Sermon Christmas Day - December 25, 2014

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Last night we heard of the angels singing,

and the shepherds rushing off to the manger

to see the newborn king.

But in the light of this morning,

the angels are present only in the letter to the Hebrews.

And the author of the letter to the Hebrews

seems only to want to put them in their place.

We read that this babe in the manger

is far superior to angels.

We hear that God does not say to the angels,

‘You are My Son; today I have begotten you!’

Sermon Christmas Eve - December 24, 2014

‘For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
⁷His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.’

Come, for all is ready...

CHRISTMAS at St Stephen

Wednesday, Dec. 24, 7:30 p.m. (Prelude Music beginning 7:15 p.m.)

Thursday, Dec. 25, 10:30 a.m.

JOIN US as we worship the God who became one of us in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sermon - 4th Sunday of Advent Dec 21 2014

King David was just like any immigrant.

Just like the colonists who settled around the Three Rivers

in the eighteenth century;

the Central and Eastern Europeans who came here for work

in the nineteenth century;

and the suburbanites who fled the city in the twentieth,

King David wanted to build a big church

when he finally got to where he was going.

Sermon - 3rd Sunday of Advent Dec 14 2014

The Singers of Luke - 'Mary'

The Singers of Luke: ‘Mary’

December 10, 2014 – Vespers

The Rev. Maurice C. Frontz III STS

‘Blessed.’

This has been Mary’s title ever since the earliest Christian days.

She is ‘the blessed Virgin Mary,’

or ‘the Blessed Mother.’

Millions of Roman Catholics and others pray each day

in the words of St Elizabeth,

‘Blessed art thou among women,

and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.’

Her song is known to the church as the Magnificat,

taken from the first word in Latin, ‘Magnifies,’

and she sings, ‘From this day all generations will call me blessed.’

'The Singers of Luke' - Zechariah

The Singers of Luke: ‘Zechariah’

Advent 2014

The three singers that we will remember over the next three weeks

sang songs that are among the most popular in history.

Their songs do not appear on any charts of the most played songs

or in any anthologies of popular music.

But in the huge spaces of mighty cathedrals,

in the worship spaces of monasteries and convents,

in congregations of all sizes and in the homes of the faithful,

these songs have been sung each and every day

for at least seventeen hundred years:

the Benedictus or Song of Zechariah in morning prayer;

the Magnificat or Song of Mary in evening prayer,

and the Nunc Dimittis or Song of Simeon in Prayer at the Close of the Day.

Advent Vespers Wednesday, 7:30 pm

Join us in prayer Wednesday evenings in Advent at 7:30 pm. The sermon texts will be 'The Singers of Luke,' focusing on the great canticles of the Benedictus (Song of Zechariah); the Magnificat (Song of Mary) and the Nunc Dimittis (Song of Simeon.) If you cannot be with us, consider praying with us at that time. Let us observe this Advent with penitence for sin and in expectation of God's mighty acts of mercy and favor.