Glory Of Christ Lutheran Church

Glory Of Christ Lutheran Church updated their information in their About section.

These lovely ladies from Glory Of Christ Lutheran Church visited Parks’ Place today. They delivered some beautiful quilts that were handmade by the Compassion Circle. Winter isn’t over yet and their patterns are a breath of fresh air! These quilts will be well used. We are thankful for their caring hearts❤️

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You are invited to Perspectives: Science, Religion and Meaning.

Sunday, October 24, 2021 12:30-3:30 pm

Register for this free presentation at https://www.gloryofchrist.org/events/perspectives-science-religion

So much fun and perfect weather at the Glory of Christ golf tournament today!

Please consider donating!
You may call 1-800-RED CROSS or visit:
RedCrossBlood.org and enter:
GLORYOFCHRISTPLYM to schedule an appointment. Thanks!

Praising God for a great week of VBS.

Praising God for a great week of VBS.

The Sunday School Families of Glory of Christ would like to share the story of our Savior! Please enjoy! Merry Christmas!

Glory of Christ | Glory of Christ Sunday School Christmas Video 2020 This is a page on the Glory of Christ website. Check it out!

2nd Sunday after Pentecost
June 14, 2020
Bulletin available at https://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/c7e660d81d/attachments/Setting_3_-_Second_Sunday_after_Pentecost.pdf

Glory of Christ | 2nd Sunday after Pentecost Please click on Resources below to view the weekly bulletin and 5 Minutes of Prayer.

Holy Trinity
June 6, 2020
Bulletin available athttps://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/29b3aa7aec/attachments/Setting_3_-_Holy_Trinity.pdf

Glory of Christ | Holy Trinity Please click on Resources below to view the weekly bulletin and 5 Minutes of Prayer.

The Day of Pentecost
May 31, 2020
Bulletin available at https://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/bddd7b6830/attachments/Setting_3_-_The_Day_of_Pentecost.pdf

Glory of Christ | The Day of Pentecost Please click on Resources below to view the weekly bulletin and 5 Minutes of Prayer.

The Ascension of our Lord
May 24, 2020
Bulletin available at
https://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/2e605e6e50/attachments/Setting_3_-_The_Ascension_of_our_Lord.pdf

Glory of Christ | The Ascension of our Lord Please click on Resources below to view the weekly bulletin and 5 Minutes of Prayer.

We'll be starting adult Bible study over on the group page at 10:40AM.

Today we'll be studying Daniel 3, and the "classic" tale of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego being cast inside the fiery furnace.

6th Sunday of Easter
May 17, 2020
Bulletin available athttps://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ee2099e913/attachments/Matins_-_Sixth_Sunday_of_Easter.pdf

www.gloryofchrist.org

5th Sunday of Easter
May 10, 2020
Bulletin available athttps://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/175574b995/attachments/Matins_-_Fifth_Sunday_of_Easter.pdf

www.gloryofchrist.org

Just a reminder that our Sunday School ... All Grown Up livestream begins at 10:40 over on the Group page.

4th Sunday of Easter
May 3, 2020
Bulletin available at https://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/49452431b0/attachments/Matins_-_Fourth_Sunday_of_Easter.pdf

www.gloryofchrist.org

3rd Sunday of Easter
April 26, 2020
Bulletin available at https://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/4e67a9f207/attachments/Setting_4_-_Third_Sunday_of_Easter.pdf

Glory of Christ | 3rd Sunday of Easter Please click on Resources below to view the weekly bulletin.

https://www.maryjmoerbe.com/2020/04/23/friday-hymn-fest/

Friday Hymn Fest! - Meet, Write, & Salutary: Conversation & Community for Lutheran Writers Dr. Scott Hyslop, Director of Parish Music at St. Lorenz Lutheran Church in Frankenmuth, Michigan, is offering a Friday hymn festival tomorrow!

Sunday School... All Grown Up is getting underway on the group page now.

2nd Sunday of Easter
April 19, 2020
Bullitin available at https://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/bfcb001394/attachments/Setting_4_-_Second_Sunday_of_Easter.pdf

www.gloryofchrist.org

The Resurrection of our Lord
April 12, 2020
Bullitin available at https://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/6121255051/attachments/Setting_3_-_The_Resurection_of_our_Lord.pdf

Glory of Christ | The Resurrection of our Lord Please click on Resources below to view the weekly bulletin.

