CreatingCommunity is an email devotion to guide your preparation for worship next weekend. Imagine how much more clear and relevant God's Word will be if you have had an opportunity read, reflect, and dwell in the Word prior to worship. You may do this devotion alone, with others, as a family, or over Zoom as a small group.

This devotion is to be done in preparation for Sunday, August 2, 2020, The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost.

Please follow these three steps:

1. Read through the text
2. Respond to the questions (select one of the sets of questions)
3. Offer a Prayer
Luke 4:14-21
Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He was teaching in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.
He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
  “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
  because he has anointed me
  to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
  and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
   to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
  Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
No Experience Necessary Questions:
  1. What scares, confuses, or challenges me in this text?
  2. What delights me in this text?
  3. What stories or memories does this text stir in me?
  4. What is God up to in this text?
Family Questions:
  1. This weekend seven youth will affirm their baptism and be confirmed in the Christian faith? What do you know about your baptism? Who was there? Where did it take place?
  2. When you are baptized your parents promised to help you grow in the Christian faith and life so that you would "care for others and the world God made, and work for justice and peace". Give examples of how your parents may have kept those promises or enable you to act in faithful ways.
  3. Why do you think Lutherans and other Christian traditions baptized infants and others baptize adults? What are the benefits of both traditions?
Advance Questions:
  1. This weekend seven youth will affirm their baptism and be confirmed in the Christian faith? What do you know about your confirmation? Who was there? Where did it take place?
  2. How would you describe the relationship between baptism and confirmation (hint: confirmation is also know as affirmation of baptism.)
  3. What does it mean that you are a baptized Child or God? How does being baptized impact how you live your life, choices you make, ways you behave? Explain
Click here to listen to this week's CreatingCommunity song
“ Bathe her in your love ".
Prayer
Merciful God, creator and giver of life, you have called all people from darkness into light, from error into truth, from death into life. Grant grace to all the baptized and bless them. Raise them by your Spirit. Revive them by your word. Form them by your hand. Bring them to the water of life and to the bread and cup of blessing, that with all your people they may bear witness to your grace and praise you forever through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN.
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