The Spirit

Holy Spirit Lutheran Church

December 2019

We human beings encounter many SIGNS in life----.Street signs, Roads signs, Business signs, Church signs.

All types of signs face us. Some signs have squiggly lines, or curved lines or with printed words or colorful figures.

Each sign signals something different for us. Each sign prepares us for what is ahead. We are taught to understand

them and try to follow them so to keep an orderly society. For me, a “sign is something indicating the existence of

something else.”

In truth, Advent is also A SIGN that prepares us to talk about the coming of the Messiah found in birth of Jesus.

Ancient Prophecies foretold that the Messiah was coming. We hear these prophecies in Advent. And these proph-

ecies also prepare us to talk about the coming of the Messiah again. I say this because in a recent survey of Lu-

theran, it said that Lutherans do not read the prophecies. An example from this survey states that even though

92% of us American Lutheran own at least one Bible, yet only 37% of say that we read the Scripture at least once a

week.

Ancient prophecies come from either the Old or New Testament and are appropriate for these Sundays of Ad-

vent. They can fill us with Faith, Hope, Love and Peace. These themes nurture us by keeping the vision of the

prophets alive in us. Faith, Hope, Love and Peace in Advent can help keep this vision alive by remembering all that

God has done and by thinking of what God is doing as we come to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Christ Child

once again this year. Thus, the holiday preparations help us prepare. Faith, Hope, Love and Peace of this Advent

Season helps YOU with the calling of a new Pastor in the New Year 2020.

Accept the Season of Advent with this anticipation that the Old shall be made New. May God’s spirit surrounds

YOU in a new chapter in your congregational life – a new, different chapter in your life-journey as individuals as

well as Holy Spirit congregation. I pray that you will accept this new chapter in year 2020.

In God’s peace,

Pastor Joe

December 1, 2019

First Sunday of Advent

Services at 8:30 and 10:45 am

December 8, 2019

Second Sunday of Advent Services at 8:30 and 10:45 am

December 15, 2019

Third Sunday of Advent

Services at 8:30 and 10:45 am

December 22, 2019

Fourth Sunday of Advent

Service at 9:30 am

Sunday school Christmas Pageant

December 24, 2019

Christmas Eve Services

5:00 pm Family Service –

Christmas carols and a special child-friendly message

7:30 pm Candlelight Service – with music shared from our Senior choir

Dec. 29 – 9:30 am- One combined service of Lessons and Carols

This is a graph showing the weekly giving of the congregation.

1. There are 64 Giving Families 2. How to read the graph a. 6 families give $10-$19 per week. b. The Yellow bar; Half of the families in the congregation give less than $30/week.

Sacks for Seniors

The Social Ministry Team is asking for donations for Shepherd’s Staff’s “Sacks for Seniors”

program. This is a gift bag program sponsored by The Shepherd’s Staff. Our church youth will

assemble gift bags containing the donated items described below. They will be taken to

Shepard’s Staff for distribution to Carroll County seniors in need. The deadline is December

11.

We are asking that donated items include:

Stationary: pens, pencils, markers, writing pads etc.

Hygiene Items: Toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, mild soap, comb, brush, deodorant, tissues,

hand sanitizer, etc.

Other: T-shirts, socks, jewelry, watches, and hard candy

Love to have included: the biblical Christmas story, religious CD’s, DVD’s

Do not include: used or damaged items, chocolate or food other than hard candy, out of

date candy, breakable items such as snow globes. No glass containers or aerosol cans.

GIFT CARDS!! The Holy Spirit Early Childhood Learning Center has a wonderful scrip program to buy gift cards for friends and loved ones. The holidays are coming up, so please help the preschool by choosing your gift cards from the form on the table in the narthex. Numerous stores and res-taurants are available. The preschool receives a portion in return from this program. It is great! Give your filled out form and check made out to HSECLC (not to the church) to Kim No-vak’s mailbox in hallway. I’ll make sure you receive your gift cards as soon as possible. Thank you! Questions?: contact Kim Novak at 410-795-4716.