Good Friday
April 10, 2020
Bulletin available at
https://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/01c75df097/attachments/Good_friday_service_2020.pdf

www.gloryofchrist.org

Journey to the Cross
Friday - Justice

Matthew 26:57-27:66
Mark 14:53-15:47
Luke 22:54-23:56
John 18:12-19:42

After Jesus is arrested in the garden, they take him to a clandestine interrogation at the high priest’s house, where Peter follows but soon finds himself denying his Lord. At daybreak, the whole council was assembled for a kangaroo court, only to haul him over to Pilate, the Roman governor. He was handed over briefly to Herod, who expected him to do magic tricks, but was then shuttled back to Pilate. After several rounds of questioning, having Jesus unnecessarily flogged, a failed attempt to get him pardoned, and then washing his hands of the whole ordeal, Pilate finally acquiesces and hands Jesus over to the religious leaders to have him crucified.

They mock Jesus in a crown and robe, then strip him and send him off to Calvary. The nails, the weeping women, the passers-by, and the charges above his head: was this really the king? Then there were the criminals on his right and his left and the sponge of sour wine and the cry of dereliction and finally, “it is finished.” Upon his death, the earth shook, the temple curtain tore, and the centurion, the Roman centurion confessed, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”

All of the themes converge on Good Friday: temple, kingship, sacrifice, Passover, the end times, and more. It’s far too much to cover in one brief devotion. So we’ll focus on one: justice.

Depending on how you count them, Jesus goes through as many as six trials between Thursday night and Friday morning, but he is denied justice in all of them. When he is first arrested, Jesus is not taken to a court, but the high priest’s house for a private trial. This breaks all the rules. Then, after they have gathered their trumped-up charges, they haul him in front of the Sanhedrin and make a mockery of justice there. They denied him witnesses and charged him with unproven blasphemy.

When they send him off to Pilate, curiously, the leaders change the charges from blasphemy to insurrection. But Pilate can see through this charade. He quickly declares, “I find no guilt in this man.” When he finds out that Jesus is Galilean and not under his jurisdiction, he passes Jesus off to Herod in the hopes that he won’t have to deal with it. But Herod sends him back, and the religious leadership are still bent on crucifixion. Two more times Pilate protests his innocence. “Why, what evil has he done?”

Even though Pilate will eventually cave into the crowd’s demands, he does rightly protest Jesus’ innocence multiple times. In this murderous cacophony, Pilate’s voice is often the only voice of justice. These multiple trials clearly demonstrate that Jesus is denied justice. He is truly innocent. Jesus does not deserve to die.

Yet on the other hand, justice will be served. Jesus isn’t there on the cross because of his own guilt, he hangs there for ours. The famous words of Isaiah come to mind, “he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities.” Yet, Jesus has taken what is ours to be his. Our guilt becomes his, and our penalty falls on him. So when Jesus is crucified, it is not unjust, because he is suffering the due punishment for the sins of the whole world. They’re his sins; he just didn’t commit any of them.

The charges that Pilate posted, “king of the Jews,” may have been a jab at the Jewish leadership, but they speak more truth than they realize. Jesus is crucified for being the king, for the king is always a representative of the people. His people deserve to die, so he dies. To be the king of damned people is ultimately a death sentence.

So on Good Friday, justice and injustice are juxtaposed. But it’s not for long. The king and all his people will come out on the other side into a whole new world, where justice has been served, and a new live begins.

Maundy Thursday
April 9, 2020
Bulletin available at https://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/2e5a804dac/attachments/Maundy_Thursday_2020.pdf

Glory of Christ | Maundy Thursday Please click on Resources below to view the weekly bulletin.

"On Pascha" by Melito of Sardis

You can file this under "bonus material" for Maundy Thursday. Melito was bishop of Sardis in the second century. He wrote a rather famous (and still quite readable!) sermon on Christ's fulfillment of the Passover. If you have a few minutes, the whole text is available online. But here's an excerpt:

"Therefore, come, all families of men, you who have been befouled with sins, and receive forgiveness for your sins. I am your forgiveness, I am the passover of your salvation, I am the lamb which was sacrificed for you, I am your ransom, I am your light, I am your saviour, I am your resurrection, I am your king, I am leading you up to the heights of heaven, I will show you the eternal Father, I will raise you up by my right hand. "

http://www.kerux.com/doc/0401A1.asp

On the Passover - Melito of Sardis - Kerux 4:1 (May 1989)

Journey to the Cross
Thursday - the lamb

Matthew 26:17-56
Mark 14:17-52
Luke 22:7-53
John 13:1-18:12

With Thursday, we enter more familiar territory, as Jesus meets with his disciples in the upper room, celebrates the Last Supper, prays in the garden, and is finally betrayed. According to the Jewish reckoning of days, Friday begins at nightfall (rather than midnight), so some of these events would be considered to be on Friday, but for our purposes we’ll still call it Thursday.

