Author: Church Office

Easter is a moveable feast. Easter isn’t on the same calendar date every year in the way that Christmas is always celebrated on December 25. The date for Easter each year always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Spring equinox. And once you find the date of Easter, everything else finds its place—Good Friday and Maundy Thursday, Ash Wednesday and the Transfiguration, the Ascension of our Lord and Pentecost.

All this is a long way of saying that Easter determines everything. Easter defines everything. It orders not only the entire church year, but it orders our very lives. It defines and gives meaning to our lives, as well to the things that happen in them. And since Easter defines everything, that means it changes everything too. It redefines who we are and where we stand with God and with one another. Easter makes all things new.

Without Easter, Jesus would not be raised from the dead. Without Easter death would still reign, we would still be in our trespasses and sins, and our faith and hope would be in vain. But Jesus is raised from the dead. Easter changes everything. It makes all things new. Therefore, darkness is overcome with light, wrath with peace, fear with hope, angst with rest, sadness with joy, hatred with love, sin with righteousness, and death with life. Easter changes everything, redefines everything, determines everything. Easter makes all things new.

May this Easter bring you new life and new hope that you may share that light and life with the world.

Maundy Thursday -April 6th at 7:00 pm:   This is the day when Christians remember the Last Supper.  At the close of the service the altar and the sanctuary will be stripped in preparation for Good Friday

Good Friday-April 7th at 7:00 pm: This is the day when Christians around the world commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Easter Sunday –April 9^st at 9:30 am:  This is the day that we as Christians celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Kirchenwald  &  Nawakwa

Camp Brochures are in the narthex!

Sign-up for summer camp!  Lots of discounts apply.  Check out the camp brochure. You can find one on the table in the narthex.  Pick the camp, the date you want to attend, and get ready for camp.  Our church has a “youth fund” and pays a generous amount toward the camp fees.  Pick up a brochure.  For more information see Patti LaPorte.

Several years ago I found myself as a new pastor in a situation in which I was just learning how to be comfortable. I had been called to the hospital to visit Rose who had just had a massive stroke.  I was filled with all sorts of anxieties about saying the right thing and being a comfort and support to a family that would soon be saying goodbye to this lovely woman.  As I entered her room her doctor was just getting ready to leave and she informed me that she didn’t have long and that she would not be able to hear me or to speak. The stroke had taken her ability to form words and it had completely paralyzed half of her body while slowly shutting down her internal organs.

Her best friend Gladys was with her, by her side, as she had been since they were in grade school together. I listened to this no nonsense woman process her grief and let the doctor’s news sink in. And then I asked her if we could pray with Rose. And so we joined hands we each other and this lovely woman and we prayed together. We finished our time of prayer by praying the Lord’s prayer and wouldn’t you know it, Rose decided to chime in. Her eyes were closed and half of her face was paralyzed but she was praying the prayer. It wasn’t just in whispers, it wasn’t a trick of the ears, we weren’t mistaken, she was praying out loud with us.

Now, if you speak with other pastors you would surely hear stories that echo this one. When you have been marked with the sign of the cross and you have these words of love and belonging etched into your being, they tend to hold us up and draw us out when we find ourselves in these thin places. These thin places are locales and times where the distance between heaven and earth collapse and we’re able to catch glimpses of the divine. They are like manna for the journey.

When we told the doctor what had happened she simply dismissed it and said that it was impossible. But Gladys and I know exactly what we experienced. And we held onto that moment less than a week later when we buried her. The final word from her mouth was a resounding, “Amen,” as though her life had been a prayer that now rested in God.

My fervent hope is that we all have the opportunity to experience this kind of faith, faith that is so much a part of our very being that when everything else is taken away from us, who we are in Christ remains. This season of Lent is an invitation to remember your baptism.  Remember who you are in Christ.  Remember that while the world may seem to be spinning out of control and we feel as though we are being caught up in it, Christ is our anchor.  The storm will pass, the waves will calm.  We don’t allow the storm to change us.  Remember who you are in Christ.  Let faith define you, and may you become more and more each day the people that God is creating you to be.

Maundy Thursday -April 6th at 7:00 pm:   This is the day when Christians remember the Last Supper.  At the close of the service the altar and the sanctuary will be stripped in preparation for Good Friday

Good Friday-April 7th at 7:00 pm: This is the day when Christians around the world commemorate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

Easter Sunday –April 9^th at 9:30 am:  This is the day that we as Christians celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.