It's finally here!  The Kingdom Kids Christmas Program is
THIS SUNDAY at both 8AM and 10AM services!  
Join us between services for a delicious pancake breakfast!

Kingdom Kids roll into December with cookies - and a plan

Now Open:
Mission Trip Duluth
​and Mission Trip Denver
​Sign Up 

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​Trip Duluth!
June 22-29, 2019
One of the nicest things about this mission trip is that it is fairly close. That will reduce our travel costs. There are a lot of fun and exciting things to see and do in the Duluth area – and there is certainly a need to act as the hands and feet of Christ along the shore of Lake Superior.
Estimated Cost: $450
 
Trip Denver!
July 26 - August 3, 2019.
In order to arrive at Denver in time for Sunday morning service, the plan will be to depart SSLC late Friday afternoon – grab a couple hours of sleep on a church fellowship hall floor in western South Dakota (preferably one without bats) – and head out Saturday morning full steam ahead! As a bonus, you will be praying a mile above sea level this week.
Estimated Cost: $525
We welcome the season Advent in a BIG way!
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 WORSHIP SCHEDULE:
SUNDAYS        8 AM
SUNDAYS      10 AM
WEDNESDAYS   7:30 PM

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
SUNDAYS        9 AM
WEDNESDAYS   6:30 PM

​​

Learn more about us:

Habakkuk Message:
God is God
And we are not

Pastor Daryl Thul

Background: Josiah was king of Judah, the southern remnant of what was once the Nation of Israel, from roughly 640 to 609 BC. He was one of the few monarchs who actually get passing grades in the Bible. Almost all of the kings from both the northern and southern kingdoms ‘did evil in the eyes of the lord.’
This one, however, was instrumental in the revival of worship and living faith practices as commanded by God himself through Moses. God – who had been more than ready to watch much larger and more powerful nations destroy Jerusalem as a means of discipline – stayed his own hand through Josiah’s tenure.
That didn’t mean things were wonderful, though.
The Nation of Judah was already paying heavy tribute to Egypt.
Josiah could pretty much do whatever he wanted – as long as it didn’t affect the money and treasure heading to Pharaoh. In the end, he rebelled and was killed in battle against the Egyptians.
His son was declared the next king – but Necho – the Pharoah – vetoed it after three months and placed a different son of Josiah in the position.  By the way, a veto is basically a death sentence in these cases.
King Jehoiakim lasted 12 years.  Jewish history documents describe him as a godless tyrant who committed atrocious sins and crimes. He is portrayed as taking his mother, daughter-in-law, and stepmother as wives -  and was in the habit of murdering men in order to take their wives as members of his harem and claiming the dead mens’ property. He also had tattoos.
During his reign, the Babylonian Empire grew into a military super power to rival Egypt.
Egypt and Babylon eventually went to war and Babylon won – and so Jehoiakim’s tribute went to Babylon instead of Alexandria. For those of your geographically minded people, Babylon is located about 60 miles south of modern day Baghdad, Iraq.
The Temple also got emptied of most of its treasures when the shift happened in the year 604 BC.
Four years later, Egypt rebelled and Babylon was pushed back on its heels. King Jehoiakim in Jerusalem switched allegiances back to Egypt – probably because the terms were better.
But even if the terms were better, the people of Jerusalem and the small nation of Judah were in a whole lot of hurt. Prophets Jeremiah, Zephaniah and Habakkuk used a whole lot of words, but they might as well have been silent – the rich and ruling class of Jerusalem couldn’t be bothered to pay them any mind.
It was into this situation that Habakkuk’s three chapters (Habakkuk is the 8th of 12 minor prophets) speak.
And my do they speak loudly.
 
Habakkuk:
God, how long do I have to cry out before you hear me?
How many times do I have to scream prayers of the violence unleashed in Jerusalem before you come to the rescue? I know you see our leaders living large on the pain and suffering of the people – and the people turning on one another like dogs fighting for scraps
Why do you force me to look at this evil, bear witness to your Creation at its worst?   
It’s like your law doesn’t matter to people, except to use it as a weapon against others.
Anarchy and violence are everywhere. There is no peace here.
The law is numb – it’s like an arm that falls asleep because someone slept on it too long.   
Justice is a joke.
The wicked have the righteous cornered - and Your Law is little more than a page in a book that nobody reads.
 
