First Lutheran Church

PENTECOST IV

Worship Leaders Today

Presider: The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Chris Newman

Introduction to Today’s Service:

We have no good apart from God. That makes Jesus’ call to follow him an invitation to freedom. This is freedom to revel in the Spirit’s fruit: love, joy, peace, and patience. This is freedom to not be imprisoned by anything that would keep us from the fullness of the life God has given us. This is the path of life.

MUTUAL MINISTRY, CALL, & ORDINATION ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

Worship Leaders Today

Preacher: The Reverend Nathan Pipho Bishop, New England Synod

Presider: The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Jeanne Govoni

Acolyte: Juliette Carlson

Lay Reader: Dennis Govoni

Guest Musician: Sarah Pillow

Introduction to Today’s Service:

The central characters of today’s gospel are the Ethiopian Eunuch and Philip, an apostle, deacon, and follower of Jesus. The Ethiopian Eunuch, having been sexually mutilated, cannot enter the Temple in Jerusalem for worship. He indeed, is a “stranger at the gate.” Upon a Spirit-filled meeting between the Eunuch and Philip, the faith demonstrated by the Eunuch compels Philip to baptize him. Both depart from each rejoicing and spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. Such is the celebration today, of MUTUAL ministry, ordination, and anniversary. To God alone be Glory!

Juneteenth

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister:
Bill Kiesel

Guest Speaker: Jamie Hodges,

Introduction to Today’s Service:

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, is a federal holiday celebrated on June 19th. It commemorates the day in 1865 when enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, were informed by Union troops that they were free, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was issued.

Easter VIII

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister:
Sue Newburg

Introduction to Today’s Service:

On Pentecost, we celebrate that we have been given an Advocate to accompany us. Poured out in wind and fire, water, wine, and bread, the Holy Spirit abides in and among us. We give thanks that God speaks to each of us, no matter our origins, language, or life path. Filled with the Spirit of truth, we go out from worship to proclaim the saving power of Christ’s love and the freedom of God’s grace with all the world..

Easter VII

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Pete Randall

Introduction to Today’s Service:

It is possible to hear in Jesus’ high priestly prayer, a prayer he offered shortly before his death, the petitions of the ascended Christ for his own throughout history—to our day—and beyond. Jesus prays for us. In holy baptism we become believers in God, have our robes washed in the flood of Christ’s forgiveness, and receive the gift of life forever with all the saints.

Easter VI

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Bill Kiesel

Introduction to Today’s Service:

Visions abound in the readings for the sixth Sunday of Easter. Paul has a vision about what to do. John has a vision of what will be. Jesus provides visions of peace that surpasses human understanding and power beyond human imagination.

Confirmation

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Dawn Caffelle,
Dashawn Pinto, Avandro Goncalves, Weston Pearson

Introduction to Today’s Service:

Today making their Confirmations are
Elizabeth Willis & Riley Manship
Congratulations!

Easter IV

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Pam Mansbach

Introduction to Today’s Service:

The gift of new life, of eternal life, is the gift of the risen Christ. It is the promise of Jesus. Itwas true for Dorcas in Joppa. It was true for those “who have come out of the great ordeal” in the Revelation vision. It is true for us and for all the baptized: Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Easter II

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Chris Newman

Introduction to Today’s Service:

n spite of all we have heard and all we have seen, it is often hard to believe. Because it is hard to believe, we will invest ourselves in the Easter mystery for fifty days (a week of weeks) Because it is hard to believe, John the evangelist will provide sign after sign celebrating Jesus’ victory over death. Because it is hard to believe, the risen Jesus will return to us again and again in the mystery of holy communion, inviting us to touch and taste his presence, and offering us his peace.

Easter Sunday
THE RESURRECTION OF OUR LORD

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Jeanne Govoni

Acolytes: Matthew Carlson & Juliette Carlson
Layreader: Dennis Govoni

Guest Musicians: Loralee Swanson, Lucas Swanson, Susan Winterbottom-Shadday, Tom Gregory, Dan Honeycutt

Introduction to Today’s Service:

“The last enemy to be destroyed is death,” Paul writes. Today Christ is risen, and we gather together with astonishment and joy. Christ is risen, and we have been set free from the bonds of death. Christ is risen, and we are forgiven. Christ is risen, and with the women at the tomb and Peter, we ar amazed. Let us rejoice: Christ is risen indeed! Alleluia!.

Palm Sunday

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Bill Kiesel

Layreaders: Jill Wiley, DaShawn Pinto, Anne Kelley, Louis Adofe, Alandra Stallings, Our Friends at Grace Chapel

Musician: Mollie Lanagan

Introduction to Today’s Service:

Today we follow Christ from triumphal entry to the cross, each waypoint of the journey marked by Jesus’ compassion for those who would betray, mock, accuse, or do violence to him. Though persecuted and beaten, Jesus the Son of God is not disgraced; instead, he asks forgiveness for those who put him to death. We have walked the Lenten pathway these forty days, each of us invited through baptism to “let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus.” We enter this holy week accompanying Jesus to the cross with both grief and thanksgiving in our hearts, trusting in God’s redeeming love.

Lent V

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jill Wiley, Pete Randall

Assisting Minister: Bill Kiesel


Assisting Minister: Pete Randall

Introduction to Today’s Service:

Our God makes all things new. In the first reading God promises it. In the gospel Mary anticipates it, anointing Jesus’ feet with costly perfume in preparation for the day of his burial. In the second reading Paul recalls his transformation from the persecutor Saul into an apostle. In baptism, God’s new person (you!) rises daily from the deadly mire of trespasses and sins

Lent IV

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

The Reverend Jill Wiley

Assisting Minister: Pete Randall

Introduction to Today’s Service:

The psalm sets the tone this day: “Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sin is put away!” Happy are those who have “become the righteousness of God” in the merits of Christ Jesus. Happy are those for whom the forgiveness of God has “rolled away . . . the disgrace” of former times. Happy is the father at the return of his prodigal son. Happy are we that our sins are forgiven for Jesus’ sake. Rejoice!

Lent III & First Communion

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Dawn Caffelle

Introduction to Today’s Service:

The warnings are plentiful and blunt on the third Sunday in Lent. Cut it out or get cut down! The warnings are accompanied by God’s invitation to attentiveness: “Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.” The landowner’s ultimatum is forestalled by the gardener’s readiness to till the ground one more year. That is good news for all of us. Thanks be to God!

Lent II

Worship Leaders Today

The Reverend Jeffrey C. Johnson

Assisting Minister: Pam Mansbach

Introduction to Today’s Service:

Though we sometimes doubt and often resist God’s desire to protect and save us, our God persists. In holy baptism, God’s people have been called and gathered into a God-initiated relationship that will endure. Lent provides the church with a time and a tradition in which to seek God’s face again. Lent provides another occasion to behold the God of our salvation in the face of the Blessed One who “comes in the name of the Lord.”