Announcements and E-formation -- Feb. 26, 2025

Loving Thy Neighbor in Practice

By Vicar Lisa Rygiel

The following article appeared in the February 20, 2025, Living Lutheran

Loving our neighbor isn’t just a nice sentiment — it’s a calling. Jesus teaches us to care for others with the same kindness and compassion we desire for ourselves. Though we typically associate love with a feeling, we are taking time to remember that it goes beyond emotion—love is an action.

Scripture:
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31).

“Little children, let us love not in word or speech but in deed and truth” (1 John 3:18).

“Encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).

Journal reflection:
Think about a time when someone showed you unexpected kindness. How did it make you feel, and how can you pass that love forward? Write two or three ways you can make someone in your life feel loved.

Who in your community, church family or small group might need encouragement or support right now? How can you be a neighbor to them in a tangible way? 

Service project ideas:
Volunteer your time: What nonprofit organizations are serving the community in which you live? Get in contact with their local team to see how you can volunteer with them—whether one time or on a regular basis.

Encouragement cards: Write uplifting notes for leaders in your church to remind them they are loved and appreciated. Include your favorite Scriptures or a personalized prayer for them and their family.

Affirmation:
I am called to love my neighbor with kindness, compassion and action.

Transfiguration Sunday  --  March 2

10 a.m. Worship with Communion

Worship: Rev. Jan Everhart, Julie Wersal, Sharon Sorenson 

Ushers: Jennifer Erickson & Julie Morris

Communion: Mike and Becky McNeil

Flowers: For the Glory of our Lord in preparation for Lent

Announcements

Flowers: Today’s flowers are for the glory in preparation for Lent and in thanksgiving for Pastor Jan for serving us at worship today.

• Fellowship Time/Church Council: Join us after worship today in the Fellowship Hall for our First Sunday Potluck & Sunday Study.
• Ash Wednesday: We will have an Ash Wednesday worship service at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5, to mark the beginning of Lent. On this most penitential day, we receive ashes in the form of the cross, the same symbol placed on our bodies with water in our baptism as, even in this ashen mark of death, we anticipate the new life of Easter.
• Children’s Choir: The Trinidad Music Association (TMA) children’s choir (ages 8-12) practice is at 3 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall. To participate or to get more information, contact choir director Vinnie Gumlich at 719-680-0851 or email music.association@gmail.com.
• Lenten Soup Suppers: Our Lenten Soup Suppers will be held each at 6 p.m. each Wednesday in Lent in the Fellowship Hall, join us for food, fellowship, and a brief Lenten study. Sign-up sheets to provide food (soup, bread, dessert) are in the Fellowship Hall.
• Church Directory: We are grateful for the diligent work of Julie Wersal and Ty Erickson Jr. in preparing the 2025 Zion’s Lutheran Church Directory. You should soon receive a directory via email on Feb. 19 or Feb. 25, and printed copies are available in the Fellowship Hall and upon request, from Julie Wersal.
• Newsletter: The March newsletter should have arrived in your email on Saturday, March 1, and printed copies are available in the sanctuary and fellowship hall.
• Weekly Studies:
  • Zion’s weekly Bible Study resumes at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12, with the continuation of The Bible from Scratch, series, focusing on The New Testament for Beginners. The class will be repeated at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 15.
  • A study of the life and legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer continues next Sunday. Join us for a soup luncheon at 12:30 p.m. followed by the study from 1 to 2 p.m., in the Fellowship Hall. The study repeats at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, March 11, via Zoom.

E-formation – Transfiguration of Our Lord/Last Sunday After Epiphany -- March 2, 2025

On the Lutheran calendar, the Sunday before Ash Wednesday is a celebration of the mystery of Christ, as Jesus’ divinity is shown forth on the Mount of Transfiguration. In other traditions the Transfiguration is celebrated on August 6, which date is now marked by the memory of the bombing of Hiroshima. The three-year lectionary sets the Transfiguration as the climax of the time after the Epiphany, a final glorious manifestation of the mystery of Jesus Christ before the season of Lent. Martin Luther had first proposed this calendar change.

Luke 9:28-36

We too have encountered the presence of God, not on a Palestinian mountain, but in Jesus Christ. We too are called children of God, thanks to our baptism into Christ. Here on Sunday, we listen to him, and for us now and at the end of time Jesus is the transforming manifestation of God. The optional verses are the one place in the three-year lectionary with the story of the healing of the epileptic boy. To proclaim both stories is to tie the inexpressible glory of God with the power of Jesus to exorcize evil.

Exodus 34:29-35

The story of Moses’ veil is one of the three Old Testament passages that the lectionary places next to the Transfiguration. Moses can look directly at Jesus; the disciples are able to see the shining divinity of Christ; and in the resurrection by faith, so can we all.

2 Corinthians 3:12—4:2

Contemporary devout Jews do not think of the Torah’s representation of God as shining so radiantly that they cannot approach it. However, Paul’s encounter with the risen Christ (1 Cor. 15:8) had led him to regard Judaism as a veil that could be removed in Christ. The Spirit of God means to transform us, just as Jesus was himself transformed by God. Paul’s interpretation of passages from the Hebrew Scriptures begins the Christian practice of seeing in biblical Judaism the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ and the vocabulary we use in speaking of salvation.

Zion's Lutheran Church

A Reconciling in Christ Community

zionsluth@gmail.com
719-846-7785