God:
Look around at the godless nations – Judah and all of the countries that surround you.
Look long and hard and get ready – I’ve got my plan and I’ll be setting it in motion.
You’re not going to like it.
I’m about to raise up Babylon to punish you,
The world-conquering Babylonian army is reckless and savage.
There are a dreadful and terrible people. They devour nations and make up their own rules as they go along.
Their horses run like the wind and they attack like bloodthirsty wolves.
A stampede of galloping horses will thunder out of nowhere.
They will descend like vultures circling in on dead animals in the field – and Jerusalem is center mass.
The hordes will swoop down and kill, taking prisoners as easily as a man can scoop sand up on a beach.
They mock kings and laugh at rulers,  They lay siege to the most fortified of cities and leave them in the dust.
They’ll be blown in by the wind and blown away by the wind, as well.
But know this: The Babylonians will be held to account and found guilty.
They worship their own strength as god.
Not me.
 
 
Habakkuk:
Have you not existed from ancient times, O Eternal One, my holy God?
Holy God, we aren’t going to die, are we?
We, the people you call your own?
Did you really choose the Babylonians to be instruments of your judgment?
You gave them the job of discipline?
But you can’t be serious! You can’t condone evil!
Why have you been silent up until now?  
Evil men have been swallowing up the righteous for a long time now … and you don’t utter a word.
 
You made people like fish in the sea, like animals in the sea that have no ruler. And so now this Babylonian tyrant is going to pull them all up with a fishhook or he’s going to haul them in with a net.
My oh my is he happy.
Because of his success he offers sacrifices to his net and burns incense to his own power;
Nebuchadnezzar isn’t fishing for food or even for security: He’s doing it because he’s a killer.
Will he continue to fill and empty his throw net? Will he always destroy nations and spare none?
 
Even still, God, I will stand at my watch post;
I will remain stationed on the city wall.
I will keep watching, so I can be ready when you call.
 
God:
Open your ears and listen. Hear my words and remember them.             
Write them down.
Even if the message is not fulfilled right away, wait patiently; for it will certainly come to pass.
It will not arrive late.
 
Habakkuk reading God’s message:
Those who would follow anything or anyone but me will fail.
You need to remember that a person of integrity lives by faith.
 
Indeed, Babylon will be betrayed by its own relentless desire for more.  
Its appetite is as big as Hell and like death, it is never satisfied.
The Chaldean Empire collects nations; it rides roughshod over entire populations.
These nations and these peoples will someday taunt him and ridicule him:
 
Woe to the one who accumulates what does not belong to him. He is as good as dead.
Woe to the one who builds his house by unjust gain. He is as good as dead.
Woe to the one who builds a city by bloodshed– he who starts a town by unjust deeds. He is as good as dead.
Woe to the nation that forces its neighbors to drink the anger in its conquest of power and space.
Payment will be made in full.
The wicked will experience the pain they themselves brought into the world.
 
God
I am God. I am all powerful.
This world and all nations and all people would do well to talk less and listen more to my Word.
 
More Information: The Book doesn’t give a timeline, but Habakkuk eventually received a vision from God specific to God’s plan for the redemption of Jerusalem and the Children of Israel.
This is the first half of the 3rd Chapter of the Book of Habakkuk and reads a little like Revelation.
Habakkuk more than likely got the vision regarding God saving his people some 15 years before Jerusalem fell and the Temple was destroyed in the first place.
Here is the Reader’s Digest Condensed Version of the Fall of Judah/Jerusalem
In the Year 598 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, concerned that Judah had stopped paying tribute to it - lay siege to Jerusalem and it fell within three months.
King Jehoiakim is killed and his body thrown at the base of the city wall unceremoniously. 
A large number of Hebrews were killed and many more were taken as slaves by the conquering forces to be brought home with them as war prizes.  Nebuchadnezzar himself orchestrated the capture of many young men from leading families “without blemish or detect, and handsome” to be educated at Babylon with the intent of turning them into regional government officials within the empire. This included Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.
 
Nebuchadnezzar installed a third son of Josiah as king. His name was Zedekiah and the tributes resumed.
He might have been slightly better than his brother, but he had the Prophet Jeremiah at his ear for the entirety of his time at the top and Zedekiah basically ignored God’s prophet.
In Biblical the record, he did evil in the eyes of the Lord.
History can repeat itself.
Ten years into his reign as king, Zedekiah sensed a shift in the winds of power and switched allegiances back to Egypt. There was a new Pharoah this time: Hophni,
The results are the same.  Actually worse.
Once again, the Babylonians lay siege and once again, it took about three months. Zedekiah was forced to watch his sons executed and then blinded and taken to Babylon where he died a prisoner.  
King Nebuchadnezzar sends his General, Nebuzaraddan and the city is basically turned into rubble. The Temple is flattened and the Babylonians kill, enslave or scatter the remnant citizens of Judah, leaving only a handful of individuals to live in the pile of rocks.
With all of that – the absolute destruction of their country and their people – the remnant piece would need something to hold onto, both in Babylon and scattered throughout the Middle East. The Yehud Province, as the former nation was now called, was simply a territory of the greater empire.
The oracle of Habakkuk and then the prayer he shared must have been a light in the darkness. God would walk with them through the dark and the sun would rise again on them and the Nation of Israel. It would take 70 years, but God would restore His Children at Jerusalem and see the Temple rebuilt.
 
