News & Messages

A Lenten Message from Bishop Miller

Dear Friends in Christ,

As we begin to walk the way of Lent this year, I found myself drawn to the words of the first two verses of Hymn #142.

Lord, who throughout these forty days for us didst fast and pray,
Teach us with thee to mourn our sins and close by thee to stay
As thou with Satan didst contend and didst the victory win
O Give us strength in thee to fight in thee to concur sin.

I hear in these words an echo of our Presiding Bishop’s Invitation for Lent 2020: A Call to Prayer, Fasting and Repentance leading to action. I encourage you to read his letter and consider its invitation.

 I also hear in this hymn a reminder that Lent is not first and foremost about guilt but rather sanctification. Repentance is re-direction, re-minding, and re-training under the guidance of the Spirit. The purpose of Lenten observance is not seasonal holiness but participation in God’s process of making us more and more into the people we are destined to be. We pray for grace to fight and conquer sin in our lives so that we may know the truth the Apostle Paul sets forth in the Letter to the Romans that “in all things we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus our Lord.”

The lessons we learn in Lent are meant to carry through to the Easter Life. The lessons learned in the Lenten desert are to empower us for service to God, just as our Lord’s forty days in the desert prepared him for his public ministry.

My prayer is that this holy season will be for us all a season of renewed faith and devotion.

Yours in Christ,

Bishop Steven A. Miller

Christmas Message from Bishop Miller 2019

O come, Desire of nations, bind in one the hearts of all mankind;
Bid thou our sad divisions cease, and be thyself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!

Dear Friends in Christ,

At Christmas we celebrate that the prayer of longing quoted above has been answered in the incarnation of Jesus, son of Mary, Son of God, the Word made flesh. We gather again to hear the story we know so well and to hear the angelic proclamation, “To you this day is born a Savior which is Christ the Lord.” Luke records that, at the delivery of this news to the shepherds, a multitude of heavenly host praised God saying, “Glory to God in the highest and peace to God’s people on earth.”

As believers, we know that Jesus is the author and source of all peace, the peace of God which passes all human understanding. As the apostle Paul writes, “He is our peace who has made us one and broken down the dividing wall of hostility.” What God has done in Christ has broken down all barriers, all divisions, and united us to God the Father, to one another, and to all humanity as brothers and sisters made in the image of God.

The call to us this Christmas is to be agents of God’s unity to a world that has not fully lived into God’s reality. As we make our communion this Christmas, let it be for us truly a coming into union with God and God’s purpose for our life — to be the extension of his Incarnation as the body of Christ, the Church.

Wishing you every Christmas blessing, I am,

Yours in Christ,

The Rt. Rev. Steven Andrew Miller
Bishop of Milwaukee

An Advent Greeting from Bishop Miller 2019

Hark! a thrilling voice is sounding;
“Christ is nigh,” it seems to say;
“Cast away the works of darkness
O ye children of the day.”

Dear Friends in Christ,

This above hymn came to mind as I prepared to write this Advent letter and begin to walk my last full liturgical year as your bishop with you. As most of you know, Advent is my favorite season of the Church year because for me it most resembles our life as Christians. We know that God has come among us in the incarnate one, Jesus Christ. We believe that Jesus will come again in glory. And so we live between the first and second coming of Christ in what is already, but not yet.

Advent is a season of urgency. The call to prepare is now. We pray “give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light now” on the first Sunday of Advent. There is no time for waiting. This cannot be put off. For me, this urgency is amplified not only by the current political climate but by the news reports of farm closings in rural Wisconsin, increased numbers of homeless in our cities, and the increasing violence across our nation. I need Jesus to come and rule and reign and restore.

When I was young, a popular song sung by many choirs was this, “let there be peace on earth and let in begin with me.” It expressed for that time the much-quoted adage of our day, “be the change you want the world to see.” Advent invites us to be the kingdom — the reign of Christ — we want in the world. It reminds us of our citizenship and our way of living the citizenship, which we affirm at the beginning of each liturgy when we say, “Blessed be God and Blessed be his kingdom now and forever.”

My prayer as I begin this holy season is, “Lord, let thy kingdom come. Lord, reign in me. May I be a sign of our kingdom for others.” I invite you to join me in this prayer.

Yours in Christ,

The Rt. Rev. Steven Andrew Miller
Bishop