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We stay awake with Jesus this week, walk with Jesus this week, so we can learn the depth of God’s love for us and the world; so we can find courage to take the same path; so we can be waiting at the tomb for the resurrection life God is bringing.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Sunday of the Passion, year B
text: Mark 14:1 – 15:47
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
I understand why they kept falling asleep.
It was late on a stressful day, where all Jesus’ words carried unspoken pain and sorrow. Past midnight on a warm spring evening, in a sweet-smelling olive grove, Jesus has moved away to pray. What if I lay my head down a minute . . . I would have slept, too.
I understand why they fled. Mark shows Jesus utterly alone at his trial, utterly alone at the cross, barely mentioning the other two crosses, saying the women were “looking on from a distance”. It makes sense many disciples weren’t anywhere near, even at a distance. This was unimaginable horror, to see Jesus taken away violently. He was the one to encourage, strengthen the disciples. With him arrested, no one to say, “Don’t be afraid,” . . . I would have run, too.
What are we doing here this week?
Our ancestors in faith sang of walking with our Lord through this week, keeping watch in the garden, gathering at the foot of the cross, seeing where his body was laid, as if they were there. As if we could be.
There’s no point blaming Peter, Judas, the others, for their sleep, their flight, their denials, their betrayals, their terror, their cowardice, their hiding. We do what they did. When we treat this week as a Hollywood drama to watch once more, remember the good parts, repeat our favorite lines, be thrilled, and two weeks from now are back to our lives. When we sleep through our lives as if what happens this week stays in this week. When we flee from the thought that what we see here is what we might be called to walk.
Go to dark Gethsemane. Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Here might I stay and sing. Our mothers and fathers before us sing as if we really can be there and find God. They sing to us to walk with Jesus not as spectators but as companions who risk everything Jesus risks. To stay awake, put aside our fear, and see what God is doing.
We avoid this walk because we misunderstand what God is doing.
We make Jesus’ suffering and death into a theory of how God saves us, as if this suffering, death, and burial are a legal maneuver to trap God, a sacrifice to appease God, or a bribe to buy God off. As if a theory saves us. As if all we need is our golden ticket.
The suffering and death of Jesus are not a past event we understand as a transaction that somehow helps us. They are the deepest mystery of the love of God we can only experience in our bodies and souls if we actually look. They are the deepest mystery of the love God wants for us to live that we can only know as our good if we actually walk it.
We walk with Jesus this week to see the depth of God’s love.
If we stay awake with him we will see the Christ, the Son of God, hear “no” from the Father and accept it, though he is in pain, afraid. We will see the Triune God willingly suffer the worst of this world rather than turn away or destroy.
When we find the courage to look into the face of the Son of God on the cross, we begin to grasp how much God loves this world. Simon of Cyrene, a random bystander, carries the wood of the cross for Jesus and he and his sons become believers. What might happen to us? Will we not be changed?
Can we look into the eyes of the dying Son of God and ever believe there is a single child of God on this planet who is not embraced in that love?
We walk with Jesus this week for the courage to walk our path.
This week shows us this path of Jesus is our path for the rest of our lives. If we stay awake and hear Jesus say, “not what I want but what you want,” we learn that sometimes God’s “no” means a greater “yes” waits ahead. This gives us strength for our failing nerve, courage for our fainting heart.
We don’t fail to wholly love God or love our neighbor because we don’t want to. We fail because it’s hard to do, it looks like we’ll be hurt, or taken advantage of, or inconvenienced, and we falter. We are afraid.
But walking with Jesus, we always have the One with us who says, “Don’t be afraid.” We don’t need to run from the challenge of love, the pain of forgiving, the hesitance to care for others. We see God’s Son face doubt and fear and hesitance and find courage to do what he was meant to do, and there find our courage.
Our walk with Jesus this week eventually rejoins the women, at the tomb.
We should walk with them awhile and learn. They stayed awake, set aside their fear, and followed to see where their Lord’s body was laid. They watched the stone roll shut. They waited to see what God would do.
That’s our walk of faith. Awake, finding courage in each other and in God’s love, even when sometimes all we can see is stone tomb in the cold of twilight.
But these women say looks are deceiving, and God is even now at work. The morning is coming.
And so, we walk, and watch. And wait.
