Accent on Worship
Back to normal?
We’ve now moved into our “normal” time of the Church Year, sometimes called “ordinary” time. After months of seemingly constant festivals, special seasons, times of penitence, times of celebration, we now have nearly as many months ahead where there is not much in the way of special observances. It’s a nice change at this stage, though by the end of the season after Pentecost I usually feel ready for the big run ahead as a Church Year ends and another begins.
But I wonder if we’re really “back to normal” at all. Or if we even want to be. In fact, in these early weeks of the season of Pentecost we are still not far from hearing that marvelous story of the coming of the Spirit to those first believers. Sound of wind, the sight of flames on or around their heads, and the gift of language to tell the Good News of Jesus to all in Jerusalem, that was a remarkable day, that birth-day of the Church. And those disciples never got “back to normal.” Read the account in Acts 2: 3,000 new believers on the first day, the disciples bravely out in the streets and in the Temple telling that the crucified Jesus is raised from death and is Lord and God. Very soon some of these believers were persecuted for their witnessing, some jailed, and some killed. I wonder if they sometimes wished it could be “back to normal.”
I doubt it. Not that there was always something wrong with “normal.” For some, it was a working merchant life as independent fishermen. For others, especially the women, there were families to raise, and daily housework to do. For many, “normal” used to be a state of pain and fear due to illness, or possession. So some of “normal” was good for these disciples, some bad, but for all this was their reality: once they met Jesus they were changed forever. And once he was raised from the dead, they would never know normal again.
It’s not highly likely that we’ll experience 3,000 new believers being baptized in one day, or should be expecting tongues of fire at our times together (though maybe we shouldn’t underestimate the Spirit!), but in the same way those early disciples were changed forever so are we. The Spirit is calling us to new things here at Mount Olive, always opening us to new visions of our service to God here. “Normal” life cannot be lived keeping to our own back yards, or our own church building walls. Once the Spirit has enflamed us with God’s love, filled us with faith in the risen Jesus, and showered us with gifts, we will never be the same.
It could be frightening, what the Spirit calls us to be. Sometimes those early believers must have been scared. But like them, we know that the Triune God is with us always, blessing us with love and sending us out to share that love. We know that we have life in our Lord Jesus as we gather around Word and Sacrament each week and as we are sent out by the Spirit into the world. We know that we are loved by the God of the universe, forever and always, and changed into children of God. Who’d ever want to go back to normal after that?
- Joseph
Olive Branch Summer Publication
Please note that during the months of June, July, and August, The Olive Branch is published every other week. This is the last weekly issue until after Labor Day. The next issue will be published on June 12.
Attention Graduates!
If you are a regular worshipper (member or friend of the congregation) and will be graduating from high school, college, or a graduate school this spring, please let us know as soon as possible. We want to be sure all graduates are included in our upcoming graduate recognition.
Simply call the church office (612-827-5919), or drop an email (welcome@mountolivechurch.org).
Bach Tage Events
Saturday, June 8, 4 pm - Bach Masterworks Concert, featuring Marc Levine (Baroque violin), Tami Morse (harpsichord), and Tulio Rondón (Viola de gamba).
Sunday, June 9, 4 pm – Evening Prayer with Bach Cantatas 36 and 123; Susan Palo Cherwien, Susan Druck, William Pederson, and Daniel Mahraun, soloists.
Hebrews Study on Thursday Evenings
Meeting in the Chapel Lounge from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Pr. Crippen is currently leading a study of the book of Hebrews, an early Christian sermon preserved in the New Testament. As usual, there will be a light supper when we begin. The final session of this study is June 6. All are welcome to this study opportunity!
Summer Jobs After School
The Summer Jobs After School Program is in need of one more volunteer. If you would like to hang out with three or four cool kids to supervise jobs and an art project once a week for up to two hours for six weeks, call Donna at church, 612-827-5919. Summer Jobs After School will run from the first week in July through mid-August. It’s a lot of fun!
Coffee Hour Birthday Celebration
The families of Andrea Kloempken Volk and David Kloempken will host the coffee hour after the liturgy this Sunday, June 2, in honor of Leanna Kloempken’s 80th birthday. Please come by for the special treats and to help Leanna celebrate!
Adult Forum June 9
Jessinia Ruff, daughter of Mark and Lisa, is a recent high school graduate. She will be traveling to the Dominican Republic with SCORE International for an 8 month-long trip to study Spanish and participate in local ministry. Following the liturgy on June 9, she will talk more about the organization, the work she'll be doing there, and how you can support her.
Vision for the Future/Our Vision and Energy: Sunday June 2, 2013
At our first Vision Event in April, we looked at our history and who we have been and what moved us to become who we are today. Decade by decade God’s purpose was revealed as the people of Mount Olive responded to Word and Sacrament with action, outreach, and service.
At our second Vision Event on May 5, we began by acknowledging that we strive to be Musical, Liturgical and Welcoming, and from there we defined other core values to guide Mount Olive into the future. Two values rose to the top as primary: grace and hospitality. Six other values also were core to our discussion: love, sacredness, justice, commitment, compassion and joy. What would it mean to measure all of our decisions and actions against these values?
Now it is time to use what we have learned and brainstorm together about what we may become over the next five years. Join us this Sunday to Visioning Event #3 and add your ideas to the wealth of information your Vision Task Force will digest over the summer. At Sunday’s event you will have the opportunity to choose from four discussion groups.
• Group #1 will generate a list of Mount Olive’s strengths and select two or three that, if built upon, could really move our ministry forward.
• Group #2 will focus on areas for further development, isolating two or three areas and suggesting ways we can move from good to better.
• Group #3 will examine the community data gained by our Observers and Interviewers over the last six weeks and see what it is telling us about where and how we need to reach out.
• Group #4 is for dreamers who will open doors and windows to what Mount Olive might be, brainstorming without thought of limitations or roadblocks.
Join us June 2 for the final vision gathering to give input on Mount Olive's strengths (values), neighborhood surrounding the church (community observers and interviewers) and a vision for our next steps. We need your vision and energy! We will gather in the Undercroft after worship on Sunday, share a simple lunch, and work together to discern God’s will for our work in this faith community. See you there!
- Your Vision Leadership Team
Night On the Street Recap
On April 19 I participated in a night out on the street. I would be lying to you if I said I was excited to do it. And when the night rolled around I wasn't in the greatest of moods, but my attitude changed the further into the night we got.
I and my dear friend, Peter Crippen, arrived there on a Friday afternoon, and as soon as we pulled into the parking lot we saw a huge crowd and a big stage. They had all the currently popular music playing and people having fun. They started us off playing some games and listening to music. Then they went on to tell us about the program and what we would be doing for the rest of the night. So after I got my dinner baggy (which contained some very well done chili, a corn muffin, a chocolate chip cookie and an apple), we went inside the church. They brought our group to a room at the far end of the hall, it was a fairly big room and, compared to the others, rather comfortable.
They sat us down, did their introductions, and then brought in a few groups to speak to us. But the one that caught my attention the most was a man who was homeless when he was a kid. He told us about how he would have to sleep during the day (since sleeping at night was, and still is, rather dangerous). When he could sleep at night it would be at a homeless shelter, and he went on to tell us how they sleep on not much more than a gym mat. He also told us that when they do go to those shelters for a night, they'd have to sleep with everything on, like shoes, socks, and even sometimes backpacks. Because if they didn't, their possessions would get stolen.
Later that night we went to the chapel of the church and there they hosted an amusing play. The play was not really relevant to what we were doing, and I started to wonder, "what does this have to do with homeless people?" But at the end they explained how the little play tied in with what they were doing and it made better sense. Later, we went outside and the iron clad doors were closed and we were told we are not allowed back in. And so we all prepared for a very cold night. On the stage they "rewarded" the churches who raised the most money, and then we said some prayers and got briefed on what was going to happen and what we would be doing that night. So Peter and I and the rest of the group we were in set out across the slippery parking lot to grab our shelter, a Grade A cardboard box. We set up our little camp, and hey, our "camp" looked like something out of a post- apocalyptic science fiction movie. After some talking, I considered going to sleep and then going home the next morning. But the person I was talking to noticed a group of people congregating at a trailer, and he realized they were giving cookies and cocoa out (one detail of the night I wasn't made aware of until that night!), so we went over and ate our cookies and drank our cocoa and went to sleep.
The next morning they fed us granola bars and fruit. Then they had us take a big group photo and after all that was done we went back to the chapel and they debriefed us on the night, showed us a video they made with recordings, and then we sang a few songs, or rather, the same song repeated every time a group representative went up to say something. After that we went and cleaned up the mess of the parking lot. I won't lie, I was disappointed seeing the little post- apocalyptic camp we created with tarps and boxes being taken down, but then I got over it and we went home. And by the end I possessed 3 new things: 1.) a new perspective on homeless, more importantly, homeless youth (witch this thing was all about); 2.) the experience of sleeping on a fairly empty stomach; and 3.) knowing what it was like freezing outside in the dead of night. And yes the last one might sound negative, but it does make you ask yourself, "they sleep like this every night?"
All in all I had a great time! And I would like to thank all the people at Mount Olive who donated money to make it possible for me to attend!
- Eric Manuel
A Note of Thanks
To Our Mount Olive Church Family
We want to thank you for your care, concern, and prayers during Stan's recent hospitalization and while in transitional care. Thank you to Pastor Crippen and Vicar Neal for your visits to boost our Spirits. Stan is now at home and our journey continues with extensive rehabilitation/therapy.
We also want to thank the prayer shawl committee for the shawl. It has provided soft comfort and warmth (both physically and emotionally) for both of us.
We need your continued prayers of hope for Stan's recovery toward optimum health.
Thank You and God's Blessings,
Stan and Jo Ann Sorenson
Remember the Hungry and Homeless
Now that the end of the school year is at hand, our thoughts turn to vacations. In your travels, please remember to save unused complimentary toiletries for homeless persons. These, as well as trial size toiletries that can be purchased, are ideal because of their small size. Please bring your donations to the coat room at Mount Olive.
