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Sunday, April 29, 2012

One Shepherd


Our lives, and the life of the world, depend on the true Good Shepherd who lays down his life for his sheep, who is the faithful Shepherd in the face of all obstacles, and who alone has the authority to claim “sheep.”


Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, Fourth Sunday of Easter, year B; texts: John 10:11-18; 1 John 3:16-24; Acts 4:5-12

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

Actor and comedian Groucho Marx famously once resigned from a club by sending them a telegram which read, in part, “I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member.”  I think that’s really funny.  I also think it’s the opposite of most of us.

I’ve long pondered the truth of human nature that we tend to assume that our enjoyment of belonging to a group, or club, or political party, or even a congregation, is heightened if it’s exclusive in some way.  If we’re in and others are out.  We’re right and others are wrong.  We’re good and others are bad.  We’re wise and others are foolish.  Of course, we like to think we’re enlightened, so most of us won’t say that out loud, or at least we’ll try to be subtle out in public.  But there’s a reason that those outside the Church often think Christians are snobby and exclusive.  It’s because we are.  And of course when it comes to the Church, we sometimes want to claim that our exclusiveness continues to life after death.  It’s not enough that people aren’t welcome to God’s love in this life; we’ve too often felt we could control their access in the next.
Somehow in our broken human nature we’ve lost the ability to simply rejoice when others are loved by God, to make room for even more.  And we never were good at it if the people who are loved are people we don’t like.

This all matters to what Jesus is saying today about being the Good Shepherd.  We like that image, we love the 23rd Psalm, we sing its partner Psalm 95 at Morning Prayer and delight in being the sheep of God’s pasture.  Even if we don’t really understand sheep and shepherds.

But our Shepherd actually pushes us a little today, tries to get us past the sentimentality of basking by quiet streams and green pastures.  He claims authority as our Shepherd, an authority he says we as the sheep do not have.  And he hints – no, really he claims outright – that there are other sheep who get to be a part of his care that we don’t know and that we don’t get to have a say about.

Jesus makes a clear comparison between himself, the true Good Shepherd, and anyone else who might or might not try to care for or control God’s people.

The good shepherd, Jesus says, is the one who is willing to lay his life down for the sheep.  What’s powerful about that image for us is that unlike the idea Jesus introduces of a shepherd fighting off a wolf to save his flock, Jesus ends up facing the wrath of his own flock.  The danger he faced was not from outsiders attacking his people, but the wolves were his own people themselves.

It’s as if the sheep turned on the shepherd for trying to keep them from fighting, or trying to keep them from getting lost, or trying to keep them from eating bad food, or trying to encourage them to care for each other, and they ganged up and killed their shepherd.  The love that Jesus shows after his resurrection is all the more amazing given that we were the ones who took his life, and at the same time for whom he gave his life.

By contrast, Jesus says, is the hired hand.  It’s a question of who has the most investment: the shepherd who owns the sheep and whose livelihood depends on them, or the hired hand who is asked to care for them.  Only the one who truly owns them and loves them won’t run at the first sign of danger.

Later (and this is repeated today in our reading from 1 John), Jesus invites us to the same kind of love for the world, to be more than hired hands, saying that the greatest form of love is to give one’s life for another. Now it’s one thing to hope that if we had to throw ourselves in front of a bus to save someone, we’d do it.
But how often do we run like hired hands and fail to do the small sacrifices out of love for each other, the little things that cost us?  Are we willing to let someone else be right, because we love them?  Let someone take advantage of us because we love them?  Lose our pride, or our “just dues,” or getting our own way, because we love them?  No, those wolves are too frightening for us.  So we run.

And if it’s someone we don’t love, well, of course we’re not interested in sacrificing for them.

So Jesus establishes his credentials here not only in order to assert his love and willingness to die for us.  But also to assert that he is thereby the Shepherd and we are not.  In his death and resurrection, he is our Good Shepherd, and he claims the authority over the sheep that we simply do not and cannot have.  Because we don’t have that kind of love for others.

Only the one willing to die to save them gets to decide who gets saved.  Only the one willing to give his life for them gets to make any decisions about those lives.

And it comes to the forefront with his mysterious claim that there are some other sheep.

The true Shepherd says that he’s got other sheep we don’t even know about.  And they will hear his voice.  And he will bring them into the fold, he says.

Isn’t that a wonder?  There are other saints, other people whom Jesus loves, whom we don’t know about.  Maybe even outside the Church.  They might not even know it yet.  After all, he says they “will” hear his voice.  But they are his.  And we don’t get to say anything about it.

And I wonder what we would do with ourselves as Christians if we realized that we never get to vote about who’s in and who’s out.  That our vote doesn’t count.  What we would do at churchwide and synodical meetings if we never got to decide what to do about “those” people – be they Christians, or people of other faiths.  What we would do as congregations if we realized that it wasn’t our decision, ever, to decide whom God loves and why.

Maybe we’d be able to use all that free time to care about other people.  Because the elder who writes 1 John says that it isn’t that we’re just to tolerate these other sheep, we’re to love them.  In fact, today he says we are to do two things.  Believe in the name of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.  That is, believe in the one Shepherd.  And two, to love one another as he has loved us.

Maybe if we could accept that Jesus has as many sheep as he wants, and that we not only don’t get to decide that or vote on it, but we don’t even know who they are, we could get about the business of doing the love he’s asked us to do.  Because now everyone is potentially someone Jesus loves enough to die for.

In fact, the other thing this recognition of our true Good Shepherd frees us from is the whole conversation about who can be saved in other faiths.

Oh, I know it’s fun to pretend we have any idea.  But our Good Shepherd tells us we don’t.  We can argue all we want about it, but ultimately we’re not the ones who get to decide.

So we baptize Eleanor today, as we are told to do by Jesus.  We wash her in water, and we mark her with Christ’s cross, and we connect her to God’s holy name, the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  And we believe that she is a saint of God, holy, set apart to love the world in God’s name.  We commit to teaching her that, loving her ourselves in God’s name.  We believe that she, like all the baptized, is joined to Jesus’ death and resurrection and will have abundant life here and life in the world to come.  We know this is all true, because our Risen Lord told us so.

But we don’t know about any of the other children born on February 4, or any other day, who never will be baptized, who might believe in God but in different ways, who may never know of God at all.  We don’t know, because we’re not the Shepherd.

But we suspect – we suspect that in fact, they’re part of his love and grace, too.  Because, you see, he said he’s got those sheep we don’t know about.  And they’ll know his voice, too.  And he’s bringing them together with all of us.

