The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
                         slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 

~Psalm 145:8             

Bless the World: Be God’s Grace!

Behind the scenes at Grace …..by Gretchen

1. The acorns are falling – our family of squirrels is not eating them fast enough so please be careful when walking up to the office area and by Brenner Hall as the sidewalks have numerous acorns and caps.
2. Don’t forget there is a form – bright green – outside the office for items that need attention. Please complete it and give it to the office or put it in the mail slot on the office door.
3. Fall is here and so are the chilly nights. As you get into the closet for those warm blankets, hats and gloves check to see if there are any that you don’t really care for, don’t fit or you just don’t want anymore. Pease donate.  Socks, mittens, gloves, hats and sweatshirts will be put in the Blessing box as it gets colder. Tent city is coming up in October and we are trying to beat last year’s blanket collection (last year we had 47) . Tent City also welcomes coats. Items for the Blessing Box can be placed in the marked container in the Graceful   Giving Room across from Classroom 3. Items for Tent City can be left outside Gretchen’s door (Parish Nurse) or give her a call (419-944-5166)  to pick them up.
4. It is close to the end of the month. Please remember to label food items in the refrigerators and freezers with the group name, date opened. A sweep will be made of the refrigerators and freezers next week – anything beyond “best use date”, expired, mystery packages or looks like something from another planet or century will be relocated to the dumpster or Gretchen’s birds. Any questions see Gretchen.
5. As you cruise through the church don’t forget to look at the Community Bulletin Boards. There really is some interesting stuff on them (including the occasional interesting picture of the Pastor). There are also times that members of the congregation may need some help in their yard or house – there are forms     located outside the office to fill out to request assistance. These can be posted on the bulletin board. This is another reason for checking as you may be the perfect person(s) to help!
6. As we are inside more you may be starting to clean more. The Youth Group’s trip next year will be the grand gathering of youth from the United States and beyond. This will be a more expensive trip as it will be held in New Orleans in July. So, the Rummage Sale in April needs to be a hugeamongous sale! If you already have things for the rummage sale, we are clearing off some shelves in the basement across from the office. The shelves are labeled, and we need to push items way back in. If it is larger items let Wendy and Debbie know as we will have to be creative in storage.
7. Remember: Grace is not the building but the people of Grace carrying out God’s mission.

Meditation on Matthew 20:1-16

By Vicar Dave

In the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we talk a lot about salvation, grace and forgiveness being a gift from God, which is given freely and which we have done nothing to earn. In fact, we often say that we can do nothing to earn it. But do we really mean it? Do we mean it just for us? Just for some folks? Is the gift of God’s grace not available to some people?

I think we, as Christians, not just Lutherans, tend to figure that God’s gifts of freedom from the consequences of sin, i.e. death and separation from God, are only available to those who share our views. Sometimes, we might limit this to just the people in our denomination of the Christian faith. “Us Lutherans, we got it right. But those (insert any other denomination here), well they’re just lost.” Then we might tend to think that God’s grace cannot reach them where they are. If we want to be generous, we might say that God’s grace can reach all Christians. But then we run into the question of how we define who a Christian is. Does it include anyone who calls on the name of Jesus? Does it include people like the Jehovah’s Witnesses, who most of probably don’t know what they teach? Is God’s gift of salvation given to those who think that we must earn it by passing through some sort of purgatory or by the use of indulgences?

I’m asking a lot of questions to which I think you know how I’d answer them. God’s love for His creation is infinite. So is His gift of grace and salvation. It is available to everyone. We humans have a tendency to try to limit what God can do. To force Him into some sort of box that fits with our conception of how God ought to be. Like the workers in today’s Gospel, we like to think that we are somehow more  deserving of God’s love. We forget sometimes that God, like the landowner, can choose to give His gifts of love to whomever He pleases in whatever measure He pleases. If that were not so, then how would it be divided equitably? None of us deserve His forgiveness. Not the most perfect Christian, as if there is such a person, nor the Atheist who doesn’t even believe in God. Not the most devout    believer nor the vilest offender. God’s gifts of salvation, grace and forgiveness of sins is available to all!

