Parish Rebuilder

ST. LUKE’S LUTHERAN CHURCH - 5150 WILSON ST. LA MESA, CA 91942 619-463-6633 www.st-lukes-la-mesa.org

We invite you to join St. Luke's Lutheran Church

Please contact Amy in the office to discuss membership or to arrange an

appointment with the pastor:

619-463-6633 or office-sllc@att.net

Office hours are: Monday—Friday

Monday - Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Table of Contents

Pastor Mark page 1

Parish Potpourri page 3

WSL page 4

Special Dates/Worship Text page 7

Prayer Calendar page 8

Worship Teams page 9

Monthly Calendar page 10

December 2018

Monthly Newsletter

Volume 18 Issue 12

The pericopes (selected readings) for end of the church year and parts of the Advent season often have biblical texts describing the close of the age, the end times. People often find these end time texts fascinat-ing, as long as the end is not too near. Besides predic-tions of wars and natural calamities, these apocalyptic texts portray a sense of suddenness, urgency, and espe-cially surprise. “One knows neither the day nor the hour...” On one hand, as John Lennon phrased it, “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans,” and on the other, life might be suddenly gone. The sudden changes which befall humanity often drive the desire to make plans, “just in case,” especially if the changing of such plans may be beyond our control.

In the past 2,000 years of Christianity, these texts have inspired no shortage of predictions about the coming end or the second coming of Christ or ... As human history is full of wars and strife and natural disasters, it seems as if the end is always nigh. The end of time, however, does not seem to arrive, and we human be-ings go back to our lives making other plans. When the end in some form suddenly comes, it is usually on an individual or small group basis; for example, a fatal heart attack in the blink of an eye or the current, rag-ing Camp Fire from which dozens failed to escape the town of Paradise.

So, given that one cannot generally predict the future, should one even make plans? Should one not, instead, just “trust God” and be done with it? One often hears the phrase, “Let go and let God” (a phrase not very of-ten used in mountain climbing circles. Who would fall for that?) When we are making plans, how often do we make them in connection or consultation with God? For individual problems or crises, we might find

The Best Laid Plans

Advent Dinner

December 2nd at 5:00pm

Choir Cantata

December 9th at 6:00pm

German Carol Service

December 16th at 3:00pm

Christmas Eve Candlelight Services

December 24th at 6pm & 8pm

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our selves sticking our finger in the flipped pages of the Bible to “divine” a solution. Even if we do take God into consideration, how often do we find ourselves completely perplexed at our seem-ing or real inability to receive any discernible sign as to what God’s will might be in any given situation. So, to plan or not to plan, that is the question?

Although the best laid plans can change or be changed against our will, sometimes such plans can be very handy, perhaps very helpful. For ex-ample, those who have their estates in order, should death come suddenly or not, greatly as-sist their loved ones after death. Death, even if expected, can be traumatic enough. It can be more so if one needs to sort out a loved one’s es-tate, especially if that loved one dies intestate. No one likes to contemplate death, but some ef-forts at planning for it can be very good.

In a congregation, “death” can come in many forms. In addition to the death of a parishioner, an engaged family’s departure for any reason is a type of death in the congregation. The change in a congregation’s personnel can have the same effect. If a pastor takes another call or is sud-denly in capacitated or dies, what happens then? If my recent car totaling accident had been fa-tally serious, you would not be reading this arti-cle. Even if one would be happy to be rid of a or the pastor, finding another is filled with complex uncertainty. Whence would St. Luke’s call a new pastor? What if we got a worse pastor? If peo-ple could stay awake long enough during my ser-mons, planning for an eventual replacement might be something to contemplate.

In light of the preceding, we are always living in “the end times.” Normally, we just do not know when the end of any particular set of circum-stances is, but for all of us the end is certain. Curiously, the end in an immediate situation seems to make the end of all time seem much less disconcerting.

When I arrived in February 2007, St. Luke’s ven-tured forth with its “new beginning.” In that time, we have seen many deaths in its many

forms and many new beginnings. In all those circumstances, the God of life and death, of cross and resurrection has guided St. Luke’s smoothly through situations which would have shaken or perhaps destroyed other congregations. None-theless, St. Luke’s continues to proclaim the gos-pel and to administer the sacraments, allowing Christ to offer his death and resurrection to us all, assuring us time and again until the end of time, that we have been given the gift of eternal life. That is God’s plan in Jesus Christ for St. Luke’s. Let us continue to live in this plan and to plan to allow God to continue to deliver his salvation, the forgiveness of our sins, to us and succeeding generations, come what may.

Christmas Celebrations!

