All are invited to join us Easter Sunday morning between 8:00 am – 9:30 am for a full breakfast in the Commons and Fellowship Hall.
Children age 2-Grade 5 are invited to meet in the Gathering Area following the 9:30 Easter worship service for an Easter Egg Hunt. Plan to bring your Easter basket for collecting! The hunt will be held rain or shine!
Exactly, what is it about Jesus, anyway?
Maybe that is not the way you would ask the question. But that would be the way that you would hear it asked by someone who can’t see a way to make a connection to God. For us, we can easily get distracted or just lose focus about what exactly Jesus is all about. Lent is a time of reflection and re-connecting to the core of our faith in Jesus Christ. Come let us sharpen our faith together with the Noon on Wednesday Reflections. In these three short reflections we will highlight the central point of what Jesus is really about for us and for others that ask us.
JOIN US FOR OUR MID-WEEK SERVICES ON WEDNESDAYS AT 12:00 PM
March 22
March 29
April 5
Beginning Sunday, February 12, we will offer one worship service at 9:30 AM with Christian Education and Fellowship Hour following at 10:45 AM. Kori Lord, our wonderful paid nursery attendant, will continue to be available for nursery care during the new worship time.
While it may seem counterintuitive, we have combined the worship services so that the energy and excitement can be consolidated. When visitors come to check us out, we hope they will stay and accept the invitation to be a part of the ministry here at Holy Trinity.
This schedule will be in effect through August. It will be reevaluated at the end of the summer or when our new permanent pastor is able to help us review it. We appreciate the challenges and sacrifices that some families will be making to support this move.
Please contact Congregation Council President John Sapienza, or any other Council or Staff member, with questions you may have.
The Connections team welcomes new Members to our community of faith in the New Year!
January 22, after the 11:00 Worship Service, Join us for “Pizza with Pastor.” Pastor Heidi and lay leaders will be available to talk about Holy Trinity programs and answer questions while everyone enjoys some food and beverages.
February 5, 2017 is our next New Member Sunday. We’ll have a special welcome during worship, followed by our yearly “Chili Fest.” Each new member will have a sponsor who will get to know the family prior to New Member Sunday, and help introduce our new member(s) to other members. The sponsor will continue as a contact for the new family to alert them to upcoming HTLC events through the coming year.
If you are willing to consider being a sponsor and/or helping with the “Pizza with Pastor” event, please contact Laurie Dieffenbach (ldieffenbach@live.com) or Gretchen Luebbe (gmluebbe@verizon.net). If you would like to become a member of Holy Trinity at this time, please speak with Pastor Heidi. (pastor@holytrinityleesburg.org.)
All instrumentalists are invited to play Christmas Eve at one or more services (4, 7:30, 11 pm). Traditional carols.
Your ideas for Foyer Music and special offerings most welcome. Contact Marcia Merry for parts and rehearsal details.
Little Children, Parents, Teens and Adults all enjoy seeing how Pastor Heidi turns the “Basket Surprise” into this week’s Children Sermon! Each week a different child gets to bring in the special basket, with an item they’ve chosen to “Stump the Pastor.” The result… lots of smiles, and a surprisingly good tie in with the Gospel! We invite all children and their families to join us each Sunday at 8:30 am or 11:00 am for Sunday Worship! All are Welcome!
A special Learning Opportunity Sunday, October 16
All Kindergarten and First grade students and their families are invited to join us for lunch and the opportunity to learn more about worship. Don’t miss this fun and informative opportunity to learn about the “Rhythm of Worship. In addition each child will receive a special “worship tote” to bring to church.
Jesus talks, through many parables, about stuff…a lot of stuff! Specifically our stuff. Is having stuff good? Bad? That’s a lot of stuff to think about! The writer of Luke was very concerned with how we use our stuff, or wealth. Let’s face it, if we have stuff, then we have wealth whether we think so or not. There are so many people in this world that don’t have anything.