Also, as you may know, food needs are even greater in the summer months when children are not in school receiving free lunches. Please keep this in mind when making your food donations. CES (Community Emergency Services) has a food shelf to which we contribute. For our guidance, they have listed some needed items as follows: Chili, Sugar, Beef Stew, Salt, Canned Beets, Cooking Oil, Pudding Cups, Jello Cups, Coffee/Tea, Toilet Paper, Cocoa, Mac and Microwaveable Cups
Your usual generous response will do much to help provide for hungry children. Thank you!
Book Discussion Group
Mount Olive’s Book Discussion group meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 a.m. at church. For the June 8 meeting, they will discuss The Calligrapher's Daughter, by Eugenia Kim. For July 13, they will read The Violent Bear It Away, by Flannery O'Connor. And advance notification (because of its length) that for August 10 they will discuss Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Lost and Found
The Lost and Found basket is filled to overflowing and our kitchens cluttered with pans and dishes which have been left at church. This Sunday, June 2, please plan to visit the Lost and Found table, which will be set up in or near the coat room. There may be things there which belong to you that you didn’t even know were missing!
TRUST News: Attention Runners
If you are a marathon runner and are looking forward to a summer of running, TRUST’s Parish Nurse Program is sponsoring a 5K and a 10K run on June 8. For information about or enrollment forms for this race, please look on the bulletin board located on the lower level of Mount Olive, just outside Donna Neste’s office.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Mysterious God
The Triune God is like a riddle and a mystery that we cannot fully comprehend. And like all good riddles it is in the mystery itself that we are drawn to God. In this mystery we proclaim that through the Triune God all things are possible.
Vicar Neal Cannon; The Holy Trinity, year C; text: John 16:12-15; Romans 5:1-5
Sisters and Brothers in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Today is Holy Trinity Sunday, and being as how the Trinity is one of the most complicated concepts of the Christian faith I thought that we should do some mental stretching with a couple of riddles.
What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries? A towel.
I can run but not walk. Wherever I go, thought follows close behind. What am I? A nose.
What goes around the world but stays in a corner? A stamp.
Some of you may like riddles, others not so much. But for all of us riddles are like a bug in our brain that we can’t get out. We humans have an intense desire to know the answer, to solve the problem. But if you are like me, then knowing the answer to the riddle is far less interesting than being in the mystery of the riddle. In fact, for me, actually knowing the answer makes the riddle seem silly, maybe even a little bit boring.
Our God is a little bit like an unsolved riddle; mysterious and sometimes cryptic. Our God is a God that is impossible to figure out, box up, or define. The Old Testament is full of references to God’s unknowability. For example, when Moses asks for God’s name, God responds to him, I AM WHO I AM or in some translations, I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE. How’s that for a riddle?
Later Moses approaches God again and asks to see God’s glory. And God infamously responds, “‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’ But, he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.’”
As Pastor Crippen said in his sermon last week, this is not a God that we can control. And what’s more, in many ways this is not a God that we can fully know. This is a God who shows us God’s back, wrestles with us in the dark, and whose face we cannot look upon and live.
On this Holy Trinity Sunday there seems no greater riddle in all the Old and New Testaments than the fact that we Christians claim a God that is Triune in nature; three and one. This is to say that we believe in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as completely separate and individual, yet completely One God. Solving this riddle seems impossible.
Recently I saw a great satirical YouTube video about the Trinity, where two cartoon Irishmen ask St. Patrick to unravel the mystery of the Trinity with a simple analogy. Every time St. Patrick tries to define the Trinity as a three leaf clover or as how water exists as both ice, vapor, and liquid, in a bantering kind of way the Irishmen explain exactly how these analogies are a heresy of one kind or another. Ultimately, St. Patrick resorts to merely reciting the Athanasian Creed, essentially throwing his hands in the air and admitting there are no adequate human analogies, rather The Trinity JUST IS HOW IT IS.
It feels like God often chooses to come to us in mystery and cloud, and darkness. It feels like God often comes to us in a riddle, only it’s a riddle that we can’t solve and don’t fully understand.
And I can’t help but think that God comes to us in mysterious ways because the more we realize that we don’t understand God, the more we actually want to know God. The more of a riddle that God is to us, the more we desire to be close to God’s very presence. Maybe, God actually desires to be a mystery to us.
This is not to say that we can’t understand anything about God. Our Scriptures, creeds and doctrines actually tell us the story of those things that God has revealed to us. But understanding that God never fully reveals Godself to us simply admits that we don’t know everything about God. God is Triune because God is I AM. We say that while we don’t fully understand how, we believe that God revealed Godself in Jesus Christ, and God continues to reveal Godself in the Holy Spirit who comes to us now.
This means that God has mercy on whom God has mercy, and God will have compassion on whom God will have compassion. It means that the Spirit goes wherever the Spirit goes and reveals whatever the Spirit reveals and we as humans can’t control it, don’t understand it, yet say that it’s true.
After all, in the Gospel of John Jesus tells us that there are some things that we are not ready to hear, and then tells us that when the Spirit of Truth comes the Spirit will guide us into all truth; meaning that right now, we don’t have all the answers and we don’t own the truth. There are things that we haven’t been able to understand and there are things that God is still telling us about what God’s plans are in the world.
Despite this, many branches of Christianity expect that we have perfect doctrine and that we know all the right words and have said all the right prayers in order to be accepted by God and communities as “true believers.” So Christians for centuries have tried to rationalize their beliefs about God and put the infinite in a neat little box. For example, many Christians even today insist that the world is 6,000 years old despite scientific evidence to the contrary. And so when dinosaurs were discovered many Christians claimed that God was merely testing our faith. And, at one point in our history the Pope put Galileo under house arrest for claiming that the Earth was not at the center of the universe, because it went against doctrine.
And it’s not that other Christians are the only ones unable to hear the Spirit of Truth. We have to ask ourselves, what am I unwilling to hear? Are we really ready to know who made our iPhones and Nike shoes? Do we really want to know where our food comes from, or are we content with how things are?
The point is that God is always bigger than our imaginations, bigger than us; that God has done, is doing, and will do things in this world that we have not yet even imagined. And so maybe the Triune God, who comes to us in mystery, wants us to embrace mystery itself.
Embracing mystery is much harder than embracing easy answers. Embracing mystery means not relying on ourselves or our own knowledge or works, but rather relying on something we don’t understand and sometimes isn’t fully here yet. For example, Paul writes in his letter to the Romans that we are justified and forgiven not by our own works, but through Jesus Christ. And in our reading today, Paul says something that is rather peculiar, Paul says, “And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
Now think about who Paul is talking to for a minute. Paul is addressing the early Christians who are being persecuted by the Romans for their beliefs and essentially tells them to hope. What’s odd about this, is that hope, by its very definition is not certain. We hope that someday we’ll win the lottery, but we don’t know that we will. We hope that we’ll have nice weather this summer, but we don’t know that it’s coming. We hope that two years from now we’ll be promoted or still have our jobs but the truth is, we don’t know.
Note that Paul doesn’t try to explain their suffering and evil. He doesn’t tell them that they are suffering because they are sinful or because of a particular ideology. Too often in the world Christians have tried to explain evil as if God allowed 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina to happen because of one group or one sin. What’s more, Christians have used the Scriptures as a way of saying all the things that God can’t do – slaves can’t be free, women can’t be pastors, gay men and women can’t be married – rather than submitting ourselves to all the things that God can do. But the truth is that explaining evil is just another way that we try to put God in a box by explaining things that we don’t understand.
Paul doesn’t do this. Instead, Paul opens our imaginations to hope in what God does through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Paul says that because the Son of God suffered, died, and rose for the world, we learned something about God. We learned that this mysterious God isn’t seeking to destroy us, but desperately wants us to be in community with the Trinity.
And so when tragedy, and death, and sadness enter our lives – when tornadoes destroy and bombs explode and jobs are lost – Paul says that we too can have certain hope even when we can’t answer the question, “Why is this happening?” We don’t have to search for answers and blame evil on certain “other” groups or on ourselves. No. Because of what God has done we can say that evil exists AND the Triune God’s love for us is certain, even if we don’t understand how. As Paul says later in I Corinthians, “For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.”
And it is in the riddle of God’s Triune mystery and in these words, that the Holy Spirit dares us to see God as bigger than our imaginations, bigger than our limitations, and yes, even bigger than our creeds and doctrines. In these words we admit that we see God only in part and submit ourselves to the not yet imagined things that God is doing in the world.
So through this Spirit we see the unexpected things that God has done, slave and free are equal, women preach and prophesy as men do, and gay and lesbian couples can love and be loved by God and the world in the same way as straight couples. Therefore, let us open our hearts and minds to the infinite possibility of God.
I AM WHO I AM, says the Lord. What a great mystery.
Vicar Neal Cannon; The Holy Trinity, year C; text: John 16:12-15; Romans 5:1-5
Sisters and Brothers in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Today is Holy Trinity Sunday, and being as how the Trinity is one of the most complicated concepts of the Christian faith I thought that we should do some mental stretching with a couple of riddles.
What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries? A towel.
I can run but not walk. Wherever I go, thought follows close behind. What am I? A nose.
What goes around the world but stays in a corner? A stamp.
Some of you may like riddles, others not so much. But for all of us riddles are like a bug in our brain that we can’t get out. We humans have an intense desire to know the answer, to solve the problem. But if you are like me, then knowing the answer to the riddle is far less interesting than being in the mystery of the riddle. In fact, for me, actually knowing the answer makes the riddle seem silly, maybe even a little bit boring.
Our God is a little bit like an unsolved riddle; mysterious and sometimes cryptic. Our God is a God that is impossible to figure out, box up, or define. The Old Testament is full of references to God’s unknowability. For example, when Moses asks for God’s name, God responds to him, I AM WHO I AM or in some translations, I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE. How’s that for a riddle?
Later Moses approaches God again and asks to see God’s glory. And God infamously responds, “‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’ But, he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.’”
As Pastor Crippen said in his sermon last week, this is not a God that we can control. And what’s more, in many ways this is not a God that we can fully know. This is a God who shows us God’s back, wrestles with us in the dark, and whose face we cannot look upon and live.
On this Holy Trinity Sunday there seems no greater riddle in all the Old and New Testaments than the fact that we Christians claim a God that is Triune in nature; three and one. This is to say that we believe in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as completely separate and individual, yet completely One God. Solving this riddle seems impossible.
