CHRIST’S MESSENGER Christ Lutheran Church and Preschool, Eagan, MN Church and Preschool
Staff Rev. David Hahn Senior Pastor
Rev. Michael Heggen Visitation Pastor
Alex Mezeritski Director of Music
Michele Lukanen Director of Preschool
Julia Bonewell Preschool Teacher
Judy Kaner Preschool Aide
Rhoda Houge Church Secretary
Christ Lutheran Church and Preschool 1930 Diffley Road Eagan, MN 55122 Church: 651-454-4091 christlutheraneagan@outlook.com www.christlutheraneagan.org Christ Lutheran Church is a congregation of The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod
Christ Lutheran Church is a growing body of believers in Jesus Christ, sharing the love, word, and grace of God with our family, community, and world.
December, 2016
FROM THE PASTOR by Pastor Hahn Advent is a time to prepare our hearts for Christmas. This year, each Sunday and Wednesday service will have a specific theme to help us with this preparation. As you read about the theme of each service, may the Lord bring to mind all that He has done for us in sending His Son! A blessed Advent and Christmas to each of you!
FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT – November 27 Your King Is Coming! What do we do when an important guest is coming over to visit? We clean the house, prepare the dinner menu, put on nice clothes, and do many other things in anticipation. Beginning a new Church Year is also a time of getting ready. We prepare ourselves not to welcome just any important guest though, but once again to welcome the King—our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who comes in the flesh to His people. No matter our housecleaning, dinner plans, wardrobe, or anything else, the most important preparation we are called to is a readiness of our hearts and minds. This Advent season is a time of preparation—to prepare ourselves to welcome Him who came humbly as a king by earthly standards, yet the King we welcome by faith as Savior and Lord. More than that, we continually prepare ourselves in repentant joy to receive Him who humbly yet powerfully still comes to us in Word and Sacrament by His Holy Spirit. SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT – December 4 Prepare for Christ: Repent! Live! Bear Fruit! “Say you’re sorry!” Such words are often said by a parent to a child when a wrong has occurred, usually intended to be a lesson for the child in teaching that actions have consequences. In the Word of God from Matthew 3, we also come to realize that our actions have consequences. Yet it is not just actions, but also thoughts and inactions, and the consequences of our sinful nature. The Lord doesn’t tell us to just, “Say you’re sorry!” Through His Word and through His servants like John the Baptist, He calls us to repent—to not just speak an apology, but to turn away from sin and turn to Him. In this Advent season of preparation to receive our Savior born for us, we also prepare like the people of John the Baptist’s time through this ongoing and continuing action of repentance. Moved to repentance by faith, we are then able to live as His people, bear fruit in His name, and continue to be united as one and “together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:6). THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT – December 11 The Coming One? We are often tempted to think we deserve something better. If things don’t go as planned, if crisis hits, or we are lacking happiness, we begin to question things. It happens in life, and it also happens as a temptation in our life of faith. We are not left alone in our wishing or our wondering about our Savior Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. His Word of truth reminds us of His works and His ways. In The Word of God from Isaiah gives a message of future hope to the hopeless people; James reminds us of the Lord’s attributes even in times of our suffering; and in a time of questioning for the imprisoned John the Baptist, Jesus brings a message of hope and confidence in his time of need. Though we are sinful and no person deserves something “better,” by God’s grace, we, too, receive that same reminder and message of hope of who God is and what He’s done through Christ during the Advent season and each day.