Thank you

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers during our journey with David’s illness. After his last scans there

shows no evidence of cancer at this time. We would appreciate your continued prayers as we continue treat-

ments.

Sincerely, David & Jennie Jones

Greetings from HSLC Social Ministry Committee

Matthew 25: 35-36

“ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I

was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after

me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

The social ministry committee leads our congregation in efforts to assist those in need globally, locally, and

also within our church community. This year we have been busy with many activities. Thus far we have ac-

complished the following:

Lenten Food Drive – Our congregation made donations of non-perishable food items to Carroll Country

Food Sunday throughout the Lenten Season which resulted in a contribution of approximately 1000

pounds of food.

Easter Baskets were delivered to HSLC members who are homebound.

In August and September donations of school supplies and backpacks were delivered to Shepherd’s Staff

October – We collected coats for the homeless and donated them to Shepherd Staff

November - HSLC is supported ELCA World Hunger Sunday on November 24th through both global and

local contributions. Global support was given via “noisy change” contributions. We participated locally

by donating non-perishable food items to Ebenezer Methodist Church Food Pantry.

Plans for December - In December we will continue to support ELCA’s World Hunger Task Force by en-

couraging purchases from the ELCA Good Gifts Catalog. Our youth will be helping to prepare

“Stockings for Seniors” donations to Shepherd’s Staff. We will also be visiting homebound church

members.

In addition to the activities described above HSLC participates regularly in the following programs:

St. Dysmas Prison Ministry. Pre-screened congregation members participate in church services at Central

Maryland Correctional Facility in Sykesville. (For more information about this program contact Deacon

Linda Smith)

Bag Lunch Donations to ESCAPE Ministries - This effort is spearheaded by the Midkiff and Hindman fami-

lies who prepare and deliver 80 bag lunches three times per year to ESCAPE Ministries.

Card ministry - HSLC sends birthday cards, sympathy cards, get well cards out to members and friends as

these occasions arise.

Future plans

We are hoping to restart our young adult mentor program in which we give support to recent high school

graduates as they enter into either the world of academia or the adult working world.

We hope to explore new ways to provide for those in need.

For more information about this committee please contact Patsy Taylor at 443-952-7116 or Carol Friend at

410-491-9110 or email to: cfriend1129@gmail.com

Stewardship for Advent and Christmas

Many of us cherish everything about the Christmas season

-- except those incessant advertisements telling us to buy this and

buy that. We ask, “Where’s Jesus in all this commercialism?”

This is the right question. Though it asks us to examine

every aspect of our lives, stewardship particularly challenges us to

question the role money plays in our personal lives and our

culture.

Christmas presents are wonderful expressions of love that

make both giver and recipient feel good. At the same time, we

want to be wary of advertising’s lure to make us overspend, or to

think that the cost of our gift is proportionate to our love.

Most of all, we need to be sure that the main point of our Christmas is not the gifts we

give, but the gift we receive from God – Jesus. Here are some ideas:

Challenge yourself to spend less for presents this year. Set a budget and stick to it.

Attend worship regularly in Advent and Christmas.

Give some handmade presents: A scarf or hat, a photo album, a batch of fudge, a

card, a poem.

Prayerfully read Advent daily devotions (Richard Rohr’s Preparing for Christmas is

amazing!).

Give your time: a concert together, a shared meal, a day at a museum, a walk in the

woods

Use an Advent calendar to help you remember all that God has given you.

Give service: wash a loved one’s car, help clean the garage, paint a room, babysit

for an evening.

Play Christmas music that has religious themes (More “Silent Night,” less “Frosty

the Snowman.”)

Instead of buying a present, make a donation to a charitable organization in honor

of your loved one (or check out ELCA Good Gifts!).

Make a generous year-end contribution to your congregation.

Our thoughtful practices for Advent and Christmas not only make for good stewardship

of our time, talents, relationships, and money; they also help us to draw near to our Lord and

experience God’s greatest gift to us.

Copyright © 2018, Rev. Robert Blezard. Reprinted by permission.