To God be the glory!

The Readings for Sunday September 24, 2023

Jonah 3:10–4:11

Psalm 145:1-8

Philippians 1:21-30

Matthew 20:1-16

Reminder!

Committee chairs and Group leaders – the building is used for many meetings and gatherings. If you are having a meeting, please check the church calendar and then let the office know when and in what room you’d like to have your meeting so it can be put on the calendar.

Thank you!

Sunday Fellowship Time

September 24th – Grace Peterson and Debbie Downs

The sermon this morning: “Jesus walks on water.” The sermon tonight: “Searching for Jesus”

For those of you who have children and don’t know it, we have a nursery downstairs.

The Gospel according to Luck.

Tom knew he had moved to a heavily Christian town when he was watching the Star Wars Trilogy at the local movie theater.  Each time the phrase “May the force be with you”, was heard from the screen, those in the audience replied,  “And also with you.”

The senior pastor and his youth pastor found a great fishing spot created by a tree downed in a recent storm.  Before they began to fish, they made a large sign and   attached it to the back of the pastor’s truck: “The end is near!  Stop! Make a U-turn before it’s too late!”  When a car drove by, the pastors pointed at the sign and shouted at the driver, all to no avail. The driver slowed down and shouted back, “You religious types drive me nuts.  Mind your own business!” A moment later there was a large splash.  The senior pastor looked at his friend and asked, “Oh no, do you think we should have just written ‘Bridge Out’ on the sign?”

Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and the deterioration of some of the older ones.

Searching for a new look?  Have your faith lifted here!!

Dear God,

I heard about how Jesus turned water into wine. You know, my mother can turn water into Kool-Aid.

Andrew, age 6

ATTENTION SUNDAY SCHOOL PARENTS  &  GRANDPARENTS

On Sunday,  October 1, 2023 there will be a special church service.  I am planning   to have Sunday School class as usual with the children dismissing to be present in service for the close that Sunday.                     

If you would rather have your child(ren) present for the service on October 1, that is your choice to make.    

Connie Thomas                           

Sunday School teacher                         

Healthy People! Healthy Parish!

The bugs are coming! The bugs are coming!

No, we are not talking about ants or centipedes or things with legs – we are talking about the FLU!!!!!

The CDC (Center for Disease Control) is already reporting cases. September and October are the recommended months to get your Flu vaccine. Anyone 6 months and older are strongly recommended to get vaccinated. If you have cardiac, respiratory or other medical problems such as diabetes it is even more important to “shoo the flu”.

Getting the flu shot may not totally prevent the flu but the severity may be less. This is important with those who have medical problems.

Fighting the Bugs!

Along the same lines of keeping healthy it is National Clean Hands Week (yes, we are beginning to believe there is a week to celebrate everything!) . We all     became experts at Hand Washing during Covid, but many have not been so great at this as time has gone on. It is still very important especially with the Flu season around the corner and the increase in reported Covid cases. A simple round of singing or humming  Happy Birthday X2 while using soap is sufficient to help get rid of the germs.

And there is really a correct way to wash your hands – the quick dash with a tiny drop of soap and a flash through the water is not effective in getting rid of the bugs!

Recipe for removing up to 99.9% of germs we get on your hands during daily activities:

1. Wet hands with clean water
2. Apply soap
3. Rub hands together vigorously and scrub all surfaces – top and backs of hands and around all fingers and the thumb
4. Scrub for 2 rounds of Happy Birthday (equals 20 seconds)
5. Rinse with clean water
6. Dry hands

When do you wash your hands ?

When are you supposed to ?

