2/21/08

 

Dear Friends and Members of St. John,

 

One of the places I got the idea to send a weekly e-mail thought is from Dr. Dale Meyer.  You may remember that Dale preached at St. John on Memorial Day Sunday in 2004.  He used to be a professor of mine at Concordia Seminary in St. Louis in the 80’s.  Dale was then was the Lutheran Hour Speaker for many years.  He then taught about preaching, and is now the President of Concordia Seminary.

 

Dale sends a daily, ‘Meyer Minute’ e-mail to which I subscribe (free).  These e-mails really do take only about a minute to read, and I find many of these e-mails helpful in my faith walk.  In fact, I liked yesterday’s e-mail about ‘being at the cross,’ so I thought I would share this with you, partly because in the bottom of the e-mail there are instructions about how you could subscribe to this daily e-mail if you wish to do so.  I get so much junk e-mail, it is nice to get something that is worthwhile.

 

With this message, I pray your Lenten walk to the cross of Jesus may both call you to a life of obedience and discipleship, and give you the comfort of God’s love and forgiveness in Jesus. 

 

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Rockey

 

P.S.  I have added attachments that show the pictures Dr. Meyer mentions.

 

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Dale Meyer
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 7:59 PM
To: jonrock53@mtaonline.net
Subject: The Meyer Minute for February 21, 2008

 

It’s common in art history, people gathered around the cross.  Often the people gazing on the sufferings of Jesus are those we would expect to see.  So the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. John were painted by Lucas Cranach the Elder in his 1503 “Crucifixion.” 

 

Sometimes artists departed from a strict representation of the biblical account and included their own contemporaries before the cross.  An example is “Adoration of the Trinity” by Albrecht Duerer in 1511. 

 

 

Our imagination paints pictures.  Does your imagination place you at the cross?  “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?  Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?  Oh…  Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.  Were you there when they crucified my Lord?”

 

 

In “The Small Crucifixion” Mathias Gruenewald painted Mary and John standing at the cross but he painted Mary Magdalene kneeling before her Savior.  “In three days time she will again kneel at his feet, but then it will be in a garden outside his tomb, and she will be radiant with joy.” (Richard Abrams, “An Illustrated Life of Jesus,” p. 118)  Our Lenten devotions before the suffering Savior become most meaningful when we remember that His Easter victory over sin and death is going to be celebrated…and we’ll be there!

To subscribe or unsubscribe send any email to daleameyer@aol.com 

Copyright © Dale A Meyer 2008

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MID WEEK LENTEN WORSHIP AND MEALS CONTINUE.  Last night we looked at  ‘The Garden of Gethsemane – Desperate Prayer,’  as we continue to consider ‘Places of the Passion’ in our worship, using pictures from the Rockey’s trip to the Holy Land last November.  Remember, the meal is at 5:30 p.m., and the service is at 6:30 p.m.  Remaining service themes are:

 

February 27-Lent 4                  ‘The High Priest’s House – Voluntary Injustice’

March 5 -Lent 5                       ‘The Hill of Torture and Death’

March 12 –Lent 6                     ‘The Tomb of Defeat and Victory’

 

I Hope to see many of you at the Lenten Service next Wednesday.

 

ALL LENTEN FELLOWSHIP MEALS are signed up for by more than one family.  THANK YOU to all who have served these meals, and signed up to serve coming meals!

 

THE CONFIRMATION RETREAT is being held this weekend at Victory Bible Camp for St. John Middle School Confirmation Students.  Also, students from Lamb of God Lutheran in Wasilla and Our Redeemer Lutheran in Chugiak will be attending as well.  Please keep this yearly camp in prayers for growth and safety during the retreat.

 

NEW HYMNALS ARE SUPPOSED TO ARRIVE THIS WEEK!  (We’ll see.) 

The worship Board is making plans to start using the New Hymnals the first Sunday in April in early worship.  That will give the hymnals time to arrive, and give us time to start to learn some parts from the services, and hopefully to get name plates printed.

At the current time members and friends have committed to pay for 235 of the 250 hymnals we ordered.  If you would like to buy hymnals for congregational use you can sign up on the signup sheet in the narthex.  Please place your donation in the offering plate with a note in the memo that the donation is for hymnals.  Also, if you desire to dedicate the hymnal you donate, please call the church office to let us know how to write the dedication.

 

HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT THE ST. JOHN WEB PAGE???  I am thankful and rather proud of the good work which has made the St. John web page something we can use as a ministry tool.

Go to http://www.st-john-lutheran.org/ and see what you think.  If you have suggestions for information or communication that could help our web page, please let the church office, or Jacki Rose – our ‘web master’ - know.  You can e-mail Jacki at jackirose@gci.net.  Jacki is only a volunteer.  We are thankful for her work on this.  Ryan Murphy and Eric Hurst have been resources too.

 

CONTINUING ANNOUNCEMENT

WOULD YOU LIKE TO RECEIVE YOUR NEWSLETTER BY E-MAIL INSTEAD OF IN THE MAIL???  There are many advantages to receiving a newsletter by e-mail.  They include

If you would like to receive your newsletter in this way, please e-mail Judy Stahancyk, our administrative assistant and let her know.  Judy’s office e-mail is stjohn@mtaonline.net.  Judy will send you an e-mail with a link to our newsletter on our web page.  You can read the newsletter on line, or you can print it out.