April 2017 NEWSLETTER. Our Savior Lutheran Church Herald

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1 Pastor s Devotion And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth." And it was so. And God made the two great lights--the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night--and the stars. And God set them in the expanse of the heavens to give light on the earth, to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day. Genesis 1:14-19 So on this fourth month I thought we would take time to look at the first fourth the fourth day of creation. And in it we read the account of God s creation of the two great lights the sun and the moon, not only our sun, as the text tells, but all the others as well, as the text continues to relate God s creation of the stars, those other suns that shine in the sky, as we are blessed to have them in the sky to see them with our eyes, another of God s creation. And isn t it nice that God let us, His Very Good creation name those stars??? God, in His design to let us have dominion over His creation called earth, let us give name to those stars and isn t it a shame that this same very good creation then had to take that gift and pervert it so as to surmise then that since our star shines on this planet and give it life sustaining light, that all those other stars HAVE to be doing the very same thing because if they are, then we don t have to think of ourselves as special, as unique, meaning that then, we re not necessarily the result of the gracious act of a loving God, but merely the simple result of random chance, just like all those other worlds that MUST have been created in that same random chaos from that Big-Bang of unknown origination But we know better, don t we??? Being made in His Likeness, that having been made in a way that pleased Him, we were blessed to then have His Spirit breathed into us and bring us to life purely because that s what He wanted a creature to have a relationship with, and the only creature to be called VERY GOOD. Take that, peacock, with your fancy feathering or rose, with your fragrant scent And as this very good creation we also have another unique advantage over all those other creatures our God made we can WORSHIP our creator in all kinds of wonderful ways. We get to lift up our hearts and voices and yes, even our hands (even if we are Lutherans) and praise God from whom all blessings flow all the days of our lives. Now and forever, AMEN!

2 April 2017 NEWSLETTER Our Savior Lutheran Church Herald

3 Commentary from Doris BUMMED OUT OR BUOYED UP? How s 2017 treating you? Any issues--personal, political or public--got you bummed out? Well, of course there are a few; any of us, if we are honest with ourselves, deal with some negatives now and again. It s that time of year again--thank our loving God--when renewal occurs in our natural world. But, hey what if we don t really FEEL all that buoyed up by the natural beauty springtime pours on us? What if we see all the litter people decorate our landscape with and miss the beauty of nature which God provides? We d like to be buoyed up ; look at our surroundings with appreciation and feel--happy. But perhaps we re too mired in the muckiness of it all. Now, that being so, whose fault is it? O.K; we re the product of our family DNA and all that. But, to dwell on the things we ve missed out on at times will certainly not buoy us up. No indeed that will bum us out for sure. So, now what? Well, this is the season we ought to think on as the culmination of Christmas. Easter the resurrection; another chance to repeat the saying we ve seen so often in December: Jesus is the reason for the season. As we follow His teaching with the Holy Spirit s guidance we will open up our minds and our hearts to ALL that His heavenly Father has put in front of us to buoy us up higher than we can ever imagine! Satan does his best to bum us out at every turn, BUT he s a loser big time! God s presence, assurance of love and protection and His omnipotence is ALL we need to be happy, joyful and extremely buoyed up no matter what comes our way. Shall we loosen-up and PRAISE our Father, our Savior and the Spirit of God who lives within us? You bet your life we should!

4 REFLECTIONS FROM THE MUSIC DIRECTOR God spoke: Let us make humans beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature so they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, and yes, Earth itself. Genesis 1: 26 (The Message) April. Easter. Spring flowers. Refreshing rains. Green grass. What a relief from winter. We love spring, don t we? It s also the month for Earth Day: Apr. 22. Fact: Our Lutheran Church Missouri Synod has encouraged all its congregations and schools to celebrate Earth Day during the Easter season in order to draw attention to the new creation ushered in by Christ s resurrection. As far back as 1986, our synod in convention declared: It is our duty to be good stewards of God s creation. We are good stewards when we avoid polluting air, land, and water; carefully dispose of waste, use rather than waste natural resources, conserve rather than waste energy; recycle or reuse materials whenever possible; and value and take care of God s creation. As Luther would say, What does this mean (for you and me)? Start with the basic three R s: Reuse, Reduce, Recycle. What can I do to cut down on the amount of waste I throw away to conserve our natural resources, landfill space and money? Having made us new creatures and adopting us as His children in Jesus Christ, He (God) has set us free to care once again for His creation as he first intended (from A Report of the Commission on Theology and Church Relations, LCMS, April, 2010). Happy Earth Day! - Dale Stanton

5 Meet the Members James Carroll Allen and Amelia Neas Allen. Carroll and I grew up in the St. James Community of Green County. We worshiped at St. James Lutheran Church ELCA. Since Carroll was five years older we really didn t notice each other until he came home from Army Reserve Training. I was still in high school. My Uncle in Jefferson City was dying from ALS and he wanted me to come to live with my aunt when he passed. I moved to Jefferson City my senior year and lived with my aunt for one year. Then I moved to Knoxville and attended Knoxville Business School. When I finished there I moved back home and dated Carroll off and on for two years. On November 15, 1963 we were married and moved to Morristown to work at the Berkline Corporation. Carrroll worked in shipping and I was in data processing. Our daughter, Angelia Carol, was born December 27, 1965 and is currently a music teacher in Jonesboro, TN. Carroll took a job with for Pet Dairy and to this day dreams that he can t get the milk to the schools in time for lunch. I stayed home as a domestic engineer. Our next daughter, Laura Amelia was born December 17, 1970 and is the business manager for Brookdale Assisted Living in Sevierville. Carroll is still working for Lowe s and I worked for 23 years at Penney s until I retired in In 1996 Carroll and I started flipping houses (thanks to Don and Sue helping us). We worked our 40 hours and flipped on the side. In eight years we managed to flip seven