Jesus’ coming to Jerusalem at this time was not an accident. Thursday began the Passover, the celebration of God’s deliverance of his people from their slavery to the Egyptians. At the first Passover, each family was to sacrifice a perfect lamb and mark the doors of their houses with its blood. When the Lord passed through Egypt, He passed over (hence the name) any household with blood on its door frame. They lived because the lamb died. The Lord established Passover as an annual festival for the Israelites, when they would also sacrifice a lamb, paint their door frames with its blood, and sit down to a meal where they would eat the lamb who died in their place.

As Jesus sat down to celebrate the Passover with his disciples, with the blood fresh on the doorframe outside, it began as it always did. But at some point in the celebration, Jesus went off-script. When he took the bread, rather than saying whatever every Jewish head of the household would have normally said, Jesus handed it to the disciples saying, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

This is what? You can imagine the disciples hesitantly taking the bread as they stole furtive glances at each other, “do you know what’s going on?” Jesus just took the Passover in a very unexpected direction. But perhaps they remembered what Jesus had said to the incredulous crowds, “my body is real food.”

Then, Jesus took the cup and went off script a second time. He gave it to them saying, “drink of it all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” The cup was part of the Passover, but these words were not. There were certain lines Jesus was supposed to say about the cup of blessing. But instead, Jesus says that this wine was actually his blood, the blood of a new covenant. And his blood would forgive their sins.

If the disciples remembered their Sunday School lessons, this all would have sounded eerily like what happened on Mount Sinai. After Moses had received all the instructions from the Lord, there was a formal ceremony where God officially established the covenant with his people. Moses took the sacrificial blood and sprinkled it on the people and the altar and declared it “the blood of the covenant” that bound the Lord to them and them to the Lord. Now Jesus says that in this cup is his blood, which is the blood of a new covenant between us and the Lord. It is not a covenant sealed with the blood of an animal, but with the blood of the Son of God himself.

None of this is an accident. There in the upper room on Thursday, Jesus completes the Passover. It was never the blood of the lambs that saved them from death and marked them as God’s covenant people. All those lambs year after year after year only pointed ahead to the Lamb, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. And in the Supper, he gives us his own flesh to eat and his own blood to drink. Now, his blood marks our door, and death passes over us, because his death means life for us.

Journey to the Cross
Digging deeper

In the devotion today, we discussed Jesus' sermon to his disciples on the Mount of Olives. The fancy-pants title for it is the "Eschatological Discourse," eschatology meaning end-times-related. If you'd like to dig deeper into this discourse, MUCH deeper, I recommend a book by Dr. Jeffery Gibbs, Jerusalem and Parousia. (Full disclosure: Dr. Gibbs was a professor of mine at seminary.) Be warned, this is essentially a more readable version of Dr. Gibbs' dissertation, so it's not exactly light reading. But that being said, I have yet to find a better treatment anywhere of the Eschatological discourse in the book of Matthew.

I think the book is officially out of print, but you can always download it as an e-book or buy a used copy.

https://www.amazon.com/Jerusalem-Parousia-Eschatological-Discourse-Matthews/dp/0570042887

Jerusalem and Parousia: Jesus' Eschatological Discourse in Matthew's Gospel The Eschatological Discourse of Jesus in Matthew 24:1-26:2 is unique by virtue of its concluding position and the summarizing addition of "all" to its transitional formula. In addition, whereas Jesus' words in the other four major discourses speak in part regarding events beyond the tempo...

Journey to the Cross
Wednesday - the end

Matthew 24:1-26:16
Mark 13:1-14:11
Luke 21:4-22:6

Wednesday is quite a full day. The woman anoints Jesus’ feet. Judas agrees to betray Jesus. But most of what the Gospels record is a long discussion with His disciples on the mount of Olives.

After Jesus left the temple, Jesus told the disciples “there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down,” predicting the destruction of the temple by the Romans in 70 A.D. When the disciples hear it, they assume that it will be the end of the world, and they want the inside scoop on (1) when it’s going to happen and (2) what the sign will be. But the disciples are mistaken. They wrongly conclude that the destruction of the temple is the end of the world because they (just like everyone else) failed to understand that Jesus is the true temple, the place where God dwells with mankind and the means by which we are reconciled to God. So the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem may be a sign of judgment, but it cannot be the end of the world. The true temple, Christ, will be torn down on the cross, but then he will be “rebuilt” again in three days.

