St. Stephen's Lutheran Church

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26) Most folks at St. Stephen’s should be familiar with this blessing, it is used often at the end of the services on Sunday. I wonder how many of you know this is from the book of Numbers in the Hebrew Scriptures? One of the most well-known blessings is centuries old - a blessing that has blessed cou

Pastor Jason posted a photo to Facebook of his beautiful backyard area with flowers and a fountain. He then posted a photo of the same area a month earlier with the comment, "What a difference a month makes." Consider one of the garden plots in my front yard. It looks much the same as it did last month. The daffodils and lily blooms have run their course. The two Easter lilies I brought home have been well-watered thanks to the rain, but have yet to actually find their way in

My family, like all Americans (with the exception of native folk), were immigrants. In the 1920’s we came to Chicago via Ellis Island - and very few of us have had the audacity to leave. Even when those of us left, the city still coursed through our veins, and our hearts would beat with a certain familiar cadence that could not quite be replaced by any other city or place. For me, that cadence has a certain rhythm to it, a certain jazzy beat. To me, Chicago is synonymous with

Earlier this year, the United Methodist Church voted no on sanctioning same-sex marriages or allowing openly gay pastors. While there are questions about the legality of some of the ballots, and there is concern about the influence of the international church bodies, it is nonetheless the current decision of this worldwide body. So the churches that don't agree with the decision are having to work out what their continuing relationship will be with the worldwide body. Earlier

Did you know that Easter is not just a single Sunday, but a season of celebration from Easter Sunday to Pentecost...that’s fifty days! Fifty days of celebration. It’s called Eastertide - the time between Easter morning and Pentecost. When you take a moment and think about it, it only seems reasonable that we have such an extended celebration of the resurrection of Jesus - after all, it’s a rather significant miracle. We, at St. Stephen’s, have started this celebration off rat