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Week 3: “Knowledge Puffs Up; Love Builds Up”
Pr. Joseph Crippen, Wednesday, 26 March 2014; texts: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Matthew 18:1-7
Sisters and brothers, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Isn’t it interesting, then, that the apostle Paul, later in this first letter to Corinth, says “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.” (1 Corinthians 13:11) It seems as if we have opposing points of view. Are we to become like children in faith? Or are we to mature, grow up, and set aside childish ways?
And what are we to make of Paul’s accommodations to those who are weak in the Corinthian community, that is, those who are still threatened enough by the presence of idol worship that they are at risk of losing their faith? Surely the mature response of faith is the one Paul describes first, that idols are non-threatening since they obviously aren’t real. There is one God, made known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. So even if someone has offered meat in a temple to an idol, and now sells that meat in the market, it’s perfectly fine for Christians to eat it. That’s clearly the more mature faith stance.
And yet Paul argues against it, on the basis of love. He tells his people in Corinth that they are to pay attention to their weaker members, those whose faith or understanding or knowledge isn’t quite what the others have, and accommodate them, lest they falter in faith. Yes, it’s okay to eat meat previously offered to idols. But, Paul says, don’t do it if it’s going to cause someone else to stumble.
It turns out both Jesus and Paul agree on their one major concern: that believers do not cause other believers to stumble in their faith. Both believe the community of Christ is shaped by a deep and abiding concern for all members, even those who are perhaps seen as weaker, less strong.
But it’s Jesus’ words about children that actually cause us to see another level of understanding of the community: it isn’t only that we are to accommodate those who are weaker. The community of Christ actually needs all believers, of all kinds and all strengths and all developments. We all actually have things to teach each other. And that’s the key to all of this.
Let’s start with the controversy, though, and with the recognition that this sort of thing happens in the Church today.
We may not have problems with meat offered to idols, but we’ve got the same pattern of condescension and dismissive behavior to those whom we consider “less” advanced.
I remember when I first came into ministry that there were basically two kinds of older pastors who related to me. One kind were the ones who were a great gift – my supervisor on internship, other clergy in colleague groups in my first call – because they respected me, while sharing their knowledge and experience. They treated me as if I belonged at the table, raw as I was, and yet were also able to share what they’d learned on the road, with respect and care.
The other kind were the ones I learned to avoid. They were the ones who said, “When you’ve been doing this as long as I have, you’ll feel differently.” Or, “When you’ve been around the block a few times you won’t have that enthusiasm.” Or, “When you’re a little older you’ll see that just can’t work in the church.” Things like that. The tone was always that I was naïve (which I probably was) and inexperienced (which I certainly was), and therefore my hope and excitement for ministry was inappropriate. Or at least dismissable.
And that latter piece was the part where they lost my interest in listening. Both types of pastors had experience and knowledge I needed, and would have been worth having me know. Only the ones who respected me and treated me with kindness and weren’t patronizing or dismissive actually were helpful to me. And I think a big part of it was they believed I had something to offer as well, that it wasn’t only their experience that was important in the conversation.
The same thing happens when you are a young parent. There are some people who simply can’t help dismissing the concerns of parents of toddlers with the injunction: “Wait until you have teenagers – then you’ll know what hard parenting is.”
Which as a parent of four children, most of whom are adults now, I can say is completely ridiculous. Every age of our children was both a challenge and a joy. It was no harder dealing with the painfulness of adolescent teen children finding their way than it was to deal with the emerging personality of a two year old who needed to be able to say “no”. If anything, each age of our children was just enough challenge and joy for our own age and experience. A parent of a baby has just as much wisdom about how to love that baby as a parent of an adult, even though they obviously will learn much more as the years go by.
But this is not unheard of in congregations, either, and Paul would want us to recognize that.
I’ve led a lot of Bible studies over the years, and I’ve noticed that there are sometimes tendencies among participants that are exactly as Paul describes in this situation, with similar results.
How often have you seen it, too, that in a Bible study someone makes a comment or asks a question that another person, who’s perhaps studied the Bible more or even might have a professional degree, then shoots down as wrong or incorrect? Or dismisses as unimportant?
The first person not only starts to learn that their contributions aren’t welcome, he or she also begins to believe that they have no insight, that they’re not of value. That their concerns aren’t important, because “smart people” have already figured it out. It’s not far from there to stumbling in faith.
So you have the situation where I’ve had any number of conversations with people over the years who fear coming to Bible studies because they don’t know enough, they’d feel dumb, they don’t have anything to offer. Surely Paul would say that those are precisely the people we hope come to Bible studies?
This problem in a Christian community Paul describes is not unknown to us, because it’s a human tendency, a sign of our human brokenness. We like to show off our knowledge and understanding, and often at the expense of those who don’t have what we have, often dismissing those who are asking questions we feel we’ve learned already. Children also bear the brunt of this in congregations, their questions often dismissed as worthless, as unimportant, as ignorant, instead of being honored and listened to and carefully answered.
But here’s the really compelling thing about God: God, according to the Scriptures, seems very interested, committed even, to the idea that we best become who we are meant to be by growing up into it.
None of the people of God in the Scriptures start out where God needs them to be. They always have growth they need to do, places they need to go, learning they need to accomplish. Even the greats like Moses, Elijah, Sarah, any of the disciples, they all are invited into a path of growth.
And of course, God has designed us to be infants first, then children, then adults, and placed us together in families and communities where all ages are found. That might tell us something.
But perhaps most significant is the coming of the Son of God. Jesus doesn’t appear on the clouds, fully formed and ready to be Messiah. Even the Son of God has to start out at the beginning, as a vulnerable infant. Even the Son of God had to learn to spell, to think, had to learn how to get along with others, to ask questions in order to learn and understand.
It seems clear that becoming human is something we have to learn, we can’t start at the end. Which at the very least suggests that we respect and love our fellow sisters and brothers at whatever stage they are, because it’s where they need to be.
That is, it would be better if the Corinthians didn’t dismiss those who struggled with idols. That they chose to avoid eating meat not just because Paul told them to, but rather because they loved them and appreciated where they were.
In fact, the deeper we grow into Christ, the more we mature spiritually, the less we need to puff ourselves up about how wise we are. It’s typically a mark of immaturity that someone needs to put themselves or their knowledge or development over against another. But perhaps Jesus is inviting us to take even one more step and relish the differences as essential to the life of the community.
This seems to be the center of these readings today.
There is certainly a call by both Paul and Jesus to honor and accommodate each other at whatever stage of development and maturity we are. That’s obvious.
The Christian community, shaped by the cross ourselves, called to love sacrificially, is a community where all are loved and respected and honored, whatever they bring, wherever they are in their growth. And we aspire to adjust our behaviors if they are causing problems to others, even if we think we could justify them theologically or ethically or spiritually.
Because of the love of Christ we have for each other, that’s how we are together. That much is clear.
But the next logical conclusion, given God’s need for us to learn as we grow, is actually to see how we need everyone at every stage because of what they bring. So, for example, Jesus tells us that if we want to know what faith is all about, we should look to the children. They know how to trust without any proof, they know how to be loyal even when it seems illogical, they know what it is to depend fully on another. They’re beautiful models to cynical, weary adults of what it would be to trust God with our whole hearts, lives, everything.
And so it is with everyone else in our community. So it is that those who haven’t studied the Scriptures much sometimes ask the questions we most need to hear. I can’t tell you how often that has happened to me when leading a Bible study, that the simplest, perhaps least informed question, has been the one thing we really needed to consider, the one thing the Spirit of God needed us to hear.
So it is also that people who feel more on the outside of a community are often the ones who have the eyes to see what’s really going on, and those inside need to hear them and learn from them.
And so it is that the young among us see with joy and enthusiasm, which those of us who sometimes feel very tired on the journey need to have infused into us. And those who have walked this journey of faith for eight or nine decades have such a gift of wisdom and long-vision that some of us who are impatient in getting where we are going need to hear and learn from.
This is the gift of our community in Christ: we’re all growing into maturity of discipleship, together.
And our call is to love each other at every stage of that growth, because every stage is needed for the community, and every one is needed. We don’t want to cause others to stumble, that’s true, both Jesus and Paul say that. But even more, we want to help each other when stumbling happens, catch each other, and learn from each other where the cracks in the road are, where the potholes are, and where the good paths are. And you never know just who it may be in the community who can see that at any time.
This is the great gift of our Lord, that we live this faith together. Now our Lord would like us to really learn what “together” can mean.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
Accent on Worship
Seeing
You’ve heard it said, “Seeing is believing.” You’ve also heard it said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (Jn. 20:29). The trouble with believing only what we see is that our own sight (our perceptions, evaluations, and understanding) is often skewed, deceptive, and can lead us astray.
This week’s gospel—the story of Jesus healing a man born blind—reveals just how misleading our own sight can be. The Pharisees in the gospel refuse to see Jesus and the man as anything but sinners. The man’s neighbors cannot see passed his status as a blind man who begged. Even the man’s parents are unable to see the beauty of their son’s healing because they are afraid of being associated with Jesus. Everyone’s sight in this story is obstructed by fear for their own security and by pre-conceived notions about God, the Messiah, and the man born blind. How often our own fear or prejudices prevent us from seeing how God is at work and inhibit us from experiencing God’s intent for our lives!
Unlike the Pharisees, the neighbors, and even his own parents, the man born blind does not act out of fear. Instead, he trusts what Jesus says about how to be healed and about who Jesus is. Because he relies on Jesus’ promises, the man who once was blind is the sole person in the story who can really see: he alone recognizes Jesus as the Son of God.
