GADGET'S Garage Vacation Bible School

Dear Members and Guests of St. John's,

This year's Vacation Bible School is going to be the third week of June 22-26, beginning each evening at 5:30 p.m. Please sign up your children and grandchildren and/or come out and volunteer your help for the week. This looks to be a great VBS experience and hope that you will come out and bring a friend along with you. If you have any questions please call Johna Fellwock at 235-8864, or contact Nancy or Pastor Cody in the church office. If you have any questions about music to do with VBS, please contact Cantor Peters.

On Sunday, May 31, during the Sunday school hour, the children will be taking door hangers around the community in an effort to invite more from the community to join us. If you have neighbor children, please invite them to join us on those evenings.

We look forward to seeing you this year for VBS when Jesus Will Make All Things New!

LPPC Ascension Service St. John's--Stone's Prairie

Please come out and join us for the LPPC Ascension Day service at St. John's Lutheran Church, Purdy, Missouri, on Thursday, May 21, 2008, at 7:00 p.m. The preacher for the occasion will be Rev. Ben Schumacher from Grace Lutheran Church, Aurora, Missouri. The service will be followed by a cookie and coffee fellowship. Included in this email is an Ascension Day sermon for your meditation. Hope to see many of you this Thursday evening.

“THE SAME NEW JESUS”
ASCENSION OBSERVED
ACTS 1:1-11
REV. RICHARD S. CODY
ST. JOHN’S LUTHERAN CHURCH, MONETT, MO

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

In most Christian churches ASCENSION Day is "A Silent Day." The church doors are closed and locked. The nave is empty. The pulpit and the choir loft are unoccupied. The candles on the altar are topped with charred wicks, indicating that worship has happened here in the past, but is in no way happening now.

It is curious that we so easily confess the ASCENSION in our creeds, but we have great difficulty in celebrating it in our churches. Perhaps, this is due to the fact that ASCENSION is tucked away on a weekday and we are Sunday-only worshipers.

It may be that our neglect of the ASCENSION story is due to the fact that it is dependent on a world view which we have long ago discarded. The idea that Jesus ascended, like a rocket launched into outer space, and landed on a celestial satellite - a space station in the sky called heaven - and that Christ sits there in a chair at the right hand of God, is just too fantastic for us to believe. A crucifixion is believable. A resurrection is unusual, but not unbelievable (particularly when we want to believe it, for the sake of our own destiny after death). However, a tale about a man, floating upward into the clouds sounds more like the levitation of a magic show than it does a revelation from God.

In the creed, when we refer to the ASCENSION of our Lord, we confess that "He ascended into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of God ..." We are not witnessing to the physical fact that God has a right hand, nor are we saying that there is a chair that is suspended in outer space where our Lord sits beside the throne of God. This is picture language, used by believers to confess the conviction that the same Jesus who puts aside His might and majesty to be born a baby in a Bethlehem barn, now, once more, assumes His position of power as the Son of God and the Lord of all creation.

What has the Church throughout the ages tried to communicate by celebrating the ASCENSION of our Lord? God does not desire to prove that He can defy the law of gravity, nor is He identifying the location of heaven in the sky - or in outer space. God is not trying to hide something with the clouds that surrounded our Lord at His ASCENSION; rather, God desires to clarify and to verify what happened to Jesus after His resurrection. Our Lord was neither time-bound nor space-bound by His resurrection body. Rather, He was released to reign as the King of all creation. His presence and His power are unlimited. This profound revelation cannot be communicated without the ASCENSION imagery of a movement upward. Christ was moving upward to a higher level of life - a life that was higher than the tangible, material, localized, and limited life that we know.

The intent of the ASCENSION was to reveal to the apostles and to us that Jesus was moving up to a new mode of existence and activity. He was not only raised from death; He was raised up from this space-bound, time-bound life to reign eternally in glory.

By failing to understand the intent of the ASCENSION, we risk forgetting the festival because it has become a dead doctrine for us. If so, it is essential for the full force of our redemption experience to revive it. The ASCENSION means many things, but basically the meaning of the ASCENSION-event can be summarized in three words: confirmation, extension, and coronation.