Nevertheless, Jesus does answer the disciples’ questions, although perhaps not in the way they expect.
There will be many events that will look like signs: wars, natural disasters, persecutions, and more. But these are “normal” in this present, evil age. In a world broken by sin, we should expect to see signs of brokenness, but they’re not a signs of the end. There is no advance sign for Jesus’ return. When He comes, it will be unexpected and unmistakable. His coming will be like lightning that lights up the sky—you can’t miss it.

But just because we can’t predict the coming of Jesus doesn’t mean we shouldn’t concern ourselves with it. On the contrary, we should eagerly expect it! Jesus tells two parables to this effect. The first is about ten virgins who are waiting for the bridegroom to come, but only half of them are prepared. The second parable is about a master who goes away and entrusts his servants with his property. When the master returns, he commends the servants who put his resources to work, but he rebukes the servant who was so lazy and distrusting that he did nothing with this master’s money. Finally, Jesus concludes his teaching to his disciples by describing his return and how he will judge the world, separating the believers from the unbelievers like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

All of this talk about Jesus’ return, however, has another purpose. It prepares us for the end-time judgment that comes early on Good Friday. The great reckoning of humanity does not wait for Jesus’ second coming, but for the citizens of God’s kingdom, the reckoning of our sins falls on Jesus as he suffers on the cross. In the Old Testament, the signs associated with the Lord’s end-time judgment are darkness, earthquakes, and resurrection. On good Friday, darkness covers the land for three hours. When Jesus breathes his last, the ground shakes. And after he dies, (most of us forget this little detail) many of the dead are raised. In His crucifixion and death, Jesus suffers the end-time judgment of God in our place, so that when the last day really does come, we will be exempt from that judgment, for Christ has already borne it on his shoulders.

Journey to the Cross
Tuesday - kingdom

Matthew 21:23-23:39
Mark 11:27-12:44
Luke 20:1-21:4

On Tuesday, Jesus journeyed back into Jerusalem again and, for the third day in a row, he returned to the temple courts. Only today, it was not to drive out the animals but to drive out the religious leaders.

This is one of the places in Holy Week where the timeline gets a little fuzzy. Jesus most likely began his debates with the religious leaders on Tuesday and then wrapped them up the next day. Although the Gospels are very clear about what Jesus said on these days, they’re not entirely clear on when he said them.

The tension between Jesus and the religious leadership of Israel has been building throughout the entire Gospel, and here in the temple courts, his open conflict with them comes to a head. But this is no mere clashing of personalities. The religious leadership have failed to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, and therefore they refuse to welcome his kingly reign.

Jesus begins with a parable about farmers who failed to acknowledge the authority of the son, and then a parable about people invited to a wedding banquet but refused to come. Both of these parables demonstrate how the religious leadership have refused to acknowledge Jesus’ messianic authority.

Then the religious leaders try and stump Jesus with questions about taxes and the resurrection and the greatest commandment. But Jesus sidesteps all of their traps and instead ask them a question that reveals that they don’t really understand what to expect from the Messiah.

Then Jesus turns to the crowds and warns them about how the religious leadership fundamentally failed to see God's reign manifest in himself and therefore excluded themselves from the Lord's gracious kingdom. Jesus cries woe to the hypocritical religious leadership. Woe to their showy religiosity. Woe to their preoccupation with their status. Woe to their empty legalism. And woe to their self-righteousness. of God's protection.

This, the last of Jesus’ open appearances in the temple, ends on a sad note. Just before he leaves the temple, Jesus laments how his own people (“Jerusalem”) historically rejected those whom God sent to them. Now, when Father sent his own Son, they have even rejected him as well.

"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! See, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"
(Matthew 23:37-39)

But even in this sad lament, Jesus reveals the merciful heart of God. Jesus longed to gather all of his people together, like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings.Yes, the wrath of God is poured out on him as he hangs on the cross, and with his outstretched arms, he shields us.

Journey to the Cross
Monday - the temple

The first three days of Holy Week Jesus spends largely in the temple precincts. To make sense of Jesus’ time there, we need to understand that the temple is God’s response to humanity’s eviction from the garden. While they were still in Eden, the Lord dwelt there with Adam and Eve there. But outside of the garden, the separation from God became all but infinite. So from that point on, the pressing question of history was: how could humanity be brought back into the presence of God? Part of the answer was the temple.