6 houses. Carroll did all the plumbing, electrical and carpentry while I did the cleaning, painting and decorating. We have four grandchildren, who are a great pleasure to us and a source of great pride. Rachel Katheran was born September 4, 1999 and is now a student at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, NJ. Laura Grace was born December 21, 2000 and is a sophomore at Greenville High school in Greenville, TN. Nolan Richard was born April 4, 2000 and is a junior at Morristown East. Caroline Amelia was born on July 19, Carroll and I have been very fortunate to have traveled quite a bit and enjoy God s beautiful creation. We ve been to Alaska, Hawaii, Nova Scotia, the Eastern and Western Caribbean plus many states. We are so thankful to God for sharing our children and our grandchildren with us and we look forward to seeing what they are able to accomplish. Thank you God! We were members of Good Shepard Lutheran Church in Morristown for 46 years. We moved our membership to Our Savior in November 2015 and we have been very, very happy with our decision. We have been so blessed and here we are waiting to see what else God has in store for us.

7 02 Russ Jones 03 John Freitag 04 Mary Ann Jones 05 Susan Holt 07 Jim Plough 26 Kathleen Grondin 03 Russ & Mary Ann Jones 06 Craig & Cathy Siemsen 30 Ron & Faye Gallagher

8 LOOKING AHEAD LWML Meeting on April 1 st. Birthday/Anniversary Celebration is April 9 th. Elders Meeting on Thursday, April 27 th. Listening Hearts meets every second Saturday in the Fellowship Hall from 9am to noon. Women s Fellowship watch for updates in Church Bulletin. Lutheranism 101 6:30 p.m. Mid-week Study on Churches in America meets 10:00 a.m. then our Lenten services begin at 11:00 and back to the regular hour April 12 th.. Easter is April 16 th. CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) FUNDRAISER If you would like to join some of us in support of Food on Foot s Easter Baskets for children, please see Laurie Smith. RECITAL RESCHEDULED The Lenten recital originally scheduled for Mar. 15 has been tentatively rescheduled for Palm Sunday, Apr. 9 at 4 p.m. (at this writing, awaiting confirmation of availability of guest violinist, Taylor Moorefield). The program will consist of musical selections based on Lenten hymns interspersed with Scripture readings read by Pastor Gordon. The public will be invited. Confirmation of the event will be posted in upcoming bulletins, s and the April newsletter. East Tennessee LWML Zone Christian Life workshop April 22 nd at Christus Victor Lutheran Church in Knoxville from 8-3 (Mission: Compassion). If you are interested please RSV by April 13th to Laurie. Sign-up is in the Narthex. Easter Lilies (from the Blossom Shop) are $ Sign-up sheet is in Narthex. Deadline is Change is inevitable. Growth is optional. John Maxwell

9 Readings for April April 1 Gen. 49:29-50:7, 14-26, Mark 13:1-11 April 2 Ex. 1:1-22, Mark 14:12-31 April 3 Ex. 2:1-22, Mark 14:32-52 April 4 Ex. 2:23-3:22, Mark 14:53-72 April 5 Ex. 4:1-18, Mark 15:1-15 April 6 Ex. 4:19-31, Mark 15:16-32 April 7 Ex. 5:1-6:1, Mark 15:33-47 April 8 Ex. 7:1-25, Mark 16:1-20 April 9 Ex. 8:1-32, Psalm 118, Heb. 1:1-14 (Palm Sunday) April 10 Ex. 9:1-28, Lam. 1:1-22, Heb. 2:1-18 April 11 Ex. 9:29-10:20, Lam. 2:1-22, Heb. 3:1-19 April 12 Ex. 10:21-11:10, Lam. 4:1-16, Heb. 4:1-16 April 13 Ex. 12:1-28, Lam.4:1-22, Heb. 5:1-14, Psalm 31 (Holy Thurs) April 14 Ex. 12:29-32; 13:1-16, Lam. 5:1-22, Heb. 6:1-20, Psalm 22 (Good Friday) April 15 Ex. 13:17-14:9, Heb. 7:1-22 (Holy Sat.) April 16 Ex. 14:10-31, Heb. 7:23-8:13 (Easter Sunday) April 17 Ex. 15:1-18, Heb. 9:1-28 April 18 Ex. 15:19-16:12, Heb.10:1-18 April 19 Ex. 16:13-35, Heb. 10:19-39 April 20 Ex. 17:1-16, Heb. 11:1-29 April 21 Ex. 18:5-27, Heb. 12:1-24 April 22 Ex. 19:1-25, Heb. 13:1-21 April 23 Ex. 20:1-24, Luke 4:1-15 April 24 Ex. 22:20-23:13, Luke 4:16-30 April 25 Ex. 23:14-33, Luke 4:31-44 April 26 Ex. 24:1-18, Luke 5:1-16 April 27 Ex. 25:1-22, Ex. 25:23-30:38, Luke 5:17-39 April 28 Ex. 31:1-18, Luke 6:1-19 April 29 Ex. 32:1-14, Luke 6:20-38 April 30 Ex.32:15-35, Luke 6:39-49