Posts by Pastor Mark Nelson (Page 10)

Dear Peace Members and Friends, Easter and Holy Week were terrific! If you attended any of the services or joined us online, thank you for celebrating the week with us. Your presence was an inspiration and encouragement in our walk together with the Risen Christ! Thank you! The Easter celebration continues this Sunday. Along with Easter hymns, the children’s Alleluia Choir, and Holy Communion, and the announcement of the results of our Lenten project with Lutheran World Relief, we’ll hear the traditional Gospel for the Sunday after Easter; the story of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearance…

Dear Peace Members and Friends, Holy Week is not a service. Rather, it is an experience. A collection of worship services to immerse yourself in the climax of the story of God redeeming God’s beloved people. It begins tomorrow, Maundy Thursday, continues on Good Friday, and will culminate on Easter Sunday. Throughout, we see Jesus live out his most famous proclamation, “For God so loved the world…..” Here is the worship schedule along with some details: Thursday, April 6th, Maundy Thursday: 7:00pm Friday, April 7th,…

Dear Peace Members and Friends, What a week ahead! Holy Week begins this Sunday with a festival that has two traditional titles: Palm Sunday and Sunday of the Passion. Not one or the other, but both. With palms in our hands; with our Sunday School children singing; with hymns and Scripture—we will remember when Jesus entered Jerusalem for the last week of his life. We will also take part in the Matthew’s Passion of Jesus. Someone will take the role of Jesus; others…

Dear Peace Members and Friends, A reminder of tomorrow evening’s last midweek Lenten church night; worship with Holden Evening Prayer at 6:30pm preceded by dinner served in the Fellowship Hall, beginning at 5:30pm. In worship, we’ll conclude our Lenten sermon series, “Lessons in the Desert.” After 40 years in the desert, the Hebrew people are now finally at the Jordan River and ready to cross into the Promised Land. The people wonder: will there be a repeat of the crossing of the Red Sea when God parted the waters for them…

Dear Peace Members and Friends, It was good to see so many of you out on Wednesday for Holden Evening Prayer and Lenten supper. Our thanks, too, to past Director of Music, MaryLynn Mennicke, for her part in worship. As we turn to Sunday, I realize that the days of Lent are dwindling and Holy Week is not far away! This Sunday is the 5th Sunday in Lent and with it comes a famous Gospel story of Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, and the sisters, Mary and Martha. In this scene, Jesus reveals his power over death by raising…

March 21, 2023 Dear Peace Members and Friends, A reminder of tomorrow’s church night; worship with Holden Evening Prayer at 6:30pm preceded by dinner served in the Fellowship Hall, beginning at 5:30pm. In worship, we’ll continue our Lenten sermon series, “Lessons in the Desert.” We have been focusing on the Hebrews’ journey through the desert on their way to the Promised Land. It was a journey from slavery to freedom and a journey from fear to faith. This is also our journey. And tomorrow, we’ll hear a story from the Bible…

March 17, 2023 Dear Peace Members and Friends, Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Most Americans—even those who are not Irish, and even those who don’t go to Church—know that it’s St. Patrick’s Day (unlike say, St. Olaf of Norway or St. Brigitta of Sweden!). This is the day when people celebrate Ireland’s most famous saint by doing “saintly” things—like drinking green beer, eating corned beef and cabbage, or singing, “And when Irish eyes are smiling, sure they’ll steal your heart away!” Of…

Dear Peace Members and Friends, Tomorrow night, we continue Midweek Lenten Worship series with Holden Evening Prayer and the theme, “Lessons from the Desert.” As you remember, “God led the people by the roundabout way of the of the wilderness toward the Red Sea (Genesis 13:18).” Apparently though, there are no short cuts or straight lines out of Egypt. On the way from slavery to freedom one might very well have to follow the roundabout way, what Robert Frost knew as the road less travelled. It is…

Dear Peace Members and Friends, I look out my window and see the snow coming down—again! I hope that all of you are managing in the continuing winter. And I know one way to help you cope with later-Winter blues: join us for worship on Sunday! It’s the Third Sunday in Lent (10:45am). We’ll read together the famous (and complicated) story of Jesus meeting the woman at the well. I’ll have a message about the life-giving good news of the story entitled, “Say, ‘I Do’.” The Peace…

Dear Peace Members and Friends, Last week, we began our Midweek Lenten Worship series with Holden Evening Prayer and the theme, “Lessons from the Desert.” We started with the Hebrew people, freed from slavery in Egypt, and through the Red Sea. Now they were on their way to the Promised Land. But not so fast! They were in the desert. They could have gone on the other road—literally; the road called the “Way of the Philistines,” with water, rest stops, and restaurants along the way. But…

Dear Peace Members and Friends, Lenten Midweek worship and fellowship begins tomorrow night with worship at 6:30pm, preceded by dinner being served, beginning at 5:30pm! One of the purposes of Lent is to focus our lives on following Christ all the way to the new life that his resurrection announces and offers us. One of the important questions of the season is, “What do I need to leave behind to experience this new life?” One tried and true way to…

Dear Peace Members and Friends, I hope all of you are well getting around after another bout with snow and wind. Take heart! The days are getting longer! Spring is coming! In the meantime, be careful out there! This Sunday begins a new season of the church year: Lent. And along with the calendar shift come changes in worship: new color (purple); new parts of worship (a sung confession, petitionary prayer, hymns, and Communion setting); and new readings (Scripture pointing us to who God…