Hymn Story — Joy to the World

My favorite Christmas hymn has always been “Joy to the World”,

at least in part because the hymnal I grew up with said that the tune was

written by George F. Handel. So I decided to write about it for this

month’s hymn story, and I found out that it probably wasn’t intended to

be a Christmas hymn and the tune probably wasn’t written by Handel.

The words were written by Isaac Watts, an English clergyman

who is often referred to as the “Father of English Hymnody”. He wrote

over 500 hymns, perhaps as many as 750 according to some sources.

Many of them were rather free paraphrases of psalms. “Joy to the

World” is one of these. Verses 1, 2, and 4 are based on Psalm 98:4-9,

which describes the Lord coming to judge the world. The third verse of

the hymn seems to be based on Genesis 3:17-18 and speaks of sins

and sorrows being no more, something else that will occur at Christ’s

second coming. Because of this, many scholars believe that the hymn is

related to Christ’s second coming rather than his first. Some modern

hymnals, including Evangelical Lutheran Worship, include “Joy to the

World” in the Advent section, not the Christmas section.

There are several theories about where the tune came from.

Various phrases within it are reminiscent of parts of Messiah and that

led to the tune being ascribed to Handel, a contemporary of Watts. In

1836, Lowell Mason, a musician from Boston, first published the words

by Watts set to his arrangement of the tune which he called “Antioch”.

Although Mason continued to attribute it to Handel, the tune is now

thought to have been an 18th century English melody.

In spite of all this confusion, “Joy to the World” is still one of the

most published and recorded Christmas hymns. And it is still my favorite!

Deacon Linda

1 Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her king;

let ev’ry heart prepare him room

and heav’n and nature sing,

and heav’n and nature sing,

and heav’n, and heav’n and nature sing.

2 Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!

Let all their songs employ.

While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains

repeat the sounding joy,

repeat the sounding joy,

repeat, repeat the sounding joy,

3 No more let sin and sorrow grow

nor thorns infest the ground;

he comes to make his blessings flow

far as the curse is found

far as the curse is found

far as, far as the curse is found

4 He rules the world with truth and grace

and makes the nations prove

the glories of his righteousness

and wonders of his love,

and wonders of his love,

and wonders, wonders of his love.

Isaac Watts (1674-1748)

Lowell Mason (1792-1872)

Worship Matters — Sending

Our worship ends with the Sending, the shortest section of the service. It has just four parts, and only one of them is required.

Sending of Communion Blessing Sending Song Dismissal

The Sending of Communion is not usually included at Holy Spirit. It is used when lay Eucharistic ministers are sent to take the Lord’s Supper to shut-ins and others who were not able to attend the service.

We do not just leave worship. Now that we have been fed and nourished by God’s Word and by bread and wine, we are sent out into the world with God’s blessing to serve our neighbors near and far. But we do not go alone. Jesus is there with us in the struggles and joys we experience in all aspects of our lives from Monday to Saturday. Then we gather again in worship to be strengthened and restored. In a recent column in Living Lutheran, ELCA presiding bishop Elizabeth Eaton illustrated this cycle in the following way:

Peasants in France would take a loaf of bread with them into the fields. They would take a bite of the bread, throw the loaf down the row, and begin the backbreaking work of hoeing and tending their crops. When they caught up to the bread, they took another bite and threw it down the row again. In this way they could keep on going. So it is with us as we receive the bread of life and serve the world.

1

Deacon Linda 1 Elizabeth Eaton, “Gathering, Word, Meal and Sending” Living Lutheran, June, 2019: 50.

Annual Congregation Meeting

November 17, 2019

Election Results

Audit Committee: Linda Herb

Nominating Committee: Peggy Miller Stephanie Arnold

Synod Conference Representative: Bea Grant Carol Friend Josiah Giordano

Church Council: Brian Bowman Holly deBenedictis

Bill Dodson Joyce Peregoy

December Early Learning Center Corner:

What a wonderful time of year to be a child. Surrounded by the sparkling lights and the fes-

tive decorations, the Preschool children are eagerly practicing for their Christmas Program,

singing songs and acting out the Christmas Story. Each class will have their own program ei-

ther on December 16, 17, 18 or 19 where the families will enjoy seeing the children per-

form. The children continue to make ornaments for decorating their trees and learning

about the real meaning of Christmas. At the learning center we stress the importance of the

gift of God’s Son, Jesus. Our character trait for this month is Compassion.

