Sermon from November 28, 2010; The First Sunday of Advent

Texts: Isaiah 2:1-5; Romans 13:1-11; Matthew 24:36-44
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen

You Know What Time It Is

Sisters and brothers, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

My older sister is an orthodox Jew (which is a long and interesting story for another time), and she and a couple of her children visited us last summer. Their visit included a Sabbath. I didn’t know this before, but the way you know the Sabbath is over is when you can see at least three stars in the sky. My nephew Ezra was very eager for the end of Sabbath, and was waiting to see when the light would start to fade. We went out on the deck and watched. And we waited. He’d say, “Uncle Joseph, how many stars can you see?” Finally, I could see one. So we started to look – one, then there was a second over on the horizon. And a third above the house, with a fourth for good measure. Ezra delightedly ran back into the house saying, “Uncle Joseph says that the Sabbath is ended!” Now I never imagined I would have such authority. It was really a pleasure to see how my nieces and nephew observed the Sabbath so carefully and to be with them during that. But it was also really fun to see how much Ezra was waiting for the end. (It may have had something to do with a movie he and Peter were going to watch, which couldn’t be done during Sabbath.)

That image of waiting and watching the skies for what is to come has stuck with me. And it seems a good image for the beginning of Advent. We began our liturgy today singing, “For God alone I wait in silence.” Advent is a time of waiting more than any other season of the Church Year. Instead of waiting for nightfall, like my nephew, we focus on the opposite: we speak of waiting for the dawn. I love this imagery of Advent. Isaiah today sees this time, this dawn, coming, the day of the Lord, when all will come to the mountain of the Lord. There will be understanding in that dawn – all will walk in the paths of the Lord. And there will be peace in that dawn – weapons of war will be turned into tools for peace, swords into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks. And so we are waiting for God’s morning to arrive. Advent is a time when we practice how we wait for this life, this restoration of the world.

It would be tempting to see all of this as in the future, as something to hope for, to dream for. It’s certainly the way many Christians seem to want to live. As if this future of God has nothing to do with our lives today. As if the promised peace and justice of the day of the Lord is something God will do, and only in the future. As if we long for the dawn, the coming of Christ’s light, and all we can do is long. And wait.

The thing is, our readings from God’s Word today have something different to say about that.

There’s a paradox in the Scriptures about this. Here it is: the day of the Lord is coming. Yes. And it is already here. Yes. Both are real. Both are true.

It’s virtually impossible to hear Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom of heaven and the day of the Lord and know whether he’s talking about the future or about now. I think that’s intentional. So while the full justice and peace of God will only be brought to fruition in the true dawn, the return of the Lord, there is this reality: that God’s rule and reign have already begun. That we are in the “time of the coming of the Lord” as much as waiting for it.

So our waiting is different than simply hoping for a future event. Different than simply waiting for God to do something. No, the life in Christ to which we are called in our baptism is a life of fruitful waiting, of working our ministry in the reign of God, of living as if it were already here.

Paul puts it this way: “You know what time it is, it’s the time to wake up from sleep.” There’s no point in waiting for the dawn, Paul says, because the “day is near.” So let’s live “as in the day,” he says. Let’s live as if the full day has already dawned, God’s full reign of peace, and justice, and self-giving love has already begun. Because it has.

Jesus’ warnings to stay awake have something to do with this, too – we stay awake because in many ways it’s already day. God has come to us in the flesh, to live with us, abide with us. We know God’s love fully through the Son. Even more, God has taken on the powers of death, and absorbed our worst hatred, and risen alive through it, inviting us to follow in love. In every way that matters, the victory is sure and real and now. It’s day, not night, right now. There only remains the working out of the fulfilling, which God will complete. But which we are asked to be a part of.

See, there’s this truth about God that we sometimes forget: God doesn’t seem to want to do things for us that we could do ourselves.

The healing of the world as the Scriptures speak of it always seems to involve God’s people. God will not magically fix everything. But through us will heal the world.

So Jesus became one of us to teach us that God’s plan from the beginning was that we love God and love each other. If people need to be fed, people will need to feed them. If wars need to be ended, people will need to end them. If justice and peace are to spread, people will need to spread them. God works through God’s children, filling us all with the Spirit to change the world.

It’s time we stopped looking at promises like Isaiah’s and saying, “Wouldn’t it be nice if all swords were made into plowshares?” It’s time we realized that we’re the ones holding the swords, and God will not force us to put them down. But God will give us the grace and strength to start putting down the swords and changing what they’re used for. To start making a difference in this broken world, to start being peacemakers, healers, signs of the coming kingdom.

My nephew knew there would be a clear time, a clear sign, that would be a signal. We don’t have such clarity on how long we’re to wait. But we do have time right now.

We never know how much. But if we’re alive today, we’ve got time. We’ve got time to reach out to that person next to us in the grocery store and be the light of Christ, the light of day. To call that neighbor who’s suffering or struggling and be the sound of Jesus’ voice. To offer ourselves in love to others as a sign not only of the One who rules our hearts and lives but also as a sign of the same One who loves all the peoples and creatures of this world.

And if we’re still alive today, we’ve got time to make swords into plowshares as well.

There’s time to be people of peace, people who live in such a way as makes for peace in our own personal lives, and in the life of our community, nation, and world. A way which leads to a world where all children have enough to eat, clothes to wear, shelter, and can live freely, be educated, and live healthy, productive lives.

There’s time to pray for God’s peace and for God’s justice, too. For our soldiers who lay down their lives trying to make peace in terrible situations. For relief workers and agencies around the world who lay their lives on the line trying to make peace in terrible situations. For our leaders, that they lead our culture and nation past our self-absorption and into a way of life that brings healing to all peoples.

There’s still time, so we can give what ELCA World Hunger Appeal calls “alternative” gifts this Christmas – Lutheran World Relief has good suggestions, too, and these gifts could make a huge difference – gifts of wells in arid lands, medicine in the midst of plague, education where people are starving to learn more, cows and sheep and pigs so people can live. The possibilities offered by these two groups alone are amazing and if we all took them upon ourselves could change the world.

If we’re still alive, there’s still time, so we can work for the peace Isaiah envisions. After all, though he sees this as future, he joins Paul and Jesus in the present, urging us: “Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!” This is the vision Scripture has of God’s reign and rule in Jesus. It’s all there. And it’s all here, in us, in God’s people.

Let’s really learn what it means to wait in a truly Advent way this year. A way which involves doing the work of the day while we have time.

Jesus says that salvation is now, the time is now. So we’re always waiting, and it’s always coming to fruition at the same time. We live in both realities. It’s always Advent, God’s hope is always coming, all our lives, and that’s OK, because it’s also always here already. We live in both realities. And it’s time – it’s time for us to stop acting as if faith in God’s restoration means simply to wait and hope for God. God needs us to start right now. Because it turns out that we are part of this thing for which we wait. We are the three stars in the sky, we are part of God’s sign that help is on the way, healing is already happening, and justice and peace are not only hoped-for futures but possible presents. God be with us and give us the Spirit, that we might be God’s sign and God’s healing in this world.

In the name of Jesus. Amen

Sermon from November 25, 2010: Thanksgiving Day

Texts: Philippians 4:4-9; John 6:25-35
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen

Give Us This Always

Sisters and brothers, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

A few years ago someone told me about a stress relieving exercise, which I have since heard from others is actually pretty good science and popular in the business world as well as in the spiritual realm. The exercise is to take three deep breaths, followed by meditating on the things for which one is grateful. I’ve tried it, and it actually does relieve stress, as well as bring a sense of peace and calm. And as I’ve thought about it since, I’ve realized how being thankful changes everything – it changes my perspective from an inner focus on myself to an outward focus on another, it changes my sense of stress and difficulty into one of joy as I think of the blessings I have, and it opens my heart to the goodness in the world as opposed to focusing on the problems or pain.

My mother loved Paul’s words which we heard this morning. These are words of deep and abiding faith no matter the circumstances of life. What moved my mother most especially were Paul’s words in verse 6: “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Did you catch the significance of where thanksgiving comes for Paul? “Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Paul invites us to give thanks while we’re making our requests, while we’re praying, while we are in supplication to our loving God. That, friends, is the depth of the gift of faith our Lord Jesus gives us, that we can be so confident in the love God has for us that while we are still praying for ourselves, for the needs of others, for the life of the world, we are already thanking God for answering our prayer.

Thanksgiving the holiday is often one where we think back on the past year, on our lives, and offer thanks to God. What Paul says is that we can even look ahead to our future and offer thanks to God for that gift as well. With the help of Paul, perhaps we can be deepened in faith this Thanksgiving, truly see how all our lives are in the hands of a God who loves us beyond compare, and truly thank the Triune God for gifts not yet received or even expected.

In some ways, Paul simply says this: how you think, what you focus on, will shape your life immeasurably.

This is such a mystery – but it’s been something I’ve found true again and again. I was talking to someone about their self-confidence not long ago. I said they had good confidence, to which they replied, “Only outside, not inside.” But that’s all you need – because if we enter into a situation and act as if we are confident, others will respond to us that way, and we’ll actually be more confident.

The same can be said about faith – if you act as if you believe, taking that step of faith, you will actually find you do believe. And Paul gives us many things to focus our lives on and actually live into. Listen:
“Rejoice in the Lord always,” he says. And it’s so important, he repeats himself: “Again I say, rejoice.”
“Don’t worry about anything,” he says.
Pray with thanksgiving: Act as if you’re already thankful and you will be.
And think about all these things, Paul says: whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, pleasing, commendable, things of excellence, and things worthy of praise. It’s simple, Paul says – where your heart is, your mind, your thoughts, there will your life be. The peace of God will fill us instead of the anxiety of this world.

