Pastors’ Page
The Font Up Front
What do I do now? This is the
question I ask on the day Easter Monday. As I go caroling with members of the
choir and all member of
Well, for one thing Easter isn’t over. Just like Christmas doesn’t end on December 25, so also Easter doesn’t end on March 23. The Christmas season isn’t over until January 5. This year the Easter season won’t be over until May 10. The glorious depths of Good Friday and the quiet lull of Holy Saturday and the breathless joy of Resurrection Sunday go on. And for 49 glorious days—a Week of weeks—by God’s mercy we enjoy the celebration of Easter.
You may notice that the front of church will look a little different this Easter season. The baptismal font (the wooden stand that is used for Baptisms) will be place behind the Communion rail, halfway between the lectern (the reading stand where the pastors read the lection—lection means a reading from the Bible) and the pulpit (where pastors deliver their sermons).
By placing the font in a new location, it is our hope that it will help to emphasize the ways in which God comes and pours out His forgiveness upon us. Through the Gospel of Jesus Christ in God’s Word and in God’s Sacraments of Holy Baptism and Holy Communion—which we commonly call the Means of Grace—God works new living trust in the hearts of dead and hostile sinners who by nature hate Him from the start of physical life in their mothers’ wombs. In Baptism God uses His Word connected to plain water to create new faith in Jesus.
God uses His Word and His Holy Supper to strengthen our trust in Jesus’ promises. We hope that by placing the font in closer proximity to the lectern, the pulpit, and the altar it will be a subtle and strong reminder of the close connection of the Word, which is proclaimed from the lectern and the pulpit, to Baptism, which is administered from the font. We hope that by placing the font in closer proximity to the altar it will be a subtle and strong reminder of the close connection of Baptism to the Lord’s Supper, which is consecrated upon the altar and distributed at the Communion rail to God’s people.
There is another new item up
front: it is the Paschal Candle. This special candle symbolizes Christ's
illuminating light and His presence in the midst of His people. The term
"paschal" comes from the Hebrew word pesach,
which means Passover. The candle reminds us of God who sent a pillar of cloud
by day and a pillar of fire by night to lead the Israelites in their Exodus
from slavery in
But what do we do now? Come and taste our Lord’s body and blood at the Lord’s Table often to remember the Lamb of God and to have Him forgive your sin. Come and see God wash away the sin of little ones and grownups who by nature hated Him, but through Baptism are made alive and are filled with God’s love. Come and hear the magnificent deeds of the Lord—He has made you alive at your Baptism and you now serve Him in the many and varied situations of your life. But even more vitally, come and hear how He has served you.
Joyous Light of glory of the immortal Father, heavenly, holy, blessed
Jesus Christ,
We have come to the setting of the sun and we look to the evening
light.
We sing to God, the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.
You are worthy of being praised with pure voices forever.
O Son of God, O Giver of Light, the universe proclaims Your glory.
(Phos Hilaron is an ancient Christian hymn originally written in Greek. This hymn is known in English as Hail Gladdening Light.)
In our triumphant Christ,
Pastor Boehringer
___________________________________________________
What is the origin of the
Easter egg and rabbit?
The rabbit has no particular connection with the celebration of our Lord's
resurrection. As a symbol of fertility or of the coming of spring, it may have
had some meaning in ancient non-Christian religions. In American popular
culture some people tell their little children that the "Easter
Rabbit" is the creature that brings Easter eggs. This is similar to the
children's myth of Santa Claus or Father Christmas.
The Easter egg is a symbol of the resurrection in this way: As the chick is
enclosed in the shell and breaks out to live, so Jesus was enclosed in the tomb
and burst out of that "prison." Also, at one time some Christians in
some parts of the world did not eat eggs (or meat) during the Lenten season. On
Easter Sunday they could once again begin to eat eggs (and meat).
Church
Council Update
Below are
some of the highlights from the March Church Council Meeting.
The Treasurer
presented the following report:
General Fund Report – February
2008
|
|
Month |
Y-T-D |
|
Offerings |
40,393.71 |
373,357.22 |
|
Tuition/FEF/Registration |
1,927.50 |
25,969.00 |
|
Other |
2,158.67 |
21,838.10 |
|
Line of Credit |
0.00 |
0.00 |
|
Total Receipts: |
44,479.88 |
421,164.32 |
|
|
|
|
|
Actual Expenses: |
50,956.62 |
404,871.76 |
|
|
|
|
|
Balance: |
(6,476.74) |
16,292.56 |
|
|
|
|
|
Budget: |
51,546.75 |
412,374.00 |
|
|
|
|
|
Other Detail |
|
|
|
Thrivent |
2,000.00 |
11,000.00 |
|
Miscellaneous |
158.67 |
838.10 |
|
Debt Retirement |
0.00 |
10,000.00 |
|
Other Total: |
2,158.67 |
21,838.10 |
There were no
membership changes to be considered by the Council. The Board of Elders did present the idea of
holding an “all boards” joint meeting around July or August after any new
members begin to serve their term of office.
