Sitting With Grief
10 April 2020 - Good Friday
Pastor Chris McKinstry
Reading: John 18:1—19:42
This is the Good Friday service for St. James Lutheran Church in Limerick, PA.
Song Sheets for worship are available here
Special thanks to:
Bobbie Hoffman for help with prayers
Rick Phillips, Jane Reedy, Jean Hess, Sue Trimble, and Matt Brown for reading the Passion narrative
Eve Keane, Kate McKinstry, and John Green for music
John Green for help with lighting
Ordinary & Extraordinary
9 April 2020 - Maundy Thursday
Pastor Chris McKinstry
Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. 12After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
John 13:5, 12-14, 34-35
This is our Maundy Thursday service for St. James Lutheran Church.
This service contains virtual anointing with oil and virtual communion so please gather oil, bread, wine (or juice) and have them nearby for the service.
Song Sheets for the service can be found here
Special Thanks to...
Rick Phillips for Reading
Bobbie Hoffman for Prayers
Rick Phillips, Jane Reedy, Jean Hess, Sue Trimble, and Matt Brown for helping with the stripping of the Altar
Eve Keane, Kate McKinstry, Bob Hoch, and John Green for music
John Green for help with lighting
The Youth of St. James for their skit
A New Normal
5 April 2020 - Palm Sunday
Pastor Chris McKinstry
The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt, and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and that followed were shouting,
“Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Matthew 21:6-9
Song Sheet can be found here.
Special Thanks to:
John Green, Eve Keane, Kate McKinstry, and Bob Hoch for the music during this service.
Janet Hilsmier for the Children’s Message
Sheri Barberini for Reading
Bobbie Hoffman for the prayers
Wilderness Week 5 - “Hope In Hopeless Places”
29 March 2020 - Fifth Sunday in Lent
Pastor Chris McKinstry
So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
John 11:41-44
Song sheet for worship can be found here
Special Thanks to: John Green for the music during this service, Janet Hilsmier for the Children’s Message, Alan and Kathy Pitt for Reading, and Bobbie Hoffman for the prayers.
Wilderness Week 4 - “One Day at a Time”
22 March 2020 - Fourth Sunday in Lent
Pastor Chris McKinstry
1The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
2He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters;
3he restores my soul. He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
4Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff— they comfort me.
5You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
6Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.
Psalm 23
This is an entire digital worship service for the Fourth Sunday in Lent.
A song sheet with lyrics to the music can be found here.
A special thanks to John Green for doing the music for this service.
Wilderness Week 3 - “Liberation”
15 March 2020 - Third Week in Lent
Pastor Chris McKinstry
“Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
John 4:13-15
Wilderness Week 2 - “Trust”
8 March 2020 - Second Sunday in Lent
Pastor Chris McKinstry
Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?”
John 3:1-4
Wilderness Week 1 - “Beloved”
1 March 2020 - First Sunday in Lent
Pastor Chris McKinstry
Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. He fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” But he answered, “It is written,
‘One does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”
Matthew 4:1-4
Momento Mori
26 February 2020 - Ash Wednesday
Pastor Chris McKinstry
Yet even now, says the Lord,
return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
rend your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
Joel 2:12-13