FIRST, THE MEANING OF THE ASCENSION IS THE CONFIRMATION OF OUR LORD. Without Christmas, there would be no Cross. Without Easter, the Cross would be a meaningless martyrdom. Without the ASCENSION, Easter would be a victory without verification. The ASCENSION is our Lord's confirmation by God the Father. As He was baptized by the Cross and Resurrection, He is now confirmed by the ASCENSION. God the Father confirms and verifies His acceptance of all Christ has done for us. Our Lord's ministry of obedience and the sacrificial offering of His death for our sins have been accepted by God the Father. We are accepted by His acceptance.

We need to know not only what happened to Jesus through the event of the ASCENSION but also what happens to us because of it. Our status of being restored to the family of God is confirmed by the ASCENSION. Our status as born-again children of God is confirmed by the ASCENSION. As one of the early church fathers put it, "Christ became what we are in order that we might become what He is."

But more! The ASCENSION assures us that Christ is our eternal advocate - our "defense attorney." When we stand in the court of God, Christ intercedes for us. Our Lord pleads our innocence based on His sacrifice on Calvary for our sins. He covers us with the innocence of His blood and by His righteousness.

THE SECOND WORD OF THE ASCENSION EVENT IS EXTENSION. Without the Good News of the ASCENSION, our relationship to the Lord would be limited to hearing the story of the earthly Jesus. It would be second-hand information at best. However, the ASCENSION proclaims the extension of Christ beyond the limitations of time and space. Now we can have direct access with the ascended Lord.

The phrase, "at the right hand of God," does not locate a place. It refers to an act of participation. Christ participates not only with the reign of God over all things; He also, and at the same time, participates in the lives of all believers. As He sits at the right hand of God, our Lord's hands can still reach into our lives and touch us. Christ is present to wipe away our tears and to penetrate the loneliness of our lives with His Joy-filled presence. He reaches into our lives through the marks of the church—through His Word and His Sacraments. There we find the ASCENDED AND GLORIFIED Lord Jesus Christ veiled under Word and Sacrament. He veils Himself in these places so that we the people of God can approach the King of His Glory.

CONFIRMATION OF OUR ACCEPTANCE BY GOD THE FATHER, EXTENSION OF OUR LORD'S PRESENCE INTO OUR LIVES; FINALLY, THE ASCENSION MEANS CORONATION. The ASCENSION crowns our Lord with glory, majesty, and power. It is one thing to assert that Jesus has been raised from death; it is quite another thing to assert that He now shares the throne and reign of God over heaven and earth.

Most of our thinking about Christ is in the single dimension of His common humanity - a babe born in a barn, a friend of fishermen, a rural rabbi who walked the dusty back-roads of Palestine, wearing a homespun robe, quietly teaching the truths about God, challenging the pride of the Pharisees, discouraging the elaborate ritual of the priests and the liturgical extravagancies of the temple.

We picture our Lord as the "Gentle Jesus," the humble "Servant-Savior" with a bowl and a towel, who sits washing the feet of his disciples and silently submitting to the immanent death of a criminal on a cross. This is a true picture of our Lord, but, it is only a one-dimensional view. It is only a partial picture of our Lord, particularly when we fail to project our vision above time and space in order to catch a vision of the regal Christ who reigns as king of all creation.

The evidence of the ASCENSION is limited in the New Testament. Only the Book of Acts gives a detailed account. But, what the ASCENSION of our Lord symbolizes and stands for is - the confirmation of our acceptance by God, the extension of our Lord's presence into our daily lives, the coronation of Christ as King of all creation. All of this permeates to the heart of every word penned by the writers of the New Testament. These inspired believers, who wrote the words of Holy Scripture, were men who were enlightened and lifted up by the risen and the ascended Lord. The perspective of the ASCENSION is the viewpoint from which they witnessed. They wrote, not with fear-filled hearts and tear-filled eyes. Rather, they sang each word that they wrote with the hope and the joy which was flooding every fiber of their being. They had caught the vision of the ultimate victory of Christ. They were messengers of a battle fought and won - and of a kingdom come. They saw beyond the man, Jesus, to Christ the King. They saw beyond the stable to the sacred sanctuary of God. They saw beyond the cross to the crown. They saw beyond the tomb to the ultimate triumph.

ASCENSION Lutheran Church on the East Coast has above the altar a stained glass window which depicts the ascending Christ. The congregation decided to completely remodel the chancel of the church. Because of the sentimental attachment of the people to the altar window, they decided to retain the ASCENSION window in the new design.

