Church guide

Now that school is out we need to keep the tots happy (and sneak in a few veggies to keep mom happy) with this family favorite. TATER TOT CASSEROLE 😀🥕🍴 1 1/2 lbs ground beef 1 onion, chopped 1 can (10 1/2oz) cream of celery soup 1 can (10 /2oz) cream of chicken 1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce 1 can peas & carrots, draines (can used frozen) 1 pkg frozen vegetables 1 bag tater tots Brown beef and onion. Drain off fat. Add Worcestershire sauce, veggies and soup. Place in 9X13 casserole pan and top with tater tots. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes. - Submitted by Dian Freymiller For tasty recipes like this and more, you can find them in St.John's Cookbook "Come to the Table" available during office hours (Mon-Fri 9am-noon) or Sunday mornings for only $5.00. ENJOY!

FIRST THOUGHTS These are first thoughts about the texts for this coming Sunday. As always, they may or may not show up in the sermon; they may not be complete thoughts; they are simply “first thoughts”. Acts 16:16-34; Rev. 22:12ff; John 17:20-26 There is so much going on in the texts that we have this week that I hardly know where to begin. The Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) which we use as the assigned readings for each day is a three-year cycle. Thematically, prayer is one of the most important things in this, the lectionary year of Luke, even from the lesson we have this week from John. After the Last Supper in the Gospel of John is a piece known as Jesus’ Farewell Address (ch. 14-17). Within this address, ch. 17 is called the High Priestly Prayer. It divides into three major parts. The RCL includes one part on the Seventh Sunday of Easter each year of the cycle. Year A, the year of Matthew, is the portion of the prayer where Jesus prays for himself. Year B, the year of Mark, includes the portion where Jesus prays for his disciples. Year C, this year, the year of Luke, Jesus prays for all people who will come to believe because of the witness of those who have heard the witness of those others who proclaimed Christ crucified and risen. In short, Jesus prays for us and all those who believe because others believe and bear witness to the difference God’s presence makes in their lives. And, beyond us, Jesus prays for all people our lives will bear witness to. There is something special that goes on inside one’s heart and mind when you know that you are being prayed for. The first time I knew that I was being prayed for by someone beyond my friends and family was in a worship service I attended while in seminary. During the prayers of intercession, the congregation prayed for seminarians from our synod, and my name was one of those listed that day. Following worship, a number of people came up to me and asked how my studies were going. People said that they had been praying for me for a couple of years, and it was good to meet me. I was overwhelmed, but very happy to know that people had held me in their prayers and supported me in prayer for almost the whole time I had been in seminary. There were people who were concerned about me and the ministry of the Church. I only hope that I have been worthy of their concern. It is important for you to know that you have been prayed for too. Through water and the word, you have been baptized into the Body of Jesus Christ and in the Body of Christ you have inherited eternal life and the hope of the world to come—the HOPE of the world to come. This prayer for you has been from the foundation of the world. In our story of the slave girl in Acts 16 and the resulting troubles of Silas and Paul, we find that this gift of divination in Greek is the spirit of Puthnos. There are several English words derived from “puthnos”. Through Greek mythology, we know Puthnos is a serpent that Apollo kills in order to receive the wisdom from the oracle who Puthnos protects. Oftentimes the Greek “u” gets shifted to the English “y”. In this process, the modern snake name python comes from this story. Next, because the serpent was slain and possibly was cast into the hole from which the oracle spoke, the gaseous vapor which erupted from the hole of the oracle smelled really bad, giving us the word putrid. Finally, it was said that the one who spoke the words of the oracle never opened their mouths or moved their lips initiating what we now call ventriloquism. (Edgar Bergen, eat your heart out.) This slave girl who trails Paul and his followers, including Silas, speaks the truth of who they are—the slaves of the Most High God, but, in the process, she becomes a nag. Her truth-speaking has no action or transformative power behind it. It is simply words. The true transformative activity belongs to Paul and Silas, who even imprisoned continue to speak and sing hymns about the risen Christ. Their words have the power to shake the foundations of the earth, freeing the captives from bondage and opening the doors of the prison cells to new world possibilities, literally and figuratively. Are we like the slave girl, simply a nagging voice to the world around us, or do we speak words, sing hymns, and do work that can still shake the foundations of our world? Finally, from our reading in Revelation, we see that the New Jerusalem is coming down to us. Jesus tells us that he is coming soon, and we are blessed. Here, we witness that we are not going up into heaven at the end, but the heaven is coming to us. We are challenged to rethink our ministry and our forever plans. We need to continue to be stewards of the world we have been given. Indeed, once the Temple had been destroyed, we are the new temple. Since we are the new temple, we are the foundation stones of this new world, this new kingdom, this place of proclamation of the resurrection world and the possibilities and the hope that can be found there. So, how are we doing? Are we feeling the power of prayer in our lives? Are we bearing witness to the difference Jesus makes in our lives, or are we just nagging the people around us? Are we, as the living stones, ready to support and care for the believers and witnesses of the future? These are my thoughts, but our Bishop is coming to share her thoughts with us this Sunday. Join us for worship to hear her proclamation of God’s word for us this week.