And that helps us better understand Peter’s admonition in Acts today, that there is “no other name” by which people can be saved.  I don’t think he’s claiming that unless you’re a Christian, you can’t be in God’s love in this life, or the next.  I know that’s often been the take of the Church before.

I think what he’s saying is this: we know that Jesus was killed, and he rose from the dead.  We know he is the Son of God and offers life to all.  We know he’s the Good Shepherd.  So if anyone’s going to be loved by God in this life or the next, Jesus will make it happen.  They might not even know it’s coming from Jesus.  It doesn’t matter.  One day, Jesus says, they’ll listen to his voice.  But right now, they are his sheep already.

And ultimately he’s bringing us all together.  Whether we want it or not.  There will be one flock, one shepherd, he says.  So not only do we not get to decide whom God will love and give grace to, whom God claims as beloved children.  We’ll eventually have to call them sisters and brothers.  Like it or not.

I don’t know about you, but some of the sheep I’m least thrilled about aren’t of other faiths at all, but some of those who already claim to be Christians, and in Jesus’ flock.  And yes, even they are loved by God.  And I’m going to have to call them sisters and brothers, like it or not.  (Though, to be fair, I’d guess they’d feel pretty much the same thing about me.)


Finally, our only hope of welcome, of life, of grace from God, is based on the goodness of the Shepherd and his choosing us.  And everyone else.


We rejoice in the life we know in Jesus’ resurrection, his grace and forgiveness and love, not because it is ours exclusively.  Only because it is ours.  And if our Shepherd is giving that to everyone else, even the ones we don’t like, even the ones who think differently than we do, well, the more the better.  Maybe we can learn that the love he asks of us means loving even those other sheep.

We’re going to sing a hymn in a moment which we normally sing in connection with the festival of All Saints.  But it’s filled with Easter imagery and with joy in the Shepherd’s loving claim on us.  I wonder what would happen if we sang it and when we sang the word “saints” we opened our hearts and minds to the possibility that this category might just include every one, every “humble spirit,” as the hymnwriter says.

You get the impression from the Shepherd himself that unless he can bring in all the sheep, he’s not satisfied.  That means the world to us, because he’ll always be looking for us.  But it also means the world to the world.  May our Good Shepherd so open our hearts that we rejoice at every lost sheep who is found, even the ones we don’t know about, even the ones we don’t like, until all of us are joined in resurrection song before God’s throne.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen


Thursday, April 26, 2012

The Olive Branch, 4/23/12


Accent on Worship

     In the Holy Land, Scott and I visited the Shepherds’ Field.  Well, sort of.  The Shepherds’ Field is the spot where tradition says the shepherds were watching their flocks by night when lo, the angel of the Lord showed up.  Which would be great!  But there are in fact at least three different “Shepherds’ Field” spots:  One Catholic, one Orthodox, one Protestant.  So we went to a field.  And I guess we weren’t expecting a cave!  But it turns out that shepherds in the Holy Land would herd their flock of sheep into a cave at night, then sleep in the mouth of the cave (sometimes with a fire also built in the mouth of the cave) so any potential predator or thief would need to deal with the shepherd before making it to any of the sheep.  This is a role Jesus is claiming when he says he is the good shepherd – one who is the Way, one who protects his sheep with his own life.  But what does it mean that he has other sheep, not of this fold?

       It means we trust in the means of grace – baptism, like the one we will celebrate this Sunday, and the Eucharist, which we celebrate every Sunday – and it means we also keep an eye out for others who listen for Christ’s voice, other places in which Christ is at work caring for people.  It means it is not up to us whom Christ is calling or how Christ is working as Good Shepherd.  It means we need to give up some self-righteousness and let Jesus shepherd us and others as He chooses, not as we prefer.  But it also means we are free not to worry.  We can trust our Good Shepherd to guide us in this flock.

- Vicar Erik Doughty


Sunday Readings

April 29, 2012 – Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 4:5-12 + Psalm 23
I John 3:16-24 + John 10:11-18

May 6, 2012 – Fifth Sunday of Easter
Acts 8:26-40 + Psalm 22:25-31
I John 4:7-21 + John 15:1-8



Contribution Statements

     First quarter contribution statements are available to be picked up by the coat room. Please stop and get yours when you are at church.



This Week’s Adult Education

     Professor Earl Schwartz of Hamline University in St. Paul will present the second in his two-part series on Amos.



A Note of Thanks

Dear Mount Olive Church Family,
     Never did I expect to have a 90th birthday, but it has been wonderful with all the thoughtfulness, care and love from my church family. Thank you for joining me in my celebration.


Sincerely,
Leila Froehlich



Missing a Dish?

     There are several pans and dishes in the lower kitchen which were left at this year’s Easter Carry-in Brunch. If you brought food to the brunch or are missing a dish, please stop downstairs in the kitchen to see if your missing dish is among those which were left.



Book Discussion Group

     Mount Olive’s Book Discussion group regularly meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 a.m. The book they are reading for the coming months are:

May 12: Paths of Glory, by Jeffrey Archer
June 16: (postponed one week due to Bach Tage): Let the Great World Spin, by Colum McCann
July 14: The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope.



CaringBridge Site for Delacy Kloehn

     Royce Kloehn called last week and asked that we publish a link to Delacy’s Caring Bridge website. This site includes information about her diagnosis and treatment, and the latest information on her condition:  http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/delacykloehn.

     All are encouraged to keep Delacy and the Kloehn family in their prayers.



TRUST Plant Sale and Swap

What:  TRUST’s Annual Garden Event
When: Saturday, May 12, 8:00 am - Noon
Where: Bethlehem Parking Lot, 4100 Lyndale Avenue South
Why:     To “swap”plants for new ones
               To buy homegrown plants
               To get advice from master gardners
               To raise money for TRUST’s programs

     TRUST youth will sell coffee and goodies to raise money for their summer mission trip.



Bishop’s Installation

     The Minneapolis Area Synod invites everyone to a Service of Holy Communion and the Installation of The Reverend Ann M. Svennungsen as Bishop of the Minneapolis Area Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

     The service will be on Sunday, May 6, 2012, at 2:00 p.m. at Central Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. All rostered leaders are invited to vest and process. The color of the day is red. Please gather in the Community Room no later than 1:45 p.m. to line up for the processional. A reception will immediately follow the service.



