Good Shepherd Lutheran Church

Easter Sunday sometimes feels like a “happily ever after” ending to a dramatic story. But taking another look maybe the resurrection doesn’t wrap things up quite as neatly as we think. Maybe it leaves a fair bit of unfinished business. Which sounds familiar. So what’s the good news for people like us whose lives are always works-in-progress?

Today’s worship service will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel at 10:30 am. Join us live, or watch the video here at a later time.

The bulletin for the service can be downloaded here.

Were you there? Singing the well-known spiritual by that name is one of my most haunting and indelible memories of Good Friday growing up. And no, we weren’t there. But the unfathomable mystery of this day is that God is here. With us. In every tragedy, brokenness, and darkness of our world. With a love whose depth confounds us and holds us in its unbreakable embrace.

We gather at 10:30 AM this morning to hear the story of our Lord’s Passion as we enter into the mystery and profundity of Good Friday. Today’s service will also be live-streamed on our YouTube channel.

As we begin our journey through the three days tonight we read scriptures that speak to us of interruptions. Most of us are not usually fond of interruptions. They often prevent us from doing what we want to do, going where we want to go, or saying what we want to say. Unless it’s God behind the interruptions. Then they just might save our life.

We will gather at today 6 pm for a dinner of soup and bread. During dinner you are invited to participate in the foot-washing. We will then gather for worship (both in-person and live-streamed on our YouTube channel) at 7 pm including Holy Communion and the stripping of the altar.

Maundy Thursday

We will gather at 6 pm for a dinner of soup and bread. During dinner you are invited to participate in the foot- washing. We will then gather for worship at 7 pm including Holy Communion and the stripping of the altar.

Good Friday

We gather at 10:30 am for a service of Tennebrae in which candles are extinguished during a dramatic reading of the passion story.

Easter Sunday Celebration Service

We will begin our morning of celebration of our Lord’s resurrection with an Easter Continental potluck breakfast from 9 to 10 am. All are invited to bring finger-food style items to contribute (like croissants, muffins, cheese, kolbassa, cut up ham, fruits, mini quiche, hot cross buns, veggies… etc.) There will also be an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids. This will be followed at 10:30 am with a Family Celebration Service. Don’t forget to bring flowers from your garden to decorate the cross.

Holy Week begins with the celebration of Palm Sunday. This year again we focus on Palm Sunday and leave the Passion story to the other services of this coming week, which allows us to focus on a word we say every Sunday in worship but maybe don’t think very much about. And yet it’s a word that can do much to help us enter into the full experience of this coming week…Hosanna!

Today’s worship service will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel at 10:30 am. Join us live, or watch the video here at a later time.

The bulletin for the service can be downloaded here.

Dry bones coming back to life, a dead man raised…almost sounds like hints of resurrection ahead. Although this week it’s our own resurrection we contemplate. Resurrection to eternal life. Or is that resurrection to abundant life? Or both? So many questions!

Today’s worship service will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel at 10:30 am. Join us live, or watch the video here at a later time.

The bulletin for the service can be downloaded here.

It’s quite remarkable that for all the stories of Jesus healing people in the Bible, no two are exactly the same. The story of the man born blind contains the graphic detail of Jesus making mud with his saliva and spreading it on the man’s eyes. But it’s a story that reminds us also of another means of healing much less dramatic but no less powerful. And one that puts the healing in our hands.

Today’s worship service will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel at 10:30 am. Join us live, or watch the video here at a later time.

The bulletin for the service can be downloaded here.

Thirst can be a very unpleasant thing. But there’s thirst, and then there’s thirst. Jesus speaks today about a thirst we maybe don’t often recognize. And then speaks of a kind of water we can’t get enough of.

Today’s worship service will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel at 10:30 am. Join us live, or watch the video here at a later time.

The bulletin for the service can be downloaded here.

“I was born again” may not be the language we as Lutheran are completely comfortable with. But we should be. Because that’s what happened to us in our baptism. However, more than just the declaration of intellectual assent which that statement usually implies, the new birth we believe in involves our whole being: mind, will, body, and spirit. And that kind of new life can be a pretty powerful thing.

Today’s worship service will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel at 10:30 am. Join us live, or watch the video here at a later time.

The bulletin for the service can be downloaded here.

Temptation is one of the most common and vexing of human experiences. One of those things that can mess up our relationship with God, each other, and creation pretty effectively. So perhaps beginning with a reflection on temptation is a good thing to do at the start of our Lenten journey. And yet the temptation that lurks in our gospel story today may hardly feel like a temptation at all. Look and listen carefully.

Today’s worship service will be live-streamed on our YouTube channel at 10:30 am. Join us live, or watch the video here at a later time.

The bulletin for the service can be downloaded here.