First Lutheran Church

Ash Wednesday

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson, Presider

The Reverend Dr. Pauline Njiru, Preacher

Assisting Minister: Sue Newberg

Introduction to Today’s Service:

On Ash Wednesday we begin our forty-day journey toward Easter with a day of fasting and repentance. Marking our foreheads with dust, we acknowledge that we die and return to the earth. At the same time, the dust traces the life-giving cross indelibly marked on our foreheads at baptism.

While we journey through Lent to return to God, we have already been reconciled to God through Christ. We humbly pray for God to make our hearts clean while we rejoice that “now is the day of salvation.” Returning to our baptismal call, we more intentionally bear the fruits of mercy and justice in the world..

Epiphany VII

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C Johnson

Assisting Minister: Pete Randall

Introduction to Today’s Service:

Witnesses to the glory of God in the face of Jesus reflect that glory in the world. It was true for Moses. It was doubtless true for Peter, James, and John. We pray that it will be true of all of us who see God’s glory in the word and in the supper and who are being “transformed into the same image” by God’s Spirit.

Epiphany VII

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C Johnson

Assisting Minister: Sue Newberg

Introduction to Today’s Service:

Mercy. Mercy. Mercy. Joseph lives it in Egypt. Jesus preaches it in the gospel. The Spirit guides us into merciful lives with the power of forgiveness to reconcile what is fractured and divided. Such merciful living is the baptismal blessing of having put on Christ. It is the gift of the life-giving Spirit. It is a reflection of God’s glory revealed in Christ.

Epiphany VI

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C Johnson

Bill Keisel

Introduction to Today’s Service:

Blessings and curses abound on the sixth Sunday after Epiphany. We would do well to listen closely to whom the “blessed ares” and the “woe tos” are directed and to find our place in the crowd among those who desire to touch Jesus. The risen Christ stands among us in the mystery of the holy supper with an invitation to live in him, and offers power to heal us all.

Epiphany V

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jill Wiley, Nina Sousa, & Dawn Caffelle

Introduction to Today’s Service:

The fifth Sunday after Epiphany continues to highlight unlikely instruments and circumstances appointed to reveal God’s glory. “Who will go for us?” God asks. A person of unclean lips, a former persecutor of the church of God, and three fishermen who couldn’t catch a thing. More surprising still, perhaps, is that we are also called.

The Presentation of Our Lord | Candlemas

Officiants Today

Presiding: The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Dawn Caffelle

Guest Organist: Randy Steere

Introduction to Today’s Service:

The Presentation of Our Lord is referred to in some corners of the church as Candlemas because of an ancient tradition of blessing all the candles to be used in the church in the coming year at the mass celebrated on that day. It was a way of underscoring the truth of Simeon’s confession that this baby Jesus was “a light for revelation to the Gentiles” and a light for glory to Israel. Let the light of every candle in church be a little epiphany of the love of God for all people in the person of God’s son, Jesus, the light of the world.

Epiphany III

Officiants Today

Presiding: The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister:Bill Kiesel

Guest Organist: Randy Steere

Introduction to Today’s Service:

God’s glory is revealed in the reading of scripture. People stand at attention. People weep. People prostrate themselves in prayer. The unity of the church is another reflection of God’s glory. Most gloriously, the promises of God are fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Gather round. Listen up. Glimpse the glory of God.

Epiphany II | Baptism: Cameron James Prunier

Officiants Today

Presiding: The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Jeanne Govoni

Introduction to Today’s Service:

The Sundays after Epiphany continue to celebrate the revelation of God’s glory to us as it was made known to the magi and to those on Jordan’s banks at Jesus’ baptism—today using wedding imagery. Our God rejoices over God’s people as those being married rejoice over one another. By the power of the Spirit there are gifts galore for everyone. In Christ Jesus the best wine is saved for last. Taste and see.

Baptism of Christ

Officiants Today

Presiding: The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Sue Newberg

Introduction to Today’s Service:

Today’s festival rejoices in God’s blessings. We recall and celebrate our adoption as God’s children, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the promised company of almighty God when we “pass through the waters . . . the rivers . . . fire.” On this day the heavens open again for this assembly, and we receive the gift of God’s Beloved, Jesus, in bread and wine.

Christmas II

Officiants Today

Presiding: The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Pete Randall

Introduction to Today’s Service:

Within the gospel reading’s profound words lies the simple message that God is revealed in a human person. Though we may try to understand how the Word existed with God from the beginning of time, the wonder we celebrate at Christmas is that the Word continues to dwell among us. Christ comes among us in the gathered assembly, the scriptures, the waters of new birth, and the bread and the wine. Through these ordinary gifts we receive the fullness of God’s grace and truth.

Lessons & Carols

Officiants Today

Presiding: The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Pam Mansbach

Readers: Pam Mansbach, Ida Kurinskas, Jill Wiley, Kristin MacNevin, Marcia Anderson, Nina Sousa, Brant Cruz

Today’s Guest Musicians: Your Favorite Brass Quintet

Craig Shadday – trumpet

Lucas Swanson – trumpet

Susan Winterbottom-Shadday – horn

Garrett Stephan – trombone

Evan Gravell – tuba

Historical Note:

The tradition of the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols dates from 1880. It was introduced by the Bishop of Truro, The Rt. Rev. E. W. Benson. In 1918, the service was adopted by King’s College, Cambridge, where over the last century it has become justly famous.

Christmas Day

Officiants Today

Presiding: The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Layreader: Nina Sousa

Introduction

As on the first day of creation, on this Christmas Day the Word illumines the world, shining forth to bring all things into being. Today we celebrate the incarnate Word, God becoming flesh to live among us in the person of Jesus Christ then and now. Emboldened by the good news of Christ’s birth, along with the shepherds, Mary and Joseph, and all witnesses to the light of Christ, we declare to the world that we have indeed seen and been transformed by the arrival of “the salvation of our God.” O come, let us adore!.