We welcome Bishop Viviane Thomas-Breitfeld as she brings the Gospel message to us this Sunday, June 02.

Happy and Blessed Birthday Pastor Heide!

Warm up your grill for this tasty side dish!! GRILLED VEGETABLES 🌽 3-4 med. peppers, various colors 1 med. red onion 2-3 cobs of corn 1 med. to lg. zucchini 2T minced garlic 1/2 stick of butter, sliced 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp pepper Cut up all vegetables into various sizes and cut corn into halves or thirds. Mix all vegetables with garlic, butter, salt, and pepper and place into a 9X13 cake pan. Cover with aluminum foil and place on the BBQ grill at medium heat for 15-20 minutes or until corn is tender. Then enjoy! (For exta flavor you can add 1/4 C Itlian dressing after it comes off the grill. If you are unable to use a grill, you can put it in the oven at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.) -Submitted by Tanya Atkinson For tasty recipes like this and more, you can find them in St.John's Cookbook "Come to the Table" available during office hours or Sunday mornings for only $5.00. ENJOY!

FIRST THOUGHTS These are first thoughts about the texts for this coming Sunday. As always, they may or may not show up in the sermon; they may not be complete thoughts; they are simply “first thoughts”. Rev. 21:10, 22-22:5, John 5:1-9 This week we will hear the stories of the Revelation tree with the leaves for the healing of the nations. We will also read of the paralytic by the pool of Beth-zatha. In this story, Jesus comes and engages the paralytic and asks him a most important question. “Do you want to be made well?” This is so important for us to hear today. This man has been sitting by the pool of Beth-zatha for thirty-eight years. Think about it., thirty-eight years! Not only does he not get into the pool at the right time, after thirty-eight years this man is no closer to the pool than he was thirty-eight years ago. Have I mentioned that he has been there for thirty-eight years? You’d think that after thirty-eight years he would have merited a place closer than the outer circle. But what we witness is that Jesus walks up to him on the outer circle, away from the pool. In the meantime, he is on the fringe, begging. Is it too comfortable out there on the edge of nothing to beg for help rather than do something for himself? One also wonders, “If there is no one to help him get to the pool, how does he get where he is in the first place?” In 1994 I heard The Rev. Dr. James Forbes of Riverside Church in New York City give a sermon on this text. By my recollection he proposed that this paralytic may not have been as paralyzed as we might think. Maybe he had a severe case of rheumatism that only prevented him from walking for long periods; maybe his paralysis was not total but partial. Maybe he wasn’t paralyzed at all. Throughout his sermon Dr. Forbes continued to say, “To the paralyzed, Jesus asks, ’Do you want to be made well?’” Maybe the paralytic had just found a convenient, profitable way to beg instead of finding regular work. Maybe this paralytic was the person we walk by on the corner everyday who is homeless. The man who sees others getting the job he wants everyday because he is not fast enough, can’t read or write well enough to fill out the employment application, doesn’t have a valid green card, or maybe lacks the coping skills for living in our technologically fast-paced world. “To the paralyzed, Jesus asks, ’Do you want to be made well?’” Maybe this person’s paralysis is not so much physical as psychological, and, as much as this person wants to be fully involved in the world, he or she is emotionally ill-equipped. Still this person has been coming to the employment agency, the place of healing, for years but just can’t get it together in time for the interview. “To the paralyzed, Jesus asks, ’Do you want to be made well?’” After developing this scenario for a while, Dr. Forbes shifted the focus. “And if you think this is preposterous, then consider that the Church is the paralytic sitting by the side of the pool, by the side of the baptismal font, whining about the fact that Church membership is down, people aren’t coming to worship the way they used to, the people won’t respond to Bible studies or doctrinally sound study programs, they don’t care about ritual practices that reflect the richness of our faith heritage, they have no sense of history. “Why can’t they be like us?” “To the paralyzed, Jesus asks, ’Do you want to be made well?’” Twenty-five years later, I carry with me this nagging question, “Do we want to be made well?” As we see the possibility of healing of the nations that comes from the tree of life, the cross on which hangs the body of Christ, the place where Jesus chooses to take upon himself the sins of the world in order that we might be saved, the world is asked, “Do you want to be made well?” We seem to delight in wallowing in our misery. We delight in pointing out all the things that hold us back from doing what we think needs to be done but never get around to answering the question. “Do we want to be made well?” What continues to pique me today about Forbe’s sermon is, although he read this story in a way I had never thought of before, I think that he may have missed a salient issue. Look at the paralytic still sitting where he was when he started. Dr. Forbes got, that if you stay where you are for thirty-eight years, then you are probably not going to get well. What Dr. Forbes didn’t address was, if you want to get well, you have to pick up your mat and walk. You need to leave the place you have been and go somewhere else. Wholeness or wellness comes from being able to experience the world in a different way. This is so important for us to understand, because this story tells us, wellness and wholeness depends on finding new ways to be who we be. The ways we have done it in the past only keep us where we have always been. It may be familiar and comfortable, but it won’t give us wholeness or wellness. The best we can hope for is a good view of others who manage to get into those troubled waters. Troubled waters are scary. And so, we need to ask ourselves, “Do we want to be made well?” And, if we want to be made well, then what is our mat that we must roll up and carry away with us in order to know that new world of wellness? What might it mean to turn our backs on the others who are gathered around the pool waiting for something to happen? What might it feel like to be one of the people who choose to engage the world and make a change instead of being the one who waits for change to come to us? “Do we want to be made well?” I believe we do. So then, can we trust the one who is speaking words of wellness? Can we take up our mat and learn to walk? We may fall a few times in the process, but, ask any toddler, and he or she will tell you, diapers help to cushion the fall, and, once you get the hang of walking, you get to run, and “Baby, we were born to run.”

