News & Readings March 11-18

Remember:Daily Savings Time begins on Sunday the 11th of March! Don’t forget to set your clocks an hour AHEAD before tucking in on Saturday evening!!!!!!

News and Announcements:

Sun    Mar 11               Early Service – 7:45am

                                    Celebration Service – 9:00am

                                    Traditional Service – 11:00am

Mon   Mar 12               Lenten supper and Program 6:30 - 8:30

Wed   Mar 14                Bible Study – 4.00pm

Mid week Eucharist – 5-6pm

Choir Practice – 6:30pm

Thur   Mar 15              Choir practice:7:00pm

Sat      Mar 17              Prayer Shawl Meeting – 10:00am

Sun     Mar 18              Early Service – 7:45am

                                    Celebration Service – 9:00am

Traditional Service – 11:00am

·     Finding   Faith

·     In the Wilderness

•     
• Seekers Lenten Program
• From the book by Marcus Borg*
• Christ Episcopal Church
• Join us this Lent for simple meals, fellowship, and an exploration of our personal faith  and how we live it together. 
• Monday nights
• February 27 – March 26, 2012
• 6:30 pm simple soup and salad supper
• 7 pm program
• 8;30 heading home
• * Marcus Borg is a Christian and theologian who straddles the Lutheran and Episcopal/Anglican traditions. His best known book is Meeting Jesus again for the first tim             

Reading March 11 9am

Reader:  A reading from I Corinthians [1:18-25]

Reader: Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.

People:  Open our ears to hear your Word.

Paul meditates on the difficulty of overcoming sin in his own life. He is constantly tempted to serve himself but his faith in Jesus saves him.

The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hellbent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation it makes perfect sense. This is the way God works, and most powerfully as it turns out. It's written,
I'll turn conventional wisdom on its head,
I'll expose so-called experts as crackpots.
So where can you find someone truly wise, truly educated, truly intelligent in this day and age? Hasn't God exposed it all as pretentious nonsense? Since the world in all its fancy wisdom never had a clue when it came to knowing God, God in his wisdom took delight in using what the world considered dumb—preaching, of all things!—to bring those who trust him into the way of salvation.

While Jews clamor for miraculous demonstrations and Greeks go in for philosophical wisdom, we go right on proclaiming Christ, the Crucified. Jews treat this like an anti-miracle—and Greeks pass it off as absurd. But to us who are personally called by God himself—both Jews and Greeks—

Christ is God's ultimate miracle and wisdom all wrapped up in one. Human wisdom is so tinny, so impotent, next to the seeming absurdity of God. Human strength can't begin to compete with God's "weakness."

Reader: Hear what the Spirit is saying to the Church.

People:  Open our ears to hear your Word.

Readings March 11 7.45 & 11am

+The First Lesson: The Lord delivers the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. Above all else, the people are to love God and treat one another with honor and respect.

A Reading from Exodus [20:1-17]

Then God spoke all these words: I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; you shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents, to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the LORD your God; you shall not do any work-- you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.

Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

You shall not murder.

You shall not commit adultery.

You shall not steal.

You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

Reader: The Word of the Lord                                                                                           People: Thanks be to God

Psalm 19  Page  606, BCP

The heavens declare the glory of God, *
and the firmament shows his handiwork.

One day tells its tale to another, *
and one night imparts knowledge to another.

Although they have no words or language, *
and their voices are not heard,

Their sound has gone out into all lands, *
and their message to the ends of the world.

In the deep has he set a pavilion for the sun; *
it comes forth like a bridegroom out of his chamber;
it rejoices like a champion to run its course.

It goes forth from the uttermost edge of the heavens
and runs about to the end of it again; *
nothing is hidden from its burning heat.

The law of the LORD is perfect
and revives the soul; *
the testimony of the LORD is sure
and gives wisdom to the innocent.

8

The statutes of the LORD are just
and rejoice the heart; *
the commandment of the LORD is clear
and gives light to the eyes.

The fear of the LORD is clean
and endures for ever; *
the judgments of the LORD are true
and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold,
more than much fine gold, *
sweeter far than honey,
than honey in the comb.

By them also is your servant enlightened, *
and in keeping them there is great reward.

Who can tell how often he offends? *
cleanse me from my secret faults.

Above all, keep your servant from presumptuous sins;
let them not get dominion over me; *
then shall I be whole and sound,
and innocent of a great offense.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my
heart be acceptable in your sight, *
O LORD, my strength and my redeemer.

+The Second Lesson: Paul meditates on the difficulty of overcoming sin in his own life. He is constantly tempted to serve himself but his faith in Jesus saves him.

A Reading from 1 Corinthians [1:18-25]

The message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written,

"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise,
and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart."

Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided, through the foolishness of our proclamation, to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks desire wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

Reader: The Word of the Lord                                                                                         

 People: Thanks be to God