News and Announcements are published on Friday each week.

Easter – Resurrection Sunday

April 20, 2025

Readings: Job 19:23-27; 1 Corinthians 5:6-8; Mark 16:1-8 

Hymns: 463, 467, 464, 633, 458, 461

Calendar 

Witness

Lutheran Hour Ministries teams in Myanmar and Thailand are providing relief and spiritual care to those suffering in the aftermath of the recent devastating earthquake. We can support these two ministry centers through our prayers and gifts as they reach out to their hurting communities. Please pray that God's love will be made known to those affected and that His peace will comfort those in Myanmar and Thailand.  Monetary support can be sent to LHM.org/Give.  We sponsor The Lutheran Hour radio program throughout most of Maine and New Hampshire on the Worship Radio Network at 88.9 Sundays at 7am.

Lent is a time when we can engage others about our faith and invite them to worship with us.  Rev. John Bombaro discusses the history and meaning of Lent in an Issues, Etc. program.  Check out this segment at Issuesetc.org and enter Bombaro 0592 in the search field.  Because Issues, Etc. is a valuable source for information about our faith and how it relates to current secular issues, we support it financially.

Mercy  

The Gorham Backpack Program is distributing weekend food bags and school-day snack bags to Gorham students facing food insecurity. The current need is to stock the Food Closet at Gorham High School.  We will be collecting food items on an ongoing basis.  Please bring your donation to church.  There will be a box in the narthex for the collection. 

They are requesting the following items: Pretzels, Cheez-Its, Trail mix, Granola bars, Capri sun or other juice boxes, Fruit snack, Goldfish, Mac and cheese (Velveeta cups), Ramen Individual size, cereal boxes, Individual size popcorn bags, Spaghettios, Deodorant, Chapstick.

If you need anything (rides, supplies, medicine pickups) or any assistance please feel free to contact Sandy or Tom DiPasqua at 207-883-2730 or tjdipasqua@aol.com.  

Life Together 

The LWML-NED Spring Rally will be held April 26th 9:00 am to 2:30 pm, at Messiah Lutheran Church in Fitchburg, MA.  Printed registration forms are available on the table in the Narthex or you can sign-up online at https://www.messiahfitchburg.com/springrally2025.   Please see Betsy if you’re interested in attending this rally.

The April 2025 issue of LWML “NED Pass It On” is available via this LINK.  A printed copy is posted on the bulletin board.

Pastor Strawn has made it his goal to visit with Redeemer’s members at their homes.  He wants to keep it very informal.  Please email him at  pastorgstrawn@gmail.com to schedule a date and time for your visit with him. 

Looking for hosts for our coffee hours following service. Sign up on the Fellowship Board near Pastor’s office. This can be one family or several families.  

A Life Thought in the Church Year for April 20 – Resurrection of Our Lord: Lethal measures like abortion and assisted suicide claim to express autonomy, but they really embody surrenders to death. 

Jesus Christ, sacrificed and arising again, liberates from submission to this ultimate enemy (1 Corinthians 15:26). Neither we nor our neighbors need equate human worth with length of days or lack thereof (Isaiah 65:20). Who will tell them? Why not us?

A Stewardship Thought for Easter April 20 - Mark 16:6 – “And he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; He is not here.’ ” Jesus is risen, but is that Good News? What if He is mad at us for betraying Him, for running away at Gethsemane, for not believing He would rise? The Good News is not just that Jesus is risen; the Good News is that He is risen to bless us. There is no need to be alarmed. He still calls us His friends and brothers and means to bring us through death to resurrection as well. The Lord is risen — He is risen indeed!

SACRED MUSIC FOR THE EASTER SEASON… “Jesus Christ Is Risen Today,” “Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands,” “I Know That My Redeemer Lives,” “Awake, My Heart, with Gladness,” “He’s Risen, He’s Risen.”  You can listen 24/7 to sacred music for the 50 days of the Easter season at lutheranpublicradio.org, TuneIn, Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple HomePod and the Lutheran Public Radio mobile app.

Communications

Newsletter Deadline – If you wish to contribute to the May church newsletter, please email your submission to the church office by April 22. 

All announcements and prayer requests received in the church office by noon on Thursday will appear in print that week in Friday’s email. If there is an announcement that you would like Pastor to make following Sunday’s FB live stream, please email him that information.