Update on Communion Bread

     At the March 26 meeting of the Worship Committee, we discussed the feedback we have received regarding the use of fresh bread for the Eucharist.  That feedback has been overwhelmingly supportive of the change.  It was decided to continue the use of fresh bread through the Season of Easter and our summer schedule.  From the beginning, our conversations have included two issues, crumbs and the remaining host.  To help us please consider the following two ideas.  When you receive the host from the pastor, do so with open up-turned palm.  Passing the bread between fingers increases the possibility of it being dropped or crumbs falling.  Secondly, if you are so inclined, come forward to the chancel area during the postlude to assist the Sacristan and Acolytes with the consumption of the remaining bread.  We do appreciate your comments on this an all worship issues.  Each comment that we receive is considered, so if you are inclined, please drop me an email or hand me a note with your thoughts.  While I appreciate the many chats I have about worship issues, I don’t trust my memory to bring your thoughts accurately to the committee.

– Al Bipes, director of Worship Committee



Sanctus: Spirit of Music

     Two of the region’s nationally acclaimed choral ensembles, the National Lutheran Choir and Cantus, will perform together in an uplifting program called Sanctus: Spirit of Music. Powerful and uplifting repertoire will spark the singers and audiences, alike: master works by Randall Thompson, Ralph Manuel, and Jester Hairston stitch heaven and earth together. Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise is mysterious and ultimately becomes transcendental in this new arrangement which echoes between the men of Cantus and the National Lutheran Choir.  The two performances will be on Saturday, May 5, 7:30 pm at King of Kings Lutheran Church (1583 Radio Drive, Woodbury, MN 55125), and on Sunday, May 6, 4:00 pm, at Normandale Lutheran Church (6100 Normandale Road, Edina, MN 55436).
     Experience music that joins together heaven and earth and two of the Twin Cities’ most acclaimed vocal ensembles.

For ticket information, please call the National Lutheran Choir office at 612.722.2301 or visit them on the web at www.nlca.com.


Sunday, April 22, 2012

You Are Witnesses


Christians are given both good news and a call to action as witnesses to Christ’s resurrection when Jesus appears to his disciples (and to us.)


Vicar Erik Doughty, Third Sunday of Easter, year B; text: Luke 24:36b-48

Last week I preached good news from the Gospel according to John for doubters (among others); and I spoke of faithful community where the crucified and risen Christ chooses to appear for our sake.  This week we have good news and a call to action from the Gospel according to Luke, all in the six words, “You are witnesses of these things.”

Good news, because – well – Christ is risen!  Immediately prior to today’s text, the risen Christ has just showed up to dispirited disciples on the road to Emmaus, becoming known as the risen Lord in the breaking of the bread.  Those disciples run back to Jerusalem to their friends and even as they are still bearing witness to the Risen Christ, that same Risen Christ appears.  “Got anything to eat?” he says.  And he eats a piece of broiled fish.  Having had a little nosh, he explains about his suffering, death, and resurrection, and assigns them the role of martyr – legal witness – regarding all this.

We get that same assignment, and a call to action, as those who have listened in on that conversation with the disciples.  “You are witnesses,” Jesus says.  To what things?  Well – “You knew me as a fellow human being; you know I have been in your shoes, shared your struggles.  You saw me learn and grow; you have seen me discern my vocation.  You saw me die, abandoned completely; you know I have suffered the worst humanity can do.  You have seen me as resurrected Lord, and know God’s love bears his children through death into eternal life.

You know death is defeated, that you may live your daily lives in hope, not fear.  You know of the resurrection of the body; that your matter MATTERS to God.  You know your Lord always shows up among disciples gathered; no one is left alone.

You are witnesses of these things.  Your own knowledge, your own faith, your personal salvation is a small but important part of Christ’s work.  So in your own daily life you are called to bear witness to Jesus, crucified and risen.

You are witnesses of these things.  You are to know and you are to remember and you are to get out of this safe gathering of like-minded disciples, go out of this upper room above the undercroft, and SHOW and LIVE  and TELL the good news revealed to you in Jesus.  Good news is not only for you; what you have heard and seen is for sharing.

Now, I realize bearing witness about resurrection and life is not simple.  It can be a real challenge to be witnesses!

David Sedaris, in his book Me Talk Pretty One Day, talks about learning the French language.  One day in class a fellow student who is Muslim asks what Easter is, so the French teacher has the students try to explain – in French:

“The Poles led the charge to the best of their ability.  ‘It is,’ said one,  ‘a party for the little boy of God who call his self Jesus and . . .’ She faltered and her fellow countryman came to her aid.
‘He call his self Jesus and then he die one day on two . . . morsels of . . . lumber.’
The rest of the class jumped in, offering bits of information that would have given the Pope an aneurysm.
‘he die one day and then he go above of my head to live with your father.’
‘he weared of himself the long hair and after he die the first day he come back here for to say hello to the peoples.’
‘he nice the Jesus.’
‘he make the good things, and on the Easter we be sad because somebody makes him dead today.’ ”
    – David Sedaris, Me Talk Pretty One Day

Students are different from disciples, but we all, like Sedaris’ fellow students of French, sometimes struggle to find language to convey they mystery of faith.  No words will express faith or resurrection completely.  No one person’s life, either (aside from Jesus’s life) will bear full witness.  We will never be perfect witnesses because faith is a gift and a mystery.  Even so, Even so, Christ hands us responsibility to bear witness with our language and with our lives – our individual and communal lives – that Christ is risen.  Despite the challenge, you and I are witnesses of these things.

I don’t have answers for you at this moment about how exactly we should be witnesses here at Mount Olive; and in fact that is appropriate.  Figuring out how this congregation may bear witness at the corner of Chicago and 31st to Christ’s resurrection is the sort of thing a congregation and its leadership thinks about in a visioning process, and it’s the sort of thing that the directors we elect today at our congregational meeting will strive to consider and express in their work with us.

But that does not let the rest of us off the hook from speaking and living witness to the resurrection when as we go home to our various neighborhoods and suburbs, in whatever life holds for us.  Who knows how God will show forth resurrection through you?

Brothers and sisters, we have gathered here because the Holy Spirit has called us all to this place together.  We have gathered here because it is good to be together and to worship God together.  We have gathered together because justice, comforting those who mourn, feeding the hungry, figuring out together what God is calling us to – in short, standing in the light of Jesus Christ’s resurrection  – which someone’s life and words witnessed to US – is what gives us life and hope.  Christ’s defeat of death means that we may live!  That is amazing and wonderful stuff!  That has to affect our lives from the molecules to the legislature.
“Now,” Christ says, “Go out of here, out of this room, go live fearless, justice-embodying, God-loves-everyone, Christ-is-risen lives.”  It’s fantastic, so share it!  You are witnesses of these things!

Christ is risen!  Alleluia.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Olive Branch, 4/16/12

Accent on Worship

The Third Sunday of Easter

The annotations in the Lectionary about the Scriptures for the Third Sunday of Easter focus on the restoration of humankind through the suffering and death of Jesus. In the first lesson Peter explains to a crowd of Israelites the fulfillment of the prophecies of the suffering Messiah in Jesus. In the Gospel, Jesus appears to his disciples and “opens their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day.’”

