Welcome to St Matthew's Lutheran Church
Dear Visitor,
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
With this rousing victory cry of the Church, the Easter season began on April 17, continues for fifty days, and ends with the Feast of Pentecost on June 5. On the fortieth day, May 26, the Church celebrates the Feast of the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ. Join us then at 12 noon in the parish church.
We celebrate that by His saving death on the cross, Jesus Christ, truly God and truly human, has ended the reign of sin, death, and the devil. Because of sin, our age-old rebellion, every person must die. The promise of the Lord Jesus’ saving death and glorious resurrection is that those who are baptized into Christ and who entrust their dying and living to Him will also be raised in imperishable bodies at the last to live eternally with the one true God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in the new heaven and new earth (Revelation 21:1-7).
Beginning May 1, for five Sundays of Easter, we have been listening to preaching texts from the Revelation of St. John, one of the least understood books of the Bible and the conclusion of the metanarrative of Sacred Scripture. The Triune God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) is the only hero of the Bible, which is His story of salvation. As we delve deeper into the epistle readings from Revelation this Easter season, we will have opportunity to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, His Father, and the Holy Spirit. The ancient heretics known as Gnostics proclaimed a cross-less, spiritualized Christ who eschewed God’s good creation declared in Holy Scripture. Even today, the Gnostic heresy can be heard in outposts claiming to be Christ’s Church, wherever the message is reduced to a spiritualized eternity in which the body and the stuff of God’s creation do not matter now or later.
St. Matthew’s is an evangelical catholic parish, which means we confess the Scriptures and creeds of Christ’s whole Church on earth, worship using the liturgy of the western Church, practice one Baptism with water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins, and receive the Lord Jesus’ true Body and most precious Blood in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar every Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday, and other feast days. With all Christ’s faithful people on earth, we are unapologetically pro-life.
Please join with us in raising the ancient victory cry of the Church.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
Thanks for stopping by!
Pastor Sam Zumwalt+
szumwalt@bellsouth.net
Come Worship with Us
Saturday 6:00 PM
Sunday 8:30 AM
Sunday 11:00 AM
Monday 5:00 PM
Wednesday 12 Noon
WE HAVE RESUMED CORPORATE WORSHIP WHILE MAINTAINING GREAT CARE FOR OUR NEIGHBORS! Hand sanitizer is available inside each entrance. The pastors wear masks and gloves when distributing the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar. While most of our people are either vaccinated or have immunity, we understand that some worshipers are more comfortable wearing masks. At the sharing of the peace, we wave or bow to those who are not of our own households. If you can’t worship with us in person, be sure to worship with us on YouTube Live this Saturday @ 6pm; Sunday @ 8:30 and 11am; Monday @6pm; Wednesday @Noon.
To access our YouTube channel, please click on the link below: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1n7DcvSmSFXYO51dWbdykw
We welcome you in Jesus’ name to celebrate with us on the Sixth Sunday of Easter, May 21-22, 2022. The Rev’d. Fr. Samuel David Zumwalt preaches, “Holy Baptism: Christ the Lamp” (Revelation 21:10-22:5). The Bride of Christ, the Church, is pictured as a city without a Temple and where God is the Light. For traditional Sunday services in Easter, we use Setting One from the Lutheran Book of Worship. The color of the season is white for the joy of Christ’s victory over sin, death, and the devil.
From the console of our 47 rank Austin pipe organ with trompette-en-chamade, Bill Glisson leads the traditional Eucharists on Saturday at 6 p.m. and 11 a.m. Sunday in the singing of joyous hymns: “Our Lord is Risen from the Dead” (Entrance); “We Know That Christ Is Raised” (Hymn of the Day); “Shall We Gather at the River” (Saturday Recessional) and “Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia!” (11 a.m. Recessional). Our 11 a.m. Sunday distribution hymns are: “Shall We Gather at the River”; “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light”; “My Life Flows on in Endless Song.”
The Joyful Noise Ensemble leads the 8:30 a.m. Eucharist in the singing of joyous hymns and spiritual songs: “Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia!”; “We Know that Christ Is Raised”; “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light.” Eric Beuerman plays “Be Glorified,” a piano solo, at the offering.
Special music for the traditional weekend Eucharists: Bill Glisson’s Saturday prelude: “Our Lord Is Risen” (Osterland); Lani Beuerman and Eric Beuerman play “Come, You Faithful Raise the Strain” (Sullivan/Smith), an organ/piano duet for the 11 a.m. prelude; Bill Glisson’s Saturday offering music is, “I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light” (Pelz); The Adult Choir sings, “Jesus is the Light” (Page) at 11 a.m. offering. Bill Glisson’s Saturday postlude: “We Know that Christ Is Raised” (Greene); Lani Beuerman and Eric Beuerman play “Toccata” (Widor/Smith), an organ/piano duet for the 11 a.m. postlude.
Did you know that you can give online to St. Matthew’s? https://stmatthewsch.org/online-giving/
Sheila Whitmeyer and Allison Scalora have reopened the nursery on Sunday mornings for up to five children per service. For more information, please email: slwhitmeyer@aol.com
Beginning Easter Sunday at 8:30 and 11 a.m., ushers direct communicants to the altar rail where they may kneel or stand. After the pastor dips the host into the chalice, please receive the Body and Blood of Christ in your flattened palm. If you are unable to receive the Blood of Christ due to the alcohol content, please let the pastors know you wish only to receive the host. If you wish to receive a gluten free host, please ask before the pastor dips the host in the chalice. New Portals of Prayer devotions booklets for April – June 2022 and retired copies of the Lutheran Book of Worship are still available to take home. These may be found on a table in the narthex. Mr. Bill Glisson, our Director of Music, will lead from the organ. Streaming of online services begins about 4 minutes before the advertised worship time.
St Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran Church
612 South College Road
Wilmington, NC 28403
(910) 791-4582
Worship Services
Saturday 6:00 PM
Sunday 8:30 & 11:00
Monday 6:00 PM
PRAY daily
“To be a Christian without Prayer is no more possible than to be Alive without breathing.” - Martin Luther
WORSHIP weekly
"To gather with God's people in united adoration of the Father is as necessary to the Christian life as prayer." - Martin Luther
READ the Bible
“The Bible is Alive, It speaks to me; It has feet, It runs after me; It has hands, It lays hold of me” - Martin Luther
SERVE at and beyond St. Matthew’s
“God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.” - Martin Luther
Be in Relationship to encourage spiritual growth in others
"If he have faith, the believer cannot be restrained. He betrays himself. He breaks out. He confesses and teaches this gospel to the people at the risk of life itself." - Martin Luther
GIVE of my time, talents and resources
“I have held many things in my hand, and have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God’s hands that I still possess.”– Martin Luther
Pastor Sam's Blog
Read Pastor Sam's blog for current news and inspiring articles
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