Need to find an easy & yummy salad for the upcoming holiday weekend? Check this out: Cherry Coke Salad🍒 1-20oz can Crushed Pinapple 1/2 C water 2-3oz pkgs of Cherry Jello 1-21oz can Cherry Pie Filling 3/4 C Coke Drain pineapple. Reserve juice. Bring juce and water to a boil. Add Jello. Stir well. Stir in cherry pie filling and Coke. Refrigerate until firm. Add pineapple. -Submitted by Sally Achenbach For more tasty recipes you can find them in St.John's Cookbook "Come to the Table" available during office hours or Sunday mornings for only $5.00. ENJOY!

May 19, 2019 - 9 AM Organ Piano Guitar Bells Vocals Music Appreciation

May 19, 2019 - 9 AM St. John's Boscobel Honors its Graduates

May 19, 2019 - 9 AM St. John's Sunday School sings Fruits of the Spirit teaches ABC's of Faith

Busy and exciting Sunday at St. John's Boscobel, May 19

FIRST THOUGHTS These are first thoughts about the texts for this coming Sunday. As always, they may or may not show up in the sermon; they may not be complete thoughts; they are simply “first thoughts”. John 13:31-35 Many years ago, a friend had arranged to meet me at his mother’s home so that I could tune her piano. During our time together his mother shared something of her 100+ years. Some of her stories were funny, and some of them were poignant. After a while, she was repeating one of the stories. My friend said, “Mother, you already told us that story.” His mother paused for a moment and said, “Well, if it was important enough to tell you the first time, it is probably important enough for you to hear it again.” This week’s Gospel reading will sound very familiar because we just heard it on Maundy Thursday: “I give you a new commandment, that you should love one another as I have loved you. By this people will know that you are my disciple, if you have love for one another.” If one looks at the world today, with the many complicated multi-valent statements of threatening charges and countercharges, of military saber-rattling, of false bravado, and simple meanness, I wonder if more people need to hear the message of the Gospel of John more often. What part of the memo got left out for our world leaders? What part of the memo have our congressional leaders, our president, and the Departments of Justice and State failed to understand? Yet there is the caveat, “As I have loved you”, that comes with this new commandment. Look at where John places this passage in the telling of Jesus’ life and ministry. This command comes immediately following Judas leaving to betray Jesus and just before Peter denying Jesus. This love that Jesus is talking about is a love that persists in the times of betrayal and denial. It persists amid the trial. This love continues to be evidenced on the cross when Jesus speaks to the beloved disciple and commends the care of his mother to him. This love is poured out upon us in the spearing of Jesus on the cross, in the laying of him in the tomb, and it is realized in his rising from the dead Easter morning. God’s loving word for us is revealed to us in the person of Jesus and persists even to this day and tomorrow, in the words of Buzz Lightyear, “To infinity and beyond.” This is “As I have loved you”. This is the love that we are to have for one another. This is the love that will identify us as disciples of Jesus. With this repeated lesson, this golden oldie, this old saw, this almost-platitude, comes the statement of its importance—by this people will know us, if we love one another. We like to think that this loving relationship will be beautiful, but the beauty of love is not because of some idyllic place or situation, the beauty is in witness because of the cruelty and violence of the world. This love that Jesus commands of us is not just for the good times, nor will it create the good times. This love is despite all the nasty, dirty, rotten deeds of the world. There is this temptation to think that this love is something like the song, “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.” The fact of the matter is however that it is the very dissonance of our collective song that requires love and forgiveness. The conclusion of John, with the resurrection narrative and the disciples’ fishing trip, demonstrates the abundant love Jesus has for his followers and points us back to the beginning of the Gospel in order for us to hear again what God’s Word for the world has to tell and teach us. When we see Jesus’ extravagance at work among us between the betrayals and the denials of the world, we see the love of God shining through: “And the light, in the darkness, shines, and the darkness cannot overcome it.” (v. 1:5) This theme of love is something that is told over, and over again, in this book. God loves us so much that God gave his only son who loves us to the end. Even in repetition, the story is sometimes funny; it is sometimes poignant; but it is always important to hear. And, if this is important enough to say once, it is important enough to say again and again. This love is not something that can be held onto or stored up for a future day. It is something that needs to be given away if it is going to have any meaning at all. And maybe, if we can just learn it well enough to practice that love shown to us in Jesus, we too might be able to tell the story in a way that others can hear. John Lennon and Paul McCartney almost had it right when they repeated, “Love is all you need”, but it is not love that is all you need. All you need is trusting in that love. You never know, if enough people really trusted in that love enough to practice it, it might change the world; just maybe. Thank you, Mrs. Kjeseth, and your son Peter, for helping me learn what most three-year-olds already know—we learn what is important by repetition.

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! Vineleaf Deadline is Monday, May 20 for June/July issue. ⛪

Attention Bell Choir Members! Please plan to be at rehearsal tonight (5/15) around 6:10 so we can set-up in the church. Thanks!! ⛪️😀🔔🎶