The children will experience the feeling of giving and receiving the special gifts of Christmas.

We have our kids helping kids programs for this month. We will celebrate Christmas this

year with the Reverse Advent Calendar where the children will bring 1 small item to place in

our collection box each day they come to school for the Rock of Hope food pantry in Win-

field or the Cold Weather Shelter in Westminster. It is reversed since the children will not be

receiving but giving to 2 organizations who will help other people.

We will continue throughout the year with the Scrip gift card program if at any time you

need gift cards please contact me in the Early Learning Centers office or see Kim Novak.

We are now in the process of registering for the 2020-2021 school year. We have many

different options to offer. If you need a customized schedule we will work with you. Our

two’s program is on Monday and Wednesday or Tuesday and Thursday (9:00-11:30). We

have our three’s program on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and on Tuesdays and Thurs-

days (9:00-11:30). Our pre-k programs can either be a three or five day program (9:00-

11:30) or (12:30-3:00) or (9:00-3:00). Our two day pre-k is on Tuesday and Thursday (9:00-

12:30).

Please call the Preschool Office for more info 410-795-2287.

Holy Spirit Early Childhood Learning Center

REVERSE ADVENT CALENDAR December 2-19

Each day you add an item to the box and on Christmas Eve we will donate the contents to the Rock of Hope

food pantry in Winfield or the Cold Weather shelter in Westminster.

IDEAS: mittens, gloves hats, toothpaste, small shampoos, deodorant, small mouthwash, combs, brushes,

toothbrushes, hand lotions, hand sanitizers, Socks, Sweatpants, T-Shirts, Hand warmers, and any Non-

perishable food items. You can even bring small toys for children.

Have your child bring one small thing every day they come to school and put it in the box as we count down

to Christmas. It takes only 1 small item to help somebody out.

ROCK of HOPE Food Pantry

They send a huge thank you for your generous donations on World Hunger Sunday. Your kindness makes a big difference in the

lives of those in our community in need.

Second Sundays of the month are “Jammin”

at HSLC

Fun activities for all ages

The beginning of the youth group experience for

Pre-school & Elementary-aged kids

The Second Sunday of Each Month

at approximately 2:00 pm

(time depends on activity)

J.A M.: Jesus and Me

Check out our website hslceldersburgmd.org and our Facebook page

to stay up-to-date on J. A. M. events

Contact Laura Blum and Joe Herb for more details

The “Spirit Diners” will get together on Sunday, December 8, at 1:00 PM at the Paper Lantern Asian Grill, 2020 Marriottsville Road, Suite G (corner of Route 99, behind Dunkin Donuts.) PLEASE NOTE DATE SEQUENCE CHANGE. Here is their website to view the menu: http://www.paper-lantern.com. Use the “sign-up” sheet (in back of the church) to make your reservation. Questions: call Barbara Northrop, 410-552-0104.

Spirited Seniors will meet for lunch on December 11th , noon, at Basta Pasta in Eldersburg.

Jr J.A.M.

December 8th Cookie & Gingerbread House decorating 2pm FREE

Please RSVP for this event We will set the mood with Christmas music and provide the cookies and

gingerbread houses. Bring some edible decorations to share. We will eat some of our creations and send

some home! Dress festively for the photo booth!!

Save the date! Sunday December 22 we will have one service at 9:30 am featuring our Christmas Play. After service we will have a Special Christmas Fellowship in the multipurpose room.

Contact Information for Holy Spirit Lutheran Church

Address: Holy Spirit Lutheran Church

2205 Old Liberty Road

Eldersburg, MD 21784

Church Office Phone: (410) 795-6333 Preschool Office: (410) 795-2287

Email:

Pastor: hslc.pastor@comcast.net

Deacon Linda: aim@hslceldersburgmd.org

Pastoral Assistant: jherb1@yahoo.com

Parish Administrator: hslc.eldersburg@comcast.net

Website: www.hslceldersburgmd.org