Recently I saw a great satirical YouTube video about the Trinity, where two cartoon Irishmen ask St. Patrick to unravel the mystery of the Trinity with a simple analogy. Every time St. Patrick tries to define the Trinity as a three leaf clover or as how water exists as both ice, vapor, and liquid, in a bantering kind of way the Irishmen explain exactly how these analogies are a heresy of one kind or another. Ultimately, St. Patrick resorts to merely reciting the Athanasian Creed, essentially throwing his hands in the air and admitting there are no adequate human analogies, rather The Trinity JUST IS HOW IT IS.
It feels like God often chooses to come to us in mystery and cloud, and darkness. It feels like God often comes to us in a riddle, only it’s a riddle that we can’t solve and don’t fully understand.
And I can’t help but think that God comes to us in mysterious ways because the more we realize that we don’t understand God, the more we actually want to know God. The more of a riddle that God is to us, the more we desire to be close to God’s very presence. Maybe, God actually desires to be a mystery to us.
This is not to say that we can’t understand anything about God. Our Scriptures, creeds and doctrines actually tell us the story of those things that God has revealed to us. But understanding that God never fully reveals Godself to us simply admits that we don’t know everything about God. God is Triune because God is I AM. We say that while we don’t fully understand how, we believe that God revealed Godself in Jesus Christ, and God continues to reveal Godself in the Holy Spirit who comes to us now.
This means that God has mercy on whom God has mercy, and God will have compassion on whom God will have compassion. It means that the Spirit goes wherever the Spirit goes and reveals whatever the Spirit reveals and we as humans can’t control it, don’t understand it, yet say that it’s true.
After all, in the Gospel of John Jesus tells us that there are some things that we are not ready to hear, and then tells us that when the Spirit of Truth comes the Spirit will guide us into all truth; meaning that right now, we don’t have all the answers and we don’t own the truth. There are things that we haven’t been able to understand and there are things that God is still telling us about what God’s plans are in the world.
Despite this, many branches of Christianity expect that we have perfect doctrine and that we know all the right words and have said all the right prayers in order to be accepted by God and communities as “true believers.” So Christians for centuries have tried to rationalize their beliefs about God and put the infinite in a neat little box. For example, many Christians even today insist that the world is 6,000 years old despite scientific evidence to the contrary. And so when dinosaurs were discovered many Christians claimed that God was merely testing our faith. And, at one point in our history the Pope put Galileo under house arrest for claiming that the Earth was not at the center of the universe, because it went against doctrine.
And it’s not that other Christians are the only ones unable to hear the Spirit of Truth. We have to ask ourselves, what am I unwilling to hear? Are we really ready to know who made our iPhones and Nike shoes? Do we really want to know where our food comes from, or are we content with how things are?
The point is that God is always bigger than our imaginations, bigger than us; that God has done, is doing, and will do things in this world that we have not yet even imagined. And so maybe the Triune God, who comes to us in mystery, wants us to embrace mystery itself.
Embracing mystery is much harder than embracing easy answers. Embracing mystery means not relying on ourselves or our own knowledge or works, but rather relying on something we don’t understand and sometimes isn’t fully here yet. For example, Paul writes in his letter to the Romans that we are justified and forgiven not by our own works, but through Jesus Christ. And in our reading today, Paul says something that is rather peculiar, Paul says, “And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”
Now think about who Paul is talking to for a minute. Paul is addressing the early Christians who are being persecuted by the Romans for their beliefs and essentially tells them to hope. What’s odd about this, is that hope, by its very definition is not certain. We hope that someday we’ll win the lottery, but we don’t know that we will. We hope that we’ll have nice weather this summer, but we don’t know that it’s coming. We hope that two years from now we’ll be promoted or still have our jobs but the truth is, we don’t know.
Note that Paul doesn’t try to explain their suffering and evil. He doesn’t tell them that they are suffering because they are sinful or because of a particular ideology. Too often in the world Christians have tried to explain evil as if God allowed 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina to happen because of one group or one sin. What’s more, Christians have used the Scriptures as a way of saying all the things that God can’t do – slaves can’t be free, women can’t be pastors, gay men and women can’t be married – rather than submitting ourselves to all the things that God can do. But the truth is that explaining evil is just another way that we try to put God in a box by explaining things that we don’t understand.
Paul doesn’t do this. Instead, Paul opens our imaginations to hope in what God does through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Paul says that because the Son of God suffered, died, and rose for the world, we learned something about God. We learned that this mysterious God isn’t seeking to destroy us, but desperately wants us to be in community with the Trinity.
And so when tragedy, and death, and sadness enter our lives – when tornadoes destroy and bombs explode and jobs are lost – Paul says that we too can have certain hope even when we can’t answer the question, “Why is this happening?” We don’t have to search for answers and blame evil on certain “other” groups or on ourselves. No. Because of what God has done we can say that evil exists AND the Triune God’s love for us is certain, even if we don’t understand how. As Paul says later in I Corinthians, “For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.”
And it is in the riddle of God’s Triune mystery and in these words, that the Holy Spirit dares us to see God as bigger than our imaginations, bigger than our limitations, and yes, even bigger than our creeds and doctrines. In these words we admit that we see God only in part and submit ourselves to the not yet imagined things that God is doing in the world.
So through this Spirit we see the unexpected things that God has done, slave and free are equal, women preach and prophesy as men do, and gay and lesbian couples can love and be loved by God and the world in the same way as straight couples. Therefore, let us open our hearts and minds to the infinite possibility of God.
I AM WHO I AM, says the Lord. What a great mystery.
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
The Olive Branch, 5/22/13
Accent on Worship
The Holy Trinity
In this Sunday’s readings for The Holy Trinity, we are given a vision in the lessons, the Gospel and the Psalm of a cosmic Creator God, and the story of God’s creation in spirit and matter. Wisdom, a spiritual entity, is personified in Proverbs as a feminine being, a companion to the Creator from the beginning. Psalm 8 is a tribute to the Creator for the majesty of the universe, the material world. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans about suffering, which is done in the physical body and the powerful spiritual force of hope. Jesus, who will soon physically depart from his disciples, tells them of how he will continue to be with them in the Spirit who will guild them and communicate with them in this world.
The life force that resonates through all that is living originates with the spiritual force of God’s love. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us,” writes Paul.
We are called by the life and love of Jesus to manifest God’s love in the material world, in which we live. We love by being physically present to those in need. When our sisters and brothers are suffering, we are called to suffer through the sacrificial giving of our material (matter) and ourselves (spirit). And, “that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,” writes Paul.
We have been created to live in love, trust, kindness, and hope with God and one another. And we do this in the spirit and the flesh. For this reason Wisdom is portrayed as “rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.”
- Donna Neste
Sunday Readings
May 26, 2013 – The Holy Trinity
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 + Psalm 8
Romans 5:1-5 + John 16:12-15
June 2, 2013 – Time after Pentecost: Sunday 9
I Kings 8:22-23, 41-43 + Psalm 96:1-9
Galatians 1:1-12 + Luke 7:1-10
Summer Worship Schedule Begins This Weekend!
Beginning this Sunday, May 26, and running through Sunday, September 1, Mount Olive celebrates one Sunday Eucharist at 9:30 a.m.
Olive Branch Summer Publication
Please note that during the months of June, July, and August, The Olive Branch is published every other week. Weekly publication resumes after Labor Day.
Attention Graduates!
If you are a regular worshipper (member or friend of the congregation) and will be graduating from high school, college, or a graduate school this spring, please let us know as soon as possible. We want to be sure all graduates are included in our upcoming graduate recognition.
Simply call the church office (612-827-5919), or drop an email (welcome@mountolivechurch.org).
Hebrews Study on Thursday Evenings
Meeting in the Chapel Lounge from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Pr. Crippen is currently leading a study of the book of Hebrews, an early Christian sermon preserved in the New Testament. As usual, there will be a light supper when we begin. All are welcome to this study opportunity!
Summer Jobs After School
The Summer Jobs After School Program is in need of one more volunteer. If you would like to hang out with three or four cool kids to supervise jobs and an art project once a week for up to two hours for six weeks, call Donna at church, 612-827-5919. Summer Jobs After School will run from the first week in July through mid-August. It’s a lot of fun!
Book Discussion Group
Mount Olive’s Book Discussion group meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 a.m. at church. For the June 8 meeting, they will discuss The Calligrapher's Daughter, by Eugenia Kim. For July 13, they will read The Violent Bear It Away, by Flannery O'Connor. And advance notification (because of its length) that for August 10 we will discuss Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Adult Forum June 9
Jessinia Ruff, daughter of Mark and Lisa, is a recent high school graduate. She will be traveling to the Dominican Republic with SCORE International for an 8 month-long trip to study Spanish and participate in local ministry. Following the liturgy on June 9, she will talk more about the organization, the work she'll be doing there, and how you can support her.
A Letter of Thanks
Dear Friends at Mount Olive—
It is my pleasure to forward to you a letter I recently received on behalf of Mt. Olive from our Bethania partners in India. You may recall that some months ago Bethania received a $5,000 grant out of the Capital Campaign tithe to help fund the start of a new mission project for children in the State of Odisha in India. Thanks in no small part to that “seed money”, the work in this remote and largely unchurched part of India has successfully begun.
You may also be interested to know that the author of the letter was Godfrey Immanuel Rajkumar. Godfrey was one of the two visitors from Bethania who were at Mount Olive two years ago. As the Odisha project has taken shape, Godfrey has been one of the key leaders in getting this project off the ground.
Let me finally add a personal word of thanks for the grant that was awarded. As some of you know, Mount Olive was one of the original supporters of Bethania going back to 1987. The faithful support over the years has been much appreciated as Bethania continues to spread the “Good News” to some of India’s neediest children.
God bless you and all the good people at Mount Olive!
- Gene Hennig
Remember the Hungry and Homeless
Now that the end of the school year is at hand, our thoughts turn to vacations. In your travels, please remember to save unused complimentary toiletries for homeless persons. These, as well as trial size toiletries that can be purchased, are ideal because of their small size. Please bring your donations to the coat room at Mount Olive.
