Getting Ready for Church: Palm Sunday

Pastor

2 years ago

Dear friends in Christ,

Tomorrow is Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week. We follow our Lord from the shouts of Hosanna and the waving of Palms through to the empty tomb and His victory over death. In between we receive the gifts of His body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins; His dying on the cross in our place, our Lord receiving what our sins deserve; and His rest in the tomb, hallowing our graves and opening to us the way of everlasting life. We are doing more than recalling history. Through hearing the Gospel and receiving the Sacrament, through prayer and singing the praises of Jesus who died for us, we are participating in these events.

It can be tempting to think that if we have gone to church once a week, then we have met our church quota and we don’t need anymore. But if you have never been to all the services of Holy Week (or even if you have), make sure that not only are you here the next three Sundays, you set aside Thurs Apr 6, Fri Apr 7, and Sat Apr 8 at 6pm each night for our special services. The Good News of Easter morning means so much more when you have heard, prayed, sang, and meditated on everything that led upt to the Empty Tomb.

I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord” (Psalm 122:1)

Scripture Readings For the Week:

Our Palm Sunday service will begin in the fellowship hall (Little Lambs). Our Service will begin there with the blessing of the palm branches and hearing the gospel reading of Jesus’ triumphal entry on Palm Sunday. We will process in with our palm branches while singing “All Glory Laud and Honor.” Please gather in the fellowship hall a little before 10am. In this service, we will also hear the account of Jesus’ crucifixion from Matt 27. Pastor will sing this like he usually does. This service will be slightly longer than a normal Sunday service. That’s okay. Our Lord endured the agonies of the cross for us. We can take time to hear and contemplate what the Scripture says about our Savior’s dying love for us, call on Him in prayer, and praise Him with our songs. Just as He entered Jerusalem to glad shouts of joy, may our hearts be open and receive Him with joy in this most Holy of weeks.

*Christ Carrying the Cross, with the Entry of Christ into Jerusalem*, Master of the Turin Adoration (Netherlandish (active southern Netherlands), active c. 1490–c. 1510)

Prayers of the Day:

Most merciful God, as the people of Jerusalem, with palms in their hands, gathered to greet Your dearly beloved Son when He came into His Holy City, grant that we may ever hail Him as our King and, when He comes again, may go forth to meet Him with trusting and steadfast hearts and follow Him in the way that leads to eternal life; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Almighty and everlasting God, You sent Your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to take upon Himself our flesh and to suffer death upon the cross. Mercifully grant that we may follow the example of His great humility and patience and be made partakers of His resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Hymns

442 All Glory, Laud, and Honor
438 A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth
634 The Death of Jesus Christ, Our Lord
450 O Sacred Head, Now Wounded
420 Christ, the Life of All the Living
A Spotify Playlist of Our Lenten Hymns

Bach Cantata for the Week

BWV 182, Himmelskönig, sei willkommen(Video | Translation)

Strong compassion,
Which, O mighty Son of God,
From the throne
Of thy majesty did drive thee!
Strong compassion,
That thou didst to heal the world
As a victim give thyself,
That thyself with blood didst sentence.
BWV 182

Our mission offerings for April

will go towards the newly forming Luther Classical College in Casper. The mission of the college is this:
“Imagine a college where students learn:

to value marriage and family over career and money.
that men are men and women are women, with God-given and beautiful differences and roles.
that to be a father is greater than being the president and to be a mother is greater than being a queen.
that the Bible is the wisdom of God far surpassing all the wisdom of men.
that the Lutheran Church has the greatest theology, the best hymns, the most excellent music in the history of the world.
that Bible, hymns, prayer, devotion, and talking about God belong in our homes every day.
that children are a heritage from the Lord, the only thing in all the earth we can take to heaven with us.
that piety is better than wealth and virtue is better than fame.
that the Western tradition, with its literature, philosophy, music, scientific discovery, and Christian theology, is by far the greatest tradition the world has ever seen.
that socialism is theft and wokism is bullying.
that Christian culture grows through supporting faithful churches and leading pious homes.

This is the mission of Luther Classical College. Proudly and unapologetically Lutheran in liturgy, theology, and culture. Lutheran. Conservative. Classical. A college for Lutherans.”

So far the college has raised over $1 million in support from individuals and over 100 Lutheran congregations. LCC has hired an Academic Dean who will begin work in August of this year. Construction has begun on a library for the college and books are being acquired. LCC is hosting the Christian Culture Confernce June 6th and 7th with the topic of “The Bright Future of the Lutheran Church in America.” You can click any of these links to find out much more.

I see that the Masons are holding a pancake feed to support the marching band. Supporting the kids in their musical endeavors is a fine thing to do, and if you want to do that, you can certainly make a donation. However, tomorrow is the Lord’s Day, not to mention Palm Sunday, and as a Christian you should not set aside the 3rd Commandment and endanger your inheritance in Christ for a short stack. It is also probably as good as time as any to remind everyone of our church’s teaching regarding the lodges:

Freemasonry as a general principle prohibits its members from bearing witness to Christ in lodge meetings. When discussing the 10th degree of the Scottish Rite, Albert Pike, a prolific Masonic author, writes: “The Mason’s creed goes further than that. No man, it holds, has any right in any way to interfere with the religious belief of another.”18 In other words, in the midst of a lodge’s religious rituals a
Christian would not be allowed to bear witness to Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior lest such witness offend a fellow lodge member. By accepting a required silence regarding such witness, he is, in effect, denying Jesus before others.

Perhaps the denial of Christ in Masonry can best be summed up in the following statement from the Maundy Thursday ritual of the Rose Croix (18th degree) of the Scottish Rite: “We meet this day to commemorate the death (of Jesus), not as inspired or divine, for this is not for us to decide.”19 A Christian who subscribes to Lutheran confessional teaching believes that the Heavenly Father’s gift of eternal life in heaven can only be received through faith created by the Holy Spirit in the work of salvation completed by God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

On the basis of considerations such as the above, it is the official position of the LCMS that a member of an LCMS congregation should not hold membership in any organization whose rituals teach a salvation by works, invoke a generic Supreme Being, and deliberately omit any reference to the truth regarding the person and work of God’s Son.
LCMS CTCR “MEMBERSHIP IN CERTAIN FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS A PASTORAL APPROACH”

See everyone tomorrow on the Lord’s Day!

In Christ,

Pastor Sherman