FIRST THOUGHTS These are first thoughts about the texts for this coming Sunday. As always, they may or may not show up in the sermon; they may not be complete thoughts; they are simply “first thoughts”. Acts 9:36-43; Psalm 23; Revelation 7:9-17; John 10:22-30 The fourth Sunday of Easter is always “Good Shepherd Sunday”. No one seems to know why this Sunday has always had the familiar shepherd readings, but there you have it: this coming Sunday is “Good Shepherd Sunday”. Every year, we always read part of the Good Shepherd text in John 10, and we always hear the words from Psalm 23. More recently the “to-go-withs” change from year to year. This year we hear the story of Dorcas in Acts, and we hear about the throng of saints who gather around the throne of God in Revelation. There is so much here that it is a little like drinking out of the proverbial fire hose. Recently I read about “collective memory”. Studies by social scientists indicate that one reason many newcomers have difficulty being accepted is that they are not able to enter into the “collective memory” of those who are already there. Even if the newcomer reads about the events of the past, there is no way for that person to have the same emotional connection to those events. The pain and the loss of the home that burned, flooded and was destroyed, shattered by the tornado, or simply abandoned when the money ran out are part of the community’s memory, and the newcomer can’t ever completely know that pain and loss. But, if the newcomer is invited into the conversations recalling the pain, the simple telling of the stories lightens the burden of the loss, and the newcomer’s interaction after-the-fact begins to include, not just the loss, but the knowledge of rebuilding. Through the interactions of the established members of the community and the involvement of the newcomer, a new narrative arises: a story of devastation and a story of hopeful rebuilding. Through this interchange, the story of loss becomes a story of resilience. Through the interchange that happens between those who have suffered and those who hear the story comes a story of tough wilderness-walking and a hope-filled vision of a better promised land with new ways of living together. This is what the early Hebrew people recognized for themselves. They created a way that recognized the importance of a “collective memory”. They took the most important formation stories of their faith and wrote them down to provide the history. In this way, people who came to know about God in their own lives and the importance of that relationship with God for themselves, could also begin to enter into the shared story we have in being the historic people of God. Later, the New Testament writers would do the same. This is why Bible study is so important. Bible study by itself helps us share, not just the facts of our faith, but Bible study gives us the opportunity to emotionally share what being part of God’s chosen people means to us today. It is not something that is intellectual; it is that emotional tie that binds us together in relationship with God and one another. And so, on this Good Shepherd Sunday, let us consider some of those intellectual things that can become conversations of what it feels like to be one of the sheep in God’s flock. We will first hear the story of Dorcas, who is also known as Tabitha. Already, early in the Church, women are important for its ministry. Dorcas had gathered widows, women who are outside the consideration of their society, together and taught them how to sew. Apparently, she was a very good seamstress because the women show Peter some of her designs with the garments Dorcas made or that are the fruits of Dorcas’ ministry. Indeed, this may be the first fashion show with a unique brand in the Bible. (What might it have meant to wear an original TABITHA that year?) Now no one knows what went on in that room where Peter prayed, but what we do know is that the ministry of Dorcas, this training center for women to learn how to be self-reliant entrepreneurs, becomes one of the cornerstones of ministry work in the early church. We are asked