+ Amen
Accent on Worship
Where would I have been standing on that day when the palm branches and shouts of adoration both raised in to the air? Would I have been along the path to spread out my cloak or run to my neighbor’s house to pass along the news that the Savior was in our midst? Would I have even noticed or stopped long enough in my day to pay attention? Palm Sunday presents a quandary of wonder about our nature as Christians. There was celebration and joy at the hope in the form of a man that humbly rode a donkey through town – this was the time that was desperately needed. How did people know that this was cause for some ruckus, to bust out the alabaster perfume and the home team foam fingers to cheer this wandering prophet in to home plate? Would I have known then? Would I know now? And where would I be on Friday?
Palm Sunday is a shining piece to the Easter story because it reminds us of ourselves as both the faithful and the faith-less and just how precariously we sway between them. Even Peter the rock took his waving palm branch and hid it behind his back when pressed. It makes me ask myself all the questions that the world asks all the time, but I’m not as inclined to overtly answer like, “Is Jesus the Savior? Yes? Are you willing to scream and yell and wave things around? Are you willing to speak up to claim him or speak out when he is wrongly accused?” This weekend pushes us to evaluate the answer to those questions, just as our broken, human Christian ancestors were presented with their options that Sunday and Friday long ago.
It would be nice to think that we know more now than people did back then, but that doesn’t show to be the case or maybe we wouldn’t still be struggling with the same difficulties and battles as we were back then. No, still human, still sinners, still working on it. What we do have though is the rest of the story, a redemption story that shows us what those choices lead to. There is hope and encouragement that God gave us the outcomes so that we could choose our answers to the questions. Come and wave that palm like a Brazilian soccer fan on Sunday, but keep it in the air on Monday, and the next day, and the next…
- Anna Kingman
Holy Week at Mount Olive
Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday - Sunday, March 29: Holy Eucharist, 8 & 10:45 am
Monday-Wednesday of Holy Week - March 30-April 1: Daily Prayer at Noon, in the side chapel of the nave
Maundy Thursday, April 2: Holy Eucharist at Noon; Holy Eucharist, with the Washing of Feet, 7 p.m.
Good Friday, April 3: Stations of the Cross at Noon; Adoration of the Cross at 7 pm
Holy Saturday, April 4: Great Vigil of Easter at 8:30 pm, followed by a festive reception
The Resurrection of Our Lord, Sunday, April 5: Festival Eucharist at 8 & 10:45 am
Easter Brunch at 9:30 am
Sunday Readings
March 29, 2015: Sunday of the Passion
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Mark 14:1—15:47
April 4, 2015: Resurrection of Our Lord
Isaiah 25:6-9
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Acts 10:34-43
John 20:1-18
There will be no Adult Forum
on Palm Sunday, March 29,
or on Easter Day, April 4.
Paschal Garden
Volunteers will be on hand for one more Sunday (Palm Sunday, March 29) before, between, and following the liturgies to receive your donations to purchase Easter flowers for this year’s Paschal Garden.
March is Minnesota FoodShare Month!
Donate cash or groceries to the local food shelf during Minnesota FoodShare month in March!
A donation of money more than doubles the amount of food available to food shelves, because food shelves can purchase food at discounted prices. If you choose to give in this way, make your check payable to Mount Olive and write Food Shelf on the memo line. If you prefer to donate non-perishable groceries, they may be brought to the grocery cart in the coat room.
Can You Help?
Mount Olive’s Congregational Care Committee wants to help what has been a “naturally occurring experience” become more inclusive and available to all of its members. The goal is to increase awareness and responsiveness to needs such as:
• A new baby in the family. (A few starter meals can ease the adjustment.)
• A spouse suddenly alone. (A meal, coffee or lunch out, and/or companionship can ease the loneliness.)
• An unexpected illness in the family. (Meals to drop off or share can provide a needed break for caregivers.)
• The loss of job and income. (Meals, a listening ear, and supportive conversation may help lessen feelings of discouragement.)
• A single person experiencing a significant life change. (Help with meals, transportation, etc. can support continued independence.)
How will this work? The hope is to develop a list of people who would be willing to bring a meal, take someone out for lunch, and to participate in the sharing of food and conversation. Think about it! The opportunities are wide open.
Can you help? Please call or email Marilyn Gebauer (phone: 612-306-8872, email: gebauevm@bitstream.net).
Book Discussion Group Update
For the April 11 meeting, the group will read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain; and for May 9, The Boat of Longing, by O. E. Rølvaag.
TRUST Young Adult Grief Group
Are you a young adult who has you experienced a significant loss? Connect with other young adults who’ve lost someone due to death, in a supportive group environment. A 4-week support group is meeting at Allina Health, 1055 Westgate Drive, Suite 100 in St. Paul, MN. Food is provided and there is no cost to attend, but the leaders of this group request that participants R.S.V.P. so they know how many to expect.