• Before ,during and after preparing food.
• Before eating
• After using the toilet
• After changing a diaper or cleaning up after a child who has used the toilet
• After blowing your nose, sneezing or coughing
• After touching an animal, animal feed or cleaning up after the animal
• After touching garbage
• Before and after treating a cut or wound
• Before and after caring for someone who is sick

Hand Sanitizer is a back up to use if unable to get to soap and water. But check that yours has not expired and that it contains at least 50% alcohol.

Did You Know?

A ripe tomato is red and has 4 chambers – just like the heart. Tomatoes are truly heart healthy food. They are loaded with lycopene, an antioxidant which protects cells and helps to prevent heart disease, potassium which can help lower high blood pressure, niacin which can help to lower high cholesterol, vitamin B6 and folate for healthy blood vessel walls.

Tomatoes are plentiful right now, are reasonably priced, actually taste good and come in many sizes and shapes.

So grab some tomatoes for a healthy snack!

Amazing Grace Sunday October 1

Not only will we be celebrating Grace Lutheran Church on October 1 at a 10:30 a.m. service, but we will also be recognizing the 250^th anniversary of the famous hymn, “Amazing Grace”. This anniversary will be recognized with the singing of the traditional hymn, the Praise Team will lead us in the singing of their rendition, and the choir will sing a rendition of the hymn. And finally, we will hear the song, “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes.

After the service, the church known as Grace will be celebrated with a fellowship hour in Brenner Hall. Everyone is encouraged to invite family and friends to this  special service to celebrate Grace and the hymn “Amazing Grace” and to remember His amazing grace.

We are reopening the nursery during the 9:30am service!

Volunteers are needed to staff the nursery each week. 

Please reach out to Janet Moore if interested 419-346-6355 or janet28rn@hotmail.com.

This is the day the Lord has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

~Psalm 118:24

Bless the Lord, O my soul,
  and all that is within me, bless God’s holy name.

~Psalm 103:1                    

The Readings for Sunday September 17, 2023

Genesis 50:15-21

Psalm 103:[1-7] 8-13

Romans 14:1-12

Matthew 18:21-35

We are reopening the nursery during the 9:30am service!

Volunteers are needed to staff the nursery each week.

Please reach out to Janet Moore if interested 419-346-6355 or janet28rn@hotmail.com.

“Catch up” meeting for Ushers, Assisting Ministers, and wannabe Acolytes:

      If you serve in any of these ways or would like to do so, please plan to meet with Pastor Brenda on 24 September in the nave immediately following the 9:30 a.m.   worship service.

Meet New ELCA Missionaries!

This summer the ELCA welcomed 10 new missionaries who are now on their way to serving in eight countries around the world. They bring different skills, interests, and experiences, but they share a deep passion for global service.

ELCA missionaries serve as teachers, health care workers, communicators, pastors and more. The relationships they form build the foundation of our global community of faith.

If you have ever wondered what goes on in a church council meeting,

here is a picture from the September meeting.

So you are probably STILL wondering!! Ha!

(Thank you, Janet, for the picture.)

Sunday Fellowship Time

September 17th – Sue and Sean Melchert

September 24th – Grace Peterson and Debbie Downs

Meditation on Matthew 18:21-35

By Vicar Dave

In some families, hurts and grudges can be passed on from one generation to the next. Sometimes, it goes on for so long that the original reasons for the dispute  become muddled beyond recognition. Perhaps two brothers argued over the same girl at one point. Or maybe one made the football team and the other didn’t, and thinks it was his brother’s fault. Or it could be that one just felt he was better than the other and made that obvious in the way he treated his brother. And now, many years later, they’re still not speaking to each other. Moreover, they both have either told their children about the feud, or perhaps the kids just saw it growing up, and now these cousins have continued the dispute. Maybe the back-and-forth hurts are real, or maybe they’re imagined. Either way, the pain that the individual family members feel is real. If only the brothers had found a way to forgive each other, perhaps some of this pain could have been avoided.

