Many thanks to the children of Grace for sharing the Good News with us on Christmas Eve, they worked very hard to make this year’s play a very special part of our celebration!
Grace Dinner Church – Friday March 22, 2019
Join us at 6:00 p.m. in Fellowship Hall. All are welcome!Dinner Church is a time for worship, conversation, food and fellowship. RSVP to Kathryn at verkouw@gmail.com or by calling the church office at 717-397-2748.
Music at Grace Concert – March 24
Sunday March 24, 2019 at 3:00 p.m.
The Lancaster Chamber Singers
The Lancaster Chamber Singers, conducted by Jay W. Risser, has played a major role in quality performances of choral masterpieces in central Pennsylvania and beyond since the group’s founding in 1978. The select group consists of 35 to 40 auditioned vocalists from varied walks of life. In addition to performing a capella, the group performs with Lancaster area instrumentalists and chamber ensembles.
Deborah Elizabeth Circle
For just this month, the Deborah/Elizabeth Circle will meet on the fourth Tuesday.
We will gather on Tuesday, March 26th at 10:30 AM in the Round in the Muhlenberg Building on the Luther Acres campus in Lititz and continue our study, “Meetings with Jesus,” based on John’s Gospel. This month’s session is entitled “Friends for Life in Christ.” Please join us for a time of study and conversation. At about 11:30 we will conclude with lunch together. For further information please contact Joyce Saeger or Carol Main.
Save the Date! Saturday, April 6, 2019
“Preparing to be Dust” 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, 750 Greenfield Rd, Lancaster, PA 17601
Please join members of Grace Lutheran Church and The Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd on April 6th, 2019 for our Lenten Retreat where we will explore how we can have both a good life and a good death. Participants are encouraged to read Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, prior to the retreat. Copies of the book can be purchased through Grace Lutheran for $11 (please let us know by March 1st), available in e-book form, and available at the Lancaster County Library. We will be taking time to fill out Five Wishes Forms and funeral templates for our respective congregations. A representative from Charles F. Snyder Funeral Homes & Crematory will join us in the morning to speak about the services they offer. In the afternoon we will have presentation from Hospice & Community Care titled “Making Your Wishes Known: A Living Will is Not Enough.”
A light breakfast and lunch will be provided. Cost per participant is $10.
Stewardship Snippets
March 17, 2019 (2nd Sunday in Lent, Year C)
Psalm 27:1 – The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? As the news media, advertising executives and politicians know well, fear is the great motivator of people, it is a negative one. Trusting in God’s power and providence,steward/disciples tap into a better source of motivation.
Youth Group—Escape Room Event
Sunday April 14th, 2019 – Cost $12 per participant. Please RSVP to Angie by March 24th, 2019.
Easter Flower Orders
Due Friday, April 12
Order forms are available in the Narthex and outside of St. Peter Chapel. The cost is $10.00 per plant. Plants may be picked up following the Easter Sunday (10:30 a.m.) service. Plants that are not picked up will be taken to our homebound members.
Fountain Flowers
Opportunities to share plants and flowers for the fountain will be available beginning Sunday, April 28th and continuing through June 2nd. Families may buy plants and flowers to decorate the Fountain on the Sunday they choose, delivering them to church on Saturday and following Sunday services, take their plants home. Please call the church office @ 397-2748 with questions or to sign up.
Return to the Lord Your God
By Angela N. Smith, MDiv, MA
Last week was the first in a series of articles that focuses on returning to the LORD your God during this Lenten season. Throughout this season I will be writing about what it means to come home to the church and as the church.
As I was writing last week, I knew that my audience would know, at least for the most part, what it means to come home to a loving family and a place at the table. However, we live in a world where not everyone has a home let alone a table with food, where the thing they need the most, love, they don’t have access to. It’s easy to talk about coming home when you know what it means to come home. It’s easy to ask people to come and find a place at the table, when they know what it means to break bread in a nurturing environment. It’s easy to write about there being a place for everyone when you don’t have to worry about where you will sleep and when and what you will eat again. I’m not going to ask you to put yourself in someone else’s shoes, I don’t find that to be helpful in our communal life together; empathy will only get us so far.
Rather than trying to empathize with those for whom the idea of having a safe place to come home to is foreign, let’s think and pray about and work toward a world in which there is enough for everyone. Not excess. Enough. A world in which these statistics are horrors of the past
1) 821 million people around the world – that’s more than 1 in 10 – can’t access the food they need to live active, healthy lives.
2) According to the most recent estimates, 736 million people live in extreme poverty on less than $1.90 per day. That’s 10% of the world’s population.
3) At some point in 2017 (the most recent year available), more than 40 million people in the United States were unsure where their next meal might come from.
4) 39.7 million Americans were living in poverty in 2017. For a family of four, this means their annual household income was below $25,094.
This year as a congregation we are participating in the ELCA World Hunger’s Forty Days of Giving. If you haven’t already, please pick up a devotional in the narthex or outside the chapel. This Lenten season as we return home to the LORD our God, let us pray and work for a world in which there is a place at not only at the foot of the cross for everyone, but also a home, a table, and love for everyone.
It is love that compels us to give of our time, talents, and possessions for the sake of the world.
For it was Love that gave himself for the life of the world. It is Love himself that calls us home, to this place, into his church, to this table. Come, return the LORD your God.
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