What an amazing promise! So at the risk of implying it’s only a matter of positive attitude – because it is, after all, God’s peace which comes to us – there’s a lot of evidence that how we think and focus shapes how our lives actually look.

Think of all the examples you might know of people who live this way. People who outwardly have pain and problems, or lack necessities, or deal with all sorts of setbacks, yet look at life with joy and peace. It’s because they are thankful – they know their blessings and are grateful for them.

And likewise, we can think of many who are richly blessed but somehow never happy, never satisfied, always complaining about their problems.

And on this Thanksgiving Day, Paul invites us to be like the first ones.

It’s probably why I love the hymn we’re about to sing so much – it helps me be that way.

I love Thanksgiving hymns – and most of the ones we’re singing today are core and traditional ones to me without which I’d feel less like it was Thanksgiving. But our next hymn is more recent – a 20th c. text set to a beautiful and familiar old Welsh tune. And in the last decade or so that I’ve known it, it has become so dear to my heart.

What’s beautiful is that the marvelous hymn writer F. Pratt Green simply leads us through all the things for which we can be and are thankful. And it becomes our thanksgiving prayer. It could easily be one you use at the table later today.

So stanza 1 speaks of the fruits of creation – all the gifts to the nations, all the agriculture and growing life that feeds us, and for the way our earth even holds care for the future in its bosom. And stanza 2 moves into the human realm – thanking God for all the ways we love and care for each other, including reward for our work, help for neighbors, and sharing our wealth with all in need. In these two stanzas, we give thanks for things in the realm of the actual bread and fish that Jesus gives in the feeding of 5,000 from our Gospel. But it’s stanza three that deals with Jesus’ claim to be more than all that, to be our Bread of Life.

And this third stanza is the one that always brings me where I need to be on Thanksgiving. It concludes: “For the wonders that astound us, for the truths that still confound us, most of all, that love has found us – thanks be to God.”

“For wonders that astound us”: may we always be open to seeing them. For me, this is most clearly seen in family and relationships – when after a stressful day or week, the joy of being hugged by one of my children, or of seeing Hannah and Martha back from college, or Mary’s kind and careful concern for how I’m doing. But it’s also the wonder of this amazing creation, this world God has made, of leaves and sunsets and rain and snow, of all the amazing faces of God’s children. There are so many things that we receive that we do not deserve, but which overwhelm us with wonder and that is God’s grace in our lives.

“For the truths that still confound us”: may we trust in God to hold us in them. Thanksgiving will be a time of sorrow and grief for some in our congregation, a time of seeing a huge gap where someone is no longer – each Thanksgiving there are new ones in that group, people who’ve recently suffered a key loss. One of our gifts as brothers and sisters in Christ is we share that burden together. And we stand together in this confounding truth: that though death looks final we know it is not. We know Jesus is raised and will raise us. And though there are times it seems not to make sense, seems to confound, there are so many times when we sense that deeper truth and joy behind all our confusion – our lives are in God’s hands forever.

“Most of all, that love has found us”: may we live boldly and joyfully in that love. At the depths of most human hearts is this fear: we are not lovable. But here is what gives us life: God’s love for us is as deep and high as anything we can imagine. It is a love which cannot be taken from us. It is a love that is yours, not because you deserve it but simply because God has it for you. This is how Jesus is our Bread of Life. This love faced death and broke its power. This love now is yours, placed in your heart for now and for always. And this love now calls you to love, to transform the world with that love. That will be part of our thanks as we go from here.

So rejoice in the Lord always. Rejoice. Be thankful. The Lord is near to you.

And the love of the Lord has found you, forever. This is the Bread of Life for us, which nourishes and blesses us and changes us forever. This is what we ask God to give us always, just as Jesus’ hearers in today’s Gospel do, that we might have life. But even without our asking, God comes to us with wonders, truth, and love, and our lives are made whole and new, even in this broken world. And what more do any of us need than to rejoice in that? Thanks be to God!

In the name of Jesus. Amen

This Week's Liturgies

Sunday, December 5, 2010
Second Sunday of Advent

Holy Eucharist at 8:00 & 10:45 a.m.

The Olive Branch: November 29, 2010

Accent on Worship
The Second Sunday of Advent

Much is written about the Kingdom of God or the Coming of the King to usher in the new age. The Kingdom of God looks like the Psalm we will sing for this Sunday, Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19. The poor will have justice: “…he may rule your people righteously and the poor with justice…He shall defend the needy among the people, he shall rescue the poor and crush the oppressor.” There will be plenty for everyone: “…the mountains may bring prosperity to the people.” People will behave themselves: “…and the little hills bring righteousness.” And those well-behaved people will prosper: “…In his time the righteous shall flourish.” And there will be peace beyond the absence of war: “…There shall be abundance of peace till the moon shall be no more.” What a beautiful vision.

Jesus preached this very kingdom. Jesus said little about the afterlife, so the Kingdom of God, a kingdom where righteousness prevails, the poor will receive justice, and there will be peace, must be one that Jesus wants for us here on earth. With all the problems that the world has, it takes a mighty powerful faith to believe that we can live today in the Kingdom. However, some people had such faith and because they did the Kingdom came. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. possessed this great faith and because of it our country changed. In this instance we live in the Kingdom of God. Archbishop Desmond Tutu had great faith to prophesize the fall of apartheid in his nation, bringing to his people the Kingdom of God. For twenty years a group of believers prayed at the Berlin Wall, before the Kingdom came and the wall fell down. As you well know, a great deal of suffering and work has to follow great faith in order to bring about the Kingdom. Jesus died for the Kingdom, and many who followed, suffered and/or died for their belief that to follow Jesus, no matter how hard, is to bring the Kingdom into the world.

On the weekend before Thanksgiving for the past 20 years people have gathered at the gates of Fort Benning in Georgia to hold a vigil for all South and Central Americans who have been tortured, assassinated, who have disappeared, and who were assassinated by graduates of the School of the Americas (SOA), a military school that trains Latin American soldiers, housed at Fort Benning. Every coup, assassination and violent resistance to democracy and justice for the poor in South and Central America over the past forty years has had generals who have graduated from the SOA behind these actions. I attended this vigil last year and this year I attended it with my son, David. Like me, he found it to be deeply spiritual and moving. However, he is discouraged and believes that despite our actions nothing will happen. Faith, I believe, comes with hope and a little knowledge of history. That is the important example of the saints who have gone before us. My son has not witnessed enough miracles (Civil Rights for all in the USA, the fall of apartheid in South Africa, the fall of the Berlin Wall and more) to hope for the shut down of the SOA. But it will happen, because nothing stops the coming of the Kingdom of God.

This Advent pray and act to bring Jesus and his Kingdom into our world of suffering and injustice.

- Donna Pususta Neste


Sunday Readings
December 5, 2010 – Second Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 11:1-10 + Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
Romans 15:4-13+ Matthew 3:1-12

December 12, 2010 – Third Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 35:1-10 + Psalm 146:5-10
James 5:7-10 + Matthew 11:2-11

Sunday’s Adult Forum, December 5 - 9:30 am in the Chapel Lounge
“The Infancy Narratives of the New Testament,” part one of a three-part series, led by Mount Olive member and Augsburg College professor, Brad Holt.


Advent Evening Prayer
Wednesday evenings during Advent,
December 1, 8, 15, and 22
7:00 p.m.


2011 Conference on Liturgy
Mount Olive’s ninth annual Conference on Liturgy will be held on Saturday, January 8, 2011. The theme for this year’s Conference is, “Holy Death: The Parish and its Liturgy at the Time of Death.” Keynote speaker for the conference will be The Rev. Dr. Thomas Long.

Conference brochures are available at the church. Cost for Mount Olive members to attend is $35/person. Please share this brochure widely with all of your friends who may be interested.


The Wish List
The Mount Olive Wish List is up and running and we’ve had a few donations come in. Please consider donating even just a single item on the Wish List. Banner stands, Godly Play items, and furnishings are on the list.

We received several donations this past week for the Wish List! An updated list is posted in the church office next to the coffee sign up sheet, and is also enclosed with this issue of The Olive Branch.

If you would like to donate an item or items from the list, please sign the chart at church, which is posted in the church office. Indicate which item/items you wish to donate and put your name and contact number beside the item you are donating, and you will be contacted about total cost and how to pay. Your donation will be reflected on your giving statement for tax purposes.

–Brian Jacobs, Vice President


Hanging the Greens
Part of our Advent preparation at Mount Olive is to gather following the second liturgy on the Fourth Sunday of Advent to hang garlands and wreaths in the nave. This year, the date is Sunday, December 19. Please plan to stay and join in this task on that Sunday, beginning at about noon. You will experience good fellowship as we prepare to commemorate the birth of Jesus, the Messiah.

New members are especially invited to participate.


Alternative Gift-Giving
Are you looking for something different to do this year for Christmas gifts? For the person who has everything, give a gift that will help people around the world who have very little.

The Missions Committee is promoting the idea of alternative gift giving this Christmas. For example, you can “buy” a sheep for your aunt who taught you how to knit. A struggling family would receive the sheep enabling them to increase their income and your aunt would receive a card acknowledging this gift. We have catalogues from different charitable organizations that you can use or you can order from the organizations’ websites. Some of these organizations are:

• Evangelical Lutheran Church in America www.elca.org/goodgifts
• Lutheran World Relief http://lwrgifts.org/
• Heifer Project International http://www.heifer.org
• Common Hope http://commonhopecatalog.myshopify.com/
• Bethania Kids http://bethaniakids.org/

Fair Trade Craft Sale
The Missions Committee host a Fair Trade Craft Sale on the first three Sundays in December. Purchase beautiful and unique Fair Trade items handmade by disadvantaged artisans in developing regions. With each purchase, you help artisans maintain steady work and a sustainable income so they can provide for their families. Lutheran World Relief partners with SERRV, a nonprofit Fair Trade organization, to bring you the LWR Handcraft Project.