Also, as you may know, food needs are even greater in the summer months when children are not in school receiving free lunches. Please keep this in mind when making your food donations. CES (Community Emergency Services) has a food shelf to which we contribute. For our guidance, they have listed some needed items as follows: Chili, Sugar, Beef Stew, Salt, Canned Beets, Cooking Oil, Pudding Cups, Jello Cups, Coffee/Tea, Toilet Paper, Cocoa, Mac and Microwaveable Cups.
Your usual generous response will do much to help provide for hungry children. Thank you!
“Procession” arrives at Mount Olive
Thanks to a generous gift by the Mount Olive Foundation, John August Swanson’s magnificent painting “Procession” has come to Mount Olive. It is hanging in the Chapel Lounge, though that placement may change. “Procession” is a beautiful, complex painting of a massive, celebratory liturgical procession, with portrayals of biblical stories throughout, banners and musical instruments and singing people. The artist says this about the painting: “It is not my desire that the complexity and intricacy of this work confuse or confound, but that it illuminate and inspire. We are invited to join together in the procession to help each other see in ways we have never seen before, to help each other see again what we have forgotten, to see something familiar in a new way, in a new light, from a different perspective. The great procession is a celebration of life and faith where the rich and poor march in unison; the strong carry the weak, and the weak humble the proud; those who know the dance teach those who are just learning; and a child lifts high the banner for all to follow in joy, in peace, in love. This is the reality, the spirit I want to make real in this work.” This painting celebrates a life of worship and praise of God to which Mount Olive aspires.
Swanson painted “Procession” in 1980, and created a signed, serigraph edition of 250 in 2007; Mount Olive’s is number 180 in the series. For more information and reflections by the artist, see his website description of this work: http://www.johnaugustswanson.com/default.cfm/PID=1.2.21.
Thanks are due to the Mount Olive foundation for this gift, and to Paul Nixdorf and Brian Jacobs for their assistance in procuring it and having it framed.
Church Library News
We are pleased to invite you into our library to see and browse in the newest display of books. Included are three books given in memory of someone and almost a dozen books that have been donated by one of our congregation's members. There are also some nice additions to our children's book section.
Memorial Books:
• WHAT A SON NEEDS FROM HIS DAD (How a Man Prepares His Sons for Life) by Michael A. O'Donnell, Ph.D., given in memory of Warren Bartz
• GOD'S ANSWERS TO LIFE'S DIFFICULT QUESTIONS (Living With Purpose series) by Rick Warren, given in memory of Bill Laack
• MY HEART'S CRY -- Longing for More of Jesus by Anne Graham Lotz, given in memory of Vernette Schroeder
Donated Books:
• THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, Annotated and Explained by Ron Miller, given to our library by David Ludwig
• THE RIVER OF GOD (a New History of Christian Origins) by Gregory J. Riley, given by David Ludwig
• THE UNVARNISHED NEW TESTAMENT, A New Translation from the Original Greek Translation by Andy Gaus, given by David Ludwig
• THE JOURNEYS OF ST. PAUL (Bible Wisdom for Today) by James Harpur, given by David Ludwig.
• CAREGIVING FOR YOUR LOVED ONES by Mary Vaughn Armstrong, given by Adam Krueger
• WISDOM ABOUT WAR AND NON-VIOLENCE (30 Thoughts to Discuss and Ponder) with Lowell Erdahl and Duane Kamrath, given by Al Bostelmann
• ONLY ANGELS CAN WING IT (The Rest of Us Have to Practice) by Liz Curtis Higgs, given by Hans Tisberger
• MARTIN LUTHER -- A PENGUIN LIFE by Martin Marty, given by Mary Dorow.
• MY REAL FAMILY (a Child's Book About living in a Step Family) by Doris Sanford, given by Leanna Kloempken
More New Books:
• TRAVELING LIGHT (Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear), by Max Lucado
• REDEMPTION, RETURN, and TUESDAY MORNING (3 separate books about the Victim of the September 11, 2001 Terrorism Attack), the first two by Karen Kingsbury and Gary Smalley and the last in the series is written by Karen Kingsbury alone.
• GOD'S BEAUTIFUL HEAVEN, by Julie Cadalbert
• HELP WANTED (Devotions for Job Seekers), by Aaron M. Basko
• ALWAYS THERE (Reflections for Mom's on God's Presence), by Susan Wallace
• 3 Special Children’s books in the Helping Hand Books series, written by Sarah, Duchess of York -- EMILY'S FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, MICHAEL AND HIS NEW BABY BROTHER, and MATTHEW AND THE BULLIES.
Also, remember that with the coming of the summer church schedule, our church library's hours will change to being open 45 minutes after each Sunday's liturgy.
I’ll close with this quote from Archibald MacLeish: "What is more important in a library than anything else -- than everything else -- is the fact that it exists!
- Leanna Kloempken
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Come, Spirit of Truth
The Holy Spirit leads us to the truth of God: Jesus our Savior, God-with-us, who calls us to bear God’s love to the world. However, we are not capable of controlling where the Triune God works, nor are we called to that task.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, Day of Pentecost, year C; texts: John 14:8-17, 25-27; Acts 2:1-21
Sisters and brothers, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
One of many impressions I had of the recent vote for marriage equality in our state’s legislature is the image of impassioned Christians on both sides of this issue, and the sense that to a large degree this was an internal Christian debate overlaid upon a civil question of equal protection and rights under the law. This is, no doubt, due to the fact that Christians are still the majority religion in this state. But still, it was striking to me how often senators and representatives invoked God’s will on their points of view on a public, civil issue, and specifically the will of the Triune God, because most claimed to be Christian. At one point a senator who was opposed to the measure cried out that voting for this bill was a vote against religious freedom. What was clear by her argument, however, was that for her, religious freedom was the state enforcing and endorsing her own religious views, her own understanding of Christian teaching, in spite of the fact that some Christians, people of her own faith, passionately disagreed with her view of Christian teaching. Likewise, when a senator argues on the floor of the State Senate that he is more interested in being on the “right side of eternity” as opposed to the right side of history, we have a conversation that has been hijacked from the realm of civil discourse into the realm of inter-Christian discourse. It was disconcerting, to say the least.
But it is not a new thing. Christians in power tend to use that power against each other as well as against people of other faiths with whom they disagree. We fight over what we consider to be the truth, God’s truth, and if we get political power, it can become very ugly. Only the protections of our federal and state constitutions keep us from falling into the sins and errors of our ancestors, who took this enforcing of their sense of God’s truth on others to sometimes violent and tragic extremes, such as the Inquisition or the Crusades.
Jesus promises today to send us the Spirit of truth. At the birth of the Church, that same Holy Spirit filled the believers and they preached the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. 3,000 people became new believers that day. How do we get from there to Inquisition and Crusade? From there, to what we see in America today, some Christians arguing for what essentially would be a Christian state, for a nation where there’s no room for those who are not true believers? From there to denominations in fights with each other and with other denominations over who has the truth and who really believes the right things? If the Spirit of God is supposed to lead us to truth how do we listen over the din of our fighting?
It is true that because of our constitutions, we are not talking about persecution on the scale of past Christian abuses. But we really must not forget our past.
In fact, I found myself remembering a particularly horrible incident this past week, from the 13th century. In particular, the Inquisition against the Cathars in southern France, something the Church itself called a Crusade, though it was a crusade against others who claimed to be Christians.
This was actually the time when the Inquisition officially began. A chronicler of the early 13th century records that as the forces of the French nobles and the Pope were attacking a city in what is now southern France, Béziers, when Abbot Arnaud (the papal legate), leading the army both spiritually and militarily, was asked whom to kill (because there were also orthodox Catholics in the city) he said, “Kill them all. The Lord will recognize his own.”
And they did. They burned the city, a large one for those days, to the ground, and slaughtered all within, men, women, children, all.
Now, of course, this is far more serious than any public debates in the United States. I am not saying anything like that these things have equal standing. But we wouldn’t be truthful if we didn’t note that actual violence and even killing has been done by American Christians against others in this country whom they deemed sinful, wrong, on many different issues including racism, slavery, sexuality, doctrines and others. Some of my direct ancestors sent public letters of support and encouragement to the leaders of the Salem witch trials.
We cannot pretend that we are much more civilized. And we cannot be so foolishly naïve as to think that Christian hate rhetoric doesn’t have a seriously negative impact on our effectiveness in witnessing to Christ’s love for the world.
And there is a piece of this 13th century story that still won’t go away for me.
You see, it is also recorded that while the soldiers were attacking or besieging a city during this crusade, bent on total destruction, the priests and bishops and monks who always marched with the “Host,” as they called the army, would sing “Veni Creator Spiritus” to encourage the troops in their holy cause.
Maybe you don’t recognize the Latin. “Come, Creator Spirit,” is how that is translated, and it’s a hymn which dates to the 8th century, both music and text. It’s number 577 in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, and we’re singing it next. Our translation begins “Creator Spirit, Heavenly Dove,” but it’s the same hymn.
Now, here at Mount Olive we value using the gifts of 2,000 years of Christians in our worship, singing words and music that are created in praise of God in the past year as well as 1,500 years ago. It enriches us tremendously. But here we have this beautiful hymn, whose words are deeply important to our lives, misused by our ancestors to justify terrible things. We can’t pretend that isn’t important for us to consider, any more than the truth that the Scriptures, which are God’s Word for our lives, have also been so misused. The juxtaposition of the abbot’s statement and the singing of the hymn to the Holy Spirit and the wholesale slaughter of neighbors in the name of the Spirit chills me to the bone.
And it’s not just ancient texts and hymns. We’re singing a relatively new text, set to a familiar tune, at communion today. “God of tempest, God of whirlwind.” It’s a powerful text, and has been a good addition to Lutheran hymnody in the past few years. But here is stanza 2: “God of blazing, God of burning, all that blocks your purpose, purge! Through your church, Christ’s living Body, let your flaming Spirit surge! Where deceit conceals injustice, kindle us to speak your truth.” [1]
Wow. Now it’s true, that stanza does not need to be interpreted as a hymn inviting destructive crusades and inquisitions. It’s true that the error the hymnwriter lifts up in this stanza is injustice, not heresy. Nonetheless, it’s striking how easily language of the Spirit and fire can be interpreted to exclude, drive out, ostracize, and even destroy others.