After hearing this, we may ask, “Which group do we belong to, Lord? Are we those who do not see or those who think that we see but will become blind?”
Our fear of judgment prevents us from seeing Jesus—from believing the good news—that Jesus comes to everyone in the gospel and to all of us in order to heal us all from our inability to see as well as from false sight. He comes to us in the preached and written word, in the Eucharist, and through one another so that we might know him, and live in the joy of a relationship with the Triune God. Day by day, in this relationship, Jesus invites us to see ourselves and one another as God sees us—precious, worth healing and love. When we believe this, scales fall from our eyes, fear loses its power, and we are truly healed. That is seeing.
- Vicar Emily Beckering
Sunday Readings
March 30, 2014: Fourth Sunday in Lent
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Psalm 23
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41
_____________________
April 6, 2014: Fifth Sunday in Lent
Ezekiel 37:1-14
Psalm 130
Romans 8:6-11
John 11:1-45
Bishop Visits Mount Olive
We are happy to welcome Bishop Ann Svennungsen, who is bishop of the Minneapolis Area Synod, our synod, to Mount Olive this coming Sunday, March 30, the Fourth Sunday in Lent.
The bishop will preach at both liturgies and will do the Adult Forum between liturgies. This is her first official visit to this congregation since her election in 2012.
This Week’s Adult Forum
March 30: A conversation with Bishop Ann Svennungsen, Minneapolis Area Synod.
Midweek Lenten Worship on Wednesdays
March 12 – April 9
• Noon: Holy Eucharist, followed by soup luncheon
• 7:00 pm: Evening Prayer, preceded by soup supper, beginning at 6:00 p.m.
Notice of Congregation Meeting
The April Semi-annual congregational meeting will be held after the second liturgy on Sunday, April 6. Business before the congregation will include election of officers and Vestry members for 2014-2015, annual report of the Mount Olive Foundation, and an update on the Capital Campaign.
At the April 2013 congregation meeting, the congregation approved a limited capital campaign that would help to put Mount Olive and its many ministries on firm financial footing in 2014 and beyond. A target of $182,000 was approved to be used for two purposes. The first is to restore funds that the congregation borrowed over a number of years from its restricted accounts (funds given by individuals who designated them for specific purposes); and the second is to create a cash reserve to help cover routine future expenses at times when donations are insufficient.
Vestry Nominees
At the semi-annual congregation meeting on April 6, the following slate of nominees for Vestry positions will be presented to the congregation for voting. Nominations may also be made from the floor.
President: Lora Dundek (second 1-year term)
Vice President: Robert Gotwalt (first 1-year term)
Secretary: Peggy Hoeft (second 1-year term)
Treasurer: Kat Campbell-Johnson (third 1-year term)
Director of Education: John Holtmeier (filling third year of a vacated 3-year term)
Director of Missions: Judy Hinck (first 3-year term)
Director of Stewardship: Donn McClellan (first 3-year term)
Director of Youth: Amy Thompson (filling third year of a vacated 3-year term)
Luther College Cathedral Choir to Perform at Mount Olive
The Luther College Cathedral Choir will perform in concert at Mount Olive on April 5, 2014, 7:00 p.m. No tickets are needed, but a freewill offering will be received at the concert.
The Cathedral Choir, directed by Dr. Jennaya Robison, performs a varied program of sacred music, including choral masterpieces by J.S. Bach, Hassler, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. At the heart of the program is Estonian composer’s Ēriks Ešenvalds’ “Stars” for choir, water-tuned glasses and Tibetan singing bowls. Favorite works by Olaf Christiansen, F. Melius Christiansen, Moses Hogan, Z. Randall Stroope, and others are included in an eclectic program suitable for listeners of all ages.
The choir is in need of housing for some of their members. If you are able to provide hospitality for choir members, please contact Cantor Cherwien as soon as possible.
Housing Needed!
Housing is needed for Luther College's Cathedral Choir, Saturday, April 5. If you can house two or more students, PLEASE call the office, or let Cantor Cherwien know this Sunday or the following Sunday. He'll be roaming the church with the clipboard.
Students will need to be picked up and brought to your home after their concert here at 7:00 pm, maybe a snack that evening. Two in a double bed is OK. After providing breakfast for them, they need to be back at Mount Olive at 7:00 am Sunday the 6th.
There are 23 hosts needed (four each), so if you can help, please do!
Friendly Callers Meeting
Mount Olive Friendly Callers will meet this Sunday, March 30, immediately following the first liturgy. This meeting will take place in the Undercroft.
Please bring the names and numbers of the people you are calling on a regular basis.
Thanks ...
Many thanks to all who helped with Donna’s retirement party on March 16.
Thanks especially for those who provided assistance with Skype, the video, the photo loop, the decorations, the food, the set-up, the clean-up and all of the other details that helped to make it a joy-filled day for her.
- Carol Austermann
And More Thanks
I was touched and totally overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and gratitude from the Mount Olive community at my farewell reception on Sunday, March 16!
Thank you for all the years of support for the Mount Olive Neighborhood Ministries programs and all the support that you have given to me. Thank you for all your kind words and the generous parting gifts. I have never felt so loved and appreciated as I did that day.
- Donna Neste
A Servant Community: Lenten Midweek
Baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, the community of the faithful are also bound into the servant role of our Messiah, called to give of ourselves for each other and the world. Just as the kingdom comes into the world fully when the Son of God sets aside all power and domination and goes to the cross, so too we live out our lives as servant people who are willing to lose all for the sake of the other.
This Lent in our midweek worship, both at the noon Eucharist and evening Vespers, we will be using Paul’s first letter to Corinth as an entrance into reflection on the servant life of the community of Christ, on what our call means in our life together and our life in the world, on what it is to live in the kingdom of God now.
An Invitation to Confession
During the season of Lent I am making myself available at some regular times to hear individual confession and to offer absolution to any who desire it. I will be in the chancel from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. each Monday in Lent, and continuing through the Monday of Holy Week. If you wish to come for confession, simply come to the altar rail. There will be a worship book so we can follow the rite together. If someone is already there, please wait near the back of the nave and when I’m free, come forward. While waiting, even if I’m free and you want to prepare yourself, praying the psalms in the pew or reading Scripture is worth considering.
- Pr. Joseph Crippen
Paschal Garden
Volunteers will be on hand for the next two Sundays (March 30 and April 6) before and between the liturgies to receive your donations to purchase Easter flowers for this year’s Paschal Garden.
Noon Liturgy on Maundy Thursday
There will be a simple noon Eucharist on Maundy Thursday this year, in addition to the Eucharist at 7:00 p.m. In the evening will be the full rite beginning the Triduum, including confession and absolution, footwashing, and the stripping of the altar.
The noon service is offered to accommodate those who have difficulty getting out in the evening, and will include confession and absolution and the Eucharist.
Easter Carry-In Brunch
There will be a carry-in Easter Brunch between liturgies on Easter morning, April 20. Bring your favorite Easter treats to share.
Holy Week at Mount Olive
Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday, Sunday, April 13
Holy Eucharist, 8 & 10:45 am
Monday-Wednesday of Holy Week, April 14-16
Daily Prayer at Noon, in the side chapel of the nave
Maundy Thursday, April 17
Holy Eucharist at Noon;
Holy Eucharist, with the Washing of Feet, 7:00 p.m.
Good Friday, April 18
Stations of the Cross at Noon;
Adoration of the Cross at 7 pm
Holy Saturday, April 19
Great Vigil of Easter, 8:30 pm, followed by a festive reception
The Resurrection of Our Lord, Sunday, April 20
Festival Eucharist at
8 & 10:45 am
Lenten Centering Prayer Group
Sue Ellen Zagrabelny is leading a Centering Prayer group this Lent. The monastic discipline of Centering prayer is an emptying of oneself in prayer in order to be accessible to the Spirit. This Centering Prayer Group will meet at Mount Olive at two different times over a period of 5 weeks: on Tuesdays after Bible Study, from 1:15 to 1:45 March 4, 11, 18, 25 and April 1; and on Wednesdays, before the Soup Supper at 5:30 to 6:00 on March 12, 9, 19, 26 and April 2. Both sessions will meet in the library.
Sign Up to Bring Tutoring Snacks
Check out the snack sign-up sheet for Way to Goals Tutoring in the lower level. Snacks for approximately 25 youth and tutors are needed on Tuesday evenings through May 27. Your help is very much appreciated!
Night On the Street
On Friday night, April 11, Mount Olive and TRUST Youth will again participate in Night On the Street at Plymouth Congregational Church. Night On the Street is an opportunity for teens to learn about youth homelessness through activities, speakers, and by experiencing what it is like to sleep in a card board box in the parking lot.
We've been asked to raise enough funds to provide one week’s worth of safe housing and supportive services for a homeless youth, $140 (seven days of housing and supportive services). All donations to A Night On the Street will go to Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, which provides housing and services for homeless youth. If you would like to make a donation, please contact the church office or Julie Manuel.
March is Minnesota FoodShare Month!
This is an annual event which is supported by congregations and other religious and civic associations throughout Minnesota to help re-stock Minnesota food shelves.
Mount Olive has participated every year since it began in 1982. We encourage you to be extra generous with your food or financial donations for our local food shelf during the month of March. This drive fills the shelves of 300 food shelves across the state of Minnesota.
Fifty percent of all food shelf recipients are children. Twenty percent of all adult recipients are elderly. More than sixty percent of those adults who use food shelves are the working poor.
If possible, we encourage you to give funds (using your blue missions envelope, clearly labeled for the food shelf) instead of food donations. Ten dollars given to the food shelf can buy $40 worth of food when purchased by the food shelves. How-ever, all donations are welcome! If you enjoy shopping for food to donate, please place your food donations in the cart in the cloak room.