The crafts will be available for purchase between services on December 5, 12 and 19 (cash and check only). Fair trade coffee, tea, cocoa, and chocolate from Equal Exchange will also be available. This is not a fund-raiser, just an opportunity to buy good products
for a good cause.


The Lutheran Magazine Subscription Renewal Request - Last Call!
In an effort to be the best stewards of the gifts of God’s people, a motion was made, seconded and passed at a recent Congregation Meeting to ask members and friends of Mount Olive who wish to continue receiving The Lutheran magazine to contact the church office. We are very happy to continue to provide this excellent publication to those who enjoy and benefit from it.

If you wish to continue receiving The Lutheran magazine, please call (612) 827-5919 or email (welcome@mountolivechurch.org) and let Cha know by December 1, 2010.


Help Us to Help Our Neighbors
This Sunday, December 5, is our regular monthly ingathering of groceries to help restock area food shelves. You may bring your donation of non-perishable food items to the grocery cart in the coat room at church.

Also, please remember that we are also receiving donations of travel-sized personal care items (shampoo, toothpaste, soap, etc.) for the homeless. There is a box in the coatroom to receive these items also.


Book Discussion Group News
For their meeting on December 11, the Book Discussion group will discuss Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh. For January, they will read, Saint Maybe, by Anne Tyler.

Please note that the date for the January meeting has not been firmed up yet due to the annual Conference on Liturgy, which is scheduled for January 8. Please watch for updated information about the date of Book Discussion group’s January meeting.

Book Discussion regularly meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 a.m. in the Chapel Lounge, and is always happy to welcome new readers!

This Week's Liturgies

Thursday, November 25, 2010
Day of Thanksgiving
Holy Eucharist at 10:00 a.m.

Sunday, November 28, 2010
First Sunday of Advent
Holy Eucharist at 8:00 and 10:45 a.m.

The Olive Branch, 11/22/10

Accent on Worship

It is the first Sunday in Advent,
first Sunday of the church year.
This cycle, the church year –
shaped by the life
of Jesus Christ,
Built on the Jewish festival cycle
drawn from earlier religions,
culled from the natural seasons of the northern
hemisphere -
this cycle, this circle confronts us anew at each turning
with Life’s deepest questions
Life’s most necessary truths
We enter each turning
as different people
changed people
and thus the confrontation
is different
changed
at each time,
at each turning
of the year.
Now the natural world
is dormant
now is the time of darkness
sunlight is waning
life is in seeming stasis
and in this dark time
this time of dormancy
and twilight
the church
moves into Advent.
Longing is at
the heart of the
darkness
in Advent.
Longing
for possibility
longing
for fulfillment
As children
it is a longing
for Christmas
and the birth of the baby Jesus
and that is enough
But as we age
the longing
broadens
deepens
includes
more than ourselves
and family
it is a longing
for completion
for justice
for peace.
In the dark time of the year
woven in the darkness of time
fulfillment is growing a body
in the dark time of the year
in the dark.

Susan Palo Cherwien
(From Glory Into Glory, MorningStar Publishers)


Thanksgiving Day Eucharist: Thursday, November 25, 10:00 a.m.
Bring non-perishable food items to help restock local food shelves. Monetary donations are especially welcome (for every $1 donated, food shelf personnel are able to buy $9 worth of food!)


Sunday’s Adult Forum, November 28
9:30 am in the Chapel Lounge
“Making a Good Death,” part two of a two-part series,
led by Rob Ruff.


Thanksgiving Offerings
The offering received at the Eucharist on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, will be given to
Sabbathani Community Center and Community Emergency Services.


Sunday Readings
November 28, 2010 – First Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 2:1-5 + Psalm 122
Romans 13:11-14 + Matthew 24:36-44

December 5, 2010 – Second Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 11:1-10 + Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
Romans 15:4-13+ Matthew 3:1-12


Advent Procession Service
This Sunday, Nov. 28, 2010 - 4:00 p.m.
Join us for the annual Advent Procession Service, a liturgy of lessons and carols for Advent, sponsored by Mount Olive Music & Fine Arts. Leading the music will be the Mount Olive Cantorei and Cantor David Cherwien. A reception will follow in the Chapel Lounge.

All are warmly invited.


New Members to Be Received This Sunday, November 28
Interested in becoming a member of Mount Olive? New members will be received on Sunday, Nov. 28, the First Sunday of Advent.

Please talk to Pastor Crippen if you would like to consider joining at this time, or if you simply would like to talk about membership for a future time.


2011 Conference on Liturgy
Mount Olive’s ninth annual Conference on Liturgy will be held on Saturday, January 8, 2011. The theme for this year’s Conference is, “Holy Death: The Parish and its Liturgy at the Time of Death.”

Keynote speaker for the conference will be The Rev. Dr. Thomas Long. Conference brochures will be available at the church beginning later this week, and a copy of the brochure with registration is attached (for those who are receiving The Olive Branch via email).

Cost for Mount Olive members to attend is $35/person.

Please share this brochure widely with all of your friends who may be interested.


Christmas Plant Sale
The annual Youth Christmas Plant sale is on now!

Order forms are available at church. Please pick up a form, place your order, and leave the completed forms in the box provided or in the Youth mailbox in the church office. The pick up date for Christmas plants is Sunday, December 5.


Sexton Position Open
The Properties Committee is currently receiving applications and resumes for the position of Sexton. This is a full-time position with benefits. A complete position description is available on the homepage of the church’s website, www.mountolivechurch.org.

Applicants are asked to submit a resume of previous experience with their contact information to the church office at welcome@mountolivechurch.org, or via snail mail to Mount Olive Lutheran Church, 3045 Chicago Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN, 55407.

Once a number of resumes are received, the committee will review them all and contact
those persons they wish to interview for the position.


Meals on Wheels
Thanks to those from Mount Olive who delivered Meals on Wheels during the week of November 15-19: Elaine & Art Halbardier, Margaret & Al Bostelmann, Mary Rose Watson, Connie & Rod Olson, Bob Lee, Naomi Peterson, John Cegielski, Gary Flatgard, Marian & Walter Cherwien, Liz & Joe Beissel, Andrew Andersen, and Dan Adams.


Farewell and Godspeed
It is with sadness that we say goodbye to Mount Olive member, Joe Fryer. Joe recently started a new job as a reporter for KING5 news, the NBC affiliate in Seattle. (He already had a story on NBC Nightly News last week!)

While we will all miss Joe, we heartily congratulate him on his new position and wish him all
the best.


The Lutheran Magazine Subscription Renewal Request
In an effort to be the best stewards of the gifts of God’s people, a motion was made, seconded and passed at a recent Congregation Meeting to ask members and friends of Mount Olive who wish to continue receiving The Lutheran magazine to contact the church office. We are very happy to continue to provide this excellent publication to those who enjoy and benefit from it. Similarly, if we can redirect funds for subscriptions that would go unread to other ministry needs, that also is a good thing.

If you wish to continue receiving The Lutheran magazine, please call (612) 827-5919 or email
(welcome@mountolivechurch.org) and let Cha know by December 1, 2010.


The Wish List
The Mount Olive Wish List is up and running and we’ve had a few donations come in. Please consider donating even just a single item on the Wish List. Banner stands, Godly Play items, and furnishings are on the list.

The sign up sheet is in the office next to the altar flower donation board. Please indicate which item you wish to donate and put your name and contact number beside the item you are donating, and you will be contacted about total cost and how to pay. Your donation will be reflected on your giving statement for tax purposes.

–Brian Jacobs, Vice President


Midweek Advent Worship
Evening Prayer will be prayed each Wednesday during the season of Advent: December 1, 8, 15, and 22, at 7:00 p.m

Sermon from November 21, 2010

“A Different Way”
Christ the King, Ordinary Time 34 C
Texts: Luke 23:33-43; Colossians 1:11-20
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen

Sisters and brothers, grace to you and peace, in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

There’s something very interesting about the ancient city of Hierapolis in Turkey, located near the cities of Laodicea and Colossae, both known to us from the New Testament writings, including today’s second reading. This city had wonderful natural hot springs and in Roman times was known to be a place to come for healing in those baths. However, if you visit the archaeological site, you’ll also notice that very close to those baths is the largest ancient cemetery in all of Turkey – it’s immense. Now I don’t know about you, but having an enormous cemetery right outside a major center for healing is not the thing that inspires confidence in the care or the cure. You certainly don’t see cemeteries outside modern hospitals, for good reason.

But having a cemetery outside a church is very common, isn’t it? Look at us – we have a cemetery, our columbarium, right here in our sanctuary! We can’t avoid its reality each time we come together to worship. But it has an entirely different feeling for us. That’s because the answer we give to pain and suffering is quite different than that of medicine. When a doctor has used up every medicine, every cure, at some point that doctor has to tell a patient that there is no more to be done. As Christians, we never reach that point. There’s always one more word, one more thing –that we have a promise that death is not the end of this journey. So a cemetery inside a church is a word of promise, not a word of defeat. And that’s a huge difference. And on this Sunday we celebrate Christ Jesus as our ruler, our king, we proclaim that Jesus rules in a very different way as well. Like looking at a cemetery and seeing promise, we look at Jesus where he looks least like a king to the world, and we see our hope and our life.

We see the difference in this powerful moment just before Jesus dies.