The Advent season leads to the celebration of Jesus’ incarnation, which we celebrate at Christ-mas. We have many exciting celebratory plans at St. Luke’s this year. On Sunday, 02 December at 5:00 pm, the Women of St. Luke’s (WSL) are hosting an Advent Dinner with a guest speaker. On Friday, 07 December at 6:00 pm, we will have our Christmas tree decorating extrava-ganza. On Sunday, 09 December at 6:00 pm, we will hold a Christmas concert/cantata in con-junction with the choir from Grace Lutheran Church. On Sunday, 16 December at 3:00 pm, we will celebrate Christmas with our German service of readings and carols. On Christmas Eve, Monday, 24 December, we will celebrate Christ’s birth at 6;00 pm and at 8:00 pm, even though he was only born once! Please invite your family and friends to celebrate Christmas with you at St. Luke’s.

Pastor Mark

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St. Luke’s Stewards

This continues as part of an ongoing look at some of this congregation’s STEWARDS, presently focusing on St. Luke’s Women (WSL) who are in places of leadership.

NANCY KEARNS, now serving her second year (and end of her first term) as president of the board of the WOMEN OF ST. LUKES (called WSL) is originally from Hershey, Pennsylvania. She moved to La Mesa in July of 2015 and joined this congregation in August. Nancy found a place to live close by. and aren’t we lucky to have her! The move to La Mesa was made in order to be close to her daughter and grandchildren.

Nancy, after graduating from Hershey High, at-tended junior college for a couple of years, then moved to Washington, D.C. She got married, had a baby, and moved to Atlanta, where she di-vorced and began her career at Citibank. She moved to Kansas City with her job (which she loved) and retired in 2009. During her years with Citibank, Nancy became a process auditor of collection agencies, and appeared in court many times as a witness for Citibank. Actually she was in court on Citibank’s behalf in every state ex-cept Alaska.

How was Nancy “exposed “ to the Lutheran Church? Years ago she spent lots of time walk-ing with a girl friend, from the girl friend’s piano lesson to her Lutheran Catechism Class. They talked. Nancy could possibly have been con-firmed herself at that time, had she been “tested.”

At present, Nancy sings soprano in the St. Luke’s choir, has done some solo work, faithfully attends Betty Wiedmer’s Tuesday prayer group and is involved with the St. Luke’s Academy Classes. We appreciate you, Nancy, and are so glad you chose St. Luke’s.

Martha Applegate

Parish Potpourri Making a special journey to New York City in order to appear at Carnegie Hall on November 18, the St. Luke’s Choir Director, Renee Calvo performed with the Grace Lutheran Choir. We congratulate Renee on her solo performance!

What a highlight in her career!

Renee Calvo performing her solo at Carnegie Hall in New York City at the world premiere of Pepper Choplin’s “Christmas Presence” pre-sented by Distinguished Concerts Interna-tional New York - DCINY

The combined choirs of St. Luke's & Grace Lu-theran Churches with Renee Calvo, director and Michael Burke, organist, perform Pepper Choplin’s newest work, “A Christmas Presence”

The entire St. Luke’s Choir is looking forward to singing with the choir from Grace Lutheran on Sunday, December 9, 6:00 p.m. at St. Luke’s and on Sunday, December 16, 6:00 p.m. at Grace Lutheran . Please join in on this holiday choral evening.

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Women of St. Luke’s

I hope you all had a blessed Thanksgiving. We are now on the wild breakneck path to Christ-mas.

Are you coming to our Advent celebration on December 2nd at 5:00pm? I do hope you will join us. We will have a great time, great food and great fellowship. Advent is the Christ centered path to Christmas and helps us weather the cra-ziness.

WSL has chosen the 2019 board. Along with those who agreed to serve again, we will have a new member, Sheila Stubbs. The board to be installed in January is: Nancy Kearns, President; MaryAnn Boullain, Vice president; JoAnn Hen-drickson, Secretary; Angie Hauk, Treasurer; Martha Applegate, Mission Outreach; Sheila Stubbs, Mission Growth; Shirley Carrington, Project; Liz Dunnigan & Marilyn Burns, mem-bers at large. Please consider joining the board next year. We already know that there is one person who has served many years and can no longer serve.

Thanks to you, we were able to distribute over $6000 to charities along with supporting a child through Lutheran Border Concerns program Angel Wings. If you are interested in support-ing a child through Angel Wings, please speak with Martha Applegate. The money comes mainly from the opportunity baskets at the craft fair, our Thank Offering envelopes, our Circle donations and our Fashion Show.

We have adopted a family through Crisis House. You may notice the tree in the narthex. On the tree there are tags with the description of a family member and his/her Christmas wish. Please help make a family’s Christmas merrier.