When the remodeling was completed and the congregation returned to the church for worship, the little seven-year-old son of the pastor leaned over to his mother and said, "A brand new church, but the same old Jesus."

Now, it is true that Jesus is old. He is, in fact, He’s a couple thousand years old. He is historically removed from us by nearly two centuries. We remind ourselves of this fact every time that we date a check, begin a letter, or ask someone what day it is. Yet, the good news of the ASCENSION is that Jesus Christ is both old and new. On the one hand, He is the same "old Jesus" but, on the other hand, He is the same "new Jesus" - new every day, because His acts of power are not limited to the record of His earthly life. The Holy Spirit brings Christ to us daily in His "real presence."

The message of the ASCENSION - the confirmation of our acceptance by God, the extension of our Lord's presence in our lives, and the coronation of His kingly power over all creation - can be condensed to one simple truth; "Christ is Lord and He is with us." The same Christ who lived and died, the same Christ who was resurrected and ascended in kingly power is our daily companion and friend, our daily defender and protector. Rejoice! Christ lives forever in us, with us, and for us. To Him be the glory forever! Amen!

Sanctify us, O Lord, by Thy Truth; Thy Word is Truth! Amen!

Sharing My Faith Workshop Postponed For Later Date

We are sad to announce that the Sharing My Faith Workshop has been canceled for this coming Saturday, May 16. We will be rescheduling the event hopefully this Fall. Please stay tuned to future announcements of when it will take place. We apologize if anyone from area congregations who had planned to come. The Lord be with you and thank you for your interest and support!

Church Open for National Day of Prayer May 7, 2009

Just to let you know that the church will be open all day on Thursday, May 7, 2009, for National Day of Prayer. Feel free to come by and spend any amount of time you would like in prayer. We will have an outline of different prayers for you to use. We hope you will join us in praying for America, our leaders, our church, and community. See you there!

The Lutheran Study Bible Pre-Orders Being Taken

Now that you have read the post below about the very "cool" things that will be included in the the new Lutheran Study Bible, I know that you are going to want to order one.

A sign-up sheet has been going around the Fellowship Hall for the past two Sundays during Bible class. If you would like to order one, please email, call, or sign-up soon. We need to get our order in as quickly as possible, because we want to make sure that we get our Bibles on the first run and not have to wait until they print more.

If you need more information on the prices, colors, large print editions, etc., visit the links that were in yesterday's post or push on the title bar of this post which is a link to CPH. We also have a price list here at the church that you can review on Sunday mornings.

In the next couple of days or so, we will be receiving from Concordia Publishing House, one-hundred copies of the Lutheran Study Bible Sampler. Everyone can pick up a copy to take with you as you leave church. They are beautifully made and very exciting to see how the layout will be. Can't wait until the Bibles are released this October 31!!

Get Your Copy of The Lutheran Study Bible Now!

April 21, 2009

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia.

Greetings and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ, from Concordia Publishing House.

I’m sending you this e-mail to give you a “heads up” about a project we have been working on here at CPH for nearly six years: The Lutheran Study Bible [TLSB]. You may have read about it, or heard about it, but you might like to have a few more details. I’m very excited about this project and hope you will be too.

We began this project first with an extensive and wide reading/research project, by which we invited lay people to read parts of the Bible assigned to them and write down every single question they had as they read the Bible. We had nearly 500 people reading the Scriptures in this very intentional way. This project produced a large data base of questions and comments which guided all we did in preparing this Bible. We asked professors from our seminaries to provide us with the most recent scholarship on all the books of the Bible, with issues identified clearly and then we turned to a team of note writers, the great majority of whom are active parish pastors, to write and help edit the notes. The result is a Bible that is scholarly, pastoral, practical, devotional and faithful to God’s Word, and clearly presented for the lay reader in view, with a keen focus on the Christ-centered nature of Scripture in the paradigm of Law/Gospel, which is that “particularly brilliant light” for proper understanding of the Bible, as our Lutheran Confessions put it. I’ll give you a list of the “priorities” we had in view as we did this Bible, as a PS at the end of this note.

Simply put, in the history of our Synod, there has not been a study Bible like this one produced for English speaking Lutherans. We have created this Bible with research, notes and commentary produced, “from the ground up” from Lutheran sources, scholars, pastors and writers. Previously we have borrowed notes from other non-Lutheran publishers and modified them for use in our church. I guess the situation is comparable to making a meal from scratch, with your own ingredients, and buying something pre-made and slightly changing it.