One of the criminals crucified with him, in pain and agony just like Jesus, looks at Jesus and sees a king. It’s hard to imagine what led him to his request – it’s a pretty clear definition of tying one’s cart to a dying horse. There’s nothing for the criminal outwardly to hope for here – this man is dying just as he is, and there’s no prospect of him miraculously getting off the cross, let alone helping the other two down. It’s like looking at a cemetery and seeing hope.

The response of the other criminal is far more appropriate to the circumstances – he says, “Look, if you have this power, you’d better do something for yourself and for us quickly.”

There’s also no sense in this believing criminal that he can have earned special consideration from Jesus, even if he’s right that Jesus is somehow a king. He’s a criminal, he’s got nothing that commends him or his life. He’ll be dead before sundown. And yet he says, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And in that he shows a faith in a reality that is completely unseen, but that in fact is the deepest truth about God’s coming to us in Jesus that we can ever know.

And this is the faith that we seek as well. You see, like having a cemetery inside a church building, the Church claims that Jesus is in charge, ruler of the universe, but that he rules from the cross.

This way of Jesus is so radically different it will seem like foolishness, sometimes even to us.

It goes against all worldly assumptions about power and rule. From our politics, which have evolved to people running for office not to govern but simply to be in power and retain that power, to our daily lives, we still operate as if being in control is the main thing. And whatever we want of our leaders, we don’t want weak ones, we want – or at least our polls seem to say we want – strong ones, uncompromising people.

But clearly Jesus is not strong here, and is not giving off the sense of power or rule. Look at the questions, the mocking, thrown at him on the cross: Let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God! If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself! The assumption is a true King would save himself. What kind of king or Messiah would let himself be killed as a criminal? The world has no way to comprehend the servant leadership of Jesus.

But the only time in the Gospel stories of his trial and execution that Jesus admits to being a king, except for once in the trial before Caiaphas where he asserts that he is the Messiah, is not when Pilate asks him, not when people mock him as king, but only when the criminal next to him acknowledges Jesus’ kingship: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Then, and only then, does Jesus reveal who he is, by promising the condemned man that he will be with Jesus in paradise that very day.

Jesus preaches, and lives out, a kingdom of God that is the world turned upside down. But as one author has said, Jesus comes to us standing up, but we’ve been standing on our heads so long we think he’s the one who’s upside down. In the kingdom of God, the greatest are the least: the weak, the wounded and broken, the children, the oppressed. And the King, the Son of God, is the lowest, the servant – down in the dirt with the people, suffering on a cross to destroy death.

And here’s the other truth about our King, Jesus Christ: he’s exactly the king we really need. Because what he would have us learn is that life is only fulfilling and abundant for us when we follow his way, and that the way of the world, while looking like a way to life, is only a way of death.

Our King invites us to follow his way, to give up use of power and manipulation and live by love. And so to learn what real life is.

It means we will be taken advantage of by those who play by the power rules of the world. But that’s OK – that’s OK – so was our King, and he will help us through it.

The alternative is not a way we want to live: that we control others, dominate others, manipulate others. Imagine a life fully lived that way: it would be terrible. I’ve never gotten my way by force or coercion and been happy about the final result, never. It’s always an empty victory.

The truth of giving up power and serving like our King serves is that it’s the only way to really have life. Exercising power over people may get your way more than not. But ultimately it will corrupt you, and leave you with empty victories. Giving, sharing, caring, losing like our King loses, may look like the fool’s way out. But ultimately it leads to incredible relationships with people, rich, fulfilling love, and joy even when others don’t understand us. And this abundant life is ours now, and in the world to come, because in giving up everything for our sake, our King conquered death itself, and actually won by losing.

So we’re left in the position of the criminal here – can we see Jesus as the king he actually is, in spite of what looks so different and unexpected?

Can we look at a way that seems to be a losing way, a way that to the world looks like a dead end, like a cemetery, like a dying King, and see hope and life? We know so much more than that criminal – we know that Jesus is risen, we know that he is Lord of the universe. But he will still rule in this way, from the cross, from suffering, from self-giving love. And life in God’s kingdom is following our leader in servanthood and love. Christians who willingly live that way know the joy of life in ways no one in the world’s power game would ever know.

And that’s the true secret of faith. God fill us with such faith in our servant King, and give us the strength and grace to follow in the same way, that we might find life truly worth living, now and always.

In the name of Jesus. Amen

The Olive Branch 11/15/2010

Accent on Worship
Sunday we celebrate the festival of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the Church Year. We will proclaim to all the world that Christ is our Sovereign, that we are living in the reign and rule of the Living One who has conquered death and gives life to us and to the world.

It’s kind of a funny thing to be saying in a democratic republic. With the help of the wisdom and restraint of George Washington, the founders decided we’d had enough of kings over here, and we’d have a president instead. We do not have it in our cultural personality to bend to someone’s rule. The American way is one of independence and self-rule. So what are we doing proclaiming that we have a King, divine or otherwise? Is it merely lip service, or do we truly believe something different about how we live our lives in this world?

The festival of Christ the King is a relatively new one for the Western Church. In fact, the celebration of this festival is not yet one hundred years old, having begun in 1925. But think about what was happening then: Hitler was on the rise, Mussolini was already on the throne. The Great Depression was still in the future, but tensions of economic and national matters were already bubbling up, and would lead to devastating times for the world. Into this world environment, Pope Pius XI instituted this festival, which has been adopted and shared by most mainline Western Christian bodies. In a secular and nationalistic age, many Christians take this time to recognize a higher authority for our lives and discipleship.

Perhaps what we want to consider is what it means on a daily basis for us to have Christ as our King. We proclaim that we are forgiven and given life in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and that his rule and reign have begun with his defeat of death. What will it mean for us to live in that rule and reign, to be blessed as we serve our King and not ourselves?

- Joseph

Sunday’s Adult Forum, November 21
9:30 am in the Chapel Lounge
“Making a Good Death,” part one of a two-part series, led by Rob Ruff.


Opportunities for Service Luncheon to be Held This Sunday, November 21
All are invited to stay after the second liturgy this Sunday, Nov. 21, for a luncheon celebrating the ministries we do here at Mount Olive and inviting people to indicate how they will serve in the next year.

The menu is lasagna, both with meat and vegetarian, and all the accompaniments, and brochures titled “Opportunities for Service” will be distributed so we can better connect people and their gifts with the particular and varied ministries of the congregation.

Directors of all the committees will be present to answer questions about particular ministry opportunities. An announcement will also be made as to the current amount pledged for 2011. Many pledges were received Sunday, Nov. 14. If you have not had an opportunity to complete and return your “Estimate of Giving” card for 2011, you are encouraged to do so. Cards are available in the church office and in the narthex on Sunday morning.

Thanksgiving Offerings
The offering received at the Eucharist on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, will be given to Sabbathani Community Center and Community Emergency Services.


Advent Procession Service
Sunday, November 28, 2010 - 4:00 p.m.
Join us for the annual Advent Procession Service, a liturgy of lessons and carols for Advent, sponsored by Mount Olive Music & Fine Arts. Leading the music will be the Mount Olive Cantorei and Cantor David Cherwien. A reception will follow in the Chapel Lounge. All are warmly invited.


Volunteer Help Needed!
Donna Neste is currently in need of a volunteer or two to help transport groceries to the local food shelf. Thanks to generous worshippers our grocery shelves are full, and with the annual collection of non-perishable food items at the Thanksgiving Eucharist coming up there is simply no space to store more groceries!

If you are a strong, able-bodied person with a truck, van, or SUV and a willing heart, please call Donna at church (612.827.5919). This is a task she cannot do on her own.


New Members to Be Received November 28
Interested in becoming a member of Mount Olive? New members will be received on Sunday, Nov. 28, the First Sunday of Advent. Please talk to Pastor Crippen if you would like to consider joining at this time, or if you simply would like to talk about membership for a future time.


Christmas Plant Sale
The annual Youth Christmas Plant sale is on now! Order forms are available at church. Please pick up a form, place your order, and leave the completed forms in the box provided or in the Youth mailbox in the church office. The pick up date for Christmas plants is Sunday, December 5.


The Wish List
The Mount Olive Wish List is up and running and we’ve had a few donations come in. Naomi Peterson originally wanted to remain anonymous, but I believe she is too generous and one of those pillars of Mount Olive that should not go unrecognized. Her donation of a new reception desk for the West Social Hall is exactly the catalyst we need to get the ball rolling. Naomi also magnanimously donated the Advent Godly Play set for the new Sunday School program. Naomi’s son, Steven, has donated one of two new leather sofas that are part of the interior design plan for our social spaces! We will begin to see interior design changes soon, thanks to these wonderful donations.

Please consider donating even just a single item on the Wish List. Banner stands, Godly Play items, and furnishings are on the list. The sign up sheet is in the office next to the altar flower donation board. Please indicate which item you wish to donate and put your name and contact number beside the item you are donating, and you will be contacted about total cost and how to pay. Your donation will be reflected on your giving statement for tax purposes.

–Brian Jacobs


Affordable Housing Trust Fund
Over ten years ago Mount Olive Neighborhood Action Committee (MONAC) helped MICAH, a faith-based advocacy organization, pass the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (AHTF) in the Minneapolis City Council, currently funded at $10 million. There is a proposal to cut these funds to $8.2 million. It makes sense to keep it fully funded not only because of the great need for it, but because of the revenue it leverages and generates.

MONAC is urging members of the congregation who live in Minneapolis to support the Affordable Housing Trust Fund at full funding by contacting your City Council representative and urging him/her to vote for fully funding the AHTF. The following are some talking points:

• it would generate over 1,100 jobs
• it would create or preserve approximately 500 units of affordable rental housing.
• it would enable developers to leverage almost $60 million in additional funds from both the federal government and private investment (foundations and investors)
• it would put underutilized properties back on the tax rolls and increase the tax base.