However, another message popped out at me as I was reading in preparation for writing this “Accent on Worship.” The message is that humankind has a hard time recognizing Jesus for who he is. Before Peter went into his explanation of the fulfillment of the prophecies of the suffering Messiah, he admonished the crowd for killing “the Author of life.” Then he acknowledged their behavior as an act of ignorance, and invited them to repent and turn to God. In the Gospel, most of the verses tell of the disciples’ fear at the appearance of their beloved Jesus. They thought he was a ghost and Jesus had to first put their fears to rest and convince them that he indeed had risen from the dead. He even had to eat a piece of fish to show them that he was standing before them in the flesh, before he could teach them about the meaning of his suffering.

In my opinion, nothing has changed. Humankind still does not recognize Jesus nor do most recognize what God in Jesus stands for. Some very powerful people who broadcast their faith in Jesus on a daily basis are working hard to cut the benefits of those most vulnerable in our nation and the world. Wasn’t it Jesus who said that if you do unto the least you do unto me? These folks do not recognize Jesus in the face of the suffering poor, in poor women who watch helplessly as their children die of diseases that could have been prevented through proper nutrition. They do not recognize Jesus in the young women and men they send off to war in order to defend the interests of the most powerful, offering their bodies to be ripped apart by bullets or their spirits to the deep depression of knowing they killed another human being. In these, the least, Jesus suffers and dies every day, because he is not recognized.

We do not recognize Jesus when we are comfortable with this situation. This Sunday Peter invites us to repent and turn to God.

- Donna Pususta Neste


Sunday Readings

April 15, 2012 – Second Sunday of Easter
Acts 4:32-35 + Psalm 133
I John 1:1—2:2 + John 20:19-31

April 22, 2012 – Third Sunday of Easter
Acts 3:12-19 + Psalm 4
I John 3:1-7 + Luke 24:36b-48



Congregation Meeting to Be Held This Sunday, April 22, Noon

The purpose of the meeting is to elect officers and Directors for the coming year as well as hear a report of our delegates to the most recent Minneapolis Area Synod assembly.



Contribution Statements

First quarter contribution statements are available to be picked up by the coat room. Please stop and get yours when you are at church.


Meals on Wheels

TRUST, Inc. calls on members of Mount Olive to deliver Meals on Wheels for its program. The following members of Mount Olive delivered Meals on Wheels for TRUST, Inc. during the first quarter of 2012: Nancy & Gary Flatgard, Elaine & Art Halbardier. Karen Johnson, Mary & Bob Lee, and Connie & Rod Olson. Thanks to all of you!



Book Discussion Group

On April 14 the Book Discussion Group will discuss Birth of Venus, by Sarah Dunant. For the meeting on May 12 they will discuss Paths of Glory, by Jeffrey Archer.

Advance announcement: at the meeting on July 14 we will discuss The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope. This advance notice is shared due to the length of the book.



CaringBridge Site for Delacy Kloehn

Royce Kloehn called last week and asked that we publish a link to Delacy’s Caring Bridge website. This site includes information about her diagnosis and treatment, and the latest information on her condition: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/delacykloehn.

All are encouraged to keep Delacy and the Kloehn family in their prayers.



Grateful Thanks

To those who donated flowers for the Paschal Garden;
To Gary Pagel, for providing and arranging the palm plants for Palm Sunday and the outdoor floral arrangements for Easter;
To Naomi Peterson for procuring and arranging the flowers for the Paschal Garden;
To members of Cantorei for their participation in many services of Holy Week;
To the many who served in all of the liturgies of Holy Week;
To those who for prepared and served the wonderful reception following Easter Vigil.




Bishop’s Installation

The Minneapolis Area Synod invites everyone to a Service of Holy Communion and the Installation of The Reverend Ann M. Svennungsen as Bishop of the Minneapolis Area Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

All rostered leaders are invited to vest and process. The color of the day is red. Please gather in the Community Room no later than 1:45 p.m. to line up for the processional. A reception will immediately follow the service.

Bishop Ann Svennungsen Installation
May 6, 2012, 2 p.m.
Central Lutheran Church
333 S 12th St
Minneapolis, Minnesota



Church Library News

April is a busy month for library-related events and observances. I was not able to confirm everything until last week, so this is a bit late - but we think it is important to note that last week, April 8-14, was National Library Week. Sponsored by the American Library Association, the theme chosen for this observance is "YOU Belong @ Your Library," which is obviously important to remember all year long. Other observances in April included National Bookmobile Day on April 11, which was dedicated to library professionals who provide this valuable service in their communities each day. Also important all year long but especially remembered on April 12 was Support Teen Literature Day.

The Children's Book Council alerts us to their upcoming library sponsored event, Children's Book Week, which is May 7-13. Check with your local or community public library for special events that may be scheduled during that time.

A very helpful brochure from the Hennepin County Library System is entitled "Every Child Ready to Read @ Your Library" which indicates that "Early Literacy Begins With You -- Helping Your Child Be Ready to Read." If you are a parent of a baby/toddler or of a 2-3 year old child and would like more information on the above topic, stop into our church library to check out my brochure, or if more convenient, check at your closest Hennepin County library branch to pick up your own brochure.

If you are (or have been) a devoted fan of novelist Miss Read's fiction series of books about English village life, come into the church library soon to check out the display of her books with the following titles: Gossip From Thrush Green, Battle At Thrush Green, Return to Thrush Green,Village Affairs, No Holly for Miss Queen, and Summer at Fairacre. Others may remember author Bette M. Ross, whose novels include Celia's House, and Gennie, the Huguenot Woman.

Come in soon to check out the wide variety of good reading and reference materials available in YOUR church library!

To close, I thought you might want to ponder this quotation, a Chinese Proverb: "A book is like a garden carried in the pocket."

- Leanna Kloempken

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Doubting disciples. Faithful community. Risen Lord.


Jesus the risen Lord comes to the one who cannot believe, who grieves, who doubts, whose hope has died.  Jesus comes, light in Thomas’s dark, isolated room, disregarding all the shame and despair which locked him away, for Thomas is too important, and we are too important, for Christ to disregard.


Vicar Erik Doughty, Second Sunday of Easter; text: John 20:19-31

I know that some of us here have had times in which doubt has paralyzed us.  Though I am now gladly married to my partner Scott, many of you know I lived a period of time when I was praying “God, change me, God change me, God, change me,” convinced I wanted to be someone other than the gay man I was becoming.  Fear shut me up into my own little room.  I had faith in God as someone who listens to prayer, but my life was paralyzed by fear.