When describing The Lutheran Study Bible project to the CPH Board of Directors, to CPH staff, and to potential contributors, we included six goals for the work. We sought to create a study Bible that does the following:

1. Presents justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in
Christ alone, as the chief teaching of Scripture
(Lk 24:44-;47; Jn 5:39; SA II I 1-4)

2. Properly distinguishes and applies Law and Gospel (reading the Bible as a book about justification; Jn 1:17; Gal 3:21-22;
Ap XIIA 53-54)

3. Emphasizes God's work through the means of grace
(Mt 26:26-29; Jn 3:5; 20:22-23; Rm 10:17; SA III IV)

4. Functions from a "Scripture alone" point of view and presents a "Scripture interprets Scripture" approach to using the Bible
(Ps 119; 1Tm 6:3; 2Tm 3:16-17; FC Ep Sum)

5. Equips the laity for works of service, with a particular focus on evangelism in their various vocations/callings in life
(Ps 145:4--13; Eph 2; Ap XV 41-42)

6. Presents a uniquely Lutheran study Bible that features genuinely Lutheran notes and comments throughout, references to the Lutheran Confessions where appropriate, focus on the Small Catechism for helps and explanations, citations from Luther throughout, and materials to aid daily devotion and prayer

TLSB will be out by this October. I would invite you to look around the following web sites for a lot more information and samples of the Bible: http://www.cph.org/lutheranbible You will find at this web site pre-publication pricing information.

In the next couple of weeks we are mailing to every Lutheran congregation across the United States and Canada a forty-eight page “sampler” of TLSB. I hope you get a chance to see it. If you don’t, you can download a copy of it from the Internet. It is a large file (13 megabytes), so it will take a few minutes to download to your computer. When you click this link, the download will begin: http://www.cph.org/cphstore/pages/resources/tlsb/tlsb%20sampler_body.pdf Our congregations should have this mailing by the end of May, if not earlier. We will follow up this mailing later in the summer with a larger set of promotional materials for our congregations to use to gather orders. We are also featuring this Bible at our district convention displays, so be sure to stop by our booth.

Please let me know if you have any questions, or how I can be of service to you.

A blessed Eastertide to you and yours!

Cordially in Christ,
Paul T. McCain, Concordia Publishing House, Editor

Easter Hymn Festival Great Success!

I would like to personally thank all the members of the various choirs that participated in this year's Easter Hymn Festival "With High Delight." The music and singing was fantastic!

I would also like to take a moment to thank all of our congregation members who came out to support the music program, the children of our congregation, the choir members, and the Cantor and Pastor. Your attendance at these festivals makes all of our hearts glad and makes the hard work and preparation all the more worth it!

What a great way to celebrate God's blessings among us for the past 90 years here at St. John's. This is just one of many celebration that we will have this anniversary year. We will continue to sing the anniversary hymn texts and tune that Cantor Peters and I have written during the course of the year to become more familiar with them.

The Board of Education has discussed the idea of having a "multi-generational" Bible study and craft opportunity this summer on the Wednesday nights in July. Every family here at St. John's will get an 81/2 x 11 cloth panel to decorate for your family. You can put on this panel anything you want to recall how you became a part of the St. John's family. Then we will hopefully put all the panels together and make a large quilt to commemorate the 90 years of blessing here at St. John's. So make plans to join us this summer to participate in this fun and exciting opportunity to grow closer together as a church family.

We will also have the privilege of hosting this August 23, 2009, District President Ray Mirly, at our 90th Anniversary Divine Service at 4:00 p.m. So mark your calendars now to attend and celebrate with us. The service will be followed with a congregational dinner to be held in the basement here at St. John's.

Sharing My Faith The Way of Life: A New Beginning

Sharing My Faith
The Way of Life: A New Beginning

The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Luke 19:10

If you have ever wanted to hone your skills of talking about Jesus to others then this is the workshop for you! All members of St. John's, Monett, are encouraged to attend this Evangelism seminar. All members of sister congregations of the SW Circuit or the Springfield Circuit are all invited to attend. It is free of charge!