2011 Conference on Liturgy
Mount Olive’s ninth annual Conference on Liturgy will be held on Saturday, January 8, 2011. The theme for this year’s Conference is, “Holy Death: The Parish and its Liturgy at the Time of Death.” Keynote speaker for the conference will be The Rev. Dr. Thomas Long.

Conference brochures will be available at the church beginning later this week. Cost for Mount Olive members to attend is $35/person. Please share this brochure widely with all of your friends who may be interested.


The Lutheran Magazine Subscription Renewal Request
Each month, the households of Mount Olive Lutheran Church receive The Lutheran magazine as part of our congregational life budget. As an official publication of the ELCA, The Lutheran is an important communication tool. It enables us, as individuals and a congregation, to be aware of events, celebrations, and needs of the Church beyond Mount Olive and the greater Twin Cities metro. At the same time, it was apparent from discussion at the October Congregation Meeting that people get their news of the ELCA and the church-at-large from many sources and that not everyone necessarily wishes to receive a copy.

In an effort to be the best stewards of the gifts of God’s people, a motion was made, seconded and passed to ask members and friends of Mount Olive who wish to continue receiving The Lutheran magazine to contact the church office. We are very happy to continue to provide this excellent publication to those who enjoy and benefit from it. Similarly, if we can redirect funds for subscriptions that would go unread to other ministry needs, that also is a good thing.

If you wish to continue receiving The Lutheran magazine, please call (612) 827-5919 or email (welcome@mountolivechurch.org) and let Cha know by December 1, 2010.


Highlights from the Vestry Meeting
The Vestry met on Monday, November 8. Several large items were discussed, including reviewing the Sexton job description. It was again discussed and decided that the scope of the job would require a full time person caring for our physical plant. David Molvik indicated that the position will be posted as of November 9.

Brian Jacobs reported on the Mount Olive Wish List, stating that a sofa, reception desk, and a Godly Play set have been the first donations to come in. After the meeting, Brian Jacobs and Ann Sorenson signed up to donate two of twenty stacking, upholstered meeting chairs that will be used in the East Assembly Room. The Vestry encouraged that the Wish List be promoted on a weekly basis until it becomes second nature for members to think of it as a permanent way to donate items wished for and approved by committee members.

It was noted that all staff reviews have been completed for the year. Staff and director reports were offered, the most notable being the following. Carla Manuel reported that Mount Olive Women shopped for and purchased a new freezer and microwave, along with generous support from Eric Zander. She also noted the Installation Dinner was well-received and well-attended. Diana Hellerman stated that Godly Play is becoming excitedly anticipated by participants each week, and that James Berka is working nicely now with the older youth in a separate program.

Andrew Anderson indicated that new members will be received on Advent I, most notably Pastor Crippen and his family. Paul Schadewald noted that Mike Edwins is joining the Global Missions Committee. He also mentioned that visitors from Bethania Mission in India will be at Mount Olive the weekend of the 14th. Carol Austermann mentioned that a Southern meal will be served on January 23, 2011 as a fund raiser, and that the Store to Door program is up and running, providing food delivery to homebound persons. She also said the blood pressure clinics are scheduled. Paul Odlaug mentioned that Consecration Sunday, when we receive annual pledges, will be Nov. 14, followed by a celebration meal on the 21st to promote Opportunities for Service. Irene Campbell wanted everyone to know that the youth flower sale is underway, and Ann Sorenson suggested the sale possibly could be tied into the National Youth Gathering trip to New Orleans. Pastor Crippen brought a request to the Vestry from an MCAD student to use the sanctuary for a portion of a student film on questioning faith. All Vestry members discussed the ramifications and decided it would be a most welcoming gesture to allow the small film to be shot here.

It was decided, upon suggestion of the Neighborhood Ministries Committee, that all offerings received at the Thanksgiving Day service will go directly to the local food shelf. The next Vestry meeting will be December 13th. Some items to be discussed in coming sessions will be committee goals and objectives, membership roster review, and visioning process discussions.


Sexton Position Open
The Properties Committee is currently receiving applications and resumes for the position of Sexton. This is a full-time position with benefits. A complete position description is available on the homepage of the church’s website, www.mountolivechurch.org. Applicants are asked to submit a resume of previous experience with their contact information to the church office at welcome@mountolivechurch.org, or via snail mail to Mount Olive Lutheran Church, 3045 Chicago Ave. S., Minneapolis, MN, 55407. Once a number of resumes are received, the committee will review them all and contact those persons they wish to interview for the position.


Back to India With Love
Thanks to the efforts and generosity of many, our Bethania Kids ambassadors Godfrey and Paramadass were given a warm Mount Olive welcome this past Sunday, most especially by those who prepared and served the biryani luncheon; namely, Carol Peterson, Julie Manuel, Paul Schadewald,* Lisa Ruff,* Mark Pipkorn,* David Dobmeyer,* Jessinia Ruff, Carla Manuel, Christina Nissen, Eunice Nissen, Evie Essenwein, Kate Sterner, and Andrew Andersen (*Missions Committee).

The weekend's events were coordinated by Gene Hennig and Mark Spitzack, along with the Missions Committee. A huge debt of gratitude is owed to Miriam McCreary, friend of the congregation, who prepared and donated all of the biryani. Dr. McCreary grew up in India and served as a medical missionary there in the 1960s. You may send a note of thanks to her at 2467 Bridgeview Ct., Mendota Heights, MN, 55120. Pray for Godfrey and Paramadass as they travel on to Missouri, Arizona, Colorado, California and back to India, where they serve respectively as an administrator and physical therapist/community worker for Bethania Kids.

Sermon from November 14, 2010

“Unwearied Confidence”
Ordinary Time 33 C + Texts: Luke 21:5-19; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen


Sisters and brothers, grace to you and peace, in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

I need to confess to you, my brothers and sisters, that I find the prevalence of apocalyptic literature in modern Christianity tiresome. Certainly millions of dollars have been made on book series like “Left Behind” and movies of the same ilk, and clearly they’re touching a nerve of anxiety in our culture about where this world is heading. But I notice that connected to this obsession with the end times is some pretty unhealthy theology and preaching, including increased judgmentalism and hateful speech toward those who are deemed “not saved,” jingoistic attitudes toward those of other faith convictions, and almost an eagerness to talk about Armageddon and the end of all things. This kind of focus usually leads to fear and anxiety, which tends to cause bad decisions and unfaithful actions like these.

It’s not that I don’t understand a little anxiety about the times in which we live. This world does look in particularly bad shape, and with war, terrorism, global economic difficulties, widespread hunger and disease, well, we could be forgiven for thinking it was all coming to an end soon. Until we read the apostle Paul, or Martin Luther, or Jesus himself, and we see that they thought the same thing about their times. As did any number of people of faith over the centuries who believed that they saw in their time and circumstance all the signs that the world was coming to an end. It seems it’s a common human tendency.

So as we stand before God today, smacked by winter yesterday and clearly seeing in the weather the mood of the age, we hear apocalyptic warnings in God’s Word. And we think, “here we go again.” The thing is, if you listened carefully to Jesus today, the message is very different from some of today’s purveyors of apocalyptic. Instead of calling for fear, Jesus invites trust. He seems to be saying to us today, “Yes, it’s going to get bad around here. But don’t worry – it’s all good. You’ll be fine.” And that’s a message that sounds like it’s worth hearing.

The way Jesus is talking, apocalyptic warnings might actually serve a helpful purpose of focusing us on what really matters.

This is kind of a comic scene in the Gospel today – the disciples are the rubes in the big city, and they crane their necks up at the Temple and ooh and ahh. “Isn’t it big? Isn’t it beautiful? Look how solid it is!” Once more these followers stand in for us. Because that’s our tendency, to put our trust in things we do, things we make, things that seem permanent. These aren’t necessarily bad things – but if we trust in our own ability to make our future, to connect with God, to do all that is necessary, we’re building on sand. Or as Psalm 127 reminds us, unless the Lord builds the house, we labor in vain whatever we do.

So, for example, think of this building, this house of faith. Beautifully designed, carefully planned, lovingly taken care of for 75-plus years. It would be easy to rely on this place, and all we do here, all we are here, and to do what the disciples did and say, “We’ve got it together here, and we’re solid. We’ve got it all taken care of. Good to go.” Because that’s our tendency, isn’t it – to trust in ourselves? We’re all that way – it’s easy to think it all comes down to us to secure our future. But this building and all we have could be gone in a moment, as people around the world constantly discover. That magnificent Temple would be destroyed in only 40 years.

Apocalyptic speech reminds us of an important thing – all flesh is grass, all of this can go in a heartbeat, and we would be wise not to rely on our own doing of anything. But these warnings are not intended to cause anxiety and fear, or to lead to destructive theologies or behaviors. We know this from Jesus.

Because he’s almost calm as he describes what is to come for these believers. When you hear of wars and insurrections, he says, don’t be terrified of them. Yes, nations and kingdoms will fight, earthquakes, famines, and plagues will be all over, and dreadful portents. But don’t be afraid. And yes, even before this, you’re going to be arrested, and thrown in prison, and you’ll have a chance to testify. But don’t plan out your speech – I’ll give you all you need at that time. And yes, you’re going to be betrayed even by family and friends, even hated. But not a hair on your head will perish. By endurance you will gain your souls.

Isn’t that interesting? Instead of fanning the flames of anxiety, fear, hatred, as we often see today, Jesus just matter of factly speaks of the end times, and then invites us not to fear, not to worry about what to say, and not even to be worried about being rejected by those who love us. As always, he invites us to a relationship of trust with him, and so with God. That even though, as we sang on Reformation Day, the earth shakes and mountains fall into the sea we will not be afraid. We’re to be realistic about what’s happening, so that we can learn to live in trust and faith in God instead of ourselves, and to live in trust and faith instead of fear and anxiety.

