A treasured children’s song, “I Love to Tell the Story, has a refrain that follows each of the stanzas penned by poet Arabella Katherine Hankey, repeating the simple words: “I love to tell the story; ‘Twill be my theme in glory, To tell the old, old story Of Jesus and His love.” The original Greek language in which John wrote his Gospel uses the word “love” either as a noun or a verb some nine times in the section of Jesus’ words heard in the Gospel for today. Jesus wants His disciples and us to know the abiding power of His love. It is that love that compels us to love one another—and the “others” beyond our circles of family, friends, and other close relationships. We are blessed in hearing the “old, old story of Jesus and His love” anew today. May we be blessed in telling it out in love as well!
Worship Service for May 5, 2024
May 5, 2024 • Rev. Daryn Bahn • John 15:9–17
Worship Service for May 19, 2024
May 19, 2024 • Rev. Daryn Bahn • Acts 2:1–21
The Day of Pentecost is more connected to Easter than to the Sundays after Pentecost. It is the fiftieth day of Easter, marking the new dawn under the guidance of the Spirit. The Lord works through the preached Gospel and our life together as the baptized around His Table to deliver what He has promised. Thus, the ministry of the Spirit is not some ethereal reality experienced in our feelings, but the concrete reality of the Word spoken into our ears to bring forth faith and the body and blood of Jesus received by faith in Holy Communion. This is the way the Spirit continues to work in us and for us and we continue to receive His ministry by faith and to celebrate this with great joy.
Worship Service for May 12, 2024
May 12, 2024 • Rev. Daryn Bahn • John 17:11–19
This Sunday is a bridge between the Ascension of Our Lord and Pentecost. Upon the Lord’s Ascension, the disciples were not left alone. They had the Word of the Lord and the promise of the Spirit to make known to them all that Jesus said and did. With the testimony of God’s Word and the witnesses to the Lord’s resurrection and ascension, the Church learned to trust in what the Lord had accomplished for their salvation and to be bold in witness to the truth of this Gospel. The Lord is still working in us through the testimony of His Word so that we may be His witnesses emboldened by the Spirit.
Worship Service for May 9, 2024
May 9, 2024 • Rev. Daryn Bahn • Luke 24:44–53
While the Ascension is often underappreciated, it is a very important feast, and its message is deeply profound. We tend to think of Jesus’ ascension as an ending point, and no one likes to wave goodbye. Even the apostles felt a sense of apprehension. But our Lord prepared them by opening the Scriptures to them so that they might know where to hear His voice even as His visual appearance would not be with them. We know that they understood this, because they returned with joy and not fear, celebrating this event as a new beginning and not an end.