Our choir, along with the choir from Grace Lu-theran, will have two performances of “Lessons and Carols”, one on December 9th at 6pm at St. Luke’s and December 16th at Grace Lutheran also at 6pm. The choir has worked very hard to make it a beautiful celebration, please come and hear the sounds of the Christmas Season. Nancy Kearns

WSL president

Select an ornament from the Christmas Tree in the Narthex.

Bring the wrapped and labeled gift to the Advent Dinner on December 2nd

or by December 9th.

We are collecting non-perishable food items too.

See Mary Ann Boullain for more information.

Christmas Tree Decorating Party

Come help decorate the Christmas tree with Chrismons Friday December 7th

from 6:00pm – 8:00pm

Dinner provided,

please RSVP to the office by Thursday

December 6th.

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HEIFER International

It’s not too late for a HEIFER INTERNATIONAL gift! HAPPY HOLIDAYS WITH HEIFERS! $500 or $10 per share

GOATS ARE A GLORIOUS GIFT!

$ 120 or $10 per share

CHRISTMAS CHEER OF CHICKS

$20 per flock

LOVE LLAMAS AND ALPACAS

$150 or $20 per share

SWEETEN CHRISTMAS WITH BEES

$30 per hive

WARM UP WITH A WATER BUFFALO

$250 or $25 per share

SOMETHING NEW:

THREE SCHOOLS OF FISH

$300 or $30 per share

BIOGAS STOVES FOR A VILLAGE:

$1000 or $50 per stove

SEND A GIRL TO SCHOOL

$275

SHARE OF A MILK MENAGERIE

$1000 or $100 per share

o you need a “last minute” gift for a child, co-worker, loved relative, or perhaps an “extra” gift for someone special in your life, call Martha Applegate (619-465-6005). She has a variety of Christmas donor cards available. Heifer gifts are one of the most meaningful you can give!!

Martha Applegate

SOME HUMOR

What’s the difference between moms and dads?

--Moms work at work and work at home and dads just go to work at work. --Moms know how to talk to teachers without scaring them. --Dads are taller and stronger, but moms have all the real power cause that’s who you got to ask if you want to sleep over at your friends. --Moms have magic, they make you feel better without medicine. What does your mom do in her spare time? --Moms don’t do spare time.

God Loves Sinners

God love sinners.

He thinks they are really great.

He likes to mold things,

That only he can create,

Taking them and shaping them,

Making them pure as gold.

And when he is done,

They are a sight to behold.

He is the great sculpturer,

And we are the clay

I thank God, He wouldn’t

Have it any other way.

Clara Collins

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Happy Birthday Clara Collins

Debbie Parks

Raymond Yerger

Liz Dunnigan

Joe Makowski

Anna Steppat

Ellis Petersen

Mario Salas

WORSHIP TEXT

December 2 — First Sunday of Advent

First Lesson — Jeremiah 33: 14-16 Psalm 25: 1-10 Second Lesson — 1 Thessalonians 3: 9-13 Gospel Lesson — Luke 21: 25-36

December 9 — Second Sunday of Advent First Lesson — Malachi 3: 1-7b Psalm 66: 1-12 Second Lesson —Philippians 1: 2-11 Gospel Lesson — Luke 3: 1-20

December 23 — Fourth Sunday in Advent

First Lesson — Micah 5: 2-5a

Psalm 80: 1-7

Second Lesson — Hebrews 10: 5-10

Gospel Lesson — Luke 1: 39-56

December 24 — Christmas Eve

First Lesson — Isaiah 7: 10-14

Psalm 110: 1-4

Second Lesson — 1 John 4: 7-16

Gospel Lesson — Matthew 1: 18-25

December 25 — Christmas Day

First Lesson — Isaiah 52: 7-10

Psalm 2

Second Lesson — Hebrews 1: 1-12

Gospel — John 1: 1-18

December 30—First Sunday after Christmas

First Lesson — Exodus 13: 1-3a, 11-15

Psalm 111

Second Lesson — Colossians 3: 12-17

Gospel — Luke 2: 22-40

Happy Anniversary Robin & Roy Wheeler

Shirley & Bill Carrington

Jillian & Bob Barnard

Thank you to all who contributed towards the Holiday Giving

Thanksgiving “baskets” This season we were able to provide

for five families.