Today’s Gospel is about forgiveness. As is often the case, Peter has a question. He wants to know how many times he has to forgive someone. Specifically, a brother or sister in Christ. He wants to know if seven times is enough. Jesus, in His usual fashion, confounds Peter by telling him he should forgive seventy-seven times. Then tries to illustrate the importance of forgiveness through a parable about a master who forgave a slave his debt, but the slave would not extend the same forgiveness to   another slave who owed him some money.  We all know that it ends badly for the  unforgiving slave.

I was thinking about this while reading about the schism between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Churches. I thought it was interesting that neither side, despite the fact that they both claim to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ, were willing to forgive what they saw as a heresy committed by the other side. This seems to be a recurring theme as we saw something similar in the Protestant Reformation.

Forgiveness can be hard sometimes. Particularly when you’re the injured party, or at least view yourself that way. But I’ve always found it be a healthy thing to do, even if the other party hasn’t asked for your forgiveness. I remember when my brother died about six or seven years ago after poisoning his body with excessive amounts of   alcohol for several years. I was very angry at him over this as I saw it as something he could have prevented. The weight of that anger really hung around my neck for some time, until I learned to forgive him for essentially removing himself from this world. I’ve learned since then that alcoholism is as much a disease as any other addiction, or even cancer. I’ve also learned that his succumbing to it and eventually dying from were not something that he had much control over. He could fight it, just like a cancer patient fights their disease, but that doesn’t mean that he’d win. Had I not learned to forgive him, I may have never learned about how alcoholism is a disease, and not something that was his choice. And I’d probably still carry the weight of my anger with me.

Amazing Grace Sunday October 1

Not only will we be celebrating Grace Lutheran Church on October 1 at a 10:30 a.m. service, but we will also be recognizing the 250^th anniversary of the famous hymn, “Amazing Grace”. This anniversary will be recognized with the singing of the traditional hymn, the Praise Team will lead us in the singing of their rendition, and the choir will sing a rendition of the hymn. And finally, we will hear the song, “Amazing Grace” on bagpipes.

After the service, the church known as Grace will be celebrated with a fellowship hour in Brenner Hall. Everyone is encouraged to invite family and friends to this  special service to celebrate Grace and the hymn “Amazing Grace” and to remember His amazing grace.

Food for Toledo and the Blessing Box

Donations to the Food for Toledo program and the Blessing Box continue. Thank you to everyone who brings in donations for these two food ministries. Grace is feeding the hungry of Toledo!

This is the day the Lord has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

~Psalm 118:24

For where two or three are gathered in my name,

I am there among them.

~Matthew 18:20

Bless the World: be God’s Grace!

Rally Day! September 10, 2023

Back to two services this Sunday.

9:30 a.m. Traditional – 11:30 a.m. Contemporary

Pastor’s Thoughts:

(Jesus said) Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.—Matthew 28:19-20

I was baptized on 21 June 1970 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Fremont. Ray and Margey were my baptismal sponsors, and it was a duty they took very seriously. They had been friends of my mother’s family for years, and it was Ray who walked my mother down the aisle the day she and my dad were married, as her father had died a few years before.

Each year on or around 21 June, I would receive a card or letter from Ray and Margey with a Bible verse or a quote intended to nourish my faith and as they put it, “grow into your life of faith.” They were involved in my life in other ways, including birthdays and some school events, but it is those baptismal anniversary moments I remember best.

When my father died, Ray served as a pallbearer. 21 years later when my mother died, he served in the same way at her funeral. On that day, they both came to me in tears, and Margey said, “Remember what Baptism means—that God loved us so much Jesus died for us? Your mom understands it completely  now.” Even then, they were helping me to “grow into my faith,” and to lean into the promises of Baptism.

This Sunday, 10 September, is Rally Day. On that day, we will have the opportunity to grow into our faith. We will take time to recall our own Baptism through a Remembrance of Baptism rite, and we will live out our congregational promises to the children of Grace as we bless them with a new way of marking their growth as followers of Jesus and as they begin a new Sunday School year.