The group will meet on Wednesdays, April 15 – May 6, 2015, from 4:00 – 5:30 pm
RSVP/questions may be addressed to: Michele Dettloff at 612-262-7596 or Michele.Dettloff@Allina.com
Night On the Street
Need a Tax Deduction for next year? Donate to Night On the Street! On Friday, April 17, TRUST Youth will once again participate in raising awareness and funds to help alleviate youth homelessness. Sponsored by Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, hundreds of youth from around the Twin Cities will participate in an overnight in the parking lot of Plymouth Congregational Church near Downtown Minneapolis. The youth (and chaperones) will get their own cardboard box to sleep in for the night, have a soup line meal, and learn from former homeless youth and those that help them what can be done to help.
Donations (which are tax deductible!) from Night On the Street go to help fund the interim housing facilities run by Beacon Interfaith. If you would like to help make a difference, you can make a tax deductible donation through April 16. Please make checks payable to “Night On the Street.” You can give your tax deductible donation to Julie or Eric Manuel or leave it in the church office. If you have any questions, please contact Julie or Eric Manuel.
Proofreader Needed!
Ethiopian Pastor and Luther Seminary student Dinku Bato is almost finished with his dissertation and needs a proof-reader before his oral defense. Dinku Bato helped lead the "Taste of Ethiopia" activities at Mount Olive three years ago and has maintained a relationship with us.
He is asking whether someone from Mount Olive would be willing to help proofread his dissertation--or even a part of it. He would need the proofreading finished by April 4. His total dissertation is 220 pages but someone could agree to tackle a section and help him reach the finish line. If you are interested, please contact Dinku Bato directly at dbato001@luthersem.edu
Benefit for Our Saviour's Community Services
Caritas Vocal Ensemble will present a concert on behalf of Our Saviour's Community Services on Sunday, April 19, at 3 pm. It will be held at Lake of the Isles Lutheran Church, 2020 W. Lake of the Isles Pkwy. in Minneapolis. Admission is free, though donations are gratefully accepted to support the work of OSCS—ending homelessness and educating immigrants. Light refresh-ments provided. Please come and bring your friends!
Caritas Vocal Ensemble is a non-profit choral group with a special mission: to share their music with the community for the purpose of raising money and awareness for people in need. You’ll experience a concert of exquisite a capella chamber music from virtually every genre—madrigals and folk tunes, sacred, pop, and international. Great for all ages!
Through two distinct programs—Our Saviour’s Housing and the English Learning Center—OSCS provides dignified shelter and housing for those without a home and free English classes to immigrants and refugees.
May Day Parade: Sunday, May 3, 2015
The May Day Parade and Festival has become a joyous annual rite of spring. More than 2,000 participants, along with amazing puppets and floats, parade down Bloomington Avenue telling a story and creating a moving theatrical performance. Thousands more line the streets to watch the parade and participate in day-long activities. Following the parade, a pageant and tree of life ceremony in Powderhorn Park ushers in the renewal of a new spring season.
For more information or to get involved check the HOBT website: http://hobt.org/mayday/
Selma Anniversary Rally at the Capitol
On March 8, a few of us from Mount Olive with some friends participated in a rally commemorating the 50th anniversary of the rally lean by Martin Luther King in Selma. This rally wasn't simply a celebration, but it was also to support the Black/All Lives Matter campaign, and bring an end to discrimination. We were surrounded by people who also had the desire to bring an end to discrimination and intolerance. After a few speeches at the State Capitol, we walked from to Central Presbyterian Church, singing "We Shall Overcome" as we entered.
Once we entered into the church, we got seated near the back of the pews. We joined hands with one another and sang together. We heard several great speeches from several wonderful speakers. Many of them had great stories to share. The speech that had the biggest effect on me was from Dr. Rev. Barbara Holmes, a woman who actually was at the original Selma rally. This anniversary rally was very safe. However, I started to cry, thinking of how people were hurt and injured at the original rally. Holmes also asked those who were at the 1965 rally to stand up. We think about all the harm and pain those at the rally faced, but 50 years later, it is remembered, but we saw them seemingly healed physically.
We may have made much progress, but there is still much work to be done. However, we shall overcome, and, as we sang at the rally, we shall not be moved.
- Robin Rayfield
Opportunities to BE involved
Check out the information located in front of the main office for more details.
Needed: Food donation deliverer! Is anyone available and willing to take a load of food to CES at 1900 11th Ave. S.? A drop-off time can be arranged and helping hands to load. Please let Anna K. know.
