Easter - Resurrection Joy!

Jesus Christ is risen today - Alleluia!

The sorrow of Good Friday is not God's final word. Hear the Easter proclamation of new life.

God’s power is
stronger than injustice, stronger than illness,
stronger than hate, stronger than addiction,
stronger than loneliness, stronger than death.

Saturday 7:30pm	Easter Vigil • Special music & communion
Sunday 9:30am	Free breakfast
Sunday 11am	Easter celebration with communion

Share in the amazing things that God is doing in this world.

St. Matthew's Lutheran Church
Pastor Hans Arnesen
85 Wayne Street (btwn Barrow & Jersey Aves)
Downtown Jersey City
stmatthewsjc.org
201.432.9319

Lent - the journey to Easter

Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and sustain me with your bountiful Spirit.
Psalm 51:10-12

The season of Lent is a call to turn to God, to hear anew God’s hope for the world, and to know God’s love in Jesus. We remember Jesus' walk towards Jerusalem and the cross. Jesus always walks with us. Let us walk with him.

Sundays	11am • Worship
Ash Wednesday 2/18	7-9am • Imposition of ashes at
	the Grove St PATH station
Wednesdays	7:30pm • Evening prayer
2/25 – 3/25
Palm Sunday 3/29	10:30am • Procession
	11am • Worship
Maundy Thursday     4/2	6:30pm • Dinner followed by   Holy Communion
Good Friday 4/3	7:30pm • Meditation at the Cross
Saturday 4/4	7:30pm • Easter Vigil service
Easter Sunday 4/5	9:30am • Easter Breakfast
	11:00am • Resurrection Worship

We walk together each Sunday at 11am. Come walk with us.
St. Matthew's Lutheran Church
Pastor Hans Arnesen
85 Wayne Street (btwn Barrow & Jersey Aves)
Downtown Jersey City
stmatthewsjc.org
201.432.9319

The Season of Christmas

The season of Christmas begins with Jesus' birth and extends to Epiphany (3 Kings, January 6). We celebrate the events of Jesus' birth recognizing God's radical step to be with us, in human form, knowing human life in its fullness.

We gather together in the church to share each other's lives, walking where Jesus walked: with people in need, with people seeking healing, with our neighbors and even with our enemies. God's call to walk the walk calls us to growth, calls us to be transformed by the power of love and God's vision of justice. And this mission cannot be accomplished by walking alone. St. Matthew's, Grace Church Van Vorst, Temple Beth-El, and the Christian Church of Jersey City had a blast at our Christmas Day community meal, sharing food and fellowship with all who came.

We walk together each Sunday at 11am. Come walk with us.

O come, all ye faithful!
St. Matthew's Lutheran Church
Pastor Hans Arnesen
85 Wayne Street (btwn Barrow & Jersey Aves)
Downtown Jersey City
stmatthewsjc.org
201.432.9319

Christmas Eve - the babe is born - 7:30 service

Is this whole thing about a little bitty baby? Well, yes! The birth of Jesus is the moment we celebrate as God truly with us, in human form, knowing human joys and sorrows, sharing human weaknesses and gifts. God's humanity is an affirmation of our humanity, and of the hope that is born with every human life.

The rituals - the candles, the carols, the tree, the gift-giving - are important when they, like Christ himself, awaken in us the best of our humanity.

This Christmas Eve, Wednesday December 24 7:30pm, St. Matthew's sings the world's joy with special music, holy bread and wine, candelight, each other, and yes - the baby Jesus, born in Bethlehem and born anew in the lives he is transforming.

O come, let us adore him!
St. Matthew's Lutheran Church
Pastor Hans Arnesen
85 Wayne Street (btwn Barrow & Jersey Aves)
Downtown Jersey City
stmatthewsjc.org
201.432.9319

The image is a part of the icon of the nativity in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, the spot which tradition recognizes as the site of Jesus' birth. His parents rejoice, people are bringing gifts, and You can see two candles of the church lit in the foreground.

Advent & Christmas

Wednesday 12/24 7:30pm - Christmas Eve candlelight service
We celebrate the light of Christ being born into the world with special music, Christmas carols, candlelight, and holy communion.

The four weeks preceding Christmas is the time when the church prepares for the advent (or coming) of Christ. In the northern hemisphere, the days grow shorter and colder, and the church looks forward to the light of the world.

Look around the world. We know that the world we see needs transformation. In Advent especially we give voice to our longing, our need, our hope for love, for justice, for healing. The Christian story is that God loves the world. Let that love shine forth! Come, Lord Jesus, come.

Let every heart prepare the way - God's love is coming into the world.
St. Matthew's Lutheran Church
stmatthewsjc.org
Pastor Hans Arnesen
85 Wayne Street (btwn Barrow & Jersey Aves)
Downtown Jersey City
201.432.9319
Magnificat Wallpaper by Oggy (cropped).

Season of Pentecost

From early Summer up to the gate of Winter, the church year is one long season. Sometimes called "ordinary time," the weeks between the Feast of Pentecost and Advent focus on the ministry of Jesus and the mission of the church. While the mission is extra-ordinary, it is in fact the ordinary "business" of the church to walk in the footsteps of Jesus and to practice what he preached.

As Jesus walked among his people, he preached the coming of the Kingdom of God. We know he prayed, and had a close relationship with his heavenly Father. He knew and practiced the religion of his people. Yet in this religious context, so much of his message is not what we might call religious. He spoke of the love of God, the reality of hope, and the importance of a just community.

Jesus came to heal a world in need. The people of St. Matthew's come to him each week for his good Word and holy meal. Summer services at 10am.

Together in the Holy Spirit.
St. Matthew's Lutheran Church
Pastor Hans Arnesen
85 Wayne Street (btwn Barrow & Jersey Aves)
Downtown Jersey City
201.432.9319

Trinity Sunday - June 15 10am

O LORD our Lord,
    how majestic is your name in all the earth!—
you whose glory is chanted above the heavens
out of the mouths of infants and children;
    you have set up a fortress against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and avenger.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
    the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,
what are mere mortals that you should be mindful of them,
    human beings that you should care for them?
Psalm 8:1-4

The psalm sings of the glory of creation and of humans' place in it, "a little less than the angels." It echoes the stately order of the creation story found in the first chapter of Genesis. It has an air of wonder at this amazing world of God's creation.

This Sunday, Trinity Sunday, the church pays attention to that theological image of God who is One, yet known in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We may not understand this Tri-Unity, but we can glory in the way three can be perfectly in-sync.

At St. Matthew's we celebrate the mystery of God by gathering together for prayer and praise in a service of the Word with Paul Bellan-Boyer leading worship and preaching. The sermon title, "How Good," is taken from the Hebrew words ki tov which recur throughout that great story of creation which opens the Bible: "In the beginning..."

Together in God's grace.
St. Matthew's Lutheran Church
Pastor Hans Arnesen
85 Wayne Street (btwn Barrow & Jersey Aves)
Downtown Jersey City
201.432.9319