How do you nourish your faith? How do you find ways to recall what it means to be a baptized child of God, who is loved so much that Jesus died for you? How does your Baptism shape who you are? How can you continue to “grow into” your faith?

In Christ,

Pastor Brenda

Meditation on Matthew 18:15-20

By Vicar Dave

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

I use this phrase to open Wednesday services a lot. We don’t get many people at those services. Four or five. Sometimes more, occasionally less. But it really doesn’t matter. When we gather in the name of Jesus, He is there! That’s a powerful statement and I say it with confidence.

It’s a powerful statement from Jesus as well. It illustrates how Jesus is really divine and omnipresent. He can be anywhere at anytime (I’d say He is everywhere, all of the time). It’s also a very encouraging statement, especially for the disciples. After Jesus had ascended into heaven, they knew that He’d still be with them, in spirit at least, whenever they gathered together in His name. This shows me the importance of gathering together as the community of believers, communing and praying together. It doesn’t matter if you gather in person or via internet. The church cannot function apart from abiding in Christ, and he has made a way for his presence to be more assured than if he had stayed in bodily form, but human and limited to one place at one time. It is a powerful truth that Jesus reveals in this statement.

But this promise isn’t limited to the church. When we gather at the supper table in the evening, and say a blessing over our food, we do so in Jesus’ name, and we know He is present with us and giving us His blessing. Sometimes, people gather at their homes with friends and family for Bible study and prayer, and they do so in His name. Jesus is with them. I have the distinct feeling that people in my workplace are praying all the time, as am I. We may not vocalize that we are praying at the same time, but I’m still confident that Jesus is there. This is especially important to me in that sometimes the job I do can be dangerous. I frequently find myself praying for my co-worker’s safety. I do the same thing when I hear a siren in the distance. I pray for the safety of the responders, the victims, and the perpetrator. I think others do as well and I know that Jesus is with us as we pray.

Sunday Fellowship Time

September 10th – Contemporary Team

September17th- Sue and Sean Melchert

A post Labor Day reminder that God directed us to labor to provide support to the Levites (including our Pastor) living among us.

At the August Council meeting there was a discussion that an unidentified person made comments that Grace’s financial situation would be better if Grace had a “part-time” Pastor.  While it is important to look at ways to live within our means, I would ask the person who made the comment to reflect on the book of Numbers in the Bible. Read about the Levites and the other tribes of Israel and think about how supporting our pastor aligns God’s plan for his people.

Our Pastor, being called by God to Priestly ministry could be considered a member of the “Levite” tribe. Even before entering the Holy Land the Levites were set aside by God.  God decried that Levities (which included the Priests) would not be given their own land nor toil in the fields to support themselves. Instead, they were tasked with the sacred duty of taking care of God’s temple full time.  Although they were unable to support themselves through manual labor, God provided for the Levities and Priests’ human needs by asking all the other tribes to support them through the sharing of tithes.

Tithing meaning giving the gift of 1/10^th of what you earn to God, established a form of equality among the members of the tribes of Israel. Although some of the Israelites were wealthy and others were poor, God asked everyone to give an equal share of what they received. Even the poorest of the poor were expected to contribute from what they had. And yes, the Priests were charged by God to tithe from what they received from the others.

Supporting a Pastor whether on a full time, part time or shared basis is costly. In our letter of Call to Pastor Brenda, the members of Grace committed to supporting her financially.  As members of God’s people, we all bear the responsibility for sharing what has been provided to us to support our Pastor and all the ministries of Grace. I ask each of you to consider what you are giving to God through your contributions to Grace and ask yourself, how does the amount I give compare to what God charged the Israelites to give in order support the Levities?

David Charvat, Treasurer

This is the day the Lord has made.

Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

~Psalm 118:24