Dear Saints of Concordia,
For this coming Advent I have chosen to have our Midweek services focus on Saints who we commemorate during November and December. I’ll list them below with their proper feast day.
- St. Andrew, Apostle (Nov. 30)
- St. Thomas, Apostle and Martyr (Dec. 21)
- St. Stephen, Martyr (Dec. 26),
These saints are rarely celebrated on their proper day because of being in the shadow of Advent and Christmas. So I will have us recognize them on each of our 4 Advent Midweek services.
Advent, like Lent, is a penitential season, which means it is a time we reflect on our own sinfulness and the need for a Savior. These four saints may not seem to have much to do with Advent or Christmas specifically, but the examples of faith they give are a great example for us to imitate in this penitential season.
Though saints have been misused and prayed to as if they were gods themself , they are properly recognized and meditated on when they teach us how God worked through them to accomplish his will. Several of our Epistle readings lately have featured St. Paul mentioning that new Christians should imitate his faith and the faith of their mature leaders. Pauls says it best in 1 Corinthians 11: “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”
Those of you who are more mature in our faith should likewise become an example to those who are new or young. You might naturally think of parents and grandparents being an example for children. We all are family and one body in Christ, so we should support and be an example for each other even if we do not have naturally family connections. Jesus was born into human flesh so that he might make us all his brothers, and that we might call God our Father.
For these midweek services we will be using the service of Evening Prayer. It likely will be a new service for most at Concordia, so I have adapted some of the musical portions to make it easier to follow and familiarize yourself with it. I’ll be writing an article soon describing Evening Prayer in detail.
In Christ,
Pastor Gaschler