Which leaves only one more question: what are we supposed to be doing in the meantime?

That seems to be key to all of this. How should we then live, given what we now know?

Or as the Prayer of the Day asks today, that “with God as ruler and guide we may live through what is temporary without losing what is eternal.”

I’ve already described one way that seems popular: circle the wagons, keep the outsiders away, don’t worry about the earth because it’s going to be destroyed anyway, and make sure you’re one of the insiders. Given that goes against everything Jesus taught about how we were to follow him, I think we can safely move on.

Another option is the one Paul faces in Thessalonica. There the attitude among some of the believers was that if the Day of the Lord was imminent, why should they work at all? So they were mooching off of others, relying on others for a living, because why be involved in temporary things? Paul puts the kibosh on that pretty quickly, so that’s apparently not an option we can use, attractive as it might might seem at times.

But if we look at Jesus’ parables of the end times, we find a third way, and one that not only has integrity as disciples, but is deeply rooted in the faith and trust we’re invited to seek. Again and again Jesus tells stories where the master returns at a surprising time and the ones who are honored are the ones who are at work when the master comes home. In other words, again and again Jesus says – just be about what you are called to do. Then, when I come, when it all ends, you’ll be doing what needs doing.

Because of these parables, I’ve realized that I have absolutely zero interest in knowing when the world will end – tomorrow, a thousand years from now, I couldn’t care less. Because there’s a lot of work God needs to be done, and we’re the ones to do it.

People are hungry today – so even if it’s all over tomorrow, they need to be fed now.
People are broken and hurting today – so even if it’s all over tomorrow, they need to know about God’s love and grace now.

People are dying, physically, spiritually, emotionally, today – so even if we’re all going tomorrow, they need to know about God’s gift of life now.

People are sick, and in prison, and strangers, and thirsty, and homeless today – and even if the King returns tomorrow in the way of Matthew 25, they are Christ to us right now. And we are Christ to them. And things need to be and can be done.

So it’s a good thing as we end this Church Year that we are focused these two weeks on what we are called to do here to take care of what needs taking care of. We’ll be making pledges to each other today to the ministry God has called us to do here. Because there are needs, and we have God-given resources, and we can do something about that, in God’s name.

There are children in India who need care and God’s love – and through our brothers and sisters at Bethania, we can do something about that.

There are partner ministries throughout the ELCA which are struggling for funds and are doing vital work for all sorts of people in need of the Gospel of grace – and through our tithes and offerings we can do something about that.

There are hungry folks at Our Savior’s shelter, and people from here are doing something about that tonight, and we can help.

And there is ministry here in this place that needs doing next year, vital work of bringing the Gospel to this place in our worship, in our neighborhood ministries, in our teaching and serving and working and caring – and through our gifts we can do something about that.

Stewardship is all about being good stewards – we’ve been given great resources which belong to our God, and we’re to care for them as best we can. So while we know this all won’t last, in the meantime we’ve got things to do and we want to be about doing them. That’s why we pledge to each other what we will do – so we’re committed together to this work.

And next Sunday will be a celebration of opportunities for service in our ministry – willing hearts, hands, feet, and voices are needed in so many ministries here. So we look through a brochure, and we check boxes for what we feel we can help with, because we know that God needs us to be about our work while we wait for the fulfillment of all things – and this is a way we can organize and connect people’s gifts with particular ministries here. Because there are lots of things that need doing to bring the Gospel in this place, and we all can do something about that.

It can get tiring, all this living under the shadow of what might be in the future, and doing what needs doing. So Paul today invites us not to be weary in doing what is right. It is the grace of God which fills us in this place that helps remove our weariness, strengthens our trust and faith, and sends us out again to serve.

Yes, the world seems to be a frightening place at times. It might even get worse. But our Lord, risen from the dead, tells us we don’t need to be afraid.

And that’s pretty great news. We’re in God’s hands and cannot be harmed, even if it all comes down. We’re in God’s grace and forgiveness, and that covers all we have done or haven’t done which has hindered God’s work in the world. We are in God’s love, and that’s what sends us out in love.

And now that we know that – let’s figure out what each of us can do to be of service to our God here, even while we wait the fulfillment of all things with trust and hope.

In the name of Jesus. Amen

This Week's Liturgies

Sunday, November 21, 2010
Christ the King
Holy Eucharist at 8:00 & 10:45 a.m.

Sermon from November 7, 2010

All Saints Sunday + Texts: Ephesians 1:11-23
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen

Seeing Through

Sisters and brothers, grace to you and peace, in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

My children have been instructed that it would be nice for one of them to bring a bass-baritone into the family – we don’t know yet where Peter’s voice will end up, and he probably wouldn’t want to do the job I want done, which is to sing at my funeral. And of course, they could hire someone, but I think I’d prefer someone who knew me and presumably loved me. My children also have been told (though Hannah wants this in writing since I’m so specific about the details) which piece in particular I want sung. I want the recitative and aria from Messiah, “Behold, I tell you a mystery,” and “The trumpet shall sound.” And I want the entire aria, including the ‘B’ section, and full repeat of the ‘A’ section. No cuts should be made. They can hire the trumpeter if they want, if there isn’t one in the family by then.

All kidding aside, I do hope they choose to hear that music at my funeral. Because that music and those words of Paul move me into the mystery of which they sing – we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. Through that music I move closer to seeing that life which is to come. And that’s what today’s celebration does for us as well. We come here this day to celebrate the feast of All Saints, to light candles as we remember our beloved dead who rest in the Lord, to place our hands in the font and mark ourselves with the cross of Christ’s death, to feast at the meal of his victory, his life. There is nothing in what we do today which we can pin down, explain fully, understand completely. And yet, what we do today profoundly moves us into the mystery, and helps us see.

The ancient Celts, my ancestors, believed that there were places they called “thin places,” places where the wall separating earth from heaven, human from divine, was especially transparent, almost non-existent. For the Celts, this was often geographically located – a certain tree or grove, a particular spring or well. I believe they were absolutely right. But in addition to particular locations, worship is also a thin place for me. Because sometimes it’s hard to tell where earth ends and heaven begins when we are gathered here in the presence and life of the Triune God.

And on days like All Saints, the veil between us and God seems especially thin, so much that at times in this liturgy it feels like we can see right through. We see the many candles flickering, we smell the linger of incense in the air, we hear music of angels, we feel the wetness of the water sprinkled on our faces, we taste bread and wine. Here is a thin place. And maybe that’s what Paul’s talking about today to the Ephesians, about having the eyes of our hearts enlightened. In this place, God comes to us, and for this moment in time, our eyes open and we see things we otherwise cannot see.

And this is so important to us because for most of our life reality intrudes so heavily that we cannot see beyond the end of our nose, much less into God’s realm.

Life is a difficult journey, and we fill each day, each moment, with things we deem important – but which ultimately do not fill us or give us life. Jesus’ parable of the sower and the seed always comes to mind for me in this context. Particularly the seed which grows initially, but is choked out by the weeds. Jesus said that was the cares and struggles of the world which overwhelm the sense of life and faith we are given. Little wonder Jesus elsewhere felt the need to invite us not to worry about these things – what we will eat, what we will drink, what we will wear – and to trust that God will provide.

Many days all we can do is worry – about our lives, about our loved ones, about this country, about the world. About the environment, about our future, about suffering, about our death. About where we belong – do we belong, do we matter to others? To God? There are many things for which we do not easily find answers. And they weigh heavily on us and bring a cloud over our eyes of faith.

And for all these things we want answers, we want clarity. We want hope. And then we come to worship on All Saints Sunday. And we find mystery. But in that mystery we find that the veil between us and God is particularly diaphanous here –we can almost see through.
And that’s when we find the hope we’ve been wanting.

Here in this place there is no barrier to our seeing the One who answers, and knowing we are home, we belong.

Paul prays that the eyes of our heart be enlightened that we might know the hope to which we’ve been called. For Paul, the reality is that we don’t always find the answers we think we need or want. But we find the Answerer. The eyes of our heart are opened in faith to see the One who has come to give us life. And we see things differently then. The reality doesn’t necessarily change. But we see through the reality into the love of God which surrounds us no matter our circumstances.

And what I love is that Paul says our heart’s eyes are opened that we might know hope – hope to which we are called. We talk a lot about things to which we’ve been called. We are called to a vocation, to a life. We’re called to service. We’re called to love one another.

But here we are called to hope. Hope is not just a nice thing if you can find it. It’s so important that our Lord has made it our vocation, and a gift to us. It’s our calling, to be people of hope, people who see with enlightened hearts through the dirt and the sin and the brokenness of the world and see the grace and love of God. Hope that the One who was crucified and raised from the dead will make all things new, even if our worldly eyes cannot always see that. Our heart’s eyes enlightened can. We can see through the thin places into the love and face of God.

This is the mystery we celebrate today, this is what we’re about in this place. Seeing God, and knowing hope.

In Romans, Paul tells us that this hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts. It is that love which opens our heart’s eyes and gives us hope. This hope touches our sorrow. Our joy. Our fear. Our desire. Our pain. Our life. Everything we have to face is touched by the hope in God that is ours.

So we have hope for all these for whom these candles burn brightly, and all others who have died. In this place we experience the communion of saints and we don’t need to explain it or describe it – we’re all connected in this place, and we know it. Since my mother died I have been deeply aware of how many hymns we sing where we invite the “host of heaven” to join in our song. And the communion of saints is no longer abstract theory for me, but real. In this place, like no other, we feel the presence of those who have gone before us and we have hope. Because their future is our future, and our present is lived in the life of the One who holds all the saints in love for all time.