The problem most likely lies with our need to control God.
It’s a basic part of human nature. It’s not enough for us to believe what we think is true. We almost always want to control it, too. And control others. We believe Jesus is God’s Son, risen from the dead, offering life now and life forever. We believe that because of our Lord Christ’s gift we have new life in the Spirit as children of God. But then we want to control that. We want to make sure that only those who think and believe the right things are part of the in group, part of the saved.
We take the gift of God given us freely by the Spirit without any work on our part, and try to control access, try to control God, try to control who’s got it and who doesn’t. We even like to believe that we can decide who is filled with the Holy Spirit and who is not.
But the very reality of the Holy Spirit is that the Triune God cannot be controlled. The Spirit blows like the wind, Jesus says in John 3, where she will.
So the Triune God is working in people in ways we cannot see or know. God is leading people to things we may not have imagined or planned for, things we cannot control. God is filling the people of the world with the Spirit, even if they haven’t heard of Jesus yet.
That’s something that frightens a lot of Christians, and leads to hurtful and even awful things, not just crusades, but think about it for a moment. If Christ Jesus is who we say he is, the risen Son of God; if God is Triune, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as we say the Scriptures proclaim; and if this God loves the whole world; is it not the height of arrogance for us to assume that the Triune God either can or will only listen to those who know this truth about God? The height of arrogance to assume that the Triune God will not bless even unbelievers with the Spirit, even if they don’t know it?
Even though we believe we have the deepest revelation of God’s will for the world in Jesus, we cannot rule out that the risen Son of God, Christ himself, will find and is finding ways to connect through the Holy Spirit even with those who do not believe in him or know him.
So what does this mean for our lives with others who do not share our faith?
It leads us to humbly being kind neighbors in the name of the One in whom we have life and love, Jesus Christ.
One of the many tragedies of that Crusade of the early 1200’s is that in that southern area of what is now France and most of the Spanish peninsula, people of many faiths were living peacefully with each other. Jews, Muslims, orthodox Catholics, and these Cathars. These people lived together for centuries in peaceful coexistence for the most part. Then the Church decided that the heresies needed to be stamped out (and this was as much a political land and power grab as anything else). And they destroyed thousands of lives, hundreds of homes and villages and cities.
Now there’s no question the Cathars had moved away from some central Christian teachings. They didn’t believe in the Trinity, or that Jesus was really a human being. They didn’t value the Sacraments, they rejected the rituals of the Church. They really weren’t Christians by definition.
But they lived good lives, were good neighbors. They followed Jesus’ teachings, actually; they believed in God’s love and they cared for each other and their communities. Whether they had the truth or not, they certainly didn’t deserve slaughter and death, and being wiped off the face of the earth, which is what happened. Any more than any of the peoples slaughtered by the many Crusades in Jesus’ name deserved their fate.
And that’s what I think the Spirit is leading us to hear today: our job is not to enforce the truth of God as if we are the controllers of it. It is to love the world in Jesus’ name, to be the love of Christ.
If people do not know the truth about the Triune God, then we can tell them by our words and actions. By our Christly love. It’s a truth worth telling, a world-changing and life-giving truth, and it’s our anointed call by Christ to tell it.
But as important, we have to remember that only God will sort out in the end what that means for them. I suspect God’s love is great enough to accommodate all; Christ seems to say that. But I know it’s not our call to decide this or know this. In fact, the truth of the Spirit that our Lord Christ has sent us leads me to hope that we can reverse the abbot’s statement as we consider our Spirit-filled call: “Love all of them. The Lord will recognize his own.”
And the gift of the Holy Spirit is that we are given the power and ability to do all this, become models of God’s love. That’s the kind of power we pray for today.
When we sing, “Creator Spirit, Heavenly Dove,” “come, Creator Spirit,” it’s not a prayer inviting destruction of those who do not believe. It’s a prayer inviting God’s Spirit to keep leading us to truth, correcting us when we err, guiding us, together, to God’s truth, which is Christ, showing us who God is.
It’s a prayer inviting God’s Spirit to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
It’s a prayer inviting God’s Spirit to make us like Christ Jesus, who never led a crusade, armed or otherwise, but simply loved the world in God’s name and called the world to the same kind of love for each other.
God’s love for the world in Jesus goes to the world in us. That’s the reality of Pentecost. That’s the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that’s our hope and our joy, and the world’s hope and joy as well.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
[1] Text by Herman G. Stuempfle, Jr., b. 1923. Copyright © 2000 GIA Publications, Inc. Evangelical Lutheran Worship, no. 400, st. 2.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
The Olive Branch, 5/15/13
Accent on Worship
Profound Witnesses
I have heard a lot of chatter around how delightful it is to see our younger worshippers singing the Gospel Acclamation “Be not Afraid” with such vigor! Indeed, it’s a great way to greet the Gospel for all of us and to see them singing with reckless abandon is delightful. We all smile.
I have two thoughts about this subject.
Firstly, it reminds me of the importance of “the Ordinary” – those songs in the liturgy that we sing week after week, or put in a different way, the songs that we “ordinarily sing” for a season. This past Easter season that included the Kyrie, This is the Feast, Gospel Acclamation “Be Not Afraid”, The Great Thanksgiving from ELW setting 3, and “Christ Our Passover.” Seven weeks in a row really helps these songs go deep into the soul and memory. The children connecting with one of them reminds us that we are all absorbing these perhaps more than we are aware. Hopefully, we could now sing them from memory. This includes the longer canticles like “This is the Feast” as much as the short songs like “Be Not Afraid”.
Once while serving as guest organist somewhere, a young person (maybe 6 or 7 years old) wandered into the balcony where I was playing, and sang the entire setting of “Gloria” from memory, with full voice! It’s a hard canticle – without a refrain or even repeated theme, a tricky rhythm, and lots of words! (from LBW setting 1). I was amazed and went home and set out to teach the children in my church all those songs of the ordinary, AND we needed to quit changing the setting of the liturgy each week which we did for variety. We realized we could achieve variety in other ways. All of our singing improved because of that – the children helped us see what we all needed.
Secondly, watching the children sing with such joy and free from inhibition teaches us something very important. What do the children see US doing? HOW we are entering into the liturgy is what will communicate what we believe. They’re watching and likely with the same delight we have seeing them enter into “Be Not Afraid” with full body, mind and soul! That’s enticing for them to join in, too.
It’s something I’ve said before: people see what we believe through HOW we are doing what we do in liturgy. Does God mean something to us? We can do all kinds of “styles,” tricks, or gimmicks to entice people, but our actions will say more.
It’s just something to be aware of. Are we being profound witnesses?
- Cantor David Cherwien
This Sunday is the Day of Pentecost!
Wear Red!
New Members to Be Received This Sunday, May 19
If you are interested in becoming a member of Mount Olive this spring, please contact Pastor Crippen (pastor@mountolivechurch.org), or Andrew Andersen, Director of Evangelism (andrewstpaul@gmail.com)
Sunday Readings
May 19, 2013 – Day of Pentecost
Acts 2:1-21 + Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:14-17 + John 14:8-27
May 26, 2013 – The Holy Trinity
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 + Psalm 8
Romans 5:1-5 + John 16:12-15
Spring “Greetings”
The spring issue of the Neighborhood Ministries newsletter, Greetings from Mount Olive Neighborhood Ministries, has been published and will be distributed at the end of both liturgies this Sunday, May 19.
Hebrews Study on Thursday Evenings
Class resumes this week! Meeting in the Chapel Lounge from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Pr. Crippen is currently leading a study of the book of Hebrews, an early Christian sermon preserved in the New Testament. As usual, there will be a light supper when we begin. All are welcome to this study opportunity!
Summer Jobs After School
The Summer Jobs After School Program is in need of one more volunteer. If you would like to hang out with three or four cool kids to supervise jobs and an art project once a week for up to two hours for six weeks, call Donna at church, 612-827-5919. Summer Jobs After School will run from the first week in July through mid-August. It’s a lot of fun!
Summer Worship Schedule Begins Soon!
Beginning Memorial Day weekend and running through Labor Day weekend, Mount Olive celebrates one Sunday Eucharist, at 9:30 a.m. This year, the first Sunday of Summer Schedule is Sunday, May 26.
Book Discussion Group
Mount Olive’s Book Discussion group meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 a.m. at church. For the June 8 meeting, they will discuss The Calligrapher's Daughter, by Eugenia Kim. For July 13, they will read The Violent Bear It Away, by Flannery O'Connor. And advance notification (because of its length) that for August 10 we will discuss Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
A Thousand Voices in the Park
A Community Sing will be held this Saturday, May 18, 5:30 pm at Powderhorn Park – rain or shine! All songs will be led by Bret Hesla and Mary Preus, with Jose Antonio Machado. A $5 per person donation is requested. Everyone is welcome!
For additional information, visit www.mnsings.com.
Attention Graduates!
If you are a regular worshipper (member or friend of the congregation) and will be graduating from high school, college, or a graduate school this spring, please let us know as soon as possible. We want to be sure all graduates are included in our upcoming graduate recognition.
Simply call the church office (612-827-5919), or drop an email (welcome@mountolivechurch.org).
Many Thanks for a Successful School Year in Way to Goals Tutoring
It has been a successful school year in Way to Goals Tutoring. We will complete our season in the last week of May. There are so many volunteers I wish to thank. Many thanks first to our wonderful and dedicated volunteer tutors who gave their all to thirteen students from October through May: Yvette Berard, Diane Brown, Peter Bunge, Neal Cannon, Joe Kane, Celia Marshall, Catherine Pususta, Christine Skogen, and Amy Thompson.
We had very few blank spots on our sign-up sheet for snacks this year, due to the generous donations of treats for our snack and activity time in Way to Goals. Many thanks also to the faithful snack donators. They were very much appreciated and so several who contributed numerous times: Naomi Peterson (5 times), Judy Graves (4 times), Amy Thomson (3 times), Gail Neilsen (2 times), Dennis Bidwell & Eric Zander, Andrew Andersen, and Margaret Bostelmann.
Margaret Bostelmann also did a game night during our activity time, which was fun and much appreciated. If you have an idea about a fun thing to do or make and would like to share it with us next year, please let me know.
