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We continue to do all we can to keep everyone as safe as possible. In order to care for children, those who are immunocompromised, and those who are unable to receive vaccines, we will still wear masks at all times, and there will be no congregational singing. When you arrive, you will sign in, and provide contact information. However, if you feel ill or are running a fever of over 100 degrees, please stay home and keep yourself and others safe. As God's people we are called to love one another and to care for the most vulnerable in our midst.

Services will continue to be livestreamed on YouTube Live each week. While we all “want” to come physically back together as a community of faith, we realize that not all will feel comfortable returning to indoor in-person worship yet. Please do not feel guilty or pressured . We will be continuing our services on-line. Please only come when you feel that you are ready.

As a part of this year's Upstate New York Synod Assembly, all congregations were challenged to make a gift of at least $400 to help bring clean water to communities throughout the world.

We accepted that challenge beautifully! As of today, Immanuel has made a gift of $1115 to the Springs in the Desert campaign! How generous you all are! Thank you! And we can continue to accept gifts through next Sunday. Jesus said, "and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward." We have heard Jesus' words and have shared that cool water with our gifts! Thank you!

Take a stroll on the front lawn of the church and see all the veggies that have been planted by the Hunger Task Force! Once they are harvested, they will help to feed hungry people in our community. If you would like to help with the upkeep of the garden, please contact the church office for more information! Green thumb or not, we can always use your help!

Looking for a way to connect with others and grow in your faith? We will gather in the Memorial Garden at Immanuel Tuesday evenings to talk about Barbara Brown Taylor’s book Learning to Walk in the Dark. Brown writes, Darkness is a shorthand for anything that scares me—either because I am sure that I do not have the resources to survive it or because I do not want to find out… Instead, I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things than have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light.

Join us Tuesdays at 7 pm beginning June 22 and continuing through July 20. Bring a lawn chair and meet in the garden. (We’ll move inside in case of rain!) Surrounded by the beauty of nature, we will talk about darkness and light, what we have learned when the lights seem to go out, and how God is that light in the darkness for us.

The book is available from most major booksellers. Contact Pastor Joanne if you have any questions.

Do you want to join with folks to learn and laugh? Do you want to dig more deeply into Scripture? Do you want to have a chance to be challenged and deepen your faith and understanding of who Jesus is? Then Wednesday morning is your time! Join in the conversation as we look at readings for the upcoming Sunday. Log into Zoom Wednesday mornings at 9. No previous knowledge or Bible study experience is necessary! Come and learn and laugh and be with friends both old and new!

Meeting ID: 837 9151 1254

Passcode: Bibles

Merciful God, we offer with joy and thanksgiving what you have first given us - our selves, our time, and our possessions, signs of your gracious love. Receive them for the sake of him who offered himself for us, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Blessed be the holy Trinity,☩ one God,

the God of manna,

the God of miracles,

the God of mercy.

Drawn to Christ and seeking God’s abundance,

let us confess our sin.

God, our provider,

Beloved people of God:

in Jesus, the manna from heaven,

you are fed and nourished.

By Jesus, the worker of miracles,

there is always more than enough.

Through Jesus, ☩ the bread of life,

you are shown God’s mercy:

you are forgiven and loved into abundant life.

First Reading     Ezekiel 17: 22-24

²²Thus says the Lord God:

I myself will take a sprig

from the lofty top of a cedar;

I will set it out.

I will break off a tender one

from the topmost of its young twigs;

I myself will plant it

on a high and lofty mountain.

²³On the mountain height of Israel

I will plant it,

in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,

and become a noble cedar.

Under it every kind of bird will live;

in the shade of its branches will nest

winged creatures of every kind.

²⁴All the trees of the field shall know

that I am the Lord.

I bring low the high tree,

I make high the low tree;

I dry up the green tree

and make the dry tree flourish.

I the Lord have spoken;

I will accomplish it.

Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15

 ¹It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord,

to sing praise to your name, O Most High;

²to herald your love in the morning

and your faithfulness at night;

³on the psaltery, and on the lyre,

and to the melody of the harp.

⁴For you have made me glad by your acts, O Lord;

and I shout for joy because of the works of your hands. 

¹²The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,

and shall spread abroad like a cedar of Lebanon.

¹³Those who are planted in the house of the Lord

shall flourish in the courts of our God;

¹⁴they shall still bear fruit in old age;

they shall be green and succulent;

¹⁵that they may show how upright the Lord is,

my rock, in whom there is no injustice. 

Gospel   Mark 4:26-34

The Holy Gospel according to Mark.

       Glory to you, O Lord

²⁶[Jesus] said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground,²⁷and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. ²⁸The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. ²⁹But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

 ³⁰He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; ³²yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

 ³³With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; ³⁴he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

         Praise to you, O Christ.

               Lord, in your mercy,

                               hear our prayer.

                               The prayers conclude:

hallowed be thy name,

thy kingdom come,

thy will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

as we forgive those

who trespass against us;

but deliver us from evil.

and the power, and the glory,

For the Fruit of All Creation  Text © 1970 Hope Publishing Company. Reprinted by permission under OneLicense #A-714459.