Habakkuk: The Prayer of Habakkuk
Lord, I have heard of your fame;
    I stand in awe of your deeds, Lord.
Repeat them in our day,
    in our time make them known;
    in wrath remember mercy.
I heard and my heart pounded,
    my lips quivered at the sound;
decay crept into my bones,
    and my legs trembled.
Yet I will wait patiently for the day of calamity
    to come on the nation invading us.
When the fig tree does not bud,
and there are no grapes on the vines;
when the olive trees do not produce,
and the fields yield no crops;
when the sheep disappear from the pen,
and there are no cattle in the stalls,
I will rejoice because of the Lord;
I will be happy because of the God who delivers me!
The sovereign Lord is my source of strength.

SOME OF OUR MONTHLY
​STEWARDSHIP PRACTICES

Stewardship--the spiritual faith practice of applying our time, talent, and treasures toward God's mission of love and mercy in this world--is a SIGNIFICANT theme here at SSLC.  Here are a couple of ways that we, for the sake of the world, practice good stewardship of what God has given us: 

1st Sunday Food Pantry Offering

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On the 1st Sunday of every month, we set out our Food Shelf collection box to receive the gifts from any and all who are willing and able to give. 

4th Sunday Noisy Offering

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Our 4th Sunday Noisy Offerings, something that you would have to experience to truly appreciate. Try to imagine, though, what a hundred dollars or more in change might SOUND like hitting the bottom of a metal paint can!! It is music to generous ears, and we believe it is music to God's ears too!!

Our Noisy Offerings are applied to other missions and ministries apart from South Santiago locally (within the Sherburne-Wright-Benton-Stearns County area), state- or nation-wide, and globally. Past recipients have included Minnesota Food Share, Lutheran Disaster Relief, and Becker Backpack Buddies.

Join us in constructing your own Noisy Offering box in whatever creative way you can dream up. Use it to collect your daily change. And because of God's overwhelming love revealed in the resurrection of Jesus, help us be CHANGE in our world! 

ADVENT:
CANDLE ONE

Braden lights the candle at the 8 a.m. Worship Service
Samantha lights the Advent Candle at the 10 a.m. Worship Service.

Why Christmas?

Pastor Thul
 
Because nothing else will do.  It never did.
 
Paul wrote in the Letter to the Hebrews Day after day the priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.
 
It’s to know that these Old Testament sacrifices did not take away sin. They acted as signs of what was to come and certainly had value in maintaining community and order into the world beyond the temple (there is a price to pay for everything …).  But from God’s perspective  it wasn’t much.
 
David says in Psalm 51: You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it, you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart.
 
There’s no doubt in my military mind that there were plenty of people in the centuries before the Temple before the birth of the Messiah who would make sacrifice hoping that would be enough to please God — just like there are many today who would suggest that they are basically good people and that makes them worthy.
 
Quick point: God does not grade on a scale.  All sin. All fall short of the Glory of God.
 
The Old Testament Temple and its ritual sacrifices realistically only provided a way for sin to be dealt with.
It was God’s wonderful grace which brought forgiveness – but it wasn’t enough.
 
A pre-Jesus worshipped might say ‘My sins are all around me, ever in my view. I cannot see beyond them – and even when they are cleared, they almost immediately begin to accumulate like sores on my very body.’
Even so, God’s promise of life beyond our own failings came almost as soon as humans failed for the very first time: In Genesis 3, God promised that the woman’s offspring would crush the serpent’s head.
 
God certainly uses the circumstances of time to interject His Sovereignty into Creation – that’s a fancy way of saying that God acts according to His plan in God’s own time and we are the recipients of this work. Some people call these things miracles and I’m thinking you don’t have to think too hard to come up with a few of which you are connected or even have witnessed.
 
So all of these sacrifices – which ended when the Temple was destroyed in the year 70 AD – were nothing more than an echo forward and back to the sacrifice of God with Us: Immanuel.
 