Use Your Thrivent Choice Dollars Now
If you entrust your insurance or investment needs to Thrivent Financial, chances are that you have Thrivent Choice Dollars that you can designate to a qualifying charitable organization. Why not designate your Choice Dollars to our Mount Olive Foundation. Doing so costs you nothing and it helps to build our church’s endowment.
You must designate your 2013 Choice Dollars by March 31, 2014. Here’s how to do it: call a Member Care representative at 800-THRIVENT (800-847-4836) and when prompted, say, "Thrivent Choice;" or Register and designate your dollars online at www.thrivent.com.
Don’t leave money on the table. Put it to work at Mount Olive by acting before March 31 (this coming Monday!).
Life Transitions Support Group
Caregiver? Chronic Illness? Loss of home? Loss of loved one?
We each encounter a variety of losses throughout our lives. Have you wished for a familiar place where you could find some reassurance, share your story, discover a simple skill or two that could help in those moments when you feel overwhelmed?
Beginning May 14, join us for a four-week structured support group at Mount Olive. Cathy Bosworth will serve as facilitator for this group on Wednesday evenings. Each week a brief educational component will be offered with time for you to share personally in a confidential, supportive setting. Vicar Emily Beckering will offer guidance on the Lament Psalms, which we will use as a vehicle for prayer and healing. Tentatively, the group will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Youth Room. We will establish a firm meeting time when we know what works best for those who wish to participate.
If you are interested in attending, or have questions, please contact Cathy Bosworth (952-949-3679, email marcat8447@yahoo.com) or call the church office. If three or more people express interest in participating, each will be contacted to confirm the group will meet as planned.
Book Discussion Group’s Upcoming Reads
For their meeting on April 12, The Book Discussion Group will read Elizabeth and Hazel, by David Margolick. For the May 10 meeting they will read, The Small Hand and Dolly, Susan Hill.
From the Church Library
In other parts of this newsletter, you will find information about the upcoming congregation meeting on Sunday, April 6. We are happy to announce that we will be having a free books give-away table at this meeting and you are invited to watch for it and to take advantage of this opportunity.
Someone asked where the books to be given away come from? One of the ongoing tasks in our main library includes a periodic weeding of books that are removed from our shelves, but still have merit. Books may be removed for a variety of reasons, such as: age and condition (is there a newer version of that same book with updated information?); shelf space available in each category (our shelving units just aren't very expandable); plus, we continue to receive quantities of donated books and we have to choose the books that best fill a need in our overall and varied collection, leaving a nice variety of books that will be placed on our give-away table on Sunday, April 6. By choosing a book (or more) for your own collection, you will be able to have a bit Mount Olive’s library in your own library!
If there are books left after the congregation meeting, they will be placed on a similar give-away table at the next Community Meal.
An excellent saying from the writings of John Wesley will close our article this time: "Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can!"
- Leanna Kloempken
Confirmation Class Pictures of Mount Olive Members
Pentecost Sunday, June 8, 2014, is also confirmation Sunday. For the days surrounding Pentecost we would like to display photos of the confirmation classes of current members. They will be in the hallway display case. A small sign next to each photo will identify who’s class is shown, and we will have the opportunity to go on a “where’s Waldo” search of each class photo trying to spot the current member. After several weeks a sign will then be added identifying the location of the member in the photo.
If you want to take part and have your confirmation photo in the display case please place your photo in an envelope and write “To Paul Nixdorf” and also your name, church and town (and year, if you are willing) in which you were confirmed on the envelope and leave it in the church office. With the photo please include a note with your name plus a description of where you are located in the photo. Please submit photos to the office by May 31.
The display will remain up from the first week in June through early to mid-July. Your photo will then be returned to the envelope you provided and can be picked up at the church office.
Thank you.
- Paul Nixdorf
If we really knew what our Lord Jesus was truly offering us, what life in relationship with the Triune God would be for us, we would truly know what it was to be filled, to never thirst, to live. And we’d never want anything else.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, Third Sunday in Lent, year A; text: John 4:5-42
Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Part one: Samaria.
The day was already incredibly hot, one of those interminable days where the heat and humidity just suck the life out of you. You could taste the air, it was so heavy.
A woman walked to the well outside the village in the heat of noon, to avoid meeting the other women who crowded the well in the cooler hours of early morning. She knew they talked about her, so she stayed away from them. It was easier that way. They didn’t like her presence anyway, even on the outside of the group. This day, as she walked to the well with her empty jar, the oppressive heat and the difficulties of her life weighed her down.
As she drew closer to the well, she was disappointed to see someone there. She didn’t want to talk with anyone. But she could see it was a man, and a Jew, so he won’t speak to me anyway, she thought. That’s good. Jews can’t stand us. Being a Samaritan and a woman, I’ll be left alone.
So she was stunned when the man asked her for a drink. She was so surprised, she actually answered. “Why would a Jewish man ask a Samaritan, and more, a woman, for a drink?” His answer was bizarre. Something about how if she had known God’s gift and had known who it was she was speaking with, she could have asked him for living water!
Against all instincts, she kept talking to him, starting with the obvious: “You don’t have a bucket, and this is a deep well. How’re you going to get the water out? And what’s this ‘living’ water? Are you more important than Jacob himself, who gave my people this well?” Maybe that last bit was unnecessarily unkind, but she was irritated.
But then . . . the man said something that for the first time in a long time gave her some hope. He said, “Everyone who drinks of the water of this well will eventually get thirsty again. But if you drink the water I give you, you’ll never be thirsty again. Ever.” Now that would be something, she thought. Never having to lug a heavy jar to and from this well again. Never being thirsty again, in this awful, hot place. She surprised herself and asked, “Sir, give me this water, so I’ll never be thirsty again, and so I can stop coming to this well to carry water.”
And Jesus said, “Actually, I’m talking about what you really need, not what you think you need. I’m talking about living water. Life water. Life itself. You, know, why don’t you go get your husband and come back here?”
Why my husband? she thought in dismay. Why does he ask that? I’ll tell him I have no husband, leave it at that. And then this crazy man astonished her. He said, “You’ve spoken the truth. You’ve already had five husbands, and the one you live with now isn’t even your husband.” Now she was just scared. How could he know this? How could he have known she was three times a widow, and that two husbands had thrown her away, had divorced her? How could he know that she couldn’t bear to marry again and risk losing again, and that she would rather endure the scandal of living with the sixth man in her life without a marriage bond? This foreigner is a stranger, how could he know? She felt she could hide nothing from him, and it terrified her.
But she had courage. She kept talking. She told him he must be a prophet, or he wouldn’t know all that, but after all, he was a Jew, she a Samaritan, and they worshipped in different places, believed different things. And he said that was true, but that the day was coming when all people would worship their heavenly Father in spirit and in truth, and not worry about which mountain was God’s mountain. At last, she’d had enough. She gave up. Deeply confused, she said, “Look, I know that I don’t understand much. But I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he’ll explain everything.”
And the man said to her, “I am he, the one who is talking to you right now.”
And the woman returned to her village, forgetting her water jar at the well, forgetting that she wanted water, forgetting that the day was hot, forgetting that she was very tired. She told all the people to come and see this man. She really didn’t know if he was the Messiah, but he could see right through her, knew all about her, and still offered her life. Could he be the one? And, even though it was still very hot, she wasn’t thirsty anymore.
Part two: Minneapolis.
It is another Sunday after a long week of work, or simply a long week of life. The temptation was to stay in bed and not get up. Things are difficult in this modern age, life is hard sometimes. Family problems, financial worries, illnesses, lots of things. You got dressed and came here, maybe out of habit or guilt, maybe because you were actually looking for something. Maybe you have given up hope that coming to worship would meet any of the needs that really trouble you, but the music is beautiful, and this is a safe spot in a scary world.
Maybe you came expecting certain needs to be met. Maybe you were just hoping that that you’d find one thing here that would be uplifting, one thing to carry you through another long week ahead. And as you came, you realized you had been wondering a lot lately what God had to do with meeting bills, or rearing children, or dealing with complicated problems, or losing a job, or working long hours, or worrying about the future, or facing death.
And then, when you came here today, this Jesus came to you, looking for you, and said, “If you knew what God can give, if you knew who it is who is talking to you, you would ask me for living water. Water that, after drinking it, you would never be thirsty again.” And you thought, Now, that would be something. If God could meet some of these needs in my life, things would start looking up. If a few of these bills could be paid never to be paid again, for a start. Or if God could take away that pain that never leaves me. Or change that one problem that keeps coming back and make it disappear forever. If just one of the things I worry about, if that were gone, that would be something.
And Jesus said, “Actually, I’m talking about what you really need, not what you think you need. I’m talking about living water. Life water. Life itself. You forget that I know everything about you. All those things that you wish you could hide away, I know them. All the things that if your neighbors knew about them you’d be embarrassed, ashamed, I know. Everything you’ve ever done, everything you’ve ever thought, everything you’ve ever thought about doing, I know. Let’s meet with honesty anyway. There is nothing you can hide from me. And still, I am offering you life.”
But you said, It’s just words, Jesus. For that matter, I don’t even see you. And Jesus said, “yes, you do. At my table, I come to you; in my people around you, I come to you.” There, Jesus? A scrap of bread and a sip of slightly sour wine? That’s supposed to fill me up? I’m going to need lunch after church just to get through the day. And I still won’t see you. And don’t start talking about your people: these are good folks who worship with me, but it’s not the same as actually talking to you.
