click on the Amazon Smile button on the stjohnsburt.org homepage, or pick up an instructions packet on the back table to get signed up. 

 

St. John’s Live-streamed Service - The easiest way to access our service livestreams and recordings is to click on the links posted on the homepage of stjohnsburt.org. 

 

TLC Quilts Available - Don’t forget that quilts made by the Trinity Lutheran Church Quilters are always available on the “giving pew” by the east door!

 

SYNOD, DISTRICT, & PARTNERSHIP NEWS

 

Trinity, Algona Schedule - Trinity, Algona continues to stream their worship services, daily devotions, and other videos online. You can access these resources at trinityalgona.org/corona or the Trinity YouTube and Facebook pages either live or any time after as a recording.

Sunday Preview Lectionary Videos - The Partnership Pastors have begun a new video series taking a look at the Scripture readings and themes of the upcoming Sunday.  These videos will be published on Trinity’s YouTube channel every Thursday.

 

LECTIONARY SUMMARY (Advent 4)

Old Testament: 2 Samuel 7:1-16

After offering to build the Lord a house, the Lord promises to build David a house. 

 

Epistle: Romans 16:25-27 

The preaching of Jesus Christ, which is the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, has now been made known to all nations.

 

Gospel: Luke 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel announces to the Blessed Virgin Mary that she will bear a son and shall call His name Jesus. 

FROM THE CHURCH FATHERS

“The first cause of human perdition occurred when a serpent was sent by the devil to a woman who was to be deceived by the spirit of pride. Moreover, the devil himself came in the serpent, who, once he had deceived our first parents, stripped humankind of the glory of immortality. Because death made its entrance through a woman, it was fitting that life return through a woman. The one, seduced by the devil through the serpent, brought a man the taste of death. The other, instructed by God through the angel, produced for the world the Author of salvation.” - Bede, Homilies on the Gospels 1.3, quoted in ACCS: Luke, 15. 

 

LESSONS ON THE LITURGY 

Mary, the Mother of God

Lutherans call Mary, the mother of Jesus, by several titles.  One of them is Mary, the Mother of God (theotokos in Greek). This name confesses that we believe that the child in Mary’s womb that she and Joseph named Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and is truly the eternal Son of God.  Thus it is fitting that we call Mary the Mother of God.  Another name that Lutherans call Mary is The Blessed Virgin Mary. We call Mary Blessed because of the greeting Elizabeth announced to Mary when she was filled with the Holy Spirit: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” We continue to refer to Mary as the Virgin to emphasize the fact that she was a Virgin when Jesus was divinely conceived by the Holy Spirit, as we confess in the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. 

 

FROM THE BOOK OF CONCORD

Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord, Article II: Free Will, paragraphs 60-63

God the Lord draws the person whom He wants to convert [Jn. 6:44]. He draws him in such a way that his darkened understanding is turned into an enlightened one and his perverse will into an obedient one. This is what the Scriptures call creating a clean heart [Ps. 51:10].

     For this reason it is not correct to say that a person can do something good and helpful in divine things before his conversion. Because a person is "dead in [his] trespasses" (Eph. 2:5) before his conversion, there can be no power to work anything good in divine things in him. Therefore, he has no way of doing something good and helpful in divine things. God has one way of working in a rational creature. He has another way of working in some other irrational creature, or in a stone or block. Yet, before a man's conversion, nothing at all can be credited to him for doing good in spiritual matters.

     When a person has been converted [made alive], and is thus enlightened, and his will is renewed, then a person wants to do what is good (so far as he is regenerate or a new man). Then that person will "delight in the law of God, in [his] inner being" (Ro. 7:22) and from that time forward does good to such an extent and as long as he is moved by God's Spirit, as Paul says [in Ro. 8:14], "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God."