Thrivent Choice Dollars are able to be directed to either “Holy Cross Lutheran Church” or” Holy Cross Lutheran Preschool”. As a reminder, the deadline to direct 2019 Choice Dollars is Tuesday, March 31st. You can do this online with your Thrivent account or by calling your Thrivent agent. Holy Cross members Tina Pierce and Gloria Radmore are able to provide assistance if needed. Thank you to all Thrivent Members who are eligible to give to Holy Cross in this fashion.
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Gospel Sentence
“There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)
Reading
“The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, you know.” Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the LORD.”” (Ezekiel 37:1–6)
Meditation
Can these bones live? Do we actually believe that God can raise the dead? Our Lord promises that He will do so, but that is much harder to see and believe when we are faced with death, like Ezekiel here. But God’s promises are clear. He will raise us from the dead.
Silence
Prayer for Holy Cross Member
Let your grace be upon Tracy, O Lord, and teach her to hope in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Prayer of the Week (from Sunday)
Almighty God, by Your great goodness mercifully look upon Your people that we may be governed and preserved evermore in body and soul; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Lord’s Prayer
ABOUT THE SUNDAY LIVE-STREAM AND BIBLE CLASS The Fifth Sunday in Lent
The Lord be with you!
We are preparing for Sunday morning here, and I wanted to write to you and make sure that you have all the details on how you may participate.
If you go to the above page, you should be able to see our Livestream on Sunday morning. We’ll be testing and playing around with it the thirty minutes or so beforehand, but Lord willing, we’ll have it all up and going by 9 a.m. You can access it on a phone or tablet or computer. My suggestion is that you use a computer, or even better still is put it up on a bigger screen.
The Service of the Word
This Sunday we will be doing the Service of the Word portion of the Divine Service. That means the confession and absolution, Introit, Kyrie, Collect, Readings, and the like. We obviously cannot have the Lord’s Supper. But the Word will be proclaimed, God’s praises will be sung, and we will pray to our Lord for His mercy during this time of trial.
You may download and follow along in the bulletin by CLICKING HERE.
The service begins on page 184 of Lutheran Service Book. The readings are as follows:
1st Reading: Ezekiel 37:1–14
Epistle: Romans 8:1–11
Gospel: John 11:1–45
The hymns are :
915 Today Your Mercy Calls Us
552 O Christ, Who Shared Our Mortal Life, sts. 1, 9–10, 4
548 Thanks to Thee, O Christ, Victorious
Zoom Fellowship and Bible Class
Over the past ten days or so, we have been using a company and software package called Zoom to do our online interactions. I tried it out as a bible class with some of our men this past Friday, and it worked great! Go to Zoom.us and you can download the software. They have versions for Windows or Mac, iOS and Android. I would suggest doing it today so that you don’t have to try and figure it out tomorrow morning.
Topic: Sunday Fellowship and Bible Class Time: After Church (about 10) until 11:00 a.m.
The topic for our Bible Class will be Genesis 3. We are continuing our conversation about male and female, and what we can learn from God’s Word about it.
REVIEW
9:00 Service of the Word Live-streamed on Facebook and posted afterward on YouTube.
10:00 a.m. Bible Class on Male and Female, looking at Genesis 3. This will be on Zoom. Join us!
God bless you all. I know this is such a weird and difficult time to stay connected. But God does not abandon His people in their time of need. We will get through this together!
In Christ,
Pastor Pepekorn
PS Are you ready for the raising of Lazarus? I know I am!