And Jesus said, “You don’t understand. People spend their lives searching for things that don’t fill them up inside: wealth, possessions, power, food, drugs, alcohol. They try to possess, to hold, to control, so they can be happy. And even though they find many things the world says will fill them up, they are empty and in despair. Because being filled is truly a matter of the Spirit within, not the situation without.
“So I say to you again,” Jesus said, “if you knew who it is that I am, you’d ask to have me in your life every moment, every day. Let me abide with you, fill you up inside, and all the rest will take care of itself.
“Yes, after eating at my table and hearing my Word you will need more physical nourishment, sleep, shelter, lots of things. You will have sadness and pain. You will have needs and desires. You worry about much, my friend. And yes, I will change you, make you different, make you like me, and that worries you, too.
“But the food and drink I give you, the words I speak to you, the hands of my other friends that touch you, these are my gifts to you that never end. For I fill you up where no food and drink can, no paid bills and financial security, no possessions or chemicals ever will: inside. Where you hurt, and I know it, because I know you (remember, I know everything about you). Inside, where you doubt, and I know it, because you are my child. Inside, where you are sad and lonely and think you aren’t good enough and I know it because I know your heart. And inside, where you struggle to live by God’s will, and I know it, because I shared your struggle. This is where I fill you up, with this bread and wine, this Word, this living water that washed you and made you my child forever. This is how I embrace you, with these gifts and with these people I have placed around you. And that will be enough for you to get by in this world, and even the next, because I have defeated death. You will never be thirsty again, or hungry.”
And you said, Well, I don’t know. I don’t know. Maybe if the Messiah came again, he would clear this all up for me.
And Jesus said, “I am he, the One who is speaking to you. Come, and find rest in me, real rest, so that you’re not so tired all the time. Come, and eat and drink, so that you are always satisfied, and your spirit is revived. Come, and I will light the dark places of your life with my guiding Word, so that you will walk in my light forever, and never be lost.”
Jesus said, “If you knew who it is that I am, you’d ask, and I’d give you life.”
What do you want to do?
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Week 2: “Why Not Rather Be Wronged?”
Vicar Emily Beckering, Wednesday, 19 March 2014; texts: 1 Corinthians 6:1-8; Matthew 18:15-22
In the name of the Father, and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Last week, we heard that we have been formed by the Holy Spirit in our baptisms to be the body of Christ. As that body, we are to pattern our lives after Christ and his cross: we too, will give of ourselves for the sake of the world.
This week, this call comes to life in very real ways, for we hear from God what it means to be a servant community when we face difficulties in our relationships with one another.
In today’s reading from 1 Corinthians, Paul is counseling the church of Corinth against using Roman courts to settle their disputes. The real issue here, however, is not the proper use of the legal system, but how we are to deal with one another when we disagree. What are we to do when we hurt each another? How are we to live when this happens?
The Corinthians have tried to address their hurt by bringing each other to court. The problem with these practices—settling arguments in court, demanding payment for wrong done, seeking their own interests at one another’s expense—is that all of this behavior is patterned after the world rather than after Christ. These are attempts to gain power rather than give it away.
The Corinthians are dealing with one another in ways that are incompatible with who God the Father, through Christ the Son, by the power of the Holy Spirit has called and formed them to be. They have lost sight of who they are and how they are to live.
“Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be defrauded?”
This is the crux of Paul’s argument, and through it, Paul offers the Corinthians a lens that can restore their sight.
The lens is Christ, the crucified and risen Lord, and he shifts everything into focus: how they see themselves, one another, and their disagreements. Through Paul’s letter, God is reorienting the Corinthians to the way of the cross.
God is doing the same for us today.
Through the words of Paul and Jesus, the Triune God is reorienting us to see through the lens of the crucified and risen Christ so that we can actually live as his body, especially in the face of difficulties and disagreements.
Looking through the lens of Christ is not like looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. On the contrary, Christ exposes things as they really are.
Both Jesus and Paul take sin seriously. Both of today’s readings make it clear that we cannot do whatever we want in our relationship with God and with one another. We actually have to love each other in profound ways.
In order to help us do that, Christ our lens reorients us first by functioning as a mirror in order to expose our own sin.
When held up to these texts today, the lens reveals that we are not that different from the Corinthians or Peter; we share a common reflection.
At Mount Olive, we are not in the habit of suing one another, but how often do we willingly submit to being wronged? Who does that? Are we not more likely to insist on our own way? To defend ourselves, our reputation, our value to the group, to tear others down when we feel threatened? When we do this, we—like the Corinthians—hurt, wrong, and defraud one another. We, too, have lost sight of who we are and how we are to live.
And don’t we, like Peter, sometimes find ourselves praying, “How many times must I forgive? How long do I have to put up with this Lord? Where can I draw the line?” I, admit that I, along with Peter, would like a formula: a perfect absolute that I can apply when relationships don’t go according to plan.
For this reason, it is tempting to interpret Jesus’ words here as a list to check off:
Step 1: “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.” Check. If they don’t listen to you…
Step 2: “Take one or two others along with you.” Check. If that doesn’t work…
Step 3: Bring them before the church. Check. If that still doesn’t work…
Step 4: “Let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”
At first glance, this may seem like good enough reason for justifying our anger, our bitterness, and our desire to give up on those who hurt us.
But when we take a second look through the lens of the crucified and risen Christ, things shift dramatically.
What did Jesus do to Gentiles and tax collectors?
He ate with them. He sought them out when everyone else gave up on them. He drew them back into the community.
We are to do the same.
This is made even clearer by the context in which we find today’s Gospel reading. Jesus’ words about disciplining members of the church are intentionally book-ended by two parables of mercy so that we do not lose sight of what is most important.
The first is the parable of the lost sheep, where Jesus warns us not to despise any of the little ones who are prone to wandering off. Instead, we, like God the Father, are to leave the 99 in order to seek the one. It is not the Father’s will that any one of these little ones be lost.
The second is the parable of the unforgiving servant, which we hear immediately after Peter asks how many times he must forgive his brother. Jesus’ answer is the same that the master offers the slave: “Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?”
Through these bookends, we discover that the lens of the crucified and risen Christ reorients us not only to see our sin, but also shows us just what God has done to deal with that sin and brokenness.
Christ chose to die rather than to have any one of us be lost. God has responded to our own sin through the foolishness of the cross. God deals with us by forgiving us and continually offering a relationship; that is how we are to deal with one another.
Framed in this way, we see that today’s gospel reading is not a proof-text to justify exclusion, revenge, or giving up on those who hurt us. These patterns will only lead to more hurt, to more broken relationships.
The way of the cross, however, which Christ has traveled to bring us all back in, leads to forgiveness, to mercy, to love, to healing, and to restored relationships.
So why not rather be wronged?
If we are to be of the same mind as Christ, then we will risk being wronged, looking foolish, forgiving, and offering relationship in the face of rejection—all for the sake of love.
We know what this love looks like from our relationships with those who are dearest to us. Because we love them, we make decisions which may cause us to suffer: we get up in the middle of the night to rock the baby no matter how exhausted we are because that’s just what you do when you love and are a parent or grandparent. We say no to ourselves in order to say yes to them. We give up our own pursuits or desires sometimes in order to care for them. To truly love our children, our parents, or our partner/spouse, or our friends, we will embrace their losses, yearnings, and brokenness.
Doing this for those whom we love the most is hard enough, let alone for the little ones—the ones whom, according to Jesus, we are most tempted to despise. But this is the call on our lives today. This is how we are to deal with disagreements. This is how we are to treat those who hurt us, those who perhaps even make our lives in this community difficult. This is how we are to love those who, for whatever reason, always seem to push on our bruises that are still tender.
God is reorienting us to seek out these little ones. They see themselves as outsiders, and we need to love them back in. We are to seek them as God the Father seeks us all, even if that means that we will be wronged. For it is not the Father’s will that any one of them be lost.
This time when we hold up the lens of the crucified and risen Christ, we see ourselves and one another differently.
We realize that we are all the little ones who are prone to wander off, yet we all belong to Christ. Reoriented to the way of the cross, we will say no to ourselves in order to say yes to them. We will embrace their losses, their yearnings, their brokenness, and we will expose our own.
When we deal with our disagreements in this way as a servant community, we might be wronged. We might be defrauded. But the Triune God will continually be reorienting us through it all so that we will feel, hear, and see the healing power of Christ’s radical forgiveness at work. Our vision will no longer be blurred by rage or clouded by insecurity. Through the lens of the crucified and risen Christ, we will see one another clearly and treat one another differently because of it. Then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we—and all the world—will witness God’s kingdom coming into focus.
Amen.
Accent on Worship
Step In
Singing in public is truly an amazing thing.
There are times, however, when it reminds me of high school days when I used to play in a rock band at dances. We waited with great nervous anticipation for someone to “break the ice” and dance, even though the dance floor was empty. It would take awhile some times. We’d offer several songs, sometimes an entire set, before someone would brave the floor. But we knew that once someone did, the floor would quickly fill up and we’d be set for the rest of the night. And sometimes, when we’d sense some energy coming from the floor, we’d step on the gas a bit (so to speak) and get them going even more!
As you may have guessed, I draw a parallel from this “break the ice” dancing syndrome to congregational singing.
People are very nervous about singing alone, or about feeling like they are being heard by someone else. This is understandable – our voices are very personal, and we can’t change them in for a new one. I’ve also known few who actually like their own voices when they hear them. But when we’re singing together, the good news is that we’re NOT singing solo. The more we all break the ice and step in, the easier it is for all of us to sing out.
sing out.
My predecessor with the National Lutheran Choir, Larry Fleming, once heard all of the voices of one section one at a time. His response was, “Amazing. Individually, they sound terrible. But as a group, it’s magic.” Indeed, when singing together a new sound is created that involves the contributions of all the individual voices with their different sounds to a new collective that can be magic.
