St Peter Evangelical Lutheran Church UAC LCMS

05/14/2026

Blessed Ascension of Our Lord, from all of us at Concordia Historical Institute!

40 days after Christ rose from the dead, He ascended into heaven, as we read in Mark 16:19–20, Luke 24:51, and Acts 1:1–11. There are other references to the Ascension across the epistles (Romans 8:34, Ephesians 1:19–20, Colossians 3:1, Philippians 2:9–11, 1 Timothy 3:16, and 1 Peter 3:21–22), and Jesus foretells it three times in the Gospel of John (John 3:13, 6:62, and 20:17). Historically, the church has kept the Ascension as a festival of Christ 40 days after Easter Sunday. Some churches have Divine Service today, while others translate the feast to the Seventh Sunday in Easter.

What do we confess by celebrating the Ascension? Here's what the Augsburg Confession has to say:

"[Jesus] ascended into heaven that He might sit on the right hand of the Father, and forever reign and have dominion over all creatures, and sanctify them that believe in Him, by sending the Holy Ghost into their hearts, to rule, comfort, and quicken them, and to defend them against the devil and the power of sin" (AC III:4–5).

05/14/2026

TUNE IN ASCENSION DAY May 14 at 1 pm and 8 pm Central to hear Bach Cantata 128 "Alone Upon Christ's Ascension" uninterrupted and commercial-free courtesy of The Substitute Organist Service from Church Music Solutions, Inc. Ascension hymns will follow BWV 128.

LISTEN at lutheranpublicradio.org, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Apple HomePod, TuneIn or use the LPR app: http://get.theapp.co/fd29/

The English translation: http://lutheranpublicradio.org/cantata-128

04/08/2026

One of St. Peter Lutheran Church's Mission supports. The Missionary, Rev. Dr. David Preus in the Lutheran Church in Brasov, Romania

🇷🇴 CRISTOS A ÎNVIAT!
Fie ca bunul Dumnezeu să își reverse harul său mântuitor asupra tuturor acelora care cred Cuvântul Evangheliei!

🇺🇸 CHRIST IS RISEN!
May the good Lord pour out His saving grace upon all who believe in the Word of the Gospel!

03/30/2026

This week's list of services:
4/2 Maundy Thursday 7pm
4/3 Good Friday 1pm
4/5 Easter Sunday 6am & 9am

03/30/2026

Read daily Lutheran devotions for Holy Week that explore how the events of Palm Sunday through Easter Sunday are prefigured in the Old Testament.

03/29/2026

Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
Hark! all the tribes hosanna cry.
O Savior meek, pursue Thy road,
With palms and scattered garments strowed.

Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die.
O Christ, Thy triumphs now begin
O'er captive death and conquered sin.

Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
The angel armies of the sky
Look down with sad and wond'ring eyes
To see th'approaching Sacrifice.

Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
Thy last and fiercest strife is nigh;
The Father on His sapphire throne
Expects His own anointed Son.

Ride on, ride on, in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die.
Bow Thy meek head to mortal pain,
Then take, O Christ, Thy power and reign. Amen.

A BLESSED PALM SUNDAY

03/25/2026

A Blessed Annunciation Day

On March 25th is the Feast of the Annunciation of Our Lord. We celebrate the appearance of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:31–32).

