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 THIRD SUNDAY OF EASTER

Sunday, April 18, 2021

 

O God, through the humiliation of Your Son You raised up the fallen world. Grant to Your faithful people, rescued from the peril of everlasting death, perpetual gladness and eternal joys; through Jesus Christ, 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, April 18, 2021   8:00 a.m.     Sunday School/Adult Class    9:00 a.m.     Divine Service   10:00 a.m.     Voter’s Meeting   Tuesday, April 20, 2021 10:00 a.m.     Morning Prayer     Wednesday, April 21, 2021    6:00 p.m.    Christian Catechesis

Sunday, April 25, 2021       8:00 a.m.     Sunday School/Adult Class        9:00 a.m.     Divine Service     THIS WEEK IN THE CHURCH YEAR   April 20, 2021     Commemoration of Johannes Bugenhagen   April 21, 2021     Commemoration of Anselm of Canterbury   April 24, 2021     Commemoration of Johann Walter, Kantor

 

ST. JOHN’S NEWS

 

Organist Today:  Kitty Bierstedt 

Elder for April:  Boyd Shipler

Acolyte:  Breckin Borchardt

 

Quarterly Voter’s Meeting  will be held today following the service.

 

Thank You!  A special thank you to all those who attended the Easter egg hunt and Easter breakfast. Both of these events were great successes. We also give a huge thanks to  Karla Schutter, the Board of Education, the Wednesday Catechesis class for hosting these events, and the congregation for furnishing food for both of these events.  

 

Stain Glass Window Booklets which we used throughout Lent are available on the back table.  Feel free to take one home to keep.

 

Birthday Card Volunteer - We’d love to have a few volunteers to help write birthday cards and put them in the church boxes of our members. The church provides the cards and names for you to write. Please sign the sheet on the back table if you are interested.  We thank the LWML, especially Caradene Parsons, for their many months of contributing to this project.   

 

Skills and Interests Form - Each member (and non-member spouse) has received a Skills and Interests form in your church box.  As we slowly begin to get into the full swing of mission, mercy, and social activities at St. John’s in a more “normal” way, we would like to know what skills you have for serving your church and what interests you might have in growing in faith and fellowship with your fellow members.  This will help us better connect each of our members with opportunities to serve and grow in the best way for you and your life situation.   

 

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. 

 

Stained Glass Window Project - We’ve met our financial goal for our new windows and are on track to possibly have them installed soon! There’s more information on the windows on the back table. Thanks for your generous contributions to this project.  

 

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. 

 

Parish Messenger Articles for the May/June edition are due to Linda Kerkove by Sunday, April 25.

SYNOD, DISTRICT & PARTNERSHIP NEWS

 

Trinity, Algona Schedule - Trinity, Algona continues to stream their worship services 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.

 

Lund Twins - We give thanks to God with the Lund family that their twins, Dorothy and Henry, were born on April 8th.  We will continue to pray for Dorothy and Henry until they make it home from the NICU at Mercy, Des Moines, although you can rest assured from the letter on the back table that they are not experiencing any life-threatening health issues.  You can see pictures of the newborns in that letter as well.  

 

Camp News:

·         Quilt Auction at Camp Okoboji has been set for Saturday, June 19. The project and description sheet must be in by May 21.  If you would like to donate a quilt for the auction you may pick up an information sheet in the church office.

·         Volunteer Weekend is a great time to enjoy Camp Okoboji and share your time and talents. Come and help prepare Camp Okoboji for the upcoming summer season the weekend of April 30-May 2. Room and board will be provided for volunteers.  Our first omelet brunch of 2021 will be Sunday morning, May 2.  For more information, please call the office  at 712-337-3325.

 

Partnership Highway Clean-up - St. John’s and Trinity will be cleaning our partnership Adopt-a-Highway ditch on Saturday, May 15th, at 10:00 a.m.  If you are interested in volunteering at this event, please sign the sheet on the back table and we will get you more information. 

 

Seminary Call Day - We will be praying for the vicars and pastoral candidates from our seminaries as they are placed and called this month.  Call day at Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne is April 27th at 7:00 p.m. Call day at Concordia Seminary, St. Louis is April 28th at 7:00 p.m.  You can find more information about vicarage placements and pastoral calls at ctsfw.edu and csl.edu.

 

COMMUNITY NEWS

City of Burt Clean-up Day - Burt’s free trash pick-up day is scheduled for Saturday, May 1st from 8:00-11:30 a.m.  This year the city is requesting residents to drop their items at the Community Center rather than placing them on the curb.  The city has asked the Churches of Burt volunteer group to help deliver items to the Community Center for residents who are not physically able to deliver themselves.  Volunteers will meet at the Community Center at 8:00 (or whenever you can), receive addresses for a pick-up, and drop off the items back at the Community Center.  Please sign the sheet in the back of church if you are able to help with this project so we can give the city an idea of how many volunteers we have lined up. 

 

LECTIONARY SUMMARY (Easter 3)

Old Testament: Acts 3:11-21

Peter accuses the Jews of killing the Author of Life, but promises forgiveness to all who repent.

 

Epistle: 1 John 3:1-7

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. 

 

Gospel: Luke 24:36-49

Jesus eats fish in front of His disciples, and then opens their minds to understand the Scriptures. 

 

FROM THE CHURCH FATHERS

“Neither sight alone nor handling of the Lord’s limbs was still enough to ensure that they would become witnesses of Christ and bravely endure everything for the preaching of the truth, fighting against falsehood even to the shedding of their blood.  Who gave them such a capability?  Listen to the Lord himself: ‘Stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.’ ‘You have seen and touched, but you are still not able to preach and die for what you have seen and touched, until you are clothed with power from on high.’” - Augustine, Sermon 265D.6, qtd. from ACCS: Luke, p. 390. 

 

LESSONS ON THE LITURGY 

Praying Before Worship

Whenever you come to receive God’s Divine Service, it’s a good idea to prepare yourself with prayer to receive His gifts by faith. You can pray using your own words, or, use this prayer found in the inside cover of the hymnal: 

     “O Lord, my creator, redeemer, and comforter, as I come to worship You in spirit and in  

       truth, I humbly pray that You would open my heart to the preaching of Your Word so that 

       I may repent of my sins, believe in Jesus Christ as my only Savior, and grow in grace and 

       holiness.  Hear me for the sake of His name. Amen.”

 

FROM THE BOOK OF CONCORD

Apology of the Augsburg Confession, Article XII: Repentance, paragraphs 88-89

When will conscience be quieted if we receive forgiveness of sins on the ground that we love, or that we do the works of the Law? The Law will always accuse us, because we never satisfy God's Law. Chrysostom asks about repentance, "Where are we made sure that our sins are forgiven?" The adversaries also ask about the same subject. Consciences cannot be made at peace unless they know it is God's command and the very Gospel that they should be firmly confident that sins are forgiven freely for Christ's sake, and that they should not doubt this. If anyone doubts, he charges the divine promise with falsehood, as 1 John 5:10 says. We teach that the Gospel requires this certainty of faith. The adversaries leave consciences uncertain and wavering. Consciences, however, do nothing by faith when they constantly doubt whether they have forgiveness. In this doubt how can they call upon God? How can they be confident that they are heard? So the entire life would be without God and without the true worship of God. This is what Paul says, "Whatever does not proceed from faith is sin" (Romans 14:23). Because they are constantly occupied with this doubt, they never experience what faith is. So finally they rush at last into despair. Such is the doctrine of the adversaries, the doctrine of the Law, the setting aside of the Gospel, the doctrine of despair.