Pentecost (Year C)

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Created: June 05 2022 June 05 2022

Following the flood, Noah’s descendants settled on a plain and decided to exalt themselves by building a tower. As “one people speaking the same language” they spoke proudly and arrogantly. The Lord humbled them by confusing their languages, thereby dividing and dispersing them.

That dispersal was finally reversed on Pentecost Day, the fiftieth day of Easter, when the Holy Spirit filled the disciples. God caused the one Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to be preached to all people in a multitude of languages. Not surprisingly, “at this sound the multitude came together.”

The preaching of Christ is the primary work of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit reminds us of Jesus’ words, the words of the Father who sent Him. Indeed, Christ is the Word who bestows forgiveness and peace to those who keep and hold on to Him: “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”

Pastor Nettleton’s message (mp3)

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Seventh Sunday of Easter (Year C)

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Written by Joan Crouse Joan Crouse

Created: May 29 2022 May 29 2022

On the night when He was betrayed, Jesus interceded for His Church, that all of His disciples “may become perfectly one” in the Father and the Son. Jesus became flesh and dwelled among us to reveal the Father and His name, to share with us the glory of His righteousness and to bring us to the Father in Himself. Through the apostolic witness to the Baptism, cross and resurrection of Jesus, the Lord gathers His disciples throughout the world “with one accord” as one body in Christ. And so with one voice and by one Spirit, His Bride prays, “Come.”

Pastor Nettleton’s message (mp3)

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Ascension Day (Year ABC)

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Written by Joan Crouse Joan Crouse

Created: May 26 2022 May 26 2022

After He rose from the dead, Jesus presented Himself alive to the Apostles, appearing to them and continuing to teach them about the kingdom of God. These visits came over the course of forty days, until the time arrived for Him to ascend to the right hand of the Father. Though the Gospel of Luke ends with Christ’s ascension, the book of Acts, St. Luke’s continuing account to Theophilus, opens with it. The Ascension is not the end of the story! Just as He promised, Jesus would not leave His people as orphans, but would come to them in a greater way. Therefore, Jesus tells the disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit, who would clothe them with “power from on high.”

“A cloud took Him out of their sight,” but Jesus remains with His people through His Gospel and Sacraments. He comes to us in the Word, by the promise of His Father and the power of the Holy Spirit, whom He pours out upon “the church, which is His body.” We bless God and worship Christ with joy, for He blesses us with forgiveness, lifts us up in His hands, and seats us with Himself “in the heavenly realms.”

Pastor Magruder’s message (mp3)

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Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year C)

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Created: May 22 2022 May 22 2022

Jesus has opened the way to the Father, so that whatever we ask of the Father in Jesus’ name, “He will give it to you.” We pray, therefore, confident that we will be heard and answered and that our “joy may be full.” We pray because we have heard the Gospel—and the Lord has opened our hearts to believe it. We pray in the name of Jesus because we have been baptized into Him, as Lydia and her household were baptized. We have been healed, so we live and walk and pray in newness of life.

Pastor Nettleton’s message (mp3)

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Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year C)

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Created: May 15 2022 May 15 2022

On earth “you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy.” We are saved by the cross of Christ—He has defeated death and we have received freely “from the spring of the water of life.” The Spirit is already granting us peace and joy through the forgiveness of our sins. The Spirit will continue working in us by His grace, glorifying the Son of Man in us by our love for one another in the same way He was glorified by God in the cross.

Pastor Nettleton's message (mp3)

Download the bulletin (pdf)