One of Milwaukee’s premier holiday traditions of the Advent and Christmas season for hundreds of Milwaukeeans is the annual Festival of Lessons and Carols held at St. Paul’s Church.  This year’s Festival, the 40th annual, will be held on Saturday, December 14, 2013, at 4PM and followed by a celebratory reception.

The event will feature a 40-person St. Paul’s Choir, with Timothy Benson directing and the music of James Macmillan, Harold Darke,  Anthony Milner, Bob Chilcott, Alf Houkum, Carl Rütti, Paul Edwards, Richard Allain, J.S. Bach, and hymns and carols of the season.

Sermon
The Rev. Dr. C. Steven Teague, Rector
Last Sunday after Pentecost

Today is the last Sunday of this church year. Some think it’s December 29. The church doesn’t live by the fiscal calendar.  For strange folks like us, Christians, we keep time differently than the world. In our calendar today is called “Christ the King” Sunday. Even stranger – next Sunday is the church’s New Year. In an era of dysfunctional government systems, today brings great hope: This world’s powers do not have the final word. Christians always believed Jesus is a king, granted, a peculiar one. In 1925 Pius XI declared this Sunday Christ the King, to serve notice: “Emperors and rulers, dictators and kings: Your power is limited.” In 1979 Christ the King Sunday was added to our Prayer Book – thank goodness.

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Sermon
The Rev. Dr. C. Steven Teague, Rector
Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

We probably ought to issue a disclaimer for the next few weeks: “What you are about to hear can be disturbing and could keep you awake at night.” I think, as a child, I stayed awake for a month when I first heard this stuff, fearing Jesus was coming soon, and I hadn’t asked forgiveness for some unknown sin. Warning – don’t take these readings literally. It’s the genre of apocalyptic, symbolic warnings about the future. In our day anything apocalyptic is catastrophic – doom and destruction, like global warming, weather disasters, typhoons, or an injury to Aaron Rogers. Now that last one’s apocalyptic.

Continue reading November 17, 2013: Signs of the Times

Sermon
The Rev. Dr. C. Steven Teague, Rector
Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

Sadducees and Pharisees generally won’t play well together. Sadducees reject resurrection. Pharisees believe it. They are more progressive and well read. Sadducees reject resurrection because it’s not in the Torah – the first five books of the Bible which is all they read. So they pretend to want Jesus’s take on resurrection.

Continue reading November 10, 2013: Resurrection: Later and Now

Sermon
The Rev. Dr. C. Steven Teague, Rector
Twenty-Fourth Sunday after Pentecost

Jesus must like tax collectors, or Luke wants us to think so. Two weeks running we meet tax collectors. I guess they need someone to speak a kind word for them. Jesus can take care of that for me.

Continue reading November 3, 2013: A Seek and Save Mission

Check out the news in the November Apostle…picture directory signup information…Stewardship details…how to purchase a recently published A Journey through the History of St. Paul’s Church…Outreach update…just click on News and then on the Apostle icon!

Celebrate the Christmas Season with A Festival of Lessons and Carols, one of Milwaukee’s premier holiday traditions, featuring the St. Paul Choir, Timothy Benson, director,  with guest organist Jayne Latva,
and the music of James Macmillan, Harold Darke, Anthony Milner, Bob Chilcott, Alf Houkum, Carl Rütti, Paul Edwards, Richard Allain, J.S. Bach, and hymns and carols of the season.

Join us for Evensong on the Feast of All Saints, a beautiful celebration of prayer and music in which we remember those who have gone before us in faith.

• Sunday, November 3rd at 4:00pm

• At the beautiful Landmark Chapel at Forest Home Cemetery

• Rev. C. Steven Teague, Rector, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, presiding

• Music by the St. Paul Choir and The St. Paul Strings featuring movements from Pergolesi’s Magnificat and Mozart’s Ave Verum

Sermon
The Rev. Dr. C. Steven Teague, Rector
Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost

It’s a joke – right? Jesus starts a parable: “A Pharisee and a tax collector walk into the Temple one afternoon to pray.” What an oxymoron. There’s gotta be a punch line coming somewhere. When Jesus finishes, no one laughs – just stunned silence. Here’s why.

Continue reading October 27, 2013: Did You Hear the One About Two Sinners Meeting at the Temple?

Sermon
The Rev. Dr. C. Steven Teague, Rector
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost

“When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” Does Jesus have doubts? Of course he’s not talking about us. We have faith, right? We come to church. That’s a sign we belong to God, not to the world. So what is the faith Jesus looks for in us – and wonders if he’ll find?

Continue reading October 20, 2013: Widow 1, Judge 0