- Donna Neste
Olive Branch Summer Publication
Please note that during the months of June, July, and August, The Olive Branch is published every other week. Weekly publication resumes after Labor Day.
A Note from Pr. Crippen
There is a lot of joy bubbling up around many members and friends of Mount Olive given the votes of last Thursday and Monday, and the signing on Tuesday by the governor of the Freedom to Marry bill. We rejoice that all our members, and brothers and sisters around the whole state, now share equality under the law, something Americans cherish but don’t always achieve.
There will be a lovely impact of this law at Mount Olive, in that some couples will be looking to seek God’s blessing on their marriage here now that they also can enjoy legal married status. Other couples already are legally married and have had Christian weddings, others have had Christian weddings here and will seek legal marriage to accompany their God-blessed vows, so there will likely be a variety of ways in the next months that the people Mount Olive will be invited to support one another and rejoice with one another. There is so much cause for celebration.
It has come up in conversation that some wonder what will change at Mount Olive as a result of this vote. The answer is, not much, apart from our ability to provide legal witness to all marriages. Some years ago the Vestry voted to give the pastor of Mount Olive prerogative to decide whether or not to hold weddings or services of blessing for both same gender and different gender couples. In the summer of 2011, however, the Vestry approved guidelines presented by the Worship Committee regarding weddings which made it clear that our policy at Mount Olive was that our guidelines for planning and having weddings applied to both same gender and different gender couples. So for nearly two years we’ve been officially operating with this understanding, which was based on a much longer standing pastoral practice. We have believed God’s blessing on such commitments transcended any decisions the state might make. Still, it brings great joy that the state now recognizes the equality that many Christians and other people of faith have already believed existed, and even more joy that all couples will enjoy legal protection and benefits to their life-long commitments.
So this is a time for thanksgiving, and I’m aware that some are already talking about how Mount Olive might celebrate this watershed historical moment with some kind of party. That seems meet and right for us to do, since we do enjoy celebrating here. For now, we give thanks to God for this moment and this grace which now reaches so many people.
In Christ,
Joseph
Adult Forum June 9
Jessinia Ruff, daughter of Mark and Lisa, is a recent high school graduate. She will be traveling to the Dominican Republic with SCORE International for an 8 month-long trip to study Spanish and participate in local ministry. Following the liturgy on June 9, she will talk more about the organization, the work she'll be doing there, and how you can support her.
Sunday, May 12, 2013
In the Meantime
We live our lives much with the same sense as the disciples’ lives were lived between the Ascension and Pentecost, in between. But in this meantime, our truth is that Jesus is with us in the Spirit, even while praying for us to God.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, Seventh Sunday of Easter, year C; texts: John 17:20-26; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
Sisters and brothers, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Now what do we do? What do we do now that Jesus is gone again?
Our celebration of Jesus’ ascension was Thursday, and now it’s Sunday, and Jesus is gone. Also, in these 18 days we’ll celebrate half of the Church’s six major festivals, but this Sunday isn’t one of them. Pentecost and Holy Trinity are the next two weeks, not today. So today we’re between festivals, Jesus is gone, and this is the last Sunday of Easter this year, the last day of Easter paraments, the last day we conclude our liturgy with “Christ is risen, indeed, Alleluia!” When this run is over, it’s back to normal. And what are we supposed to do?
Of course, we’re aware that even though we celebrated Easter six weeks and seven Sundays ago, Jesus really wasn’t raised again, that happened long ago. But that’s the funny thing about the Church Year. By celebrating each year the events of Jesus’ life and ministry, his death and resurrection, we almost forget that it happened 2,000 years ago and we live as if it were still happening. In fact, our liturgical life is meant to help us live these events anew each year. So on Christmas we’re filled with joy, we’re taken back in time and find ourselves wondering at the side of a manger and a little baby. And even though we know what happens on Easter, living the liturgies of Holy Week does bring us through the pain and sadness of our Lord and of the disciples, if even second-hand. So when we sing Alleluia for the first time at the Easter Vigil, there is a very real sense that it is as if we are hearing the good news for the first time: he is risen! He is risen, indeed!
And that makes this Sunday in many ways a hard Sunday for us, just as it must have been for the disciples. Having Jesus back after his terrible death was thrilling for them, but now 40 days later they had to say goodbye again. On this Sunday 2,000 years ago he had been gone for three days, and they were still a week from Pentecost. Just as we are.
It’s funny that the times we can easily identify with the feelings of the disciples are the difficult times, such as in the times they were dealing with the absence of Jesus. Their reality after the Ascension is our reality every day of our lives: Christ Jesus is in heaven with the Father, and we wonder what we’re to do, how we’re to live, how we’re to know what Jesus would say to us. Or if he is there at all.
A major issue in our lives is what do we do when we feel that God is absent.
It’s a struggle people often have with great tragedies or disasters. Where is God here? Why isn’t God doing something?
But the truth is that we struggle so often with knowing where God is even in our daily lives. I can stand up here and say, “God is with you always,” and you might believe it. Sometimes. But in the dark night of the soul, in the pain of everyday living, in the sadness of depression, in the fear of a frightening world, in the struggle of poverty, in the emptiness of modern materialism, it is awfully hard sometimes to know where God is. Too many times for too many of us there is just an empty wall we face in prayer and then the wondering begins: Is God really there? Is Christ Jesus, who is supposed to be God-with-us, real for me, or just wishful thinking?
So again, what do we do now? How do we go on in this time of Christ’s apparent absence?
Well, we have a gift from John the evangelist. John’s Gospel, more than the others, spends a lot of time on the goodbyes Jesus gives the disciples.
We’ve been hearing from some of these in the Gospel readings for this Easter season. For five chapters, from 13 to 17, Jesus is saying goodbye to the disciples. All these words take place in John’s Gospel the night of Jesus’ betrayal, before his death. But for we who are Easter people (and this is likely why these words were assigned to our Easter weeks), we hear these words most helpfully as we deal with his absence after he ascended to the Father.
And what Jesus tells the disciples and us is that he is going away, but that he will still be with us. And that we have work to do in the meantime.
So on Second Easter he gave us the gift of peace, and said “as the Father has sent me, so I send you.” (John 20:21)
On the Third Sunday of Easter he said, “If you love me, feed my sheep.” (John 21:15-17)
Then on Fourth Easter we heard him say that all who are his sheep know his voice, and none can be taken from his hand. (John 10:27-28)
On the Fifth Sunday of Easter he told us that while he will be with us only a little longer, he is giving us a new commandment, that we love one another as he loved us. (John 13:33-34)
And then in words spoken in the chapters between that word and today’s Gospel, he promises several things: “I’m going to prepare a place for you,” he says, “in my Father’s house.” (John 14:1, 3) “I won’t leave you orphaned, I am coming to you,” he says. (John 14:18) “I will send you an Advocate, the Holy Spirit, to teach you and be with you and give you peace,” he says. (John 14:25-27) And he tells us it is to our advantage that he leaves us, otherwise the Advocate, the Spirit, will not be able to come to us. (John 16:11)
In all these last words, these farewells, Jesus is saying some very important things about his absence. First, that he is not leaving us alone: he is sending the Spirit of God to us to be with us and guide us and strengthen us. Second, that we are sent as he was sent, to be the love of God in the world. And third, that he is coming again at the end of all days to take us with him. We also heard that from the Revelation today: Jesus said, “Surely I am coming soon!”
So this is where we are on this day between days, in our lives lived in the meantime: we are not alone, and we have much to do.
The promise of the Advocate, the Spirit actually is better than we could have hoped. Christ Jesus leaves because he has things to do for us and the world: a place to prepare for us, sheep that are not of this flock that he has to find. And as for us, one resurrected man could not be with all people at all times, but the Holy Spirit can fill each of our hearts and be with us.
And even better for us, today Jesus prays to the Father for us, and Scripture tells us that Christ’s prayer continues for us even now. Christ Jesus returns to the Father so he can continue to speak for us. He prays continually that we become one as his children. Prays that we do not feel alone. Prays that we stay in faith and continue to love each other. Prays that we share an intimacy with the Father that he has. He knows the pain we feel, the sense that we sometimes don’t know where God is. He’s been there with us. And so he prays for us.
And all this is to strengthen us for the mission we are given, to be the anointed ones of God bringing Christ’s resurrection love to the world. Sometimes it’s like we don’t really pay attention when Jesus says things like, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” Or when we hear, as we will in a week, Luke tell us that the same Spirit which filled Jesus for his ministry now fills the Church to overpouring? We have the love of Christ to share, the forgiveness of Jesus to offer, and the work of God’s healing of the nations to undergo. We are not alone, and we are given this gift of the Spirit so that we can become who we were meant to be.
And as we say farewell to this season of Easter, we welcome the new life in the Spirit that the season of Pentecost will show us.
So, in the meantime, what are we to do now?
Well, we can live in love with each other and God as Jesus asked. We can realize that we are sent to do the work of God in the world and we can pray that the Spirit give us the strength to do this.
When we eat and drink the Meal of his body and blood we are united with our Lord in the deepest way. When we gather as the body of Christ we see our Lord in the most profound way we can. And when together the Spirit sends us out to be Christ in the world, we are the presence of God in a world that desperately wonders where God is.
It turns out that for Jesus, goodbye is only for a very short time. He is here, for he is risen, just as he said. And he will be with us and the world always, until the end of the age, until this resurrection life fills all God’s creation.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
Thursday, May 9, 2013
Advocate
The gift of the return of Christ to the Father is that we are carried into the life of the Triune God and fully understood, known, and united with the God whose love for us and the world cannot be stopped, even by death.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, The Ascension of Our Lord (A, B, C); texts: Acts 1:1-11; Psalm 47; Ephesians 1:15-23; Luke 24:44-53
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 is a prayer attributed to St. Francis of Assisi which includes this line: “grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.” There is deep wisdom in these petitions, a sense of what it might mean to fully inhabit the life of Christ which is our calling and our anointing in Baptism, that we look to the other’s needs and burdens before our own. This is right and good, and worthy of our prayer.
That being said, there is nothing quite like knowing that we are understood by another, loved by another. Perhaps that’s why it’s so important that we pray that we offer that to others. But I have been thinking a great deal this week about the gift Christ’s ascension gives us of being understood better, more fully, by the Triune God.