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DECEMBER PRAYER CALENDAR

God Will

1 Give you rest Matthew 11: 28-30

2 Uphold you Isaiah 41:10

3 Give you Good things Matthew 7: 7-11

4 Intercede for you Romans 8: 34-39

5 Sustain for you 1 Corinthians 1: 4-9

6 Hear you Psalm 34: 15-18

7 Raise you up John 6: 35-40

8 Give Grace to help you Hebrews 4: 14-16

9 Give you the Crown of Life James 1: 12

10 Give you an Inheritance 1 Peter 1: 3-7

11 Keep you Psalm 121: 1-8

12 Give you all things with Christ Romans 8: 31-34

13 Give you His Power 2 Corinthians 12: 9-10

14 Preserve you Psalm 138: 7-8

15 Cleanse you 1 John 1: 7-9

16 Give you Strength Isaiah 40: 29-31

17 Sanctify you 1 Thessalonians 5: 23-24

18 Transform you Philippians 3: 20-21

19 Be Gracious to you Isaiah 30: 18

20 Be your Portion Lamentations 3: 21-26

21 Call you by name Isaiah 43: 1-3a

22 Always be with you Psalm 139: 7-12

23 Guard you Philippians 4: 4-7

24 Help you in your weakness Romans 8: 26-28

25 Be your Shepherd Psalm 23: 1-6

26 Give you his Spirit John 14: 15-18

27 Deliver you Psalm 91: 1-4

28 Satisfy you with Good Psalm 103: 1-5

29 Establish you 1 Peter 5: 10-11

30 Dwell with you Revelation 21: 1-4

31 Give you every Spiritual Blessing Ephesians 1: 3-10

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DECEMBER WORSHIP TEAMS

Reader

Altar Guild

Sound Technician

Laurie Floren

Utley Family

Matt Kirk

2nd Communion Assistant — Bread Ted Olsen

Prayers of the People Pastor Mark Menacher

Projectionist Gail Knippelmeyer

Communion Assistants — Wine Liz Dunnigan & Thelma Pace

Greeters Ellis Petersen and Loraine Wininger

Usher Team George Hauk

Acolytes Tavis Brown Brooke & Brynn Skullerud,

9th Communion Assistant — Bread Ted Olsen

Prayers of the People Randy Engel

Projectionist TBA

Communion Assistants — Wine Darcy B. & Shirley Carrington

Greeter JoAnn Hendrickson

Usher Team Randy Engel

Acolytes Brooke & Brynn Skullerud

16th Communion Assistant — Bread Ted Olsen

Prayers of the People Martha Applegate

Projectionist TBA

Communion Assistants — Wine Liz Dunnigan & Thelma Pace

Greeters Marilyn Burns and Marie Handley

Usher Team George Hauk

Acolytes Gabby &Jet Bruflat

23rd Communion Assistant — Bread Judi Cole

Prayers of the People Mary Ann Boullain

Projectionist TBA

Communion Assistant — Wine Darcy B & Shirley Carrington

Usher Team George Hauk

Acolytes Tavis Brown, Gabby & Jet Bruflat

Christmas Eve Candlelight service 6:00 pm 8:00pm

24th Communion Assistant — Bread Judi Cole TBA

Prayers of the People Martha Applegate Martha Applegate

Projectionist John Busker Gail Knippelmeyer

Communion Assistant — Wine Liz Dunnigan & Thelma Pace TBA

Usher Team George Hauk TBA

Acolytes Gabby & Jet Bruflat TBA

30th Communion Assistant — Bread Judi Cole

Prayers of the People Randy Engel

Projectionist Tania Salas

Communion Assistant — Wine Shirley Carrington & Liz Dunnigan

Usher Team Randy Engel

Acolytes Tavis Brown

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S T . L U K E ’ S L U T H E R A N C H U R C H

5 1 5 0 W I L S O N S T .

L A M E S A , C A 9 1 9 4 2

Phone: 619-463-6633

Webpage: www.st-lukes-la-mesa.org

Email: office-sllc@att.net

NON-PROFIT

ORGANIZATION

U.S. POSTAGE

PAID

EL CAJON,CA

PERMIT NO 262

Dated Material

December 2018

A WARM WELCOME TO ALL

Worship Service: Sundays at 9:00 am.

During service childcare is available for ages 5 and under in Lower Level.

Sunday School for all ages after worship service in Lower Level classrooms.

WSL Advent Dinner — December 2nd at 5:00 pm

Choir Cantata—December 9th at 6pm at St. Luke’s/ December 16th at 6pm at Grace Lutheran

Christmas Tree decorating — December 7th at 6pm — dinner provided.

German Carol Service — December 16th at 3:00 pm.

Christmas Eve Candlelight Services — December 24th at 6:00pm & 8:00pm.

Office Closed — December 25 & 26 — Merry Christmas.

CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED

St. Luke’s Mission Statement:

We are called as a community of Christians saved by grace

—through faith alone in Jesus Christ—

to spread the Holy Gospel in word, sacrament, and action

soli deo gloria.