And we have hope for these young ones, and for us. We welcome Benjamin into the family of Christ today and we rejoice that he belongs. Just as we rejoice that we belong – that this place is always a place where we are welcome, where all are welcome. Where God’s love is offered for us and for all. Where together we can see the face of God in each other – because this is a thin place and our eyes are opened.

And so we must come here, to this water, this spring of life, because it is a thin place where we see through the water into a deeper reality.

Behold, I tell you a mystery: we all belong to God in Christ through this water. Those who have gone before us. Those who are yet to come. And those who are alive with us today. We take this water and mark ourselves with it because here we are brought into a new reality, a new way of seeing.

So I invite you to come here – after the liturgy, but not after the worship, for the worship never ends even when each liturgy does – come here and get wet. Come to this spring and remember whose you are. And be close to the mystery which enables you to see with the eyes of your heart enlightened. So that you might know the hope to which you have been called, and be a sign of that hope to all.

In the name of Jesus. Amen

This Week's Liturgies

Sunday, November 14, 2010
Ordinary Time: Sunday 33
Consecration Sunday

Holy Eucharist at 8:00 & 10:45 a.m.

Accent on Worship
It has been warmer than normal the past couple days, but the reality is sinking in – we’re in autumn. Trees are increasingly bare, mornings are cold, grass isn’t growing anymore. What’s powerful in our worship is that as the growing season comes to an end in northern climates, so too our Church Year comes to an end. Our readings from Scripture, our hymns, the whole liturgy, all have a tone of not only the end of a season, but the end of all time. Apocalyptic words of Jesus, prophets speaking of the day of the LORD to come, it is impossible to miss the sense that we live in a finite world and we are finite people.

There is wisdom in the calendar and lectionary of the Church, at least for those of us who live with these seasons of weather changes, to tie this theme, this conversation, to concurrent events in our environment. Somehow at this time of year we are open to considering (in a way we do not in the spring, for example) that this will not all last. Yet we do not consider this reality apart from the reality of the risen Jesus who has defeated death and in whom all endings become beginnings. We remind ourselves of our mortality, and the world’s mortality, even while we stand in hope of the new creation God is promising. We stand as Easter people, even amongst dead-looking trees and brown grass and visible breath and sometimes frightening words of Scripture, in hope of the life of God which is always working in and through us and this world. From this truth, we move into our season of hope, Advent, even as the darkness deepens to its fullest. (But that must wait for a few weeks!)

A few more words on the Eucharistic Prayer: I want to follow up briefly on what I wrote about in The Olive Branch on Oct. 18 regarding the Eucharistic Prayer. As I said then, these are deeply important ideas for all of us, and I am committed to making this a conversation, not a unilateral decision of any kind. So the Worship Committee and Cantor Cherwien and I have already talked more of this, and will continue to do so. Part of this conversation was also me sharing with you the theology of the Eucharist that has shaped me for so long, and leading you at the table in a way consistent with that theology. But it is also important for me to understand how Mount Olive has been accustomed to celebrate the Eucharist, and that’s not something I can do abstractly. We are all incarnational people, and we understand each other far better when we experience things instead of merely talking about them. So I want you to know that the next important part of this conversation for me as your pastor is that I experience what it means to face the altar at this point in the liturgy, so that I can also better understand this. So for a time I have celebrated facing the people, and I’m grateful that has been well received by some. Now for a time I will celebrate facing the altar as well. This is “meet and right” as we like to say, not a random way of “trying something out.” The gift of our Lord in this meal is a rich gift, and there are so many ways it affects us and touches our lives, and as I said earlier, the two views of table and altar are both important and long-standing in our faith. You have honored me by supporting me as I led you facing the congregation; I need to honor you and the tradition and architecture here and experience the richness of what you have all experienced here as well. We will keep talking to each other, and more importantly, worshipping with each other, as we are ultimately centered not on anything other than the grace of God we receive in this meal.

- Joseph


Sunday’s Adult Forum, November 14: 9:30 a.m. in the Chapel Lounge
Representatives from Bethania will talk about the mission and the people it serves (see article elsewhere in this issue of The Olive Branch).


Consecration Sunday This Weekend!
Consecration Sunday, the day members of Mount Olive pledge their intentions for giving in 2011, will be this Sunday, Nov. 14. At worship that day members of Mount Olive will be invited to offer pledge cards declaring their intent for giving to the ministry God has called us to do together. (These pledge cards and current third quarter contribution statements were mailed to each household a couple of weeks ago.) Then, on Christ the King Sunday, Nov. 21, we will focus on opportunities for service in the ministries of Mount Olive, and host a celebratory meal following the second liturgy.

As we end the Church Year, we will commit ourselves in these two weeks to the work that God has placed before us here, and all members are invited to participate in these events.


From India With Love
Did you know that your financial offerings support poor, orphaned and disabled children in South India? For over 20 years, a portion of Mount Olive’s mission budget has been dedicated to Bethania Kids. Bethania’s Board Members and Advisory Board members personally pay for all administrative costs, including the ministry’s website, postage, travel, video production, public relations materials, newsletters, and salaries, so Mount Olive’s dollars directly provide basic care, immunizations, education, and housing.

On Sunday, November 14, two of our partners in service will be visiting Mount Olive to meet and celebrate with us and to give a report about their work. It is also Consecration Sunday that day. Please do the following: 1) pray that God will bless Godfrey, Paramadass and all that they do together with us for the sake of the Gospel and for the welfare of children, 2) pledge your intentions for financial giving to Mount Olive in 2011, 3) come to the adult forum at 9:30 a.m. to hear about the children whom your giving supports, and 4) stay for a “Biryani and Bethania” Indian meal after the second liturgy, celebrating India and the gifts these men bring to this project.

Gene Hennig, a founding member of Bethania, Mark Spitzack, who visited Bethania Kids projects in 2009, and Paul Schadewald and the Missions Committee are helping to coordinate these events. RSVPs for the meal are welcomed but not required. A freewill offering will help to cover the cost of the food. “Rise and take your treasure, yours in fullest measure. Sing, for love has found you; joy is all around you. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
(from a popular Indian hymn)


Sunday Readings
November 14, 2010 – Ordinary Time: Sunday 33
Malachi 4:1-2a + Psalm 98
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 + Luke 21:5-19

November 21, 2010 – Christ the King
Jeremiah 23:1-6 + Psalm 46
Colossians 1:11-20+ Luke 23:33-43


Thanksgiving Eucharist
Thursday, November 25
10:00 a.m.
Bring non-perishable food items to help re-stock local food shelves. Monetary donations are especially welcome (for every $1 donated, food shelf personnel are able to buy $9 worth of food!)



Volunteer Help Needed!
Donna Neste is currently in need of a volunteer or two to help transport groceries to the local food shelf. Thanks to generous worshippers our grocery shelves are full, and with the annual collection of non-perishable food items at the Thanksgiving Eucharist coming up there is simply no space to store more groceries!

If you are a strong, able-bodied person with a truck, van, or SUV and a willing heart, please call Donna at church (612.827.5919). This is a task she cannot do on her own.


Book Discussion Group
For their meeting this Saturday, November 13, the Book Discussion Group will read, The Red and the Black, by Stendhal, and for December 11, Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh. This group meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 am in the Chapel Lounge. All readers are welcome!


Christmas Plant Sale
The annual Youth Christmas Plant sale is on now. Order forms are available at church. Please pick up a form, place your order, and leave the completed forms in the box provided or in the Youth mailbox in the church office. The pick up date for Christmas plants is Sunday, December 5.


You’re Invited!
All are invited to attend the November Every Church a Peace Church meeting on Monday, November 8. The meeting begins with a potluck supper at 6:30 p.m., followed by a program beginning at 7:00. This month’s program is “Peacemaker’s Predicament: Opposing War while Affirming Warriors,” presented by Bishop Lowell Erdahl, Bishop Emeritus of the St. Paul Synod, ELCA.

The meeting will be held at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church, 1600 W. County Road B, Roseville, MN (south of Hwy. #36 and west of Snelling Ave).


Diabetes Prayer Day
Diabetes Prayer Day is Sunday, November 14. Sponsored by the Diabetes Prayer Day organization, all are invited to keep those suffering with diabetes in prayer, and to pray for its cure. More information on the organization and this day can be found at
http://tinyurl.com/DiabetesPrayerDay2010.


Foundation Information
A copy of the Mount Olive Foundation’s latest tax return is now on file in the church office. If you would like to see it, please call the church office to make arrangements.


Thanks!
Thanks to all who participated in tasting the new Fair Trade/Equal Exchange coffee varieties yesterday! Of the votes cast, the Sisters Blend was the favorite flavor.
Congratulations to Susan Cherwien and Carla Manuel for winning prizes in the drawing. Watch for the Fair Trade craft sale during Advent.


Neighborhood Ministries Fall Newsletter
The Neighborhood Ministries fall newsletter is out, and will be distributed by the greeters following each of the liturgies on Christ the King Sunday, November 21.

If you cannot be present that Sunday and would like a newsletter, they will be available to pick up at the church office window.


The Lutheran Magazine Subscription Renewal Request
Each month, the households of Mount Olive Lutheran Church receive The Lutheran magazine as part of our congregational life budget. As an official publication of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, The Lutheran is an important communication tool. It enables us, as individuals and a congregation, to be aware of events, celebrations, and needs of the Church beyond Mount Olive and the greater Twin Cities metro. At the same time, it was apparent from discussion at the October Congregation Meeting that people get their news of the ELCA and the church-at-large from many sources and that not everyone necessarily wishes to receive a copy.