So come on out and join us on Saturday, May 16, from 10:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. for an Evangelism training seminar called “Sharing My Faith The Way of Life: A New Beginning.” Join Dr. Ralph Geisler, our presenter that day as he shares with us his knowledge of evangelism and soul-seeking methods. Dr. Geisler is Interim Director of St. Paul Institute for Education (S.P.I.F.E.) and has extensive experience with teaching and equipping lay leaders to share their faith in Christ. He serves in his retirement as a Mission catalyst for rural and small town congregations.

Men's Group Participants Work Together

The St. John's Men's group got together on Wednesday, April 22, to put up the new road signs off of Hwy 60 coming in from the East, and on Hwy 37 coming into town from the South. I would like to thank Mike Wallace, Lee Cantrell, Paul Kaiser, Gary Bass, Mark Matthews, and Milton Johnson for taking time out of their schedules to help put the signs up. These new signs will point people to our church when they are visiting or passing through Monett. Thanks again fellas!

(Pictured in the photo from left to right: Mike Wallace, Lee Cantrell, Paul Kaiser, Gary Bass, Mark Matthews, Milton Johnson, photographer not included in photo Pastor Cody)

Hymns to Commemorate 90th Anniversary

The following hymns have been written by Rev. Richard S. Cody to commemorate the 90th anniversary of St. John's Lutheran Church, Monett, MO, of which he has served for the past 8 years. Serving St. John's has been one of his greatest joys in ministry and the writing of these hymns captures his joy and appreciation for the people of the congregation. We hope that you will enjoy them.

“LORD, GOD, THROUGH CHRIST, YOU HERE EMBRACE”
ANNIVERSARY HYMN 90TH ANNIVERSARY
ST. JOHN’S LUTHERAN CHURCH, MONETT, MO

Lord, God, through Christ, You here embrace,
The faithful through the Means of Grace.
Your precious Sacraments and Word
And Holy Absolution heard.

God blest the saints who came before,
That we might worship and adore
The Christ our Lord, the Lamb of God
They paved the way that we have trod.

In love they gave, each one their share
To build this house of Word and prayer--
First-fruits they shared that all might see
This gate to blest eternity.

On bended knee we here receive
Christ’s gifts which help us to believe
For still to those with eyes to see
This place proclaims His mystery.

With grateful hearts, these saints before
Gave back to Him whom we adore:
The Christ who’s Word they took to heart
May we, like them, now do our part!

We honor those who by Your grace,
Built here, by faith, this sacred space.
To come and worship Father, Son,
And Holy Spirit Three-In-One.

LM
Tune: Erhalt Uns, Herr (LSB 655)
Text: Rev. Richard S. Cody, b. 1970-
Epiphany 2009
All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2009

No part of this hymn may be used or reproduced in any fashion without permission.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++


“LORD CHRIST, YOU ARE THE REASON”
ANNIVERSARY HYMN 90TH ANNIVERSARY
ST. JOHN’S LUTHERAN CHURCH, MONETT, MO


Lord Christ, You are the reason,
We offer thanks and praise,
To mark the Church's seasons,
Her high and holy days:
That share with us Your story
We would not leave untold —
Our ninety years of learning
To be Your blood-bought fold.

God formerly has spoken
Through prophet and through priest
With comfort for the broken,
With joy for sins released.
Called pastors preach before us
of God’s own substitute
His Word, His Christ, His Jesus,
Our Way, our Life, our Truth.

God raised up for His glory
the founders of this place
That we might tell the story
Of God’s eternal grace.
His Word, His gifts we cherish
His Truth we now retain,
Though bricks and mortar perish
His Church on earth remains.

Who can foretell the future,
What trials may come our way.
Through words of holy Scripture
Give peace, Lord, day by day.
Lord God, revealed in Jesus
Your holy Church endow
With wisdom, love, and courage
To serve your Kingdom now.

This church of Christ united
By Water and by Word,
Is blessed with love requited
To serve your, gracious Lord.
Lord, may this church's vision,
To go where You shall lead,
Fulfill the Great Commission
To serve Your world in need.

We thank you God the Father
Through Jesus Christ Your Son
With Holy Spirit gather
Your Church, Lord, make us one.
We ask You for Your blessing
Dear Lord, this day, we pray
With praise and adoration
Till dawns the glorious day!

76 76 D
Tune: King’s Lynn (LSB 518)
Text: Rev. Richard S. Cody, b. 1970-
Epiphany 2009
All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2009


No part of this hymn may be used or reproduced in any fashion without permission.