Mary teaches us profound lessons through her encounter with the angel Gabriel and fiat—“let it be unto me!”—concerning Christ the Savior of sinners.
First, she is confronted with the scandal of particularity—the shocking truth that the highest God would stoop so low as to enter creation, becoming intimately close to human frailty. Modern man often struggles to marvel at divine immanence. Many people perceive God through the distorted lens of their own self-interest: He “cares” because we assume He should care, as if He exists to fulfill our ambitions, the capstone of our self-actualization. When life goes well—blessings flow, contentment reigns—then God is deemed good. But when trials come, we quickly distance Him, reverting to that deistic notion that He has little to do with our daily lives, after all, and we search instead for someone (or something) much nearer to blame.
Not so with Mary. God draws impossibly near to her through His Son. Unlike Hannah or her cousin Elizabeth, who longed and prayed for children into their old age and waited in barrenness, Mary is far from barren. She is young—far too young—still a virgin, betrothed but unmarried. Then, suddenly, with the angel’s impressive news, an overwhelming burden descends upon her: God Himself in the promised Messiah. He invades her poverty so thoroughly that He cannot be reduced to some distant idea. No sinner in history has ever been so deeply imposed upon by the Almighty—and none has ever been so highly favored. The Son of the Most High does not remain aloof on His throne. He stoops—infinitely lower than any angel dared imagine—entering the purest womb of a poor Galilean girl, so that He might become one of us and intercede for us as our merciful High Priest. He is conceived in weakness so that He might truly sympathize with us and plead for us before God’s throne. As true Man and true God, He alone is worthy to intercede: “He ever lives to make intercession for those who come to God through Him” (Hebrews 7:25).
Second, Mary is highly favored—literally, “full of grace” (kecharitōmenē). This grace is not a substance, a medicine to be dispensed, but an act of divine favor; it is God’s personal, electing delight. Grace offers sure help against sin, yet it is infused with a cross. Her blessing comes wrapped in suffering; her favor bears the weight of the world’s redemption in the person of her Son. The Ark of the Covenant once carried the tablets, manna, and Aaron’s rod—tokens of God’s merciful presence. Mary, the new Ark, carries the living Word Himself. And her Son, Jesus, is the true Mercy Seat, the place where God and sinner meet. At the cross He becomes both Priest and Sacrifice, bearing the world’s sin so that the same grace that overshadowed Mary might now rest on every repentant heart. Her favor was laced with a sword that would pierce her soul (Luke 2:35). His favor is sealed with nails that pierced His hands. The blessing she received cost her life as she knew it; the blessing He gives cost Him everything—so that sinners like us might be called “highly favored” in Him.
Finally, her response—“Let it be to me according to your word”—flows from the heart of a repentant sinner who knows her unworthiness. Yet she accepts the divine verdict of worthiness pronounced upon her because of the Savior she would bear. She becomes the vessel of God, carrying the living Word Himself, the One who would become the one Mediator between God and man. Every sinner who hears the gospel is confronted with the same impossible announcement: the Holy One will dwell within you. The same Jesus who was formed in Mary’s womb now begins His life in us by the Holy Spirit.
Consider the fact that Mary lived through all of this—a real situation, so complex, so terrifying. Gabriel truly appeared to her. He spoke. She understood the meaning of his words if not the manner in which they would correspond. Despite the overwhelming certainty of the first and last incarnation of the one and only God, it was all too unique to explain. What evidence could she possibly offer against accusations of adultery? What defense against suspicion and shame? None but the word of the angel and the certainty that lived within her womb.
In saying “yes,” she embraces every consequence: social ostracism, fear, the sword that would pierce her own soul. This is the Christian life—no appeal to proximal justice avails. No falling back on common sense or laws of probability. This stuff doesn’t happen, and yet this is just the point. It did happen, this once, in the fullness of time. Despite the scandal of circumstance, only the word of God stands firm, and the unshakable certainty that she indeed carries the Savior of the world—her own Savior. In her humble submission, Mary shows us the way of faith: to trust the promise amid impossibility, to bear the divine burden with awe, and to let God’s word suffice.
Lord Jesus, Son of the Most High God, You who were conceived in Mary’s womb, who suffered and died for sinners like me, and now live to plead for me—draw near again. Let the same overshadowing grace that once made Mary the Ark of your presence make me, too, Your dwelling place. When accusation rises, when doubts assail, when impossibility looms, when the sword of suffering threatens, let my answer be hers: “Let it be to me according to Your word.” I rest in Your finished work and Your endless intercession.

Amen.

Devotion by Regional Director Rev. Dr. David Preus

Image: Fra Angelico - Annunciation (circa 1395–1455). Public Domain.

03/17/2026

A Blessed St. Patrick's Day. Patrick is one of the best-known of the missionary saints. Born to a Christian family in Britain around the year 389, he was captured as a teenager by raiders, taken to Ireland, and forced to serve as a herdsman. After six years he escaped and found his way to a monastery community in France. Ordained a bishop in 432, he made his way back to Ireland, where he spent the rest of his long life spreading the Gospel and organizing Christian communities. He strongly defended the doctrine of the Holy Trinity in a time when it was not popular to do so. His literary legacy includes his autobiography, Confessio, and several prayers and hymns still used in the church today. Patrick died around the year 466.

From St. Patrick's Breastplate:
I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.

I bind this day to me forever.
By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
His baptism in the Jordan river;
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb;
His riding up the heavenly way;
His coming at the day of doom;
I bind unto myself today.

I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of the cherubim;
The sweet ‘well done’ in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors’ faith, Apostles’ word,
The Patriarchs’ prayers, the Prophets’ scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord,
And purity of virgin souls.

I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the starlit heaven,
The glorious sun’s life-giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea,
Around the old eternal rocks.

I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward,
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.

Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility,
I bind to me these holy powers.

Against all Satan’s spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart’s idolatry,
Against the wizard’s evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave and the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same.
The Three in One, and One in Three,
Of Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord. Amen.

02/27/2026

https://youtu.be/n3YVrK_4BlQ?si=dxNSN68F-3puPQvc

In this Life Together Digest, the Rev. Dr. Matthew C. Harrison, president of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, reflects on suffering, crosses and afflictio...

01/06/2026

A BLESSED EPIPHANY.

The star thus goes before them and does not leave them until it brings them to Christ, yet it goes no farther, but remains at rest over where the child is. So too the light of the holy gospel does; it is as a light in the darkness, as St. Peter calls it, 2 Pet. 1, 19, and goes before us and leads us, if we only cherish it with a strong faith, it does not leave us until it brings us to Christ and to the truth; but it goes no further, for beside Christ it teaches us nothing.
Accordingly, in this leading of a star the manner and work of the Gospel is shown, and through the wise men all believers; so that, as the star led them bodily to Christ, and they followed it in the body, so the gospel spiritually guides the hearts of men in this world, and believing hearts see it and follow it with joy until they come to Christ.
So too St. Paul boasts, 1 Cor. 2,2, “For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.” And in Col. 2,8, he forbids us to follow any doctrine which does not teach Christ. What else is this than that the star points to Christ alone, and nothing else, and goes no farther? In this figure, therefore, all doctrines of men are condemned, and should no longer be preached to Christians, but only the pure, simple light of the Gospel, is to be preached and we should follow this star only.
Sermons of Martin Luther - The Church Postils
Volume 1, Sermon for Epiphany