Looking Forward To Quasimodo Geniti – The Second Sunday of Easter

Readings: Exekiel 37:1-14; 1 John 5:4-10; John 20:19-31 

Hymns: 478, 470, 602, 487, 480, 466

Quasimodo Geniti – The Second Sunday of Easter

April 27, 2025

Readings: Ezekiel 37:1-14; 1 John 5:4-10; John 20:19-31 

Hymns: 478, 470, 602, 487, 480, 466

Calendar 

Witness

Lutheran Hour Ministries teams in Myanmar and Thailand are providing relief and spiritual care to those suffering in the aftermath of the recent devastating earthquake. We can support these two ministry centers through our prayers and gifts as they reach out to their hurting communities. Please pray that God's love will be made known to those affected and that His peace will comfort those in Myanmar and Thailand.  Monetary support can be sent to LHM.org/Give.  We sponsor The Lutheran Hour radio program throughout most of Maine and New Hampshire on the Worship Radio Network at 88.9 Sundays at 7am.

Do the spiritual paths presented by the world’s various religions all lead to the same god? Is Jesus just one way among many to the one true God? In this edition of the Issues, Etc. Journal, Todd Wilken examines and evaluates the creed of universalism.  Also in this edition, Seminarian Wil Welch has written our Wittenberg Trail feature, “Embracing What My Baptism Means.” He recounts his path from the progressive compromising of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America to the solid biblical teaching of Confessional Lutheranism.  We also have information about Issues, Etc. sponsors and our generous supporting congregations.  Click here to read the Issues, Etc. Journal. Since it is a large file, it might take a minute to download.

Mercy  

The Gorham Backpack Program is distributing weekend food bags and school-day snack bags to Gorham students facing food insecurity. The current need is to stock the Food Closet at Gorham High School.  We will be collecting food items on an ongoing basis.  Please bring your donation to church.  There will be a box in the narthex for the collection. 

They are requesting the following items: Pretzels, Cheez-Its, Trail mix, Granola bars, Capri sun or other juice boxes, Fruit snack, Goldfish, Mac and cheese (Velveeta cups), Ramen Individual size, cereal boxes, Individual size popcorn bags, Spaghettios, Deodorant, Chapstick.

If you need anything (rides, supplies, medicine pickups) or any assistance please feel free to contact Sandy or Tom DiPasqua at 207-883-2730 or tjdipasqua@aol.com.  

Life Together 

The LWML-NED Spring Rally will be held April 26th 9:00 am to 2:30 pm, at Messiah Lutheran Church in Fitchburg, MA.  Printed registration forms are available on the table in the Narthex or you can sign-up online at https://www.messiahfitchburg.com/springrally2025.   Please see Betsy if you’re interested in attending this rally.

The April 2025 issue of LWML “NED Pass It On” is available via this LINK.  A printed copy is posted on the bulletin board.

Pastor Strawn has made it his goal to visit with Redeemer’s members at their homes.  He wants to keep it very informal.  Please email him at  pastorgstrawn@gmail.com to schedule a date and time for your visit with him. 

Looking for hosts for our coffee hours following service. Sign up on the Fellowship Board near Pastor’s office. This can be one family or several families.  

A Life Thought in the Church Year for April 27 – Easter II: “An angel of the Lord…brought them out and said, ‘Go…and speak to the people all the words of this Life’” (Acts 5:19-20). Life—immediate, abundant, ongoing from fertilization to forever—belongs to the heart of the Gospel and the very identity of our Savior Jesus Christ. And is there any clearer Scriptural invitation for the sanctity of life to occupy all our conversation? 

A Stewardship Thought for April 27 – Easter 2 (Quasimodo Geniti) John 20:19 – “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ ” Fear is the opposite of faith. That is, the kind of cringing fear we have in the face of something that is hostile to us and more powerful than we are. Jesus spends a lot of His time telling the disciples to not be afraid. Our fears constantly hem us in and prevent us from following the Lord’s will. But there is no need to fear. Jesus has conquered. No fear can keep us locked up. We have been set free by Jesus for lives that declare His marvelous deeds.

BOOK OF PHILEMON BIBLE STUDY… The Word of the Lord Endures Forever is a daily 15-minute verse-by-verse Bible study produced by Lutheran Public Radio in Collinsville, IL and hosted by LCMS Pastor Will Weedon.  Pastor Weedon begins a study this week on the Book of Philemon.  You can listen at your convenience at thewordendures.org, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomePod, TuneIn, the LPR mobile app and a podcast provider. 

Communications

Newsletter Deadline – If you wish to contribute to the June church newsletter, please email your submission to the church office by May 22. 

All announcements and prayer requests received in the church office by noon on Thursday will appear in print that week in Friday’s email. If there is an announcement that you would like Pastor to make following Sunday’s FB live stream, please email him that information.

Looking Forward To Misericordias Domini – The Third Sunday of Easter

Readings: Ezekiel 34:11-16; 1 Peter 2:21-25; John 10:11-16 

Hymns: 653, 709, 711, 710, 666