St. John
Lutheran Church

We each have ways of remembering things.  Husbands are well-advised to remember the month, day, and the year of their wedding and at least the month and day of their wife’s birthday.  (I’m no expert, but don’t go proclaiming the year your wife was born!)  I appreciate the usefulness as well as the sentimentality of a very well-worn notebook that has all the birthdays and addresses and other information of friends and relatives.  As cultures shift and traditions like sending Christmas or birthday cards might fade or go away, I wonder we still recognize the passage of time and the passage of significant events.

If you are a paper calendar person, which I am, get ready!  A new year is about to begin!  Fresh calendars can be exciting!  Blank pages.  Perhaps you will sit down and fill in important dates at the start of the year.  Birthdays and anniversaries are written into the box on the correct date lest we forget.  We anticipate confirmations, graduations, weddings, and retirements.  We aren’t granted much insight into how the year will unfold or how it will end.  We can’t predict illnesses, accidents, and death.  My prayer is that hope-filled living brings joy and very little in the way of anxiety.

The month of December and the church season of Advent have elements of both remembering and anticipating along with ways to mark the significance of those times.  Thankfully, all we need to know about the First Advent and the Second Advent of Christ are faithfully recorded for us in the Bible.  First?  Second?  Yes, we remember the prophecy from Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”  Now we wait for, we anticipate, His second advent, His second coming.  We read in I Thessalonians 5:23-24 “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.”

There are wonderful opportunities to both remember the coming of Jesus and anticipate His coming again with specific events.  The season of Advent is a time to reflect on the year that is drawing to a close, a time to reflect on blessings, and a time to thank God for His faithfulness especially when we were at our weakest and most vulnerable.  I encourage you to meditate on the four themes that go with the four weeks of Advent: Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.  We will meditate on these things each Sunday and set aside time each Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. to gather at Saint Peter.  We gather to be spiritually enriched as we mark each of these times.

I wish you the very best time of preparation and remembering during the season of Advent.  I wish you the very best celebration of Christmas as we rejoice at His first coming and anticipate when He will come again.

Pastor Bill Wrede

Intentional Interim Pastor

Advent and Christmas Services

• December 3, 10, 17 – Midweek at Saint Peter, 4169 Church Road, Lockport
  • 5:45 p.m. A meal will be available in the fellowship hall in the basement of the school portion of the building.
  • 7:00 p.m. Advent Evening Prayer Service

• December 24 – Christmas Eve – Candlelight and Christmas Hymns
  • 5:00 p.m. at Saint Peter
  • 7:00 p.m. at Saint John

Transitional Interim Ministry Update

A very heartfelt “THANK YOU!” to the 61 people who spent time with me to share their lives of faith, their time at Saint John or Saint Peter (or both), and their hopes and their concerns as the two parishes move forward together in anticipation of calling their next pastor.

The next phase will be “Listening Sessions.”  The Listening Sessions will be when I give an analysis of information I gathered from the interviews.  Along with the information from the interviews, I will share what I’ve observed and learned during my initial four months with Saint John and Saint Peter.  After my presentation, there will be ample time to listen to one another as we chart our future through the end of the interim and into the call process for a settled pastor.

Listening Session Schedule

• January 7 – 7:00 p.m. Saint John
• January 10 – 10:00 a.m. Saint John
• January 14 – 7:00 p.m. Saint Peter
• January 17 – 10:00 a.m. Saint Peter