In an effort to be the best stewards of the gifts of God’s people, a motion was made, seconded and passed to ask members and friends of Mount Olive who wish to continue receiving The Lutheran magazine to contact the church office. We are very happy to continue to provide this excellent publication to those who enjoy and benefit from it. Similarly, if we can redirect funds for subscriptions that would go unread to other ministry needs, that also is a good thing.

If you wish to continue receiving The Lutheran magazine, please call (612) 827-5919 or email (welcome@mountolivechurch.org) and let Cha know by December 1, 2010.


The Wish List
The Mount Olive Wish List is up and running and we’ve had a few donations come in. Naomi Peterson originally wanted to remain anonymous, but I believe she is too generous and one of those pillars of Mount Olive that should not go unrecognized. Her donation of a new reception desk for the West Social Hall is exactly the catalyst we need to get the ball rolling. Naomi also magnanimously donated the Advent Godly Play set for the new Sunday School program. Naomi’s son, Steven, has donated one of two new leather sofas that are part of the interior design plan for our social spaces! We will begin to see interior design changes soon, thanks to these wonderful donations.

Please consider donating even just a single item on the Wish List. Banner stands, Godly Play items, and furnishings are on the list. The sign up sheet is in the office next to the altar flower donation board. Please indicate which item you wish to donate and put your name and contact number beside the item you are donating, and you will be contacted about total cost and how to pay. Your donation will be reflected on your giving statement for tax purposes.



Advent Procession - Service of Lessons and Carols
Sunday, November 28, 2010 - 4:00 p.m.
Join us for the annual Advent Procession Service, a liturgy of lessons and carols for Advent, sponsored by Mount Olive Music & Fine Arts.

Leading the music will be the Mount Olive Cantorei and Cantor David Cherwien. A reception will follow in the chapel lounge. All are warmly invited.


Thanksgiving Offerings
The offering received at the Eucharist on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, will be given to Sabbathani Community Center and Community Emergency Services.


New Members to Be Received November 28
Interested in becoming a member of Mount Olive? New members will be received on Sunday, Nov. 28, the First Sunday of Advent. Please talk to Pastor Crippen if you would like to consider joining at this time, or if you simply would like to talk about membership for a future time.

Sermon from Sunday, October 31, 2010

Reformation Day
Texts: Psalm 46; John 8:31-36

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen

Facing Truth

Sisters and brothers, grace to you and peace, in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

There’s something unseemly about human beings and the idea of truth. Truth – the honest reality about life, about existence, about anything – sounds like a noble thing, worthy of our searching and discerning. But somehow when we get hold of the idea of truth, it becomes a license for the worst in us to come forward.

Some years ago I was involved in an e-mail sharing group of Lutheran theologians and pastors, where people would post comments and others would reply. There was a very heated exchange after a particular Churchwide Assembly, with hateful things spewed about ELCA leadership, about the Assembly voters, including personal aspersions and insinuations being cast to the four winds like sown seed. So I posted the comment that, while I understood that people were not happy with certain decisions and certain elections, perhaps this conversation could be continued with a mind to seeking and bearing some of the fruit of the Spirit in the discourse – love, peace, kindness, patience, self-control, among others. The posted reply to the group in response to me, from a prominent Lutheran theologian? “I don’t confuse bearing the fruits of the Spirit with fighting for the truth.”

Indeed? So when, pray tell, might we hope to ask for the Spirit’s gifts? Only when we’re having a lovely conversation over a glass of wine and a plate of cheese? In my experience one of the gifts with which I was not innately blessed is patience, and the time I most need to ask God for this spiritual gift is precisely in the midst of heated dialogue and difficult conversation.

But the honest reality about the Church throughout the centuries is that all too often the Church has also not confused the fruit of the Spirit with fighting for the truth. And so people were burned at the stake, whole cities were razed to the ground, entire cultures were obliterated. Vulnerable and broken people have been and still are ostracized from their communities, falsely imprisoned even, and abused, all in the name of truth. We shouldn’t be surprised when we encounter people who do not trust the Church – we should rather be surprised when we find some who have not been wounded in some way, or outraged at the wounding of others.

It’s difficult to reconcile this with what our Lord Jesus tells us today: “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” Of course, if Jesus means what he says then knowing the truth by continuing in his word will lead to freedom, not to hatred and destruction of others. It should be a source of joy and life.

There are two things we need to clarify to understand Jesus and find this gift of freedom. First, we need to know our need for freeing – do we actually believe we need it? And second, we’ve got the idea of truth all wrong. In fact, it’s not an idea at all. But first – freedom.

We may not be as audacious as Jesus’ audience today and say “We have never been slaves to anyone.” But we live with a fiction that says we are free when we are not.

Though we proclaim that this is a nation of freedom, we act as if we are the opposite. We are a nation of people who are enslaved to fear, enslaved to self-centered, short-sighted and destructive decision-making, and enslaved to patterns and ways of life which are killing us and others. That doesn’t sound very free to me.

This current national election is almost completely being run by exploiting the first enslavement, ignoring the realities of the second, and pandering to the third. So we’re told in ad after ad why we should fear a particular candidate –if he or she is elected, all horrors will ensue. And promises are made to make all things magically right, as if changing what is wrong in our society can be done overnight. And those promises are made without asking us for any sacrifice of our way of life – so we don’t have to change anything and we get everything.

Yet we all know that we’re going to wake up on Nov. 3 and still be afraid, still trapped in our destructive patterns and behaviors, and still facing a huge challenge of effectively running this country with justice for all. Because we know in our hearts that life is harder and more complicated than we’re being told by those running for office.

And we know we are not free. So we can put aside our indignation with Jesus and just admit it: we’re trapped and we don’t know how to get out. We don’t know how to let go of our fear of our enemies, our fear of the future, our fear of life. The Psalmist helps us name our fear today – and it looks like general chaos, mountains falling into seas, earth shaking, waters raging and foaming.

And, we don’t know how to get unstuck from the way we live at every level of our society including our own personal lives, ways which are not healthy and do not lead to life for others, for the environment, for the world, and even for ourselves. The Scriptures call these things sin – and say we are enslaved to them.

I’d be hard pressed to argue otherwise.

Not true? Then think of the littlest thing you do that’s not good for you or for others or for the world. A little habit. How often and how hard have you tried to get rid of that? Any luck? So what makes you think if you’re trapped in that that you’ve got any chance at the big stuff? And while we’re adding up our catalog of enslavements, let’s not forget our need to fight over our idea of truth, to the destruction of all who disagree.

I don’t know about you, but now I’m pretty interested in what Jesus has to say. I want to know what he means by continuing in his Word, and knowing the Truth, and being truly disciples and truly free.

Well, there’s one key thing we need to understand to see it all: the truth is not an idea to be held, known, or fought over. The Truth is a person. The Truth is Jesus.

After all, didn’t he tell us in John 14, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life?” Didn’t we hear in John 1 that the Word of God is not a book, it’s a person – the very intent of God for the world is incarnate, made flesh, one of us?

Martin Luther taught us that we know God’s Word in three ways: in the written Word, the Scriptures. But more important and real than that, in the Word of God proclaimed and preached and therefore alive. And most important of all, we know God’s Living Word, our Lord Jesus who rules our lives and hearts.

If God’s truth, God’s word, are written words only, doctrines to be held, axioms to be formulated, credos to be signed and posted, then we can possess them. Own them. And fight to the death over them. Only no doctrine, no credo, no axiom can save us, or free us.

But if Jesus is the Truth, Jesus is God’s Word, we have no control over him, because he is a living reality, the Lord of the universe, the proclamation and life of the Holy Trinity in our midst. And he is crucified and risen from the dead and leading us to abundant, rich life. This Truth, this Jesus, can and has saved us. Can and will free us. And if the Son makes you free, you are truly free, he says today.

So how are we freed? Because instead of our fearing the future, or fearing that we might not have the right truth, or others might be enemies of the truth, or distorting it, the real Truth speaks to us in love and says “Do not be afraid.” Do not fear, Jesus says, for I have overcome the world. Even if the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, you need not be afraid. Even death has no power over me. Do you think anything can keep me from loving you, loving all? Do you think that the worst future you can imagine can stop my restoring of the whole creation?

And we are freed from our enslavement to sin by the Truth who tells us the truth about ourselves and then offers forgiveness and grace. The Truth, our Lord Jesus, can be brutally honest with us, as he was to so many he encountered. Like the Samaritan woman at the well, we find ourselves a little frightened because he knows everything we have ever done. Jesus, the Truth, is utterly truthful with us, and lays us bare.

But he never leaves us there – because he is real and alive and has overcome the world. And so he offers us a place at the Table of life, forgiveness of all we have done, and love in spite of everything. Which gives us hope in a world that seems impossibly broken – because we are sent out to be that love and life for the sake of the world. To bring the same healing we have received, the same good news that the Truth is not a thing, but a loving, risen Lord of life. And is come to bring the world back to the life of God.

We often use the expression “facing the truth” to talk about honesty. As it turns out, the Truth actually has a face.

And that is the face we long to see – the visible presence of the invisible God, who at a point in our history came to be one of us and live with us. And be Truth for us.

It’s complicated to live following the real Truth instead of clinging to the idea of truth. Ideas can be grabbed and held and used to beat up others, and build walls of self-protection. They can help us define who’s one of us and who isn’t, and what we need to fear. Following the One who is the Truth means discernment, not absolute doctrine, conversation with God and each other, not firm certainty.

But the Truth looks us in the face in his Meal, in his Word, in each other, and says “do not be afraid. Be free to live in my love and forgiveness and transform the world. There is no one outside of my love, no one I do not desire to bring back into life with God. And that means you, too.” And so we rest our lives on the love of God in Christ we have come to know as Truth. What could be more freeing than that?

In the name of Jesus. Amen