The word “temple” is actually the same word as “palace.” That makes the temple God’s royal residence. The temple in Jerusalem mean that God lived in the same neighborhood as his people. He’s right down the street. To borrow a line from Isaiah, the temple was Immanuel, God with us.

After all the excitement of Palm Sunday, Jesus and his disciples left Jerusalem and stayed in one of the surrounding towns called Bethany, just a short walk from the holy city. On Monday, Jesus and the disciples went back into Jerusalem and Jesus entered the temple courts and was not pleased with what he found there. The temple courts had been turned into a market, selling sacrificial animals at premium prices as a convenience to those who did not want travel all the way from home with their offering in tow.

When Jesus saw all the peddling in the temple, He was incensed. He flipped over tables and scattered the money and he drove out the animals. And in the midst of this chaos, Jesus declared, “Take these things away; do not make my Father’s house a house of trade.”

Wait, “my Father’s house?” What’s Jesus saying?

It’s just as shocking as it sounds. He is saying that God is his dad, and this temple is his house. But the powers that be in Jerusalem have been acting like it belongs to them, and they decided to put a crooked market in God’s front yard.

You can imagine the furious sellers watching their wares run out the temple gates and the coins cascading across the stone pavement as Jesus completely upended their businesses. So they asked, probably through gritted teeth, “What sign do you show us for doing these things?” In other words, “what gives you the right?”
But Jesus doesn’t flash his Temple Inspector id badge. He simply says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” Naturally, when Jesus says “this temple,” they think he’s referring to the stones and the wood and the gold. But John clues us in: “But he was speaking about the temple of his body.”

For all those years, the temple was the place where the people knew that God would be there for them. It was the place where he heard their prayers, where he received their sacrifices, and where their sins were atoned for. It was all good; it was designed by God. But the Jerusalem temple was only a placeholder until the real temple came. Jesus is the real temple. He is the way that God lives with His people again. He is the mediator of our prayers. He is the priest who offers the sacrifice for us. And he is the sacrifice itself to pay for our sins and to restore our estrangement from God. Jesus’ role as the temple will culminate on the altar of the cross. But all of his audacious claims will be vindicated when he rises again on the third day.

Journey to the Cross
A step-by-step journey through Holy Week

In the church year, we have the opportunity to journey through the life of Jesus: his birth, his baptism, his miracles, his teaching, his temptation. When we get to Holy Week, church time slows down to real time. The most important week in the life of Jesus becomes the most important week of our lives too.

For the next five days, I encourage you to read along, day-by-day though Holy Week. Each day, I’ll post the Gospel lessons that correspond to that day. In that way, we’ll walk the road to the cross right along with Jesus. I will also include a short devotional that picks up on the themes for that day.

For all the info-geeks (like me) out there, the folks over at Bible Gateway have put all of Holy Week into a graphical timeline. Enjoy!

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You'll find the adult bible study livestream by navigating to the group page. Just click on the live feed at the very top.

Sunday of the Passion
April 5, 2020
Bulletin available athttps://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/3a8c5c01d1/attachments/RP2_-The_Sunday_of_the_Passion_2020.pdf

Glory of Christ | Sunday of the Passion Please click on Resources below to view the weekly bulletin.

Midweek Lenten Service
April 1, 2020
Bulletin available athttps://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/20cefbc7df/attachments/4-1-20_Mid-Week_Lenten_PM_Service_-_Compline.pdf

Glory of Christ | Midweek Lenten Service - "The World Crucified Please click on Resources below to view the weekly bulletin.

Fifth Sunday in Lent.
Bulletin available athttps://clovermedia.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/c75e3d0108/attachments/Setting_3_-_The_Fifth_Sunday_in_Lent.pdf

Glory of Christ | 5th Sunday in Lent Please click on Resources below to view the weekly bulletin.

We're ramping up our online Bible Study series entitled "Sunday School... All Grown Up."

We'll be kicking things off this coming Monday (March 30th), and there's an introductory post ready and waiting for group members.

Please consider joining us!

Dear Glory of Christ members:

We're going to be trying out an "online" approach to Sunday Bible study for the time being. If you've been attending the recent adult Bible study series entitled "Sunday School... All Grown Up," or even if you've never attended before, please consider joining the group that's directly linked to this page.

We'll send out additional updates as we work to get this "e-study" format off the ground and running in the next few weeks.

We look forward to having you join us.