All our readings assigned for this festival focus on the reality that our Lord Christ leaves us.
Even Paul’s words to the Ephesians, which speak of Christ’s enthronement above all rule and authority, words which echo the psalm for today, are living in the reality that our Lord Jesus is no longer with us in the flesh. And Luke’s two ascension accounts, our first reading and Gospel, are strictly from our point of view. Jesus spends time with his disciples after his resurrection. He teaches them, talks to them, helps them understand. And then, 40 days after he is raised, Jesus ascends to heaven to return to the Father.
This is our common view of the ascension: the departure of the Incarnate One. But what if we focus for a moment not on what is happening here on earth, but on what might be happening within the life of the Triune God?
There is much to be said about the ministry and work that is left to us in our Lord’s ascension, that we are entrusted to bring the Good News to the world. But there is something in this whole story we might do well to consider: what happens when the eternal Son of God, now Incarnate as fully human and fully divine, returns to the Godhead (in whatever way his return might mean).
Right now we’re studying Hebrews on Thursday evenings, and that text suggests the idea that perhaps the ascension is important for what God learns as well.
I want to read just a couple lines from this great New Testament sermon to help clarify this: Hebrews 4:14-15, and Hebrews 9:24. First: “Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.” And then: “For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.”
Christ left us, says this preacher, to be our high priest before God. We have lost the sense of what that image means for us. The high priest in Judaism was the one who could stand for the people before God. Who would make sacrifice on their behalf, and seek forgiveness for them. Who would enter the Holy of Holies on their behalf.
And a large part of the point of the sermon to the Hebrews is to say that Christians need no more high priests since Jesus has become the High Priest par excellence. And why is he such a great high priest for us? Hebrews says because he is like us, was tested like us, knows our pain, our sorrow, our fear, can sympathize with our weaknesses, even while being at the same time the divine Son of God.
The whole point of the Incarnation was for God to be with us. And in the Son of God, we have someone who knows us better than we know ourselves. Sometimes we think that the great news about “God-with-us,” Emmanuel, is that now we know God better through Jesus. That is true.
But this preacher suggests that a wonderful thing about God being with us in Jesus is that the Triune God now understands us better. What an insight, and what good news! Here is the profound implication of the ascension: raised from the dead and ascended to the Father, now Christ Jesus can speak on our behalf before God, be our great high priest.
Whatever mystery lies in the life of the Triune God, after the ascension it contains human flesh. At no point are we told that the Incarnation is undone, so humanity is now drawn fully into the life of God.
Consider what that means: God understands us now in a deeply different way. We normally have a sense of separateness between God and humanity that is understandable: God is God, and we are not. But somehow, ascended to the Father, the Son now brings us into God’s inner life. Our fears and hopes, our pains and delights, our sadness and our joys, our very flesh. These are now brought into the inner life of God.
So it’s no longer God on one side, us on the other. God up there, us down here, wherever we mean by “there” or “here.” The prayer we will hear Jesus pray next Sunday is fulfilled in this ascension: “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.” To think that we are that known and understood by the Triune God is awe-inspiring.
This is the great joy of Jesus’ ascension.
The Son of God isn’t gone at all. We are not abandoned, left behind. Instead, he’s so deeply concerned for us, loves us so much, and since he knows us so intimately, he’s returned to the Father to plead for us, to intercede on our behalf, to be our Advocate before the Father. To bring us to God.
So as not to leave us orphaned here, he sends the Holy Spirit to be with us. To be another Advocate, he says, from God to us. (And Paul would suggest, the Spirit also speaks to the Trinity on our behalf.) But that’s the story of ten days hence.
For now, we carry this joy: in ascending, our Lord has gone to where he can do the most good for us and for the world, the throne of the Father. And even when we don’t know what to pray for in our pain or sorrow or fear or anxiety, we can know without doubt that our Lord is already there, praying on our behalf. Bearing our life into the life of God, that we might be fully understood and loved by the God who already loved us enough to die for us.
So let’s not stand here gaping at heaven as if today is a day of sadness.
Instead, let’s rejoice that we have such an Advocate in heaven for our sake, someone who knows us so well and loves us even more, who can always speak on our behalf.
And someone who leaves behind the gift of himself in this Meal, so we have him with us here, too. Someone who gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit, so we can be filled with God’s love and grace, who doesn’t leave us orphaned.
Today is not about a sad ending. It’s about the beginning of the great news of Jesus’ life on our behalf in heaven and his presence with us here in the Spirit. Thanks be to God, today is just the beginning of the course of God’s love in our lives and in the life of the world!
In the name of Jesus. Amen
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
The Olive Branch, 5/8/13
Accent on Worship
You’ll Do Fine
I don’t recall the exact circumstances, but one of my classmates in seminary arrived on his internship and the supervisor immediately left for a couple weeks’ vacation. Apparently he’d been pretty over-worked and stressed and was looking for relief. It wasn’t the best of ideas, nor was it terribly faithful to the idea of an internship. Still, I do remember the first time my supervising pastor took vacation time and left me alone to cover all pastoral care needs and anything else that might come up in his absence. I was a little nervous about the whole idea.
On the other hand, it was what I was there to do. I don’t believe he used these exact words, but in leaving the parish to my pastoral care, my supervisor was essentially saying, “you’re ready for this, you’ve been trained for this. You’ll do fine.”
The ascension of Christ and his return to the Father seems very much the same to me. Neither the first disciples nor we ourselves are fully prepared for the plan of Jesus to entrust us with the ministry of the Gospel. It seems like an enormous burden, and one for which we are ill-prepared. But the ascension of our Lord actually is central to the whole plan of his coming.
From the beginning of creation, God intended humanity to care for this planet, to bear God’s image in this place, and as we are told again and again in Scripture, to love God and each other and live in the grace and joy of the creation. That humanity did not prove up to the job, instead seeking self-centered and destructive ways of dealing with the creation and for other people, moved God to act in this world to bring us back to the original plan. The incarnation of the Son of God among us was not intended as the Triune God’s way of taking charge of the whole enterprise. It was a full plan of salvation, an ending to the way of death by God’s taking on death and breaking it. But in the fullness of the plan, God has always wanted us, the people of God, to go back to what we were made to do, care for this creation, for each other, and live in love toward God and neighbor. It is what we are saved to do.
Now, in ascending to the Father, the Son of God says to us in effect, “you’ll do fine.” Best of all, we are not left alone to our task. We are given constant promises that the Holy Spirit will be with us to guide us and shape us, to help us witness to God’s love in Jesus for the whole world, and to begin to find our true calling as God’s caretakers and stewards of this creation and of God’s people. But the ascension shows us that God in fact does trust us to live our calling and be Christ to the world.
Come celebrate this feast on Thursday night, and let us rejoice in the trust God has in us that we can do this calling which is now given us, and all the baptized children of God.
- Joseph
The Ascension of Our Lord
Thursday, May 9, 2013
(tomorrow evening!)
Holy Eucharist at 7:00 p.m.
Reception to follow.
Mother's Day Recital
This Sunday, May 12, 9:30 a.m.
All are invited!
Sunday Readings
May 12, 2013 – Seventh Sunday of Easter
Acts 16:16-34 + Psalm 97
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21 + John 17:20-26
May 19, 2013 – Day of Pentecost
Acts 2:1-21 + Psalm 104:24-34, 35b
Romans 8:14-17 + John 14:8-27
New Members to Be Received on Sunday, May 19, Day of Pentecost
If you are interested in becoming a member of Mount Olive this spring, please contact Pastor Crippen (pastor@mountolivechurch.org), or Andrew Andersen, Director of Evangelism (andrewstpaul@gmail.com)
Hebrews Study on Thursday Evenings
Meeting in the Chapel Lounge from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Pr. Crippen is currently leading a study of the book of Hebrews, an early Christian sermon preserved in the New Testament. As usual, there will be a light supper when we begin. All are welcome to this study opportunity! Note: There is no class this Thursday, May 9, due to the Ascension liturgy.
Summer Jobs After School
The Summer Jobs After School Program is in need of one more volunteer. If you would like to hang out with three or four cool kids to supervise jobs and an art project once a week for up to two hours for six weeks, call Donna at church, 612-827-5919. Summer Jobs After School will run from the first week in July through mid-August. It’s a lot of fun!
Summer Worship Schedule Begins Soon!
Beginning Memorial Day weekend and running through Labor Day weekend, Mount Olive celebrates one Sunday Eucharist, at 9:30 a.m. This year, the first Sunday of Summer Schedule is Sunday, May 26.
Book Discussion Group
Mount Olive’s Book Discussion group meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 a.m. at church. For the May 11 meeting, they will discuss Children of God, by Mary Doria Russell, which is the sequel to her book, The Sparrow. And for the June 8 meeting, they will discuss The Calligrapher's Daughter, by Eugenia Kim.
Vigil of Pentecost
Saturday, May 18. 2013
7:00 p.m.
A Thousand Voices in the Park
A Community Sing will be held on Saturday, May 18, 5:30 pm at Powderhorn Park – rain or shine! All songs will be led by Bret Hesla and Mary Preus, with Jose Antonio Machado. A $5 per person donation is requested. Everyone is welcome!
For additional information, visit www.mnsings.com.
A Time For Bach
The Seventh Annual BachTage at Mount Olive
An original idea put forward in 2006 by Cantor Cherwien and Kathy Romey of the University of Minnesota has become a fixture of each June at Mount Olive.
A generous grant from The Mount Olive Lutheran Church Foundation and support from Music and Fine Arts helped move the idea to reality. Their continued support have allowed BachTage to become a vital ministry to musicians and musical leaders near and far.
June 8 and 9, 2013, are the dates for this year’s BachTage. Frequent participants from past years mark their calendar as soon as the date is announced. Perhaps this is the year for you to consider being part of this unique event?
Participants study and rehearse a cantata and other selections by Bach under the leadership of Kathy Romey, whose gifts in teaching and musicianship combined with sense of humor and gracious spirit these sessions a delight rather than work.
This year, the theme of BachTage is music for Advent. Bach’s Cantata 36 and a chorus from Cantata 123 have been selected. The cantatas are presented during Evening Prayer on Sunday afternoon, with an excellent orchestra and soloists.
