Due to the incoming storm, we’re making some changes to our plans for the next couple of days:

 

St. Luke’s office will be closed on Thursday, December 22, in anticipation of terrible, horrible, no good, very bad weather. We plan to be open again on Friday, December 23.

 

With really awful wind chills predicted for Saturday, we’re moving our Christmas Eve caroling indoors. Join us in the fellowship hall at 4:30 for singing, conversation, and treats. More details on our Christmas worship below.

 

Finally, as is our custom, following Christmas St. Luke’s office will be closed through New Year’s. We’ll reopen for usual business hours on Tuesday, January 3, 2023.

Navigating my annual Christmastide quandary—what can possibly be said about Christmas that hasn’t already been said?—and the writer’s block that accompanies it, left me wondering why we keep reflecting on this story. I mean, after a few thousand years of reading, writing, and reflection, what’s left to say? Indeed, perhaps we keep reflecting on it because it’s just what Christian people do. But that can’t be the case. There are plenty of stories in the bible, even in the gospels, that we never read in church. I think we keep coming back to the story of Jesus’ birth because it still speaks to us. Deeply.

 

This story, lodged in a cold, dark, and hyper-consumerist time of year, invites once again to resituate ourselves in a different view of the world and of what matters.

 

The story of Christmas tells us of God stepping into the flow of human life. Not briefly interrupting to knock over a tyrant or save a life before hightailing it back to heaven, but stepping in and staying in. By staying in, by walking with us, by leading us, God, in Jesus, invites us to reorient our lives. To move away from the pursuit of power and wealth. To move away from me-first. To see this as something other than a divine testing ground for who is worthy and who is not. Instead, by coming to be with us and to stay with us, God shows us that there’s a different way to be. Jesus, the holy child of God, invites us to turn toward others, toward God, toward Love.

 

This season, we celebrate the loveliness of the holy family, we sing familiar songs, we embrace light in the midst of darkness, and we glimpse again the movement of God in our midst, inviting us out of the world’s traps and into the boundless love of God.

 

The promise of this season—the promise of the good news of God in Christ—is not that everything will be okay, or easy, or fun. The promise that God offers, the promise demonstrated in the birth of Jesus and in his unconquerable life, is that we, too, will receive that same life. Indeed, it’s the promise that God has already given it to us. That we, like Jesus are beloved children of God and have been filled with the same bountiful love. That same unstoppable love that we delight to see each year as we gather around the manger, that love has been poured out on each and every one of us, on every single human being, without exception.

 

I doubt I’ve said anything here about Christmas that hasn’t already been said. And that’s okay. We keep coming back to this celebration, we keep dwelling in this story, not because it’s new every year, but because every year, we need the same world-changing, life-giving truth that it offers: The love of God in human flesh, poured out for the life of the world.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

Justin 

We need your voice! If you'd like to sing, please meet in the worship space Sunday mornings at 8:45 to rehearse the hymns and service music. We also rehearse at 7:00 p.m. on the first Thursday of the month.

The St. Luke's Handbell choir practices weekly on Wednesday night from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. We meet in at St. Luke's, downstairs in the office area. Anyone interested in having fun while making a joyful noise is welcome. For more information, contact Harold Solbrig / harold@solbrigs.us / 507-319-2628

If you would like to provide altar flowers, there are some opening Sundays coming up. Please call Sue Engelman for details.

358-6928

Given the continuing need for virtual meetings, we would like to make sure that everyone in the congregation can access our meetings being held on zoom.

If anyone would like some assistance learning to login to zoom on their computer or through their phone, Andrew Altrichter is available to assist in person or over the phone. If you or someone you know could use assistance, please reach out to him at 651-261-3241 or ajaltrichter@gmail.com. If anyone else is interested in teaching other congregation members to use zoom more comfortably, please let him know.

This past summer, a committee of Calvary and St Luke's members busily gathered input from all of us and explored possibilities for us to build community between our Rochester Episcopal parishes. The ice cream social, shared outreach to San Jose Obrero and Salvation Army Bellringing are 3 of the early successes. More will be planned and implemented with your input and help.

Possible areas for collaboration include:

We are willing to try LOTS of different ideas if there is an organizer and several helpers at each parish to implement. We have brainstormed several 1-time, seasonal, or ongoing ideas including: a winter party this January, a volunteer corps to listen to student readers at Sunset Terrace (sign up for 1 time, 1 season, or ongoing for 1 hour/week), youth group special outreach projects (as Calvary had before Covid), ‘pulpit swap’ for 1 Sunday to trade rectors, or shared musical performances. Some of these were ideas formulated by members in a survey, but we are sure YOU have even more good ideas. Are you willing to help???

Let’s not be strangers. Share your ideas by email or in-person at church with Amy Crockett (Calvary) or Amy Caucutt (St Luke's), and watch for monthly updates of collaboration opportunities for us all.

Amy Crockett (crockettsae@hotmail.com)

Amy Caucutt (amycaucutt@gmail.com)

Kit Muellner (kit@hoperanchteam.com)

Your Calvary-St Luke's Collaboration Implementing Team: encouraging, supporting and coordinating 😊

Please check out Calvary's weekly newsletter, The Visitor, published on Wednesdays. Current and archived editions are available here. In addition to a variety of worship services, Calvary regularly has other public events that are sure to be of interest to folks like us.

If you've got something to include in next week's Lifelines, get in touch with Karen (507-288-2469, gouldk@stlukesepiscopal.org). The deadline is Wednesday at noon.