St. John Lutheran Church, Wheaton, Illinois

06/05/2026

Today the church remembers Boniface of Mainz (675–754), Missionary to the Germans.

[…] While we may think of Europe as the historic heartland of Christianity, and Germany as the birthplace of our Lutheran church, it’s worth remembering that these places were first mission fields, full of people who had never heard of, and were often antagonistic toward, Jesus and His Gospel message. It was while central Europe was still steeped in folk religion and indigenous animism that we meet Boniface.

Boniface was probably an Englishman, and was not originally called Boniface, but rather Winfrid. […] Winfrid was a priest, monk and teacher, working out of an abbey school in the south of England. […]

In 716, Winfrid set off from England and headed to Frisia, the modern-day Netherlands and northern Germany, as a missionary. There he worked with another, more experienced Anglo-Saxon missionary named Willibrord, before war in the area forced them back to England. The next year Winfrid went to Rome and met with Pope Gregory II, who renamed him “Boniface,” in honor of a legendary saint and martyr, Boniface of Tarsus (d. 307). Pope Gregory set Boniface up as missionary bishop of Germania (roughly corresponding to modern Germany) — a land he had never visited, with no known Christians and no church administrative structure! Boniface left Rome, never to return to his native England, and set out to deliver Christ to the Germans. […]

The pre-Christian Germans that Boniface encountered engaged in nature worship, making sacrifices at sacred locations like springs or trees. In the 720s, Boniface had been sharing the Gospel around what is the modern-day German state of Hesse (central Germany), at a place called Gaesmere. There were still people making sacrifices to Donar’s Oak, however.

Boniface decided that the tree needed to go. According to his eighth century biography, Boniface cut the first notch into the base of the tree and the whole behemoth crashed to the earth, breaking into four equal pieces. The pagan Germans — who had been loudly cursing Boniface — took this as a sign of the futility of their gods, and they believed and confessed Christ on the spot. Boniface took these pieces and constructed an oratory (prayer chapel) named after St. Peter on the site. […]

At the end of his life, Boniface returned to Frisia to continue doing mission work. However, he and his retinue were set upon by robbers, who killed the 79-year-old missionary bishop in hopes of stealing his riches — though they were disappointed to find that he carried only hand-copied manuscripts of the Gospels. […]

God used missionaries like Boniface to bring the Good News of Christ’s forgiveness to the Germans. German and other European Christians, in turn, sent missionaries elsewhere around the world. […] The genealogy of pastors that we all have, running through out personal and family history, is as much a testimony of God’s patient loving-kindness as our own family trees […] because of the hope that is in them: the name of Jesus, written on their hearts and shared on their lips with neighbors far and wide.

“The Lutheran Witness,” April 10, 2024

06/04/2026

06/03/2026

For consider, if there were somewhere a physician who understood the art of saving men from dying, or, even though they died, of restoring them speedily to life, so that they would thereafter live forever, how the world would pour in money like snow and rain, so that because of the throng of the rich no one could find access! But here in Baptism there is brought free to every one’s door such a treasure and medicine as utterly destroys death and preserves all men alive. Baptism, which is nothing else than putting to death the old Adam, and after that the resurrection of the new man, both of which must take place in us all our lives, so that a truly Christian life is nothing else than a daily baptism, once begun and ever to be continued.

MARTIN LUTHER

06/01/2026

The processional hymn for Trinity Sunday — “Holy, Holy, Holy” (Lutheran Service Book #507)

The canon of 19th century English hymnody was never more ennobled than by the contribution of “Holy, Holy, Holy” from the fertile pen of Reginald Heber (1783-1826). While serving as “rector of rural parish at Hodnet, Shropshire, this man of exceptional literary credentials sought to make what he called the “powerful engine” of hymnody harmoniously serve the liturgy, lectionary, preaching, and calendar of the Church. To this end, “Holy, Holy, Holy” was written specifically for Trinity Sunday. […]

A devout and beloved pastor, Heber was conscious of the holiness of God, He desired his parish members to voice the same. Whether mindful of homeland vices or pained by the specter of idol worship during the last three missionary years of his life serving in far-flung India, Heber would frequently write “Only Thou art holy.” […] [Holy, holy, holy] — Its greatness both in majestic trinitarian doctrine and in clarity of form has been recognized by nearly two centuries of uninterrupted usage, innumerable translations, and inclusion in nearly every English-language hymnal.

[…] It is the personal union of the Godhead in three persons, the blessed Trinity, that forms the core and substance of this hymn. “Holy, holy, holy” not only expresses the hallowed nature of God, but also the Trinity in the divine name. Reflecting the plurality of persons, the hymn writer repeatedly uses triplets: God is “holy, merciful and mighty” (stanza 1); He is “perfect in power, in love, and purity” (stanza 3); He is worshiped by saints, cherubim, and seraphim and is praised “in earth and sky and sea” (stanza 4). Through repeated units of three, the hymn describes and worships the one true God in three persons.

In language that resists revision, the phrase “which wert and art and evermore shalt be” (stanza 2) likewise indicates the timeless troika of God as echo to the angelic refrain of Revelation 4:8, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

“Lutheran Service Book, Companion to the Hymns,” Volumes 1 and 2, ©CPH 2019

05/29/2026

Your St. John Lutheran Early Response Team (LERT) contributed items to this event! St. John working through Lutheran Church Charities of the Northern Illinois District partnered with the Southeastern District and Lutheran Servants for Christ, and several other organizations including the Spartansburg Emergency Management, to provide needed items to the people of Spartansburg, SC. Spartansburg was hit by Hurricane Helene back in September of 2024 and much of that town was never served. Resurrection Lutheran Church, an LCMS church plant, will also be present to introduce themselves to their community. Many local community organizations are also participating. This free event takes place Saturday, May 30, when families can pick up much needed items from shoes (thanks Samaritans Feet) to socks (thanks Bombas) to quilts (thanks LWML) to kids back packs to go bags and weather radios, fans and heaters, and food and paper products and and and! Thank you to our friends at Lutheran Service for Christ (North Carolina) for coordinating this event!. Approximately 250 families will be served. Soli Deo Gloria!