May 30, 2022
ANNOUNCEMENTS .
Simply Giving Mania! From May 1st till June 5th, if you join our automated giving program Simply Giving or increase your current Simply Giving by $5 a month, you will get entered into a drawing to win four tickets. What tickets? YOUR CHOICE! Choices are: Four tickets to the Wisconsin Football Game against Illinois State on Sept. 3; Brewers-Twins game at Target Field, an event at the Pablo Center in Eau Claire, or an event at the Mabel Tainter in Menomonie. Pick up a form on the round table in the Narthex or included in this Good News or attached to this email. DEADLINE THIS SUNDAY!
Summer Office Hours begin this week. Office will be closed on Fridays.
Vacation Bible School! Sign-up today for VBS on June 13-17th, 9 am till 12:00 pm every day for ages 4-6th grade. Cost is $10 per student.
VBS Help Needed: Luther Park will not be running VBS for this year. We need help with setting up crafts and helping to watch kids. Please talk to PB or Katie if you can help.
VBS Snacks Needed: Sign-up in the Narthex to provide snacks for Vacation Bible School in June.
Wednesday Worship moves to 6:30 pm on June 1st.
Join us this Sunday, June 5th, to help Bob & Lynda Bird celebrate their 60th Wedding Anniversary! Fellowship will be served in their honor by their family and you can stop till 1 pm.
Funeral for Linda Nerison will be on Wednesday, June 8th, at 11 am.
Turn back the clock worship, Sunday, June 19th. Join us at 9 am as we bring back an old fashioned worship service, with the old chants and everything. Hope to see you there!
Don’t forget that you can support Trinity through the Vanco app OR using the donate form on our website. Download the free app, search for Trinity Lutheran Boyceville, and go from there!
MUSINGS FROM PASTOR BRAD
25About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. 26Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. Acts 16:25-26
A few years ago, Amy and I visited San Francisco and we toured the famed prison Alcatraz. To walk those infamous halls, to walk into the small cells and hear the stories of those that were in that prison, was truly eye opening. Now, thankfully, I’ve only visited jail and have never actually had to be a resident of one. To have the loss of freedom, to be trapped in a small cage, restricted in all that I do, seems to me to be one of the worst things I could endure. But the fact of the matter is, we all are often imprisoned in our version of jail. It might not be a physical structure, like Alcatraz, but it is one all the same. We build ourselves jails of grief, of pain, self-doubt, of guilt and shame, of fear and greed. We find ourselves in shackles and chains, some of our own making and some placed upon us by the sinfulness of the world and the work of the devil. No matter the kind of chains we have around us, they restrict us, suffocate us, trap us in a cycle of suffering, pain, and hardship. They weigh on our soul. Think of how the Marley is always depicted in the story “A Christmas Carol.” Weighed down by heavy chains. Our hearts and souls have those chains around us.
Today we have a story of Paul and Silas in prison. They are jailed because of the fear of others and the greed they inhabit. Yet, in the midst of their imprisonment, they are freed by God, and they themselves free others, including the jailer who is ready to end his life over the guilt that the prisoners have escaped.
You, my friends, are free from the jails that you find yourself in, the chains shattered and broken, by your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For Jesus died to free you from all things. Jesus died and rose again, defeating sin and death, so that you would be free. Jesus promises to carry your burdens, forgive you of your sins, and to be with you always. This has been done not because you are perfect but because you are in chains. Because you are imprisoned by fear, greed, grief, and suffering. For your Savior loves you and so frees you so you can be who God created you to be. Jesus frees you to give you hope.
Yes, we may find ourselves imprisoned by a variety of things. But in Christ, there is always freedom. In Christ, our chain breaker, all that enslaves us is destroyed and we are made new. Today, your Savior has taken all that burdens you, all the enslaves you, the jail you find yourself in, and has destoreyd it. Because he loves you. And for that we can say, “Thanks be to God!” Amen
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