And there was a time I lost faith in my call to ministry; completely lost faith in myself, as my first internship ended early due to my mistakes.  There was a lament there, too:  “God, how could you let me be this human?  Why is this happening?”

And when any of us grieve, or when we survive some sort of trauma, our faith in God can be wrenched or broken.  We lose the ability, at least for some time, to know and trust God’s presence with us.  Some people live for years in that non-sensing place.  Mother Teresa is one famous example; but it is likely that some of us here live that, too.

In our text today the Apostle Thomas has just such a broken faith.  He has just seen his Lord crucified; he has just started to know himself as one who runs away instead of one who defends his beloved teacher and Lord.  He is grieving his own self-respect and his hope for all that Jesus meant to him.  He isn’t constantly with the others; he goes off alone; what does it even matter?  Jesus is dead.  Nothing now can ever come to any good, as Auden writes.  Friends, have you lived this despair?

In his grief and hopelessness, Thomas misses Jesus’ appearance as risen Lord; and though the 10 are rejoicing, he cannot.  He has seen other wonders; but this?  No.  For this he needs Jesus in person.  He needs to see and touch his Lord.

And Jesus wants a relationship with his friend and disciple.  Jesus comes to Thomas, disregarding any judgements on doubt.  Jesus appears among the disciples again, with peace, showing his wounds, allowing himself to be touched and seen.

Jesus the risen Lord comes right to the one who cannot believe, who grieves, who doubts, whose hope has died.  Jesus comes, light in Thomas’s dark, isolated room, disregarding all the shame and despair which locked him away, for Thomas is too important -- and friend, you are too beloved -- for Christ to disregard.
Christ died and was raised for sinners, for doubters, for the uncertain and ashamed.  The ones in this faithful (though sometimes doubting) community of Mount Olive, and the ones everywhere else.

Jesus has not come to us bodily, in person.  But have we not seen Christ here recently?  As we visit one another, as we trust and share with one another, as we serve this neighborhood?  This is where we see and touch our Lord.

We dip our finger in the cool baptismal water of the font and trace a cross on our forehead; that awful cross Christ died on for sinners like us.   We break bread together and we pray for all the joys and wounds we know.  Those wounds we hesitate to speak of are the ones Christ comes to heal.

We do not share all things as did the early church; but we do share despite our fear, disregarding our faithlessness we come here anyway, we pray here anyway, and Christ comes because we need him here.  Christ comes because he has claimed us and will never abandon us.  Christ comes because his love is stronger than our senses, stronger than our doubts and wonderings.  Christ has conquered death, including the death of our faith.  Christ is with us in all love.  Christ comes despite the locks our fear puts around us.  Christ comes to this faithful community.

Are you huddled in your room, wondering what to trust and whom to believe?  Frightened child, Christ comes to you.  Do you despair of hope, spiraling into darkness and depression, sure that nothing will ever change?  Beloved, Christ has conquered death itself; your darkness is not darkness at all; God is with you even now; in Christ’s light your walk leads to hope; darkness is a continually-lightening shadow of its former self.

It is not so that life will be sweetness and bunnies, hugs and kisses, from now on.  Our human nature will see us fail and fall.  Darkness retains some power to shade our lives.  Yet I have experienced the crucified and risen Christ in this place.  Christ comes to this community and I’ve seen him in a hospital bed, or walking with a walker to a pew, or sitting at Book Study, attending Godly Play, eating at Community Meal.  We are Christ’s body; and we serve Christ in our neighbor; I have preached that before.  And during Lent we spoke of ways Christ is present graciously to us.  We forget and need reminding that Christ shows up in faithful community through, with, and for us.  Even when not all of us feel particularly faithful.

Sisters and Brothers, we belong to the one who has risen, who bears us with him, who lights our path in the darkest valley; we belong to the one who died and now lives; the one who comes to disciples and to doubters, who calls to the afraid and the alone; and he calls us into community to love one another; to do justice; to advocate for the voiceless and oppressed; to serve the neighbor.

So child of God, look and wonder; see the empty tomb; know the wounds of Christ are for you; this community of doubting disciples is for you.  Our faith is not perfect and yet Christ always comes to us, to this community; to you, as a parent runs to a loved child; as a teacher attends a favorite student; and you, too, in this faithful community, at this table, can touch Jesus’ risen body and rejoice with Thomas and all the saints:  My Lord and my God; he is risen!  He is here.  Alleluia.

Monday, April 9, 2012

The Olive Branch, 4/9/12

2012 Easter Message from the Presiding Bishop

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Christ is risen! Imagine the power in those words of promise.

When the disciples first heard Jesus speak of his death and resurrection, “they kept the matter to themselves” (Mark 9:10). But the news is too good to keep to ourselves. The life of Jesus Christ has been unleashed into the world.

Because Christ is risen, you can embrace life’s complexities and uncertainties with a living, daring confidence in God’s grace. The risen Christ goes ahead of you, meeting you in the most surprising faces and unexpected places. Christ’s resurrection puts us right where God wants us to be – in the thick of life.

Because Christ is risen, you have a word of hope. To those weary from mourning loss and fearing death, the assurance is given that nothing in all creation will separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

The life of Jesus, God’s own life, has burst into the world, restoring community. At the barriers we erect to divide us, the risen Christ meets us, turning those walls into tables of reconciliation. To those who live in fear and feel unworthy, the promise is given. “You are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).

Christ is risen! Alleluia!

In God’s grace,
The Rev. Mark S. Hanson
Presiding Bishop
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America



Congregation Meeting to Be Held Sunday, April 22, Noon

The purpose of the meeting is to elect officers and Directors for the coming year as well as hear a report of our delegates to the most recent Minneapolis Area Synod assembly.



Sunday Readings

April 15, 2012 – Second Sunday of Easter
Acts 4:32-35 + Psalm 133
I John 1:1—2:2 + John 20:19-31

April 22, 2012 – Third Sunday of Easter
Acts 3:12-19 + Psalm 4
I John 3:1-7 + Luke 24:36b-48



Bread for the World Campaign of Letters

The Bread for the World presentation and 2012 Offering of Letters which was to be given on Palm Sunday was postponed to the Adult Education hour this Sunday, April 15. All are encouraged to come and make their voices heard for those most vulnerable in our nation. The deficit-reduction bill that Congress has just passed is on its way to the Senate and could result in the most severe cuts to programs for hungry and poor people in Bread for the World's history. Come and learn how the deficit can be reduced without hurting those who already struggle to make ends meet, and write a letter to one or more of your representatives in Washington to create a "circle of protection" around those most vulnerable, by working to protect the programs for hungry and poor people.