I’ve been in situations where all I sense is fear. Everyone half mumbles out of fear that they might stick out if they sing more. I find myself doing the same, and funny thing: can’t sing much, and certainly not very high because to do so involves “stepping on the gas” a bit with my voice. And frankly, I’m not too crazy about my own voice either. But I don’t mind singing when there’s company. In the fear-filled situation, the hymns feel like an obligatory chore rather than the opportunity that they are.
When we all sing together, there’s nothing like it. We’re all breaking the ice, we’re all on a limb together, and none of us sticks out. Then as Cantor, I can sense that, and help us all step on the gas a little more through the use of the organ, or - equally amazing - let it go unaccompanied, which lets the sound float like clouds of paradise! When the singing is strong, that is a fantastic sensation! When it’s weak, we hear fear.
Public song is amazing! Do us all a favor, and decide to let go and sing in. The more sound, the more inviting and encouraging it is to the next reluctant participant in song. So, YOU be the one who breaks the ice.
- Cantor David Cherwien
Sunday Readings
March 23, 2014: Third Sunday in Lent
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42
_____________________
March 30, 2014: Third Sunday in Lent
1 Samuel 16:1-13
Psalm 23
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41
Notice of Congregation Meeting
The April Semi-annual congregational meeting will be held after the second liturgy on Sunday, April 6. Business before the congregation will include election of officers and Vestry members for 2014-2015, annual report of the Mount Olive Foundation, and an update on the Capital Campaign.
At the April 2013 congregation meeting, the congregation approved a limited capital campaign that would help to put Mount Olive and its many ministries on firm financial footing in 2014 and beyond. A target of $182,000 was approved to be used for two purposes. The first is to restore funds that the congregation borrowed over a number of years from its restricted accounts (funds given by individuals who designated them for specific purposes); and the second is to create a cash reserve to help cover routine future expenses at times when donations are insufficient.
Midweek Lenten Worship on Wednesdays
March 12 – April 9
• Noon: Holy Eucharist, followed by soup luncheon
• 7:00 pm: Evening Prayer, preceded by soup supper, beginning at 6:00 p.m.
A Servant Community: Lenten Midweek
Baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, the community of the faithful are also bound into the servant role of our Messiah, called to give of ourselves for each other and the world. Just as the kingdom comes into the world fully when the Son of God sets aside all power and domination and goes to the cross, so too we live out our lives as servant people who are willing to lose all for the sake of the other.
This Lent in our midweek worship, both at the noon Eucharist and evening Vespers, we will be using Paul’s first letter to Corinth as an entrance into reflection on the servant life of the community of Christ, on what our call means in our life together and our life in the world, on what it is to live in the kingdom of God now.
This Week’s Forum
March 23: “Bringing Faith to Our Civic Life,” presented by Sen. John Marty.
Lenten Devotional Available Online
Again this year, Susan Cherwien’s Lenten devotional is also available online. Visit the blog and save it as a favorite, so that it’s easily accessible to you throughout the remainder of the season of Lent.
An Invitation to Confession
During the season of Lent I am making myself available at some regular times to hear individual confession and to offer absolution to any who desire it. I will be in the chancel from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. each Monday in Lent, and continuing through the Monday of Holy Week. If you wish to come for confession, simply come to the altar rail. There will be a worship book so we can follow the rite together. If someone is already there, please wait near the back of the nave and when I’m free, come forward. While waiting, even if I’m free and you want to prepare yourself, praying the psalms in the pew or reading Scripture is worth considering.
- Pr. Joseph Crippen
The Complete Rameau Concerti – This Sunday, March 23, 4 pm
Sponsored by Mount Olive Music & Fine Arts, Tami Morse, harpsichord, Marc Levine, violin, and Tulio Rondon, viol da gambe, will present a complete performance of the five Harpsichord Concertos of Jean-Philippe Rameau.
Virtuoso harpsichordist, Tami Morse, is featured in an exceptional tour de force: a complete performance of the five Harpsichord Concertos of Jean-Philippe Rameau. Unlike the modern concerto requiring a full orchestra, these masterful works, filled with beautiful melodies and exceptional harmonies, are accompanied with perfectly orchestrated baroque violin and viola da gamba parts.
Join us – and bring a friend!
March is Minnesota FoodShare Month!
This is an annual event supported by congregations and other religious and civic associations throughout Minnesota.
Mount Olive has participated every year since it began in 1982. We encourage you to be extra generous with your food or financial donations for our local food shelf during the month of March. This drive fills the shelves of 300 food shelves across the state of Minnesota.
Fifty percent of all food shelf recipients are children. Twenty percent of all adult recipients are elderly. More than sixty percent of those adults who use food shelves are the working poor.
If possible, we encourage you to give funds (using your blue missions envelope, clearly labeled for the food shelf) instead of food donations. Ten dollars given to the food shelf can buy $40 worth of food when purchased by the food shelves. How-ever, all donations are welcome! If you enjoy shopping for food to donate, please place your food donations in the cart in the cloak room.
Sign Up to Bring Tutoring Snacks
Check out the snack sign-up sheet for Way to Goals Tutoring in the lower level. Snacks for approximately 25 youth and tutors are needed on Tuesday evenings through May 27. Your help is very much appreciated!
Friendly Callers Meeting
Mount Olive Friendly Callers will meet on Sunday, March 30, immediately following the first liturgy. This meeting will take place in the Undercroft.
Please bring the names and numbers of the people you are calling on a regular basis.
Luther College Cathedral Choir to Perform at Mount Olive
The Luther College Cathedral Choir will perform in concert April 5, 2014, 7:00 p.m. at Mount Olive Lutheran Church, 3045 Chicago Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN. No tickets are needed, but a freewill offering will be received at the concert.
The Cathedral Choir, directed by Dr. Jennaya Robison, performs a varied program of sacred music. The concert program will include choral masterpieces by J.S. Bach, Hassler, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. At the heart of the program is Estonian composer’s Ēriks Ešenvalds’ “Stars” for choir, water-tuned glasses and Tibetan singing bowls. Favorite works by Olaf Christiansen, F. Melius Christiansen, Moses Hogan, Z. Randall Stroope, and others are included in an eclectic program suitable for listeners of all ages.
The choir is in need of housing for some of their members. If you are able to provide hospitality for choir members, please contact Cantor Cherwien as soon as possible.
Housing Needed!
Housing is needed for Luther College's Cathedral Choir, Saturday, April 5. If you can house two or more students, PLEASE call the office, or let Cantor Cherwien know this Sunday or the following Sunday. He'll be roaming the church with the clipboard.
Students will need to be picked up and brought to your home after their concert here at 7:00 pm, maybe a snack that evening. Two in a double bed is OK. After providing breakfast for them, they need to be back at Mount Olive at 7:00 am Sunday the 6th.
There are 23 hosts needed (four each), so if you can help, please do!
Holy Week at Mount Olive
Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday
Sunday, April 13
Holy Eucharist, 8 & 10:45 am
Monday-Wednesday of Holy Week,
April 14-16
Daily Prayer at Noon, in the side chapel of the nave
Maundy Thursday, April 17
Holy Eucharist at Noon
Holy Eucharist, with the Washing of Feet, 7:00 p.m.
Good Friday, April 18
Stations of the Cross at Noon
Adoration of the Cross at 7 pm
Holy Saturday, April 19
Great Vigil of Easter, 8:30 pm, followed by a festive reception
The Resurrection of Our Lord
Sunday, April 20
Festival Eucharist at
8 & 10:45 am
Lenten Centering Prayer Group
Sue Ellen Zagrabelny, Mount Olive member and an oblate or lay associate at Holy Wisdom Monastery in Middleton, WI is hosting a Centering Prayer group this Lent. Centering prayer, a monastic discipline at the monastery, is an emptying of oneself in prayer in order to be accessible to the Spirit. This Centering Prayer Group will be offered at Mount Olive at two different times over a period of 5 weeks: on Tuesdays, the group will meet after Bible Study, from 1:15 to 1:45 March 4, 11, 18, 25 and April 1. On Wednesdays, the group will meet before the Lenten Supper at 5:30 to 6:00 on March 12, 9, 19, 26 and April 2. Both sessions will meet in the library.
If you have questions, please contact Sue Ellen Zagrabelny at 815-997-6020 or via email to skatzny@yahoo.com
Way to Goals Thanks!
It has been a wonderful ride as your Coordinator of Neighborhood Ministries all these years and I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all those who have supported Neighborhood Ministries with their finances, their volunteer efforts, and their prayers.
I usually thank all those who have supported the Way to Goals Tutoring in May. However, I will not be here at the end of the season, so I would like to thank them at this time. Thank you to all the tutors, for their dedication and time given to the students: Vicar Emily Beckering, Yevette Berard, Diane Brown, Peter Bunge, Patsy Holtmier, Joe Kane, Greicia Pedroso, Catherine Pususta, and Amy Thompson.
Thanks also to all those who have supplied us with snacks: Gail Nielsen, Judy Graves, Naomi Peterson, and Dennis Bidwell.
- Donna Neste
Another Word of Thanks
Thanks to Sedona and Austin Crosby for adding some festive spirit at the community meal on March 15, by making green decorated rice crispy treats to serve!
If you are interested in volunteering for the 3rd Saturday community meal please talk with Kat or Gretchen Campbell-Johnson or Kathy Thurston for opportunities.