Lots of Kings have been babies. In fact, pretty much all of them were at one time or another. Jesus is the only King who became a baby – for his peoples’ sake.
 
God’s Grace is found in the forgiveness of sin through Jesus’ work and for Jesus’ sake.
Furthermore, this absolute love is lived in the promise made at our baptism: You are sealed by the Spirit and marked by the cross of Christ Forever.
 
So why Christmas?  Here’s why: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.
 
Jesus is the gift of God that keeps giving. 

The weekly bulletin provides information for the upcoming Sunday and the newsletter even more!

December 2018 Newsletter
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File Type: pdf
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December 16 8 & 10 am bulletin
File Size: 453 kb
File Type: pdf
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Happy Hanukkah

Pastor Daryl Thul 

Hanukkah starts this Sunday and continues for eight days. It celebrates the re-dedication of the Temple of God in Jerusalem in the Year 165 BC.
The Nation of Israel had been a vassal State of the Greek Empire for generations.
Jerusalem was located between the Seleucid and Ptolemaic regions of Alexander the Great’s reign, regions that were governed by their own kings after the conqueror’s death. 
Eventually they fought one another, each claiming Israel as a war prize.
Enter the Year 168 BC.
​King Antiochus IV and his forces invade and hold Egypt - and the Greek King attempts to shut down Judaism completely.
He outlaws Jewish religious practices, installs a statue of the God Zeus in the Temple and sacrifices pigs on the altar in the Holy of Holies. Yes, he was pretty horrible.
A Rural Jewish Priest named Mattathias Maccabee initiated and his sons organized an armed revolt using guerrilla warfare tactics against the occupying Greek Soldiers that began in 167 BC. The forces withdrew in 165 BC and that set the stage for the re-dedication of the Temple and the restoration of freedom to worship God.
The re-dedication wasn’t simply a prayer and a meal. It was an elaborate ritual and ended up requiring a miracle - hence the candle icon associated with Hanukkah.
The Maccabees found a single small jug of holy oil that wasn’t uncontaminated. It held enough to light the Menorah for one day. The flame continued burning strong on that little bit of oil for eight days, by which time further oil could be procured.
I’m a Lutheran Pastor and hopefully I’m telling the story close enough for you to have a better idea of the importance of this celebration for our Jewish friends.
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Tree Huggers?
Well maybe this time of year.
The trees are spectacularly beautiful this season.

Waiting

Pastor LaMoore

​The season of Advent will carry us all the way through Christmas Eve. But Advent is much more than just the four-week run-up to Christmas.

In the church calendar, Advent is a period meant to be filled with expectant waiting. We are waiting, together as a church, for something amazing that we know is coming – Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the World.

Most of us are no strangers to waiting. We wait for all sorts of things, both wonderful and painful. It starts at a young age, when we wait to be old enough to do X, Y, and Z – stay up later, drive, go out with friends on our own.

For me, one of the big one was having a phone in my room (yes, it was a landline). I vividly remember the growing anticipation as my tenth birthday drew nearer, the day I would be allowed such a luxury.
As we get older, we wait for different things – finding a life partner, finding employment, starting a family, having grandchildren, retiring.

Some of the things we wait for are not so joyful, whether it be a medical diagnosis, a layoff we know is coming, or the death of a loved one whose time is limited. Whatever the case may be, whatever change or outcome we look toward, often it is the waiting itself that is the hardest part.

As God’s people, our situation usually looks no different than anyone else’s. On the whole, we have a long history of waiting, since God tends to do things in God’s own time. We might look at our individual lives or look at the world around us, and think, “Come on, God, what are you waiting for?? Do something!”

Well, the good news is God has already done something through his Son Jesus. We live as forgiven and claimed children of God precisely because of what God has already done.

Like kids who can’t sleep as they wait for Christmas morning, during advent, we wait to celebrate this wonderful thing that God has already accomplished. But at the same time, we wait in earnest for the things that God is still doing in our lives, the things that God hasn’t finished just yet.
Waiting is the hardest part.

It’s no coincidence that the four weeks of Advent coincide with some of the darkest days of winter. Just as the sun begins to shine a little more each day, we get to celebrate the light of world coming to dwell with us as a human man.

We will be walking through these days together with a new theme in worship each week: Waiting, Preparing, Wondering, and Praising. We also have two different Advent devotionals available for anyone who might want to spend daily time in prayer and reflection during this time of waiting.

We travel this road together, in all its joy and even its sorrow. May you have a blessed Advent season and a very Merry Christmas.