A special feature of this year’s BachTage is a Saturday afternoon, June 8, concert of Bach Masterworks for Harpsichord and Strings, presented by Tami Morse, Marc Levine, and Tulio Rondón.
A little work is required of participants; they need to learn the music in advance so rehearsal time is not wasted on teaching the notes. Coming prepared makes rehearsal time much more valuable and exciting for all.
Of course, the Saturday afternoon and Sunday Evening Prayer are for the public; let others know about these two special events.
BachTage brochures are available in various spots around the church; the brochure includes the registration form. Take one for yourself, or pass it to a friend who may be interested. Registration is going on right now; scores will be mailed in early May to allow time for learning.
Every Church A Peace Church
The next regular bimonthly potluck supper meeting will be on Monday, May 13, 6:30 p.m. at Macalester Plymouth United Church (1658 Lincoln Ave., in St. Paul, 651-698-8871, www.macalester-plymouth.org).
The program will begin at about 7 pm and will feature the presentation of "The Ground Truth," a very moving documentary film followed by an open discussion.
"The Ground Truth" stunned filmgoers at the 2006 Sundance and Nantucket Film Festivals. Hailed as “powerful” and “quietly unflinching,” Patricia Foulkrod’s searing documentary feature includes exclusive footage that will stir audiences. The filmmaker’s subjects are patriotic young Americans – ordinary men and women who heeded the call for military service in Iraq – as they experience recruitment and training, combat, homecoming, and the struggle to reintegrate with families and communities. The terrible conflict in Iraq, depicted with ferocious honesty in the film, is a prelude for the even more challenging battles fought by the soldiers returning home – with personal demons, an uncomprehending public, and an indifferent government. As these battles take shape, each soldier becomes a new kind of hero, bearing witness and giving support to other veterans, and learning to fearlessly wield the most powerful weapon of all – the truth.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
On the River
Baptism can be overlooked as an individual act, something that happens to one person. But in fact, baptism is the act of joining the entire community of believers and the community of the Triune God. On this river of life we join together to make a difference in the world.
Vicar Neal Cannon; Sixth Sunday of Easter, year C; texts: John 5:1-9, Acts 16:9-15, Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
One summer, we rented an RV. I was in early high school and our family decided we we’re going to see some of the country. Apparently our Suburban with eight seats wasn’t big enough for our family of six for this kind of road trip. In fairness, we’re a big family, we needed the elbow room.
We did a lot of things on this trip. We camped in various locations, we visited with extended family, and we saw a lot of touristy sites. One of those sites that we saw was Lake Itasca State Park here in Minnesota. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Lake Itasca State Park has a special claim that makes it a popular tourist destination.
Lake Itasca is known for being the headwaters to the mighty Mississippi River. So when the Cannon clan arrived in our RV, we jumped out in the middle of July, and hiked a short path to the headwaters of one of the largest and most important rivers in the United States.
And I remember, coming out of a little clearing seeing something only slightly better than a creek, a small plaque noting the creek’s significance, and being WILDLY disappointed. This particular creek made Minnehaha Creek look like a roaring rapid! And I have to admit, after spending about two minutes there my first thought was, when can we go back to the RV?
Perhaps I missed the significance of this particular headwater.
You see, what you have to appreciate about the headwaters of the Mississippi, is that this little creek, this trickle, this seemingly insignificant water, joins another creek, and another creek, and then another creek. And then this creek becomes a river. And then many other rivers join this river until at its greatest point the Mississippi is seven miles wide, and continues flowing south until it reaches the Gulf of Mexico.
Now think about that for a minute. What once starts out as an insignificant little creek becomes one of the most important waterways in all of North America. This creek that begins as something you could overlook or pass by becomes something of staggering beauty and importance. This creek becomes a river that brings water and life to most of this country. Through this little creek, you are connected to the ocean, and thus the entire world.
Still, it’s easy to miss the significance of something with a small beginning. The sad reality is that like my reaction to the Mississippi River’s headwater we in the church often miss the significance of baptism.
In many churches baptism is viewed as a cute ritual or rite of passage, but often we miss baptism’s real importance and meaning. For example, in baptism we make promises to the baptized, but rarely reflect on the importance of those words. Congregants make promises to support the baptized in faith, but often never speak to the baptized again. Baptismal sponsors and parents promise to help raise the child in faith, but how often do we remember to celebrate a baptismal anniversary? As church leaders we hand parents a certificate, but too often we never find ways to support families in faith formation.
In this sense, baptism is viewed in the same way I regarded the headwaters of the Mississippi. We’re not impressed. But like the mighty Mississippi, our baptism starts as something small and easy to overlook, but becomes something far greater.
Lydia’s baptismal journey, for example, begins with one seemingly insignificant encounter. When Paul and his companions arrive in Macedonia, they come to a group of women, one of whom was Lydia. Acts tells us that God opens Lydia’s heart to the Word of God, and she is baptized. Right away Lydia says, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay at my home.”
Think about this rapid transformation. Lydia, a woman on the outskirts of the city who is possibly a widow, encounters two strangers who proclaim a foreign gospel to her. In this encounter God opens her heart to hear the Gospel and when she is baptized she immediately welcomes these strange men into her home.
Like one creek that flows into another creek and one river that flows into another river, in baptism Lydia immediately enters into a new community that supports her and she in turn supports back. In this same baptism, God opens Lydia’s heart to the Word of God, to Jesus, and is given the Holy Spirit. In other words, in baptism Lydia is in community with the Triune God and the entire body of Christ.
In the same way, in our baptismal journey we begin as individuals and leave as a community. We begin as strangers with nothing in common and we leave as a family connected through Jesus Christ. And like the Mississippi these baptismal waters bring us together and connect us to the world.
Think of it this way, today Tate Kaufenberg will be baptized as a child of God. And in this baptism, this community will promise to uphold her in faith. So much so that wherever Tate goes, no matter what she does, our promise is to support her with all the love, wisdom, and guidance that this community and the Triune God offer.
As such, she joins all baptized children of God who gather to worship God and to make a positive difference in not only this community but in all parts of the world.
This communal influence is radically important, especially in a society such as ours that values me, myself, and I above all else, because it’s also a society that has forgotten the value of ‘us,’ the value of community.
This is a society that has forgotten that we all need the collective love, wisdom, and guidance of those who have gone before us. We need people who say yes and no to us. We need others to love and care for us when we’re down. We can’t operate on our own. Without community, we are on an incredibly lonely journey, like a creek that never connects to a larger body of water.
But in baptism, in community, we are shaped by and help to shape those around us because in baptism, we join a community that gives life to a neighborhood that gives life to a city that gives life to a region that gives life to our world. And it’s in this baptism we join the headwaters of Triune God, where all healing and life giving water comes from.
As Revelation tells us, “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city.”
I sometimes laugh when we compare this image to the image of our baptism because it doesn’t seem like it measures up. One could easily point out that our baptismal water doesn’t come a crystal river, but from the sink in the sacristy. It’s not as if it were chipped away from the purest ice on the top of a mountain, and then hauled down by Franciscan monks and delivered directly to Mount Olive.
The truth is that this water begins as ordinary water.
But the beauty about baptism is that we claim that the water that comes from our sacristy sink is in fact the same water described in Revelation. In baptism, it’s not ordinary water because as Luther says, “it is water enclosed in God’s command and connected to God’s word.” It’s water that’s connected to the headwater of the Lamb because it is connected to God. And so in these words that Pastor Joseph will say to Tate, and to Tate’s Family, and to this congregation, we find that this is in fact the water that gives life to the world.
Revelation goes on to tell us that this water feeds the tree of life with leaves that bring healing to the nations. And never more intimately is that healing found than in our gospel text today in the story of a man who had been ill, presumably paralyzed, for thirty eight years.
Now, there are a couple interesting points about this story. The first is that this story takes place at Beth-zatha, which in Hebrew means House of Nets. But some manuscripts actually have Bethesda, which means, House of Mercy.
The second, is that it’s important to remember that at this time people with disability were stigmatized because it was believed that people became ill because of sin or wrongdoing that they or their family had committed.
So whatever the translation we use, it is clear that people came to the House of Mercy to be healed not only in body, but also to receive mercy and grace in the waters that were found there.
This is why it’s ironic and cruel that this man, who is lying on a mat and seeking healing in the House of Mercy, is bypassed, shoved out of the way, and disregarded time and time again; unable to even get into the waters that he believed would bring him healing. That is of course, until Jesus comes.
When Jesus comes he appears to be the only one who notices this man. Jesus is the only one that cares enough to ask him, “Do you want to be made well?”
“Do you want to be made well?” What a strange question to ask to someone who has been ill for thirty eight years. The answer seems so obvious. Of course he wants to be made well! But the man essentially responds by saying, “I can’t get to the water.”
Jesus doesn’t waste time. He says, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.” And the man does.
What I find fascinating about this story, is that the man never gets in the water at the House of Mercy but the water of life comes to him. This man never knows who Jesus is, he never even makes a confession. Still, the water of life that flows from the Lamb comes and brings mercy to this paralyzed man.
This same water of life comes to us in our baptism. The same healing and mercy and love come to us before we’re ever able to make a confession and before we even know who Jesus is; before we know Jesus, Jesus in community with us.
In Tate’s baptism today and in all of our baptisms, the grace and mercy of God comes to us in seemingly insignificant ways. And whether it’s the headwaters of the Mississippi or the kitchen sink from Mount Olive, this water does incredible things. Like a creek that joins a river that joins the ocean in this baptism, we are joined together with this community that promises us love, guidance, and support. And what’s more, the Triune God comes to us and brings mercy and healing in these waters.
Baptism is an incredible gift, and I wonder what it would be like if we treated baptism not as the day we received a plaque but the day we set out on the mighty headwaters of the Lamb of God?
Because after all, this is the day that Jesus Christ comes to us and removes our shame and disgrace and instead clothes us with mercy and grace. This is the day we join others and set out on an incredible journey to bring healing to our communities and yes, this entire world.
This is the day we remember that baptism is not ordinary water. This water is water that is enclosed with God’s command, and connected with God’s word; this is the river of life.
And on the river we surround others with the Word of God and the community of God. And on the river, the word of God and the community of God surround us also.
Thanks be to God.
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