Dr. Adam Lefever Hughes, Author at St. Peter's Lutheran Church

Lament

Today is January 6th, which means it’s the Day of Epiphany, the day when Jesus is revealed to be King of the Nations. The light of the world, Jesus is the embodiment of God’s love for us which leaves no stone unturned. Unfortunately, today is also a day when we remember the violence and unrest…

Twelve Days of Christmas

You’ve probably heard of the song the Twelve Days of Christmas. This may or may not be news to you, but those twelve days do not lead up to Christmas. Instead they are a season that starts Christmas Day and ends today, January 5th. This evening will be the twelfth night (which you Shakespeare fans…

Name of Jesus

Readings Numbers 6:22-27Psalm 8Galatians 4:4-7Luke 2:15-21 By Jewish law, every baby boy was circumcised and named on the eighth day of life, so on the eighth day of Christmas the church celebrates this event in Jesus’ life. Yes! It’s still the Christmas season! The keeping of the covenant as well as Jesus’ name are signs…

The Childhood of Christ

Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the…

ERO CRAS

Just in case you’re not up on your Latin phrases, Ero cras loosely translates to “Tomorrow I will be.” This phrase is perfect for today, December 23rd, when we look forward to tomorrow evening when we celebrate Christ’s birth. So, why this phrase and how does it relate to worship and music? Perhaps you’ve noticed…

Prepare a Cabinet!

This Advent we have been talking about preparing ourselves for Christ’s presence in our lives. We know that God never leaves us and these preparations are really about helping us to see those spaces in our lives that may need “spruced up” or “trimmed” to make space for Emmanuel, God with us. In addition to…

A Time to Prepare

Advent is here and I’m excited about it. I find the music and messages of this season to be meaningful, centering, and a good foil for the trappings of our commerce-centric society. In particular, this year I’m thinking a lot about preparations. We often think of Advent as a time for preparation, and it is.…

Musical Arts – Hershey Handbell Ensemble

The next concert in the 2021-2022 Musical Arts Concert Series at St. Peter’s Lutheran Church in Neffsville, will be a handbell concert by the Hershey Handbell Ensemble, on Sunday, December 5, 2021, at 4pm. The Ensemble was formed in 2004 and is based in south-central Pennsylvania. It was formed to fulfill the need for an…

All Creation Sings

If you were at traditional worship services, or if you tuned into our livestream, you may have heard Pastor Martin Zimmann reference a number of hymnals during his sermon. Of course he mentioned the “green one” (Lutheran Book of Worship), the “blue one”, (With One Voice), the “cranberry one” (Evangelical Lutheran Worship), and the “purple…

Fall Worship Schedule

This summer, as we have been gathering in worship to sing, pray, and proclaim the liberating message of God’s grace, St. Peter’s staff and worship committee have been working toward a fall worship schedule. At the beginning of the summer, we had one idea of what that might look like and we have striven to…