in this story to name our ministries of caring. What is it that we are doing that would be missed by the community around us if we suddenly died? How do we train others to carry on our ministry? What do we need to do to ensure that our ministry continues in this place? What will others show from the work we have done? Psalm 23 comes to us with the assurance of God’s presence in our lives and the confidence we have in that relationship. First, we hear it confers peace of mind. Second, we are assured that God is with us, even in the darkest times, and that God continues to prepare a place at God’s table for us even when our enemies surround us. Third, we are told that, as enemies surround us, God’s loving presence surrounds us even more. As God’s abundance fills the cup to overflowing, so we are filled with God’s goodness and mercy and that goodness holds us in a relationship of eternal life. This psalm asks us to share the confidence we have in God’s presence with others so that they might know that confidence too. We are called to share even the dark times with one another so that Christ’s light can shine out of that time. We are called to share the joy of God’s presence in our lives so that others might know the joy of God’s care. Then from the book of Revelation, we learn that, although there are the 144,000 who are particularly chosen, from the nations of every tribe and tongue come those who are robed in white beyond numbering. They are also gathered in celebration of the Lamb who will wipe away all our tears. This week we need to take some time to reflect on those things that have caused the tears and share them with one another. Even Christ is not able to give us peace without knowledge of the causes of our pain. And then, from John, we read what people then and now need to hear clearly: Jesus is the Messiah, the promised one from God, the one who is raised up from the dead and is able to truly raise us up into new ways of living. This news must be plainly spoken. It must be spoken in a way that challenges equivocation. We must, in word and deed, invite those who do not know Jesus as the Messiah. We must share and show that the one who is raised up from the dead is also the one who can raise us up into a world of greater life and that life is eternal. And we must convey why this makes a difference. As the work of Jesus and the Father are one and the same, so our work can join that sameness, that oneness, in story and life lived in the promise of baptism—robed in the righteousness of Christ, a sheep of Christ’s own redeeming, marked with the cross of Christ and sealed in the Holy Spirit forever. Yes, in our baptisms, we are held up for all the world to see as an example of the ministry we share. There we proclaim God’s wondrous works among God’s people. There we teach each other those pieces of vital faith formation: The Ten Commandments, The Creed, and The Lord’s Prayer. There we join God’s faithful people in faithful living. Together we hear the word of God and gathering around the font and table to receive God’s covenantal words and promises in the sacraments. Then, in the joy of God’s presence among us within our collective memory, we go out into the world to share the Good News. Notice how many times “we” is used in these previous statements. “We” demonstrates how important it is to bring the newcomers-in-faith into our relationship through conversation and study of those stories of crucifixion shame and loss followed by the words of Easter resurrection and hope. “We” demonstrates how important it is to bring newcomers into our conversation where we share our own stories of pain and loss and rebuilding our lives in the body of Christ thus making it possible for them to truly feel and know what we already hold in our collective memory. “We” also indicates that there is space and time for newcomers to share their stories making those stories part of our collective memory, building new ways of living together. Then we may truly be sisters and brothers in Christ, sibling sheep in the flock that knows our Shepherd’s voice.

Bell Choir rehearsal Wednesday, May 8 @ 5:30pm.