Fifth Sunday After Epiphany
Holy Communion at 8:30 and 11am


Prayer of the Day
Everlasting God, you give strength to the weak and power to the faint. Make us agents of your healing and wholeness, that your good news may be made known to the ends of your creation, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

Scripture readings
Isaiah 40:21-31
Psalm 147:1-11, Psalm 147:20
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Mark 1:29-39

Sermon
"A Great Big, Very Small God"
Isaiah 40:21-31; Mark 1:29-39
Have you not known? Have you not heard? God is really, really big! That’s the message of the prophet Isaiah, speaking words of hope to people in exile - people who need a great big God to deal with their great big problems. In our reading from Mark today, that same God walks into the house of Peter’s mother-in-law and heals her. This same God proceeds to meet and heal the ill and possessed, one at a time. In Jesus Christ, the infinite, powerful, great big God is also the God who can fit into your living room, into your life, into a piece of bread. God, after all, wants to be God for you, no matter how insignificant you might feel. So God will keep finding ways to fit into your life, even as God makes you fit into the great big divine lark of grace.

Hymns

In our prayers we remember Palestine Lutheran Schools, part of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land. 

Education hour at 9:45am

Children and youth

Sunday School, and Pre-Confirmation meet in their usual classrooms.  No Confirmation classes this morning as confirmands return from a retreat at Lutherdale. Teen Talk meets in the Youth Room. 

Adult Education

February 4 and 11
Old Testament Theology from an Ethnic Minority Perspective

Danny Carroll, Blanchard Professor of Old Testament, Wheaton College Graduate School
The first session will look at how the Old Testament has been used in negative ways in regards to ethnic minority populations in this country and around the world. The second will explore some recent positive uses of the Old Testament that have arisen from ethnic minority voices.

February 4
The Hands, the Brain, and God
Jim Kerns
We will explore the symbolic value of hands in religion, art, philosophy and science – thus, a key role in our society and cultural life. The profound interconnections of the human hand and brain act as a ‘mirror of the soul’ with respect to our body language (gestures), mood, and expression of empathy. 

The Sunday morning Bible study group meets in the lower-level conference room.

The Grace Church Library is open and staffed on Sundays from 8:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Look for books related to Adult Ed topics as well as many other subjects. The library is also open for self-service during the week.

Download the 2017-2018 Sunday School and Confirmation Schedule.