University Lutheran Church

340 E. 15th Street, Tempe, AZ 85281-6612 (480) 967-3543

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This Week at University Lutheran Church 4/16/2023-4/22/2023

Sunday, April 16

  • 9:15 am Forum (Campus Center Library/Zoom)
  • 9:15 am Choir Rehearsal (Sanctuary)
  • 10:30 am Sunday Worship (Sanctuary or via Live Stream)
  • 11:30 am 70th Celebration Luncheon

Monday, April 17

  • 8:00 pm HAA (Campus Center)

Tuesday, April 18

  • 8:00 pm AA (Campus Center)

Wednesday, April 19

  • 5:00 pm LCM Bible Study (Campus Center/Zoom)
  • 5:30 Free Student Dinner (Campus Center/Grab N Go)
  • 6:00 pm Contemporary Worship (Sanctuary)

Thursday, April 20

  • 8:00 pm AA (Campus Center)

Friday, April 21

Saturday, April 22

Tree Troubles

We were scheduled to have the two trees by the Campus Center removed on Tuesday, April 11. However, when the tree crew showed up, they discovered a dead tree behind the sanctuary that needed immediate removal before it fell on the building.

The two trees by the Campus Center will still be removed at the end of May. They are beginning to lean and could also fall over! For everyone’s and everything’s safety, it was decided to remove the trees. We have also had some dead branches removed from two trees in the main yard near the sanctuary.

Spring Into Life

The ULC Finance and Stewardship Committee is having a Spring blood drive on Sunday, April 30, 2023, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm in the Campus Center. Sign up here.

The blood drive is open to everyone — so tell your friends and family — post on your social media. Those who donate will be automatically entered for a chance to win a 3-night trip for two to Sonoma County, CA–includes flights, hotel, $1,000 gift card, and tour of Charles M. Schulz Museum (courtesy of American Red Cross).

If you cannot donate blood, but would like to help, we will need volunteers to help with set up/clean up and to provide snacks. Please contact the office (info@ulctempe.org or 480-967-3543) if you are interested.

Thank you!

Christ is Risen

Letter from Pastor Gary McCluskey

Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen, Indeed! So we say and repeat each and every Easter Sunday. We might say those three words are the ultimate Easter sermon. However, a word of caution to any of my colleagues who might read these words I am writing.

Some years ago when I was a pastor in Colorado, a Lutheran colleague of mine decided to have a rather short Easter sermon for what I recall was his second Easter with them. When it came time in the Easter Sunday worship for the sermon, he stood up, said, “Christ is Risen!” After a brief pause he then said, “Amen” and sat down. On to the hymn of the day! That was his Easter sermon.

Whatever point he was trying to make was lost on his congregation. About a year later he was no longer their pastor.

While it is certainly true those three words sum up Easter and the Christian faith, there is a bit more to say. There is a reason there is not one Easter sermon repeated yearly. There is not one life, one world that is the same each year. The sameness is worry, anxiety, joy, sin, goodness, natural beauty and natural disasters and all that human life and nature bring to the world.

Now we are dealing with Ukraine, political division that is quite frightening, on-going school shootings met with indifferent thoughts and prayers and no action, tornadoes, floods, and our own personal situations. This world and our lives could use a little rising. This world and our lives could use a little new life. I don’t know what next Easter will bring, but I don’t have to be a fortune teller to say it will bring a world and lives that need rising and new life.

So, we pastors stumble and mumble, we try our best to do something with this Easter story to bring it into the current day and present lives. We are inadequate to the task to be sure, but somehow God finds ways to use some of our efforts to shed some new light and bring some new life into dark and deadly places. This is God’s sermon each and every Easter. We might even say this is God’s sermon each and every day as God continues to break into our lives and make them new.

Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen, indeed! Amen!

Art Display

Senior Fine Arts major, Autumn Byars, had her senior art display in Mirabella on ASU campus. Two of her works were selected to be displayed in the “Figuratively Speaking” art display by the Arizona Arts Guild, 18411 N. 7th Avenue, Phoenix April 16- May 16. A reception will be held April 16 2-4pm. Congratulations, Autumn!