Wanted: Confirmation Class Photos of Mount Olive’s Members
Pentecost Sunday, June 8, 2014, is also confirmation Sunday. For the days surrounding Pentecost we would like to display photos of the confirmation classes of current members. They will be in the hallway display case. A small sign next to each photo will identify who’s class is shown, and we will have the opportunity to go on a “where’s Waldo” search of each class photo trying to spot the current member. After several weeks a sign will then be added identifying the location of the member in the photo.
If you want to take part and have your confirmation photo in the display case please place your photo in an envelope and write “To Paul Nixdorf” and also your name, church and town (and year, if you are willing) in which you were confirmed on the envelope and leave it in the church office. With the photo please include a note with your name plus a description of where you are located in the photo. Please submit photos to the office by May 31.
The display will remain up from the first week in June through early to mid-July. Your photo will then be returned to the envelope you provided and can be picked up at the church office.
Thank you.
- Paul Nixdorf
Upcoming Reads
For their meeting on April 12, the Book Discussion Group will read Elizabeth and Hazel, by David Margolick. For the May 10 meeting, they will read, The Small Hand and Dolly, by Susan Hill.
“Seeing” the kingdom of God and “entering” the kingdom of God are one and the same: when the Holy Spirit moves in us and gives birth to us as children of God who live new lives in God’s reign we participate in what God is doing in Jesus the Messiah, instead of watching from the sidelines.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, Second Sunday in Lent, year A; texts: John 3:1-17; Genesis 12:1-4a
Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
There’s a tremendous difference between watching something and thinking about it and actually entering into it and experiencing it. You can’t tell if the water in the lake or pool is lovely and refreshing by looking at it, or even touching a toe. You have to get in and splash around to see for yourself. You can’t tell if a meal is tasty and wonderful just by smelling it, and taking pictures of it. You have to pick up your fork and take a bite, dig in, as we say, and see. This is one of the things parents constantly need to encourage their children to learn: just try it, just see what it’s like. It can’t be explained, only lived.
Nicodemus is taking pictures of food, and dabbing his toe into the water. He’s searching, that’s true. He is looking for God, clearly, and sees something in Jesus that is intriguing. The things Jesus does, he thinks, couldn’t be done by someone who wasn’t somehow connected to God. But Nicodemus also knows that Jesus of Nazareth is treading on dangerous paths. He is saying and doing things that threaten the leadership of the people, threaten Nicodemus and his peers. It’s risky for Nicodemus, in his social and political and religious circles, even to suggest “there might actually be something about this Jesus, this rabbi.”
So he slips out at night, and comes to see Jesus under cover of darkness. He’s looking at the food. He’s thinking about the lake. But he’s not ready to commit, at least not in the daylight. Or that’s how Jesus reads it. Because Nicodemus asks an observer’s question, a viewer’s question: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs apart from the presence of God.”
Jesus doesn’t engage him at his level, which he could do by saying, “Who do you mean by ‘we,’ Nicodemus?” Or by answering his question about whether he comes from God. Instead, Jesus invites him deeper. He says Nicodemus can’t see what he wants to see unless he comes in, can’t know what he wants to know unless he is a part of it, is born anew into it. The kingdom of God, Jesus says, can’t be truly known by spectators, but only by those who live in it.
Do we understand this?
Jesus speaks to us: the only way we’re going to know what God is doing in the world is let God bring us into the kingdom, into this new way.
So is the kingdom something we look at or something in which we live and move? Too often we’re Nicodemus, thinking we know where God is working in the world, but not willing or ready to engage. We sit on the outside, talking about God, and not living on the inside experiencing God. Talking about theology, or talking about the Christian life. Talking about doing justice and loving neighbor (or loving an enemy). Talking, as if that’s all we need to do.
But if we’re only considering the message of Jesus, contemplating theology, debating doctrine, we’re never going to know what we want to know, we’re never going to know if this life in Christ is the real thing, is abundant life. We’ll just be sitting on the edge of the pool, just looking at the food.
Is it feasible to love one’s enemies? You can’t know till you start, till we do it. But we’d rather talk about it than actually try it. We’d rather worry about whether it can work or not than actually do it and see if Jesus is right, that this is life.
Is it feasible to live without fear, trusting God’s love? To live every day as if what Jesus says here – that God’s love is for all, that the Son of God came to save not to condemn – to live as if that were true and find ways to face life unafraid, is that possible? You can’t know till you start, till we do it. But we’re more comfortable talking about it than trying to live as if it were true.
Is it feasible to live in such trust of God that we’re not afraid to let go – of possessions, of our need to win, of our need to be in charge, of our control – is it possible to live that way, the way Jesus invites? You can’t know till you start, till we do it. But we tend to find lots of ways to talk about how it doesn’t work in the real world, rather than simply trying it.
Is Jesus the Son of God, risen from the dead, and desiring a relationship with us that gives us life, that changes us? Is he really able to save us in every way that could mean and make a difference in our lives? You can’t really know till you start to trust that he is, till we do it. To stop talking about who he is and start trusting and living in him as he invites.
It’s the difference between Abram and Nicodemus today. Abram is asked by God to uproot his whole life, his family, everything, and go where God was sending him. To trust, and to follow. Without even a specific destination at first. Just “go to the land that I will show you.”
And he does it. He leaves his home and starts to wander, and for the rest of his life he’s pretty much living in tents, on the move.
Nicodemus is a teacher of Israel, a son of Abraham, someone who knows that model of faithful trusting. Yet he hesitates. Maybe that’s why Jesus asks him how he, a teacher of Israel, doesn’t know these things.
Jesus is the fulfillment of the story of Israel, the next step in God’s continued plan for the redemption of Israel as the blessing of the whole world. Nicodemus, a teacher, should have seen how this was the plan, Jesus says. Yet he comes in the middle of the night with his questions.
Jesus invites us in today, invites us to open our hearts and minds to the movement of the Spirit. To trust and follow and see what happens, like Abram. He invites us to be born from above, born anew, through water and the Spirit. A new start, that’s what you need, Jesus says, then you’ll see.
Once the Spirit brings us to new life, we begin to see amazing things.
It really is a birth into a new life, with new eyes. Paul tells us that faith itself is a gift of the Spirit, so if we believe at all, there’s our first sign the Spirit is moving in us, making us new. Let me say that again: if you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that means the Holy Spirit is already at work in you.
Now it’s just a matter of looking for the other signs. Like the invisible wind is seen in the swaying branches of the tree, Jesus said. The signs are all around us, and in front of you, in front of me.
So Jesus says, be reborn, and then just listen and look: where do you see the movement of the Spirit? Go there, follow. Be Abram, not Nicodemus.
If we feel that God is leading us as a community to do something, that’s the Spirit leading. The only way we can know it is of God is if we follow and see.
In each of us, the nudge of the Spirit comes every day many times, if only we listen and look: that nudge to love someone and be kind, even though we are used to not liking them; that nudge to reach out to someone even though our tendency is to hold back; that nudge to offer ourselves to be a part of God’s justice in the world, even though there’s part of us that feels too busy, or too afraid. All of this is the work of the Spirit, the blowing in the branches, if only we listen and look.
The really good thing about this new birth of the Spirit is that it’s not something that happens only once; the Spirit constantly works to give us new birth.
We misunderstand Jesus if we read his words today as a statement of a one-time thing. It is true that the Church reads this and understands it to be about baptism, our birth in water and the Spirit. But we Lutherans believe that living into our baptism is a daily renewal, a daily rebirth. Every day we are given a new start in the Spirit, a new beginning. This is very encouraging, especially when we see ourselves falling back into a pattern of holding back.
But if the Spirit is renewing us daily, giving birth to us daily, then we always have this new possibility, this new life. To be forgiven when we fail, when we step back or walk away, and to be strengthened daily to move forward, to get in, to live in the kingdom.
To use the water metaphor: jumping in or sliding in slowly, both are fine so long as you get in. Nicodemus finally gets in himself, if we understand John correctly. At the end of this Gospel we see him openly acting as a disciple, helping bury Jesus’ body.
The point is to know that this is where life is we have to live it, we have to try living as a disciple, living in the kingdom, as often and as well as we can, to get into the water, to eat the food, rather than sitting alongside and watching and talking.
To love, because that’s life in the kingdom, even if it seems hard. And in loving, even in little ways, to discover that loving as Christ loves is something we can learn, and something we can get better at with time, as the Spirit moves in us. And also to find the new life such grace begins, the unending life Jesus promises in John 3:16.
To do justice, to make a difference in this world, because that’s life in the kingdom, even if we think it can’t be much of an impact. And in doing this, even in little ways, to see that we can learn to do this, and get better at it with time, as the Spirit moves in us. And also to find the joy that it does make a difference, it is part of God’s healing of the world, part of that unending life.
To trust God and not fear, because that’s life in the kingdom, even if it seems hard. And so to discover how trusting God is something we can learn, and something that we get better at with time, as the Spirit moves in us. And also to find the joy of life without fear such trust begins, the true unending life with God.
We’re not going to find God’s unending life if we only talk about it.
That’s Jesus’ invitation to us today. Let’s take him at his word, and jump into this new life, trusting that the Spirit will show us the way. It’s a daily new birth so that means we can even just take baby steps into the new life, until we grow and mature. We can start out simply, trusting that we’ll learn what we need as we go, because that’s the way God will help us grow.
It’s a new birth we have before us, every day. It’s time to let that be our reality and joy. And then we’ll really see.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
Week 1: “Foolish God; Foolish Community”
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, Wednesday, 12 March 2014; texts: 1 Corinthians 1:10-31; Matthew 16:21-28
Sisters and brothers, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
There’s a fair bit of negative press for disciples of Christ Jesus in these two readings, or at least intense criticism. Simon Peter, trying to understand what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah, having just declared that to be true, really steps in it and is called “Satan” by Jesus. That’s not a good day. And Paul, in writing to a congregation he founded, to people he loves, in the very beginnings of this letter to them, pretty much tells them they weren’t necessarily the cream of the crop of Corinth. Not wise by human standards, not powerful, not of noble birth. There is little danger that after these two descriptions either Peter or the Corinthian disciples are going to have difficulty with too much self esteem.