Meals on Wheels

TRUST, Inc. calls on members of Mount Olive to deliver Meals on Wheels for its program. The following members of Mount Olive delivered Meals on Wheels for TRUST, Inc. during the first quarter of 2012: Nancy & Gary Flatgard, Elaine & Art Halbardier. Karen Johnson, Mary & Bob Lee, and Connie & Rod Olson. Thanks to all of you!



Book Discussion Group

On April 14 the Book Discussion Group will discuss Birth of Venus, by Sarah Dunant. For the meeting on May 12 they will discuss Paths of Glory, by Jeffrey Archer.

Advance announcement: at the meeting on July 14 we will discuss The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope. This advance notice is shared due to the length of the book.



Knitting Group Schedule Change

The April gathering of the Knitting group was postponed from Easter Day to Sunday, May 13 (Mother’s Day). All who like to knit or crochet are invited to gather to work on charity knitting – or personal work. Bring your suggestions of a charity in need of our work … and bring your mom!


Sunday, April 8, 2012

Destroying the Shroud


The gift of Jesus’ resurrection for us goes beyond knowing we will have a life after we die.  Jesus’ risen life among us fulfills Isaiah’s promise that the shroud of death and grief which hovers over our lives and our world is destroyed forever, even now.


Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, The Resurrection of Our Lord, year B; texts: Isaiah 25:6-9; Mark 16:1-8

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 am weary of death.  Weary of the pervasive persistent presence of death in this world.  Weary of seeing the face of death every time I open a paper, or turn on the news.  There is a Eucharistic Prayer written for use during the final Sundays of the Church Year which begins: “Holy God, holy and mighty, holy and immortal: surrounded by evil and bordered by death we appeal to you.”  Surrounded by evil and bordered by death.  That’s the way the modern world seems to be.  In fact, I can’t get the image Isaiah gives us this morning out of my mind, it’s such an accurate description of our experience.

He envisions a great death shroud, a pall, spread over all the world, over all humanity.  The sheet which we’ve seen in countless images in news, in the media, pulled over the face of someone who has died: that is what has wrapped the world, Isaiah says.  We’re on a dead planet, whose face is covered by a sheet, he says.

And isn’t that our reality?  I don’t think there’s another generation in human history which has a greater experience of being aware of so much grief and suffering on a daily basis than ours.  With global news coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we never have a moment where we are not made aware of someone’s death, someone’s grief, someone’s suffering.  And it accumulates like the ash falling from an erupted volcano, deepening and suffocating.  Anxiety, terror, fear – we never can get away from it, out from under it.

In times before now, each person, each community, suffered whatever death or pain came to them, to their neighbors, to their loved ones, and of course it was often terrible.  But it was limited to their circle, the ones they knew.  Occasionally, they might hear of a tragedy affecting others far away.  We, on the other hand, have the same experience in our personal lives as our ancestors, but on top of that is an endless and relentless outpouring of too much information from everywhere else: this disaster, that attack, this famine, that disease.  And we barely process the latest news before another one shoves its way into our consciousness.

And this experience is global.  Except in a few areas, people around the world share the same immediacy of news, the same overwhelming sense of the pervasiveness of death and suffering on this planet.  And with the relentless onslaught, we’re all becoming increasingly hardened to suffering and death because of our over-exposure.  It’s incredibly difficult for us or for anyone else to find hope for a future.  And I wonder if we’re becoming so callused we’re in danger of losing our compassion and empathy.

So when Isaiah promises that God’s new creation will be a destroying of that shroud of death which is over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations, I pay attention.  Because if that’s true, and if what we celebrate today has anything to do with it, this is Good News beyond description.

We gather here on Easter Day with the powerful reminder that in Jesus’ resurrection, there is a life for us after this one.

In Jesus’ killing of death, there is promise of that for each of us, a life after we die.  Then God will wipe away all our tears, as Isaiah says, and destroy the death that faces all of us.  From the beginning, the disciples understood this about Jesus’ rising from the dead.

But it seems to me that what we need almost as much is for God to destroy the shroud that’s cast over us now.  Because though in Jesus we have hope for those who have died, and that’s good, we live under that sheet now, in this life.  It would be good to know if there is a lifting of the shroud for us right now, not just the promise of tears wiped away in the future, beautiful as that promise is.

And I believe that’s exactly the hope we find in Jesus’ resurrection.

The end of Mark’s Easter story is powerful and abrupt: “The women went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”  These faithful women, first to hear the Good News, are stunned into fear and silence because of it.

Now of course, we know that they came out of it, even that morning – they did tell the other disciples, and the news spread before noon that something amazing had happened.  But not at first.  Their fear – of death, of the unknown – stops them.  And that’s the place we find an opening for us to enter this story.

The reality of death and suffering, the shroud that exists over the peoples of the world, the sheet over all nations, freezes us, too.  We are numbed from over-exposure.  We understand, oh, yes, we understand what it is to be so afraid and confused and lost that we say nothing.  To be so overcome by the sense of dread and death that we feel nothing.  That we find no hope.

So our Good News is that these women quickly realized what it meant that Jesus was alive.  And they found freedom from all their fear, and powerfully witnessed to the explosive love of God that had changed everything.

For them.  And for the world.

That’s our Good News: God’s love, God’s life are our gifts to cherish in this life, too.

Think about this: none of these first disciples had yet experienced what we all know, what everyone here has experienced, the death of a loved one and the sure promise of that loved one finding eternal life in Christ.  All they knew those first days was that if Jesus was alive, then all their fears, all their griefs, all their terror, could be let go.  That God’s love, now shown to be more powerful than death, could be theirs and give meaning to their whole existence.  That they had no need to be paralyzed into inaction, no need to be afraid.

So within weeks they were facing imprisonment, and threats to cease telling of Jesus’ resurrection or be punished, even the possibility of death, and they were facing it with joy, with boldness, and with love.  Creating a community of love they’d never known to exist before, a community where all shared with one another, where they gathered to worship around the signs of God’s love, where they regularly went out and told others about God’s healing, life-giving, death-killing love.

For these disciples, the shroud of death was lifted from them, even in this life.  And so it is for us.  Living as people who know Jesus is risen from the dead, we can and do look at death differently.  Not just because it isn’t the end.  But because it means we can also truly live here.

Freed from fear, freed from terror, freed from anxiety, we can live in love and grace and risk any consequences.  The pall, the shroud, is lifted, because God’s love is ours and we cannot be taken from it.  We now can envision a daily life filled with the grace and love of the risen Jesus that makes all things bearable, and illuminates all darkness, and is transformed.  Where each act of love and grace lifts the pall and shows God’s death-defeating love to everyone.

