Thirteenth Annual "Adopt a Grandparent"

During the Holiday season, I enjoy brightening the lives of residents in local assisted living and nursing home facilities in Allegheny County. Many of these people have few, if any, visitors and receive little, if anything, during the Holidays. Last year, through the generosity of local businesses and friends, I helped deliver over 1000 gifts to residents of John J Kane Regional Hospital, Scott Twp and McKeesport, and several other nursing and assisted-living facilities. This year I hope to help deliver 1000 + gifts again. 

By partnering with me, your $15 will provide each of two residents a fragrance-free hand cream and help them have a very Merry Christmas. These items are specifically requested by caregivers for the benefits the residents receive. The lotions will soothe their hands and bring joy, as well, by the simple "touch therapy" of applying them. Donations must be received by Nov. 30th … they will be delivered in early December. 

Please consider what a blessing this is for the men and women in these facilities who once lived and worked in our local communities. Let them know they are remembered! THANK YOU! 

Make your check payable to Ginny GrankeKimberland. If you have questions about how you, your school, or your business can become a sponsor, please contact me at: 

Ginny Granke-Kimberland , 7082 Clubview Dr., Bridgeville, PA 15017 412-427-9013 

Free Advent Devotionals

Free Advent Devotionals
As a part of the 2024 Advent series, His Name Shall Be Called daily devotions focus on the coming Messiah through Advent and Christmas. Take time to ponder these short devotions featuring Scripture, a short message, and a prayer throughout the season of Advent.  

About the Theme
Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God. Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace. These titles from Isaiah 9 describe the Savior who is to come, Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God in human flesh. In this Advent series, Zion Lutheran Church will encounter the person and work of Christ as foretold by the prophet Isaiah. 

Available for free in the Narthex or side entrance.

The Lutheran Study Bible

Introducing the Lutheran Study Bible App

Seven Elements of Stewardship

The LCMS has defined stewardship as “the free and joyous activity of God’s family — the church — in managing life’s resources for His purposes.” Here are seven elements of stewardship:

Stewardship is free.
This means is it without compulsion. While Scripture speaks of the tithe, to turn it into law is to miss the point! Stewardship is not a system of taxation used by the church to survive and pay the bills. Stewards are created in the image of God to manage creation, and redeemed and reconciled to God by the blood of Jesus to be stewards of ministry of the Gospel. However, our stewardship is not our creation. It is the Holy Spirit at work in and through us. This is what makes it truly free. We are simply conduits of the work of the Spirit as we steward the work of the Gospel through the local congregation, district, and Synod.

Stewardship is joyous.
There isn’t anything sad about doing what we were created to be and do. The faithfulness which the Spirit works in us is used to bring and keep people in the faith. The cheerful giver of whom Paul speaks in 2 Corinthians rejoices not in what he does, rather in what the Lord does through him.

Stewardship is the work of the church.
Stewardship is more than just a “me and Jesus” thing. While each person and family are led by the Spirit to set aside what they give on the first day of the week, when it is done in the setting of the Divine Service the Body is working together for the sake of the Gospel. Like the human body, stewardship is so much more than the sum of its parts.

Stewardship includes time.
Time is the single most finite resource entrusted to the individual steward. No amount of timesaving, productivity-increasing strategies will ever add one moment to the week entrusted to the steward. The church and the individual steward must faithfully manage this most finite of resources.

Stewardship includes people.
Individual Christian stewards are the ones who have that finite resource of time entrusted to them. It is crucial that the local congregation is faithful in its management of the time of every member of the Body of Christ. If we invest time and effort in things that do not flow from our true purpose of the stewardship of the Gospel, we are not being faithful. This will rob our people of their freedom and their joy. For this reason, it is critical that WHAT the congregation does and HOW they do it all flows from a knowledge of WHY they are placed there by the Lord of the Church.

Stewardship includes finances.
This is indeed the least finite of the resources entrusted to the steward and to God’s family of the church. I learned this lesson firsthand from a faithful Lutheran farmer decades ago. My wife and I were looking at purchasing land and building a house. When we approached a member about purchasing a section of long abandoned pasture on which we would build, the response came, “Pastor, we love you. But we can always make more money. God’s not going to make any more dirt.” Congregations can always find ways to increase what comes into the congregation in offerings and be more faithful with what is already entrusted. While it is critical that we are indeed faithful with what is entrusted, we dare not make the least finite resource the biggest deal! 

Stewardship is about God’s purposes.
This is what sets Christian stewardship apart from any other kind of stewardship. Worldly stewardship flows from fear. If we are not faithful in our stewardship of the air, water and land, fear says we are going to die! But the Christian steward seeks to be faithful in every aspect of creation because it was created by God and redeemed in the blood of Jesus. Our stewardship flows not from fear but from faith. This faith is driven by the promise of God’s purpose. God’s purpose is that the church’s faithful stewardship be an instrument of His purpose that all people come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. Our stewardship of the Gospel is central and instrumental in this! 

God made us for this stewardship. We failed. In Christ He has redeemed and restored us to this task. We don’t deserve it in any way. But we are free. This freedom is the initiation of our joy. This joy is what leads us to be faithfully active as stewards of all that God entrusts to us for the sake of the Gospel and the benefit and salvation of our neighbor. 

– Mike Kroeger, Elder 
Distilled from an article by Nathan Meador in The Lutheran Witness, Mar 7, 2024 

VIDEO: Sunday November 24, 2024 - Complete Service

View the bulletin for Sunday, November 24, 2024
Archive of AUDIO “Readings & Sermons”
Archive of VIDEO “Complete Service”
Archive of Bulletins

AUDIO: Announcements, Readings, Sermon & Bell Choir for Sunday November 24, 2024

View the bulletin for Sunday, November 24, 2024
Archive of AUDIO “Readings & Sermons”
Archive of VIDEO “Complete Service”
Archive of Bulletins

Old Testament Reading -- Isaiah 51:4–6 
“Give attention to me, my people,
and give ear to me, my nation;
for a law will go out from me,
and I will set my justice for a light to the peoples.
My righteousness draws near,
my salvation has gone out,
and my arms will judge the peoples;
the coastlands hope for me,
and for my arm they wait.
Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look at the earth beneath;
for the heavens vanish like smoke,
the earth will wear out like a garment,
and they who dwell in it will die in like manner;
but my salvation will be forever,
and my righteousness will never be dismayed.” 

Epistle Reading -- Jude 20–25 
But you, beloved, build yourselves up in your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. 

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. 

The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the thirteenth chapter
[Jesus said:] “In those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory. And then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven. 

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. 

“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the cock crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.” 

Faith Bell Choir — When Morning Gilds the Skies 8 am

Zion’s Christmas Video

SAVE THE DATE!
Sunday December 15th following both services
It’s the “Zion Christmas Video”
ALSO: Don’t miss the Sunday School students singing during the 10:30 a.m. service.
AND THERE’S MORE: Join us for a cake reception between service at 9:15 a.m. Sunday December 15th.