Yet these two situations speak profoundly to what it means not only that Jesus is the Messiah of God but also what it means to be a disciple of such a Messiah. It may be that Jesus sounds a little harsh to our ears, but if he doesn’t lay out in no uncertain terms that Peter’s heading in the wrong direction, it’s not likely we’ll pay the attention we need, or that Peter will, for that matter. It may be that Paul sounds a little insulting to his people, but if he doesn’t speak clearly about their reality in terms of the world’s standards, it’s not likely we’ll take seriously our reality as disciples, either, nor will they.
The critiques are related to each other, and both are necessary. We need to understand just what kind of Messiah the Son of God is in the world, what he is about. When we understand that, then we need to recognize the implications of that on us, on our discipleship and status in the world.
On these Wednesdays in Lent this year we will be considering what it means that we are a community of faith, we Christians, a Body of Christ, as Paul says. Our central texts will be taken from this first letter to the Corinthians, and will be in dialogue with readings from the Gospels. But our question in these readings today is the question we need to consider all Lent: what does it mean for us, what does it look like, and what is our call, as the community of Christ in the world?
Before we can consider that, though, we actually need Paul to convince us that we are joined together in this Body.
We can’t understand this letter to the Christians in Corinth without grasping the foundational reality Paul and the early Church assumed: the salvation we know in Christ Jesus is only found in the Body, the community, the Church.
This may seem obvious, but consider the way the Church has tended to speak of salvation. Don’t most people seem to think it’s a personal question for each to decide or know? Lutherans don’t speak of “personally accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior” as the beginning of being a Christian, but we act as if it’s just as individualistic for us. As if the only question is whether or not each person is saved, whatever we mean by that.
I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with Lutherans over the years that involved speculating about the saved status of this person or that person. I can’t tell you how many times it’s been clear to me in conversation with folks that for most Christians, even Lutherans, salvation is only about one thing: am I going to heaven after I die?
There’s not much community in that question, to say nothing of understanding what Jesus meant by life eternal.
For us, it’s not that “accepting” moment that defines us, it’s Baptism, but it certainly feels as if for most Lutherans that’s an individual matter. Anxiety over whether someone’s Baptism still counts if they’ve fallen away from regular church participation: I’ve heard that all my ministry. Anxiety over whether someone can be “saved,” which almost implies “loved by God,” if they haven’t been baptized: again, it’s a constant theme.
Yet Paul begins his letter to his people in Corinth with this criticism: you are divided amongst yourselves, you are not in unity. As if our life together was the important thing. “I appeal to you,” Paul says, “that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.”
Clearly there were lots of cracks developing in the Corinthian church, along all sorts of fault lines, since this is how Paul begins his letter. But this is how we understand the whole of this letter, really: Paul is exploring what it is to be the Body of Christ.
He addresses it in terms of a call: that is what we are. And in terms of how that affects all sorts of things within the community: divisions, disagreements, differences in status, differences in gifts. So to enter this letter and get what Paul is doing means grasping first and foremost this understanding: we are baptized into the Body of Christ, and it is together that we find life.
And really, the rampant individualism is not always just of persons, as we see in Corinth. It seems as if there was an individualism of communities, ironically. The Apollos followers were sniping at the Paul followers, who were biting at the Peter followers.
So as much as we are called by Paul to set aside this sense that salvation is only about each individual person, we also are challenged to set aside our sense that our congregation is the main thing. Or that our denomination is. Or any other subdivision lesser than the Church of Christ on earth.
The kingdom of God preached by Jesus, inaugurated in his death and resurrection, and set afire at Pentecost, is a salvation of the world worked through the servant followers of Christ, the Body of Christ. We are saved together, as a Body, a Church, a community, that we might change the world.
And our unity comes from the cross, not anything else. That’s the next thing Paul claims.
This community, this Body, is the community created by the cross of Christ Jesus.
There are lots of ways for groups to find unity, most of which are destructive; it’s important we understand what truly unites us.
Paul’s description of how unimportant the Corinthians are is related to his sense of his own unimportance, and how that is linked to the humiliating death our Lord suffered. What’s the point in bragging about your leaders, Paul says, whether me or Cephas or Apollos? We’re not important, nor were we called to be eloquent and impressive.
And what’s the point in bragging about yourselves, either? Paul says. Or finding unity by banding against other groups, other people? Or finding unity by believing you’ve got all the right answers? Be honest, Paul says, you’re not that impressive a group of people.
But that’s OK, Paul says, because we belong to the One who to the world didn’t look impressive at all, who suffered a humiliating death, who was a failure in the eyes of the world. And the wonder of that, Paul says: this is the heart, the center of what God is doing in the world. It looks like foolishness, but only because God’s wisdom is incomprehensible to the way of the world.
That’s the most important thing: the way of the cross, the way of losing, the way of death, is the way God is saving the world. Jesus’ prediction of his suffering and death is not a dire warning, or a complaint, or a frightened whimper. It is Jesus declaring that this is the path he will walk, that this is the way he will bring life.
Now, of course, this is why Paul calls this God’s foolishness. And why Peter resists so strongly Jesus’ description of this way. It looks like a terrible thing, that the Messiah will die. Peter legitimately thinks that means the Messiah fails. He doesn’t understand what it really means.
But it is this that unites us, Paul says: not our prominence, not our eloquence, not our wealth, not our intelligence, not our gifts, not our correct answers, not our institutions or organizations. It is that we are claimed as a servant Church in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and nothing else.
That is our unity, our connection, our life. And in that unity, as Peter learned, we are called to follow our Lord’s model.
That’s the inevitable result: the life of the community of Christ is to model such servant giving, such losing, such foolishness.
This is one of the worst results of individualistic salvation focus, of concern only for whether I’m not going to hell when I die: the Church misses the whole meaning of salvation. The kingdom Jesus proclaimed in his ministry he begins by his dying, his giving up of all power, because that is the way the world will be changed, be saved.
Not by the Church becoming yet another power-hungry group that dominates others to get its way, who thinks that force will accomplish what God wants. Whenever the Church has gone that way it has been devastating and horrible, and undermined everything Jesus our Lord intended.
No, the world will be and is changed when the Church becomes as foolish as the Triune God, and as willing to lose, to be run over, even to die to bring life to this world.
Jesus’ call to take up the cross is his reminder that as his followers, we take his path, too, or we aren’t really following him. You are called to be servant people in the world, he says, losing yourself for the sake of others, giving up of yourself for the sake of the world, dying, even, to bring life.
You can see why it’s easier for Christians to reduce the cross to the means by which we get to heaven. The call to follow Jesus’ way is frightening. But in the history of the Church that is where salvation for the world has always happened, when we were a servant community standing in the face of evil with love and transforming it from within.
If any one of us fears what that might mean individually for our lives, our choices, our decisions, that’s fair. But isn’t it marvelous, then, that we are not alone in this, that we are called together as a Body? Being a servant Church together means we support and encourage and embolden each other in our service, our sacrificial love. It means we can do more together than alone. The servant life is a lot easier to handle together, and a lot more joyful and profoundly beautiful.
Jesus knew what he was doing.
So for now, this is where we leave it: we know who we are and what we are called to be.
This is the work of the Spirit we ask God to make happen among us, that we are prepared and strengthened for our work as the kingdom of God, as the servant Church. Everything else we need to know about how we are together as Christ’s Body flows from this center.
And yes, Paul’s right, God’s way does sound foolish. But we have met our Risen Lord, and we know how things aren’t always what they seem. We know this is our life, and the life of the world. God grant us the courage to live together in the world as if that were so.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
Accent on Worship
“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him,” said Jesus to Nicodemus in the Gospel for the Second Sunday in Lent.
That is what Jesus was all about. He was a healer, one who restored and spoke the truth to those who benefited by wounding, withholding and tearing apart. That is what Christ’s Church should be about and (though we fail at times) often it is. It has been a body to come to for comfort, one that works to heal and make whole, one that does not ask, “what’s wrong with you?’ but “what happened in your life that is in need of healing?”
And that is why the congregation that belongs to the beautiful brick church on the corner of 31st and Chicago hired me almost 30 years ago.
Being followers of Jesus, they saw all the pain and need in the community. They needed someone to organize their efforts as healers, and they were so ahead of their time. I wasn’t even the first person to hold that position when I came in the mid-eighties. Mount Olive congregation was reaching out to the community with someone at the head of an organized effort since the early 1970s.
As I leave you, I want to thank you with my deepest gratitude for giving me the gratitude, for giving me the opportunity to serve this neighborhood in the name of Jesus. It has been a tremendous honor and I will hold you in my heart for as long as I live. You are truly blessed to be so close to opportunities to serve, to restore, and to heal. I have witnessed the outpouring of your compassion to those in need, and your willingness to be a part of the salvation of the world as followers of Jesus, as the precious children of God that you are.
Thank you for everything.
- Donna Pususta Neste
Sunday Readings
March 16, 2014: Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17
_____________________
March 23, 2014: Third Sunday in Lent
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42
This Week's Adult Forum
March 16: “From Earth, to Eden, to Ground: The Opening Chapters of the Book of Genesis” (part 4 of a 4-part series), presented by Scholar-in-Residence, Prof. Earl Schwartz of Hamline University.