In fact, we can face the pervasive death in this world with compassion and love, knowing what we know, but also carrying the healing grace of God to those who don’t, to those who are in grief.  Because the power of Jesus’ risen life can remove our calluses, take away our weariness, and restore our joy that we might be compassionate, loving people in a world where too many still sit under death’s shroud.

I’m grateful that Mark tells us of the women’s fear.  It gives us our entry into the story, a place to join them, and thereby move with them into their fearless lives.

That’s the true celebration of Easter we seek: that we live our lives freed from death’s power to shut us down, to bow our shoulders, to slow our walk, to crush our spirits, to deaden our hearts.  We live our lives filled with the love of a God who loved us even after we killed God’s Son, and in rising from death, gave life and purpose to us now even while foreshadowing the life that is to come.

Jesus is risen, and the shroud that covers this world is torn to shreds, even now.  We may still be surrounded by evil and bordered by death, but we belong to the Risen One who is breaking through all those barriers, even now, and giving us life and hope, even now.  And so we sing, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Ordinary Grace


On this night, what is ordinary becomes extraordinary, what is everyday becomes holy.  Jesus washes our feet as a servant, and makes us servants to the world; he feeds us with bread and wine and we are filled with his presence and grace to be his presence and grace to the world.


Vicar Erik Doughty, Maundy Thursday; text: John 13:1-17, 31b-35; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

It took me about 36 ordinary years and one very nervous day before I let my feet be washed on Maundy Thursday.

And that day was full of all the ordinary excuses and concerns. My feet are FEET. They look a little odd. People don’t very often see them. What if they’ve sweated? What if my toes are weird. What socks should I wear? What shoes should I wear? Someone is going to wash my FEET?!

And then someone washed my feet. And it was both incredibly ordinary and very powerful. It was not what I expected. It turned out to be an act of love, of service, of community. Something gracious happened.

The first time I baked bread for Eucharist I watched Pastor Crippen with it at this altar and marveled, amazed that something so ordinary -- bread! From stuff I got at Byerly’s or the co-op and put together in my ordinary kitchen, you know? The ordinary bread I made became Christ for us, grace and strength for us. Outwardly, I acted the part of a good liturgical servant. Inwardly, my mouth was hanging open in amazement. It was NOT what I expected. Something gracious happened.

This night is just as ordinary and just as amazing, for the disciples and for us. Disciples, confused and stunned, fed and washed. They are in chaos. An ordinary execution is about to happen.

But tonight is not about anxiety for us. Tonight is about doing love and grace, doing what our Master Christ models for us. And that is: To wash one another’s feet. Have the humility and vulnerability to LET someone wash your feet. Wash somebody else’s feet. Know the grace, the servant life, the love in that act. God is present in that ordinary act.

And eat simple wheat bread; drink ordinary wine. Christ and grace and forgiveness and love is present in that ordinary act.

And love one another in such an honest, such an ordinary, such a real and visible way that others notice. It is the best evangelism in the world; and more importantly, it is Christ’s new commandment tonight. Love one another in every ordinary act.

For Christ will take all our ordinary sins from this footwashing, from this meal, from this community.

Dying on the cross, he will give his life for you,
his love for you,
his purity for you,
his own body for you.

For you and for this neighborhood, for you and for this nation, for you and for this whole dusty-footed, hungry world.

On the ordinary cross, something gracious is about to happen.

The Olive Branch, 4/2/12

Accent on Worship

Flip it around.

This week gets to be different.

Normally, many go about their lives – family, work – and add a little church into the mix: perhaps a half-day on Sunday, maybe a rehearsal or meeting during the week. The bulk of our non-sleeping-time, however – is usually work.

Holy Week invites us to do the exact opposite. From Thursday until Sunday, we can think of spending most of our awake time at church (with family) – at worship, and we add a little work to that schedule. Adding to that model, maybe we can bring “church” to our work. We can be thinking/praying about our faith journey this week as we go about our regular activities.

It is a week of focus. Beginning with sun-down Thursday, we are essentially here until noon Sunday. We are here twice on Friday, all evening until late Saturday, the back again early Sunday, blurry-eyed (or what I call “happy tired”). In addition to those times, many of us are here a lot, busy with preparations. This experience and focus again reminds of who we are, whose we are, and what our set of priorities really is. Our time and priorities are re-ordered for a few days.

What are we really about? What are these priorities? Jesus invites us not to just do time at church, but invites us into his journey. And we do so to the extent that we let go of everything that keeps us from putting our priorities where they need to be. As I see and perceive the world, the greatest misplaced energy and time is fear. Fear of not having enough, fear of health, fear of pain and suffering, and perhaps especially fear of death. This week, again, reminds us that abundance is not what the world usually thinks it is. It is love (which cannot be taken away) and absence of fear. Christ emptied himself, took up the cross and died. And it didn’t end there. That’s why we need not fear.

What more can there be? Perhaps the invitation is to go beyond doing this these three days only…

- Cantor David Cherwien



Holy Week at Mount Olive
Monday-Wednesday, April 2-4

Monday- Wednesday in Holy Week
Daily Prayer at 12:00 noon, in the side chapel of the nave, near the columbarium

Thursday, April 5: Maundy Thursday
Holy Eucharist at 7:00 pm

Friday, April 6: Good Friday
Stations of the Cross at 12:00 noon
Adoration of the Cross at 7:00 pm

Saturday, April 7: Holy Saturday
Lumen Christi, The Easter Vigil, at 8:30 pm, followed by a festive reception

Sunday, April 8: The Resurrection of Our Lord
Festival Holy Eucharist at 8:00 and 10:45 am
A Carry-In Easter Brunch will be served between liturgies at 9:30 am


Easter Carry-In Brunch

The Mount Olive youth will host an Easter Carry-In brunch at 9:30 a.m. (between the liturgies) this Sunday. Plan to come – and bring your favorite breakfast/brunch dish.



Adult Education on Palm Sunday Postponed to April 15

The Bread for the World presentation and 2012 Offering of Letters which was to be given on Palm Sunday was postponed to the Adult Education hour next Sunday, April 15. All are encouraged to come and make their voices heard for those most vulnerable in our nation.
The deficit-reduction bill that Congress has just passed is on its way to the Senate and could result in the most severe cuts to programs for hungry and poor people in Bread for the World's history. Come and learn how the deficit can be reduced without hurting those who already struggle to make ends meet, and write a letter to one or more of your representatives in Washington to create a "circle of protection" around those most vulnerable, by working to protect the programs for hungry and poor people.