The suggestion to hold this joint meeting will be explored.
Adult
Confirmation is officially scheduled to occur during the late service on April
13, 2008. The April Church Council
meeting will be postponed by one week, being held on Tuesday, April 15, 2008.
Church
Council approved a resolution concurring with The Board of Christian Education
to recommend to the Voters’ that they approve a simplification of education
cost by combining the current student registration fee and Family Education Fee
(FEF) into a single fee amount with an eight-installment payment option.
n Wayne Maybaugh, Recording Secretary
The meeting night for the church boards has been moved from April 8th
to April 15th because of spring break.
The
Activity Committee is planning a Flint General’s Hockey game trip on April 5th. Sign up sheets are available in the back of
church. The game begins at 7:30pm;
carpooling from the church parking lot at 6pm. Call Allyn
& Debbie Schultz 723-1615 for more information.
Our
Lutheran Woman’s Missionary Society (LWMS) will be having a pie sale after the
church services on April 10th and 13th. The money received will be passed on to our
circuit treasurer at the April LWMS Rally.
Adult
Confirmation will take place during the 10:30am service on April 13th. There will be a congregational potluck on
April 20th where these new members will be recognized and welcomed
to
Congregational potluck on April 20th will be in the church fellowship area beginning around noon. Bring a passing dish. Table service and beverages will be provided.
Golf
Begins April 30th: Everyone
interested in playing on the men’s golf league which meets at Corunna Hills on
Wednesday nights, is asked to contact Mike Conklin at 666-0749.
You’re Invited
The Altar Guild is having a “Come, see what we do” morning on May 17th at 9am. All ladies of the congregation are invited to come, hear and see the way our ladies help prepare the altar for our worship services. Light refreshments will be served.
Preschool
Openings:
How is
Easter Sunday selected every year and what is the theological reasoning
behind it?
When it comes to figuring out the date for Easter, there is really no simpler
way than just looking at the calendar for the upcoming year. But how do the
calendar makers know when Easter will be? For instance, in 1999, it was April
4. In 2000, it was April 23. How exactly is the date for Easter determined?
The early church had the same problem, and the root of the problem is this: How
exactly do you date the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus? We know that he
was crucified on a Friday and rose again on a Sunday, but since Sundays do not
always have the same date, another system of calculating a date had to be
devised.
How They Used to Do It
By the middle of the second century, there were basically two ways that Christians were dating their celebrations of Easter. Some, the Quartodecimans (or "fourteenthers"), celebrated the death and resurrection of our Lord according to the "fourteenth day of Nisan"—the day of the Jewish Passover (Lev. 23:5). Since this date was not always on the same day of the week, the Quartodeciman celebration did not always fall on a Sunday. The rest of the church, however, celebrated the passion and resurrection of our Lord according to a different formula which always placed Easter on a Sunday.
Needless to say, there was no little controversy over this discrepancy, and it
wasn't until the Ecumenical Council of Nicea in A.D.
325 that the churches of the world finally got together and agreed on this
rule: Easter Day shall always fall on the Sunday after the first full moon that
occurs on or after the spring equinox. That should have settled it, right?
Well, not exactly. You see, there was the little problem of determining when
exactly the spring equinox would fall. Various astronomical and calendrical solutions have been used at different times
down through the centuries, but even today there is still no unanimity among
churches concerning the celebration of Easter.
Just Not the Same
For instance, the Eastern
Orthodox Churches (Greek, Russian, Romanian, etc.) celebrate Easter according
to the spring equinox on the older Julian Calendar.
Lutherans in the
So what's the solution? One possibility would be to go on celebrating our
respective Easters and just not worry about it. A proposal as recent as 1997,
however, has suggested that both east and west use a modern, scientific
astronomical calculation for the spring equinox. After all, even our more
accurate Gregorian calendar of the west was off this year, since the spring
equinox actually occurred on March 20, and not the traditional March 21.
Most of the change suggested by this new proposal, however, would have to come
from the Eastern Church, which isn't likely to happen.
The '
The Commission on Worship has provided the "easy way". Since the chart in the front of The Lutheran Hymnal (p. 158) expires this year, the Commission thought it would provide a new chart through 2025.
Easter Sunday by Year
In the western church, Easter cannot be earlier than March 22 or later than April 25.
2008 March 23 2009 April 12 2010 April 4
2011 April 24 2012 April 8 2013 March 31
2014 April 20 2015 April 5 2016 March 27
2017 April 16 2018 April 1 2019 April 21
2020 April 12 2021 April 4 2022 April 17
2023 April 9 2024 March 31 2025 April 20