Midweek Lenten Worship on Wednesdays, March 12 – April 9
• Noon: Holy Eucharist, followed by soup luncheon
• 7:00 pm: Evening Prayer, preceded by soup supper, beginning at 6:00 p.m.
Farewell Celebration: This Sunday
This Friday, March 14, will be Donna Neste's last day as our Neighborhood Ministries Coordinator. Donna has served God and Mount Olive admirably for many decades and it's time to bid her a fond farewell. There will be a meal and celebration after the second liturgy this Sunday, March 16.
Soup-Makers Needed!
Soup makers are needed to provide soup and bread for our midweek Lenten meals. Soup and bread for the lunch following Wednesday midday Eucharist should feed 40-50 people, and for the supper before Wednesday Evening Prayer, we need soup and bread for about 10-12 people.
If you can help by signing up to bring a meal (or two!), the sign up chart will be on the refreshment table at coffee hour on Sundays.
Lenten Devotional Books
Copies of Susan Cherwien’s Journey Into Lent 2014 are available in the narthex and in the church office, for your devotional use during this Lenten season.
Again this year, the devotional is also available online. Visit the blog and save it as a favorite, so that it’s easily accessible to you throughout the season of Lent.
An Invitation to Confession
During the season of Lent I am making myself available at some regular times to hear individual confession and to offer absolution to any who desire it. I will be in the chancel from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. each Monday in Lent, and continuing through the Monday of Holy Week. If you wish to come for confession, simply come to the altar rail. There will be a worship book so we can follow the rite together. If someone is already there, please wait near the back of the nave and when I’m free, come forward. While waiting, even if I’m free and you want to prepare yourself, praying the psalms in the pew or reading Scripture is worth considering.
- Pr. Joseph Crippen
March is Minnesota FoodShare Month!
This is an annual event is supported by congregations and other religious and civic associations throughout Minnesota.
Mount Olive has participated every year since it began in 1982. We encourage you to be extra generous with your food or financial donations for our local food shelf during the month of March. This drive fills the shelves of 300 food shelves across the state of Minnesota.
Fifty percent of all food shelf recipients are children. Twenty percent of all adult recipients are elderly. More than sixty percent of those adults who use food shelves are the working poor.
If possible, we encourage you to give funds (using your blue missions envelope, clearly labeled for the food shelf) instead of food donations. Ten dollars given to the food shelf can buy $40 worth of food when purchased by the food shelves. How-ever, all donations are welcome! If you enjoy shopping for food to donate, please place your food donations in the cart in the cloak room.
Wanted: Confirmation Class Photos of Mount Olive’s Members
Pentecost Sunday, June 8, 2014, is also confirmation Sunday. For the days surrounding Pentecost we would like to display photos of the confirmation classes of current members. They will be in the hallway display case. A small sign next to each photo will identify who’s class is shown, and we will have the opportunity to go on a “where’s Waldo” search of each class photo trying to spot the current member. After several weeks a sign will then be added identifying the location of the member in the photo.
If you want to take part and have your confirmation photo in the display case please place your photo in an envelope and write “To Paul Nixdorf” and also your name, church and town (and year, if you are willing) in which you were confirmed on the envelope and leave it in the church office. With the photo please include a note with your name plus a description of where you are located in the photo. Please submit photos to the office by May 31.
The display will remain up from the first week in June through early to mid-July. Your photo will then be returned to the envelope you provided and can be picked up at the church office.
Thank you.
- Paul Nixdorf
Book Discussion Upcoming Reads
For their meeting on April 12, the Book Discussion Group will read Elizabeth and Hazel, by David Margolick. For the May 10 meeting, they will read, The Small Hand and Dolly, by Susan Hill.
A Servant Community: Lenten Midweek
Baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, the community of the faithful are also bound into the servant role of our Messiah, called to give of ourselves for each other and the world. Just as the kingdom comes into the world fully when the Son of God sets aside all power and domination and goes to the cross, so too we live out our lives as servant people who are willing to lose all for the sake of the other.
This Lent in our midweek worship, both at the noon Eucharist and evening Vespers, we will be using Paul’s first letter to Corinth as an entrance into reflection on the servant life of the community of Christ, on what our call means in our life together and our life in the world, on what it is to live in the kingdom of God now.
Lenten Worship on Wednesdays: Eucharist at noon, followed by soup and bread lunch. Soup and bread supper will be served at 6:00 p.m., followed by Vespers at 7:00 p.m.
Church Library News
Thanks to Susan Cherwien for her wonderful gift to the Mount Olive community of a special book of Lenten devotions. Awaiting your perusal is a further display of Lenten books in our main library, including:
Portraits of the Christ (Messages for Lent and Easter), by John McCollister, editor
The Lord's Prayer and the Lord's Passion, by Paul G. Lessmann
The Grace of the Passion, by Olive Wyon
The Scandal of Lent (Themes for Lenten Preachings in the Gospel of John), by Robert Kysar
A Cross to Glory (Lenten Sermons), by Alton F. Wedel
Followers of the Cross (Messages for Lent and Easter), by Harry N. Huxhold
Cross Words (Sermons and Dramas for Lent), by Kent Poovey
Come, Lord Jesus, Come Quickly (Lenten Meditations), by Constance F. Parvey
The Man Who Died for Me (Meditations on the Death and Resurrection of Our Lord),
by Herbert Lockyer
A Book of Easter (with daily devotions), by Paul M. Lindberg
Come to Easter, by Anna Laura and Edward Gebhard
The Splendor of Easter, compiled and edited by Floyd W. Thatcher
We Call This Friday Good (Meditations based on the 7 last words of Christ), edited by Howard G. Hegaman
The Ascension of Our Lord, by Peter Toon
Last time our article mentioned a newer bookmark (these are always available to take for free) which listed suggestions for "What Good Readers Do" and to complete, the reverse side mentions "Hints for Choosing a Book You'll Enjoy" such as:
Pick a genre (mystery, fantasy, history, etc.) you like,
Read the description on the book's cover,
Be sure the topic interests you,
Make sure the reading level is right for you,
Select a book by an author you like,
Choose a book from a series you enjoy,
Talk to someone who has read the book,
Ask a librarian or teacher to recommend a book.
- Leanna Kloempken
Friendly Callers Meeting
Mount Olive Friendly Callers will meet on Sunday, March 30, immediately following the first liturgy. This meeting will take place in the Undercroft. Please bring the names and numbers of the people you are calling on a regular basis.
The Complete Rameau Concerti
Sponsored by Mount Olive Music & Fine Arts, Tami Morse, harpsichord, Marc Levine, violin, and Tulio Rondon, viol da gambe, will present a complete performance of the five Harpsichord Concertos of Jean-Philippe Rameau. The concert will be held on Sunday, March 23, at 4 pm.
Plan to come – and bring a friend!
Luther College Cathedral Choir to Perform at Mount Olive
The Luther College Cathedral Choir will perform in concert April 5, 2014, 7:00 p.m. at Mount Olive Lutheran Church, 3045 Chicago Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN. No tickets are needed, but a freewill offering will be received at the concert.
The Cathedral Choir, directed by Dr. Jennaya Robison, performs a varied program of sacred music. Composed of nearly 90 select singers drawn from the college's sophomore class, its membership reflects a wide range of academic disciplines. The concert program will include choral masterpieces by J.S. Bach, Hassler, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. At the heart of the program is Estonian composer’s Ēriks Ešenvalds’ “Stars” for choir, water-tuned glasses and Tibetan singing bowls. Favorite works by Olaf Christiansen, F. Melius Christiansen, Moses Hogan, Z. Randall Stroope, and others are included in an eclectic program suitable for listeners of all ages.
The choir is in need of housing for some of their members. If you are able to provide hospitality for choir members, please contact Cantor Cherwien as soon as possible.
Lenten Centering Prayer Group
Sue Ellen Zagrabelny, Mount Olive member and an oblate or lay associate at Holy Wisdom Monastery in Middleton, WI is hosting a Centering Prayer group this Lent. Centering prayer, a monastic discipline at the monastery, is an emptying of oneself in prayer in order to be accessible to the Spirit. This Centering Prayer Group will be offered at Mount Olive at two different times over a period of 5 weeks: on Tuesdays, the group will meet after Bible Study, from 1:15 to 1:45 March 4, 11, 18, 25 and April 1. On Wednesdays, the group will meet before the Lenten Supper at 5:30 to 6:00 on March 12, 9, 19, 26 and April 2. Both sessions will meet in the library.
If you have questions, please contact Sue Ellen Zagrabelny at 815-997-6020 or via email to skatzny@yahoo.com
Adult Forum Videos
The four-part adult forum series with Dr. Earl Schwartz is being recorded on video and will soon be available to view online using a new Mount Olive Lutheran Church private channel on YouTube.
Establishing that secure channel, uploading our videos, and ensuring that accessibility for Mount Olive members is easy is requiring a bit more time than originally thought.
The project is well underway and our team of experts will hopefully soon have the process working smoothly. Once that occurs, we will send a link out to the entire Mount Olive community so that you can begin viewing this first series of videos and many more in the future.
Holy Week at Mount Olive
Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday, Sunday, April 13
Holy Eucharist, 8 & 10:45 am
Monday-Wednesday of Holy Week, April 14-16
Daily Prayer at Noon, in the side chapel of the nave
Maundy Thursday, April 17
Holy Eucharist at Noon
Holy Eucharist, with the Washing of Feet, 7:00 p.m.
Good Friday, April 18
Stations of the Cross at Noon
Adoration of the Cross at 7 pm
Holy Saturday, April 19
Great Vigil of Easter, 8:30 pm, followed by a festive reception
The Resurrection of Our Lord, Sunday, April 20
Festival Eucharist at 8 & 10:45 am
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