Our Saviour’s Meal

Mount Olive is scheduled to serve the Our Saviour’s meal this Sunday (Easter) at 6:45 p.m. They are in need of additional helpers for this effort for this weekend!

If you are willing to help out on Easter evening, please call Connie Olson at 763-544-2381.



Congregation Meeting to Be Held Sunday, April 22, Noon

The purpose of the meeting is to elect officers and Directors for the coming year as well as hear a report of our delegates to the most recent Minneapolis Area Synod assembly.



Thursday evening Bible Study: Psalms series begins

The Thursday evening Bible study will continue (after a break for Maundy Thursday this week) until May 24. The series “Prayer and God’s People” will have its final session on Apr. 12. On Apr. 19, Vicar Doughty will begin a series on the Psalms which will conclude in May.

The study meets Thursdays at 6:00 p.m. in the Chapel Lounge. There is a light supper each night, provided by the participants. All are welcome to come, even if you haven't been before.



Book Discussion Group

On April 14 the Book Discussion Group will discuss Birth of Venus, by Sarah Dunant. For the meeting on May 12 they will discuss Paths of Glory, by Jeffrey Archer.

Advance announcement: at the meeting on July 14 we will discuss The Way We Live Now, by Anthony Trollope. This advance notice is shared due to the length of the book.



Knitting Group Schedule Change

Three large boxes of hand made hats, mittens, and scarves will be delivered to Our Saviour’s Shelter this week! Thanks to all who worked on behalf of others in this effort!

Please note that the knitting group will not meet on Easter Sunday, April 8, but we will resume our gatherings on May 13 (Mother’s Day). Bring along any suggestions you may have of a charity in need of our work … and bring your mom!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Ride On to Die


Jesus enters Jerusalem with full awareness that he his heading to his death, completing his covenant of love, and revealing the true king he is.  He chooses to love us, not destroy us, and to face our worst in order to win us back to God.


Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, Sunday of the Passion, year B; texts: Mark 14:1 – 15:47; John 12:12-16

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

We heard John the Evangelist say today, after telling of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on this Sunday of Holy Week, “His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him” (John 12:16).  They didn’t understand, until they had seen the rest of what happened – his trial, suffering, death, and ultimately his resurrection.

But Jesus did understand, even as he entered.  And that’s what we need to remember today.  It’s too easy to pretend that there are two conflicting things happening which we celebrate today, a joyous, triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and a descent into contemplating the terrible and awesome story of Jesus’ passion.  It may be that from our point of view these look like two different things.  Hosannas fade into shouts to crucify.  But for Jesus, they are one and the same event.

There’s a nineteenth century hymn written for this day that initially sounds like it’s taking the first point of view.  Each stanza begins “Ride on, ride on in majesty.”  But two of the stanzas continue with these words, “In lowly pomp, ride on to die.”  One stanza describes the angels in heaven watching the entrance into Jerusalem with “sad and wond’ring eyes to see the approaching sacrifice.”  The crowds and the disciples might not yet understand what’s going on.  They might think it’s a parade, a fun day.

But the hymnwriter is correct.  There are ones who really know what’s going on, the Son of God, the angels, and they know that this is already a funeral procession Jesus is making.  It is right that we hear an account of his Passion on this day.  It’s the only logical conclusion to his actions.

This is the only answer left to the Son of God who has come to complete God’s covenant of love with us.

It is only in this action that we fully can look back at God’s covenant with Noah with which we began Lent this year and see it as the covenant of non-violence that it was.  All along this Lent we’ve tried to understand God’s need to restore our relationship with him in a way that doesn’t destroy us.

Choosing a family, sending the law, calling prophets – none of this ultimately works.  And last week’s promise through Jeremiah’s mouth made this week inevitable: God would make a new covenant in our hearts, teach us the truth about God so that all would know, and forgive us, remembering our sin no more.

The coming of the Son of God into the world was that effort to show us God’s heart, to teach us.  That all might know God.  It is possible that the cross wouldn’t have been necessary, had we for the first time ever listened to God and followed.  But just as we rejected God from the beginning, so we rejected the Son of God when he came in the flesh, in person.

And because he will not fight us, he will love us to the end.  Even if we kill him.

Of course, the irony of our confusion about this day is that Jesus does enter Jerusalem today in a clearly royal way, calling to mind what the prophet Zechariah said.  All four Evangelists remind their hearers of this prophecy, that this was a king’s entrance he was making.  There’s a reason people shouted hosanna.

But only Jesus knew, though as John says his disciples figured it out later, only Jesus knew just what kind of a king he was.  He entered in apparent majesty, making a powerful political statement.  But he rallied no armies to his side, made no speeches.  He challenged the moneychangers in the temple that week, he faced off against the religious leaders in such a way that they felt compelled to arrest him.  But he never sought power.

We will see this most fully on Good Friday when we hear John’s telling of the Passion story, because it is John who most clearly says that Jesus is a king, but one who reigns from the cross.  Jesus will fulfill the covenant of the Creator of the Universe with us to love us and forgive us by doing this even as we kill him.

What this entrance with palms tells us more than anything else is that Jesus goes to the cross not as a victim, not as someone who is trapped, but as someone who will hold his course to bring God’s love to us in person even knowing that he will die for it.  Who will ride in as a king, knowing he will die to show us the kind of king he is for us.

We do this day in worship, and we celebrate the events of Holy Week not simply to re-tell the stories, but because, like the disciples, we don’t always understand.  But on this day, we are given this much: Jesus knew what would happen and he came to Jerusalem anyway.

He chose this over destroying us.  He chose this because he loved us.  He took this path because it was the only way to reconciliation God could see.

Matthew and Luke tell us that during Holy Week Jesus offered this lament over Jerusalem, that he had longed to gather his people together like a hen gathers her chicks, but they were not willing.  They were not willing.  We were not willing.  This is the story of the Old Testament.  The story of our lives.  So he chose to love us to the end.

And so we enter the deeper mystery of this week.

Not that the mood of the people changed, or that it went from a good start to a bad end.  But the mystery that the true God would so love us that the Son of God would face death to bring us back.  Would allow us to kill him in order to show the depth of his love and the commitment not to force us back.  Would not use power against us, even if it meant the worst.

And by letting us do our worst, even killing his Son, God overcame our hatred and rejection with the power of sacrificial love.  Best of all, in rising from the dead, Jesus once more invites us into the covenant relationship God has wanted all along, into the outstretched wings of the mother hen.  We may not yet understand.  But with the help of our risen King and Lord, one day we will.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

 

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Reconciling in ChristRIC

Copyright 2014 Mount Olive Lutheran Church