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You are not ordinary. You are mine

By Vicar Lisa Rygiel

In looking at various materials to be used for the season of Lent, I ran across and article by David Miller in a Lenten Journey Guide called Marks of the Christian. This article really spoke to me in this time of anxiety and stress. Hopefully, it will speak to you also.

My anxious eyes turn constantly to the future, my Lord. I reach for a nebulous something, an unknown someday when my restless soul would fall quiet, fulfilled, at peace. But peace seldom comes, elusive moments that pass before I can make them my own. So, I push on, quickening my step but with little clue about what my soul requires.

For years I believed the lie that achievement brings joy. I believed that accomplishment stills the nagging voice that badgers the soul in the wee hours of the night – or the afternoon. “You’ve fallen behind in the race,” it whispers. “You’re not keeping up. We expected more. You’ve not done what is needed to satisfy the soul.”

I raced on further and faster, admiring the distance between myself and others as if pulling ahead made me more real, more alive, more significant.

But this lie imprisons the soul, blinds the eye, and destroys love and gratitude. It goads me to do more of SOMETHING to prove that I am more than the needy old self that I am, more than ordinary, more than this soul so ridden with anxious fears about its adequacy.

So, tell me Jesus, where is this rest you promised to those who come to you, who take up your yoke (Matthew 11:28-30)?

“Ah, it’s there,” your heart says to mine. “Peace awaits you. Look and soberly see what I have given you, gifts written deep in your flesh. Remember the streets you have walked, the faces you have known and loved, the sights and sounds that have filled your years. This is the measure you have received from my hand.

“You need nothing more to enter contentment of heart. Savor them all. Love everything I have given you on your way. Turn from the voices that nag and release your restless fears that you have not done or received enough. And don’t worry what others may have.

“Look at the measure the Father appointed for you and stop running so fast. You are not ordinary. You are mine.”

 

Third Sunday after Epiphany – Jan. 26

10 a.m. Worship with Communion

Announcements

  • Fellowship Time: Join us after worship today in the Fellowship Hall for our coffee and conversation.
  • Weekly Bible Studies:
    • Zion’s weekly Bible Study continues today at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 22, 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, Jan. 25. See the newsletter for more details.
    • A study of the life and legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) begins today. This study is on Sunday afternoons from Jan. 19-Feb 23 and will include a Soup Luncheon at 12:30 p.m. followed by the study from 1 to 2 p.m., in the Fellowship Hall.
  • Flowers 2025: There are many opportunities to sign up to sponsor flowers in the new year. You can sign up for any time in 2025, and there are special giving opportunities for Easter Sunday. The flower book is in the back of the sanctuary and the suggested donation is $35. Envelopes are in the flower book for making those donations. If you have questions, talk to Lynn Chase.
  • 2025 Church Directory: It’s time to update information for the 2025 Church Directory. If you have updates to your information or photo, let Julie Wersal know no later than Feb. 3.

Zion's Annual Congregational Meeting

Time: Feb 2, 2025, 11:30 a.m. MT

Join Zoom Meeting -- https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89521127634?pwd=2uMcqqlaRL0n8OQDL0kJsy8dDTZwg7.1

This is an annual event where we report on our finances, resources and committee activity.

We will review and approve the budget for 2025 and elect church council members. Our church council consists of 9 members, of which 3 come up for election each year, and serve 3-year terms. If there is a part-year vacancy we will vote for someone to finish out that term. This year we will vote for three members to serve 3-year terms and one to serve a 2-year term.

Voting members are defined as confirmed members who have communed in this congregation and made a contribution of record in the current or preceding calendar year. Voting members will receive copies of the proposed budget and agenda prior to the meeting via email.  Paper copies will also be available on January 26. If you have any questions, please see Julie Wersal or Vicar Lisa.

E-formation – The Third Sunday of Epiphany -- Jan. 26

We now return for much of this year to hear the gospel according to Luke. This coming Sunday we will hear that Jesus is filled with the power of the Spirit, and so are we. Come to worship!

Luke 4:14-21

Writing in the late 80s, Luke organized his stories about Jesus in a logical chronological order, and thus directly after Jesus’ temptation he teaches in the synagogue in Nazareth, his hometown. An optional aspect of Sabbath observance was attendance at a synagogue, where the Hebrew Scriptures were read and interpreted by a rabbi and the assembly sang psalms and prayed. Here the reading was from Isaiah 61:1-2, perhaps the second reading, after the Torah portion. The year of the Lord’s favor (v. 19) was the Jubilee (Lev. 25:1-17), a perhaps mythical time each fifty years when no crops were grown, all debts forgiven, all lands returned to their previous owner, and all slaves freed. Luke means to interpret the coming ministry of Jesus with the motif of liberation found in the Isaian oracle. Twice this excerpt mentions the Spirit, a strong emphasis in Luke.

Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-6, 8-10

The book of Nehemiah was originally one book with Ezra, taking shape perhaps about 400 bce.  Editing may have disrupted the order of events described. The book of Nehemiah continues the story of the Israelites’ return to Jerusalem, when the city walls were rebuilt, becoming a symbol of Jewish reestablishment of the covenant and of separation from neighboring peoples, although scholars question the historicity of, for example, the demand for Jewish men to divorce their foreign wives. The narrator purports to be Nehemiah, a servant of the Persian king, who assumed authority in the Jerusalem community. At a religious gathering, the scribe Ezra leads worship at which the Torah scrolls, perhaps those that had been formulated and edited during the exile, are proclaimed and interpreted. Hearing the word leads to both sorrow and the joy of a shared meal.

1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

For Paul, the risen body of Christ is found in the one body of the Christian community. Paul develops the metaphor of the human body, which must avoid weakness and disease in each of its parts, to encourage communal care for one another. Paul’s assertion that in baptism Jews and Greeks, slaves and free, are all one sounds far more reasonable to us than it would have to first-century people. The metaphor of “the body of Christ” first appears in Paul’s writing in 1 Corinthians, perhaps as a response to the disunity in the Corinthian community. Hellenistic writers used this metaphor to describe social and political unity.

Zion's Lutheran Church

A Reconciling in Christ Community

zionsluth@gmail.com

719-846-7785