As the parables in chapters 15 and 16 conclude, it’s important to remember that in these three parables no one is ever condemned for being wealthy or for having a lot of stuff. It’s what is done or not done with it that matters.
Last week’s didn’t make any sense at all. Is this parable making too much sense? A rich man steps over a suffering child of God, ignoring him. The suffering man looks longingly at the table that is laden with rich food for rich men and are so rich they eat rich food every single day. The men die on the same day. Now the reversals for which Luke is so well known are completed.
After their deaths, Lazarus is carried away by the angles –his name is “God helps.” The rich guy – buried. Lazarus is the bosom of Abraham. And when someone is in the “bosom” it is Bible-speak for “beloved”. The rich guy is in Hades.
The one who lived the life of comfort now finds himself tormented, Lazarus is now the comforted and the great divide between these two continues into the afterlife as well.
“Father Abraham,” the rich guys demands, “send Lazarus from the dead to tell my five siblings that if they don’t change their ways they will be right here with me.”
“If they don’t listen to Moses the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” I love that divine sense of humor, don’t you?
Then the truth that we are to learn from this not-necessarily true story is that we are the five siblings. We are them.
If someone rises from the dead…Jesus rose from the dead and the writer of Luke knows that. The readers and listeners of Luke know that because the Gospel gets written down some 60 years after the resurrection of Jesus. We are the ones who have Moses and the prophets. We know tomb is empty. We KNOW Jesus is Lord! We do know the compassion of a God embodied in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.
This parable is about the character and quality of our life right now.
We are invited to embrace the abundant life God offers. Because we believe that God is loose in this world, we participate in chasm-closing activities of God as God seeks to level the playing field of our lives.
And there are many chasms prevalent in our world right now – the chasm of racism, sexism, ageism, classism and any other “ism.”
We are invited to live into fuller, more meaningful, more joyous life by sharing what God first gave to us – our time, treasures and talents – with those around us. And to work to close those chasms.
It is important to God in how we deal with each other. Christ conquered sin, death and the devil but now what?
We may have the assurance that we won’t suffer the same fate of the Rich Man but does that release us from our debt?
It changes the question of “what must I do to be saved?” to “How do I respond to the free gift of grace, justification and salvation?” We are freed from the worry about being saved, we are freed to love and serve God.
This is kingdom living at its best!
And because we believe that God is loose in this world, we are participants in the chasm-closing activities of God. It is God’s work, but our hands – God is working for us, in us and through us. We are the flesh and blood of God’s action in the world.
We are walking, talking illustrations that the life, death and resurrection of Christ has made the difference in the world.
The kingdom of God is here and now – not yet fully realized but definitely present for all to participate in.
This parable very clearly links our wellbeing with that of others. And it is a call to be responsive to those needs.
God saw fit to send a man from the dead to awaken us, to bid us to bring relief to others and to tell all that we meet that God loves us and cares for us. We have seen a man rise from the dead and it has made all the difference in the world.
Has it made a difference to us? Or is it just stuff?
On Saturday, October 1, the worshiping community of Holy Trinity will gather in the fellowship hall for a one-day intensive leadership workshop. Held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., this time will focus on our ability to accept differences and to lead based on our strengths and mission as we strive to create a healthy congregation. The cost is $10 per person to cover lunch, snacks and materials. AND INVITE FRIENDS!!! The concepts and techniques that we will be talking about can be used in any community and are of benefit to all, especially those in leadership roles no matter where they are. Sign up on the board on Sunday or email Pastor Heidi at pastor@holytrinityleesburg.org to join the group.
Check out the “Chill Out” room for parents and their children. Kids, you are always welcome in worship – we hope you know this! We also know, however, that there are times when your parents get anxious about some of your enthusiastic responses to worship. When that happens, you can take your parents to the “Chill Out” room where they can relax. There are books and toys for you and a couch for your parents. We hope you find it a welcoming space. If you are not sure where it is, please ask the ushers to help your parents find it.