Give the Gift of Independence
You can help Meals on Wheels by volunteering to deliver meals in your neighborhood once a week or once a month. It only takes about an hour to bring a hot meal and a warm greeting to homebound individuals who cannot prepare meals on their own.
Please consider donating your lunch hour and give the gift of independence.
Interested? Contact TRUST Meals on Wheels at 612-822-6040.
Transitions Support Group
All are welcome to visit the Transitions Support Group meetings if you've been hoping to find new ideas or encouragement to meet the challenges or uncertainties that are before you. This is an opportunity to share in fellowship, prayer and discussion with others in the Mount Olive community.
The next session meets on Wednesday, April 15, from 6:00 - 7:00 pm at Mount Olive in the lower level Youth Room, and will be facilitated by Amy Cotter and Cathy Bosworth.
If you have questions, please contact Cathy at 612-708-1144 or marcat8447@yahoo.com.
Action Alert
Sign up now to visit Guatemala and our Common Hope partners. One or two groups will be going. Pick your dates and get in on the action. Leave your name at the office, sign a yellow info sheet or contact Judy Hinck either by email to judyhinck@gmail.com or by calling 612-824-4918. Teams will be set by Easter.
Koester Presentations Now Available Online
The first of the four lectures from the Adult Forum series presented by Dr. Craig Koester is now on YouTube! It can be viewed at: https://youtu.be/gA-tRFB1FKk.
Stay tuned for links to the other three presentations.
National Lutheran Choir to Presents Gretchaninoff’s Passion Week
The National Lutheran Choir brings Alexander Gretchaninoff's glorious Passion Week to the majestic Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis and Zumbro Lutheran Church in Rochester.
Each year, Christians around the world remember and re-experience the seven days leading up to Easter Sunday through worship and music. Gretchaninoff developed his Passion Week, a magnificent representation of 13 sacred musical settings, for this ‘Great and Holy Week.’ Join us for a transcendent journey of the soul that you won't soon forget.
Thursday, April 30, 2015 – 8pm
Basilica of Saint Mary (88 N 17th St., Minneapolis, MN 55403)
Saturday, May 2, 2015 – 7pm
Zumbro Lutheran Church (624 3rd Ave. SW, Rochester, MN 55902)
Tickets: $25 Adult - $23 Senior - $10 Students aged 17 and under FREE. For tickets or more information, call (888) 747-4589 or visit www.NLCA.com
Week 5: “God’s Appeal”
We are not our own people anymore: made a new creation in Christ, reconciled to God, we are now entrusted by God to bear this reconciling treasure that makes us into a new creation, bear it into the world as ambassadors for Christ.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
Wednesday, 25 March 2015; text: 2 Corinthians 5:14-21
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
It’s hard to speak for another person.
When someone criticizes our loved one, or has an issue with a friend we know well, we want to defend them. We want to speak for them, act on their behalf. Sometimes our friend is the one having difficulty with another, and out of love, we want to help. We’ll talk to another person on their behalf, smooth the way.
It’s just not the easiest thing to do. Often it’s the difficult situation that we’re not sure what our loved one would want us to say or do. Or, we can’t always explain another’s motives. Especially when others criticize someone we love, and the criticism seems valid. When our heart feels there must be a good reason for the problem, but our head isn’t sure what that is.
So what should we feel about Paul’s words today, that God is entrusting us with the job of “Ambassador for Christ”? If it’s hard to speak for a loved one, how much harder to speak for God?
The way some other Christians are living into this role of ambassador doesn’t help. They speak of a God whom we don’t recognize in the Scriptures, who doesn’t seem to be the Triune God whose love faced death for us and the world. When we’re offended or angered by how others represent Christ, we sometimes fear to be ambassadors ourselves.
There’s no need to fear. God’s taken care of both the job description and our ability to do it.
Paul reveals a joyful mystery of the treasure of God we bear within us.
Paul’s said we carry this treasure, God’s grace and love and forgiveness for us and the world, in clay jars, in our fragile, broken selves. Paul’s also said our bodies are a temporary tent compared to the house prepared for us in the coming world. This is only part of the grace.
Because even now, Paul says, this treasure of God’s reconciling with us and all humanity in Christ’s death and resurrection, is re-making us to be unrecognizable from what we were. Paul declares we are already transformed into this new creation, now, even with our fragile, clay lives. Even if we only see our failings, our weakness, in fact the forgiveness and life we already know has changed us.
We may need perspective to see this, a look back at the arc of our lives. Close up, we see how flawed we are. But if we climb to a better vantage point, turn around, and look back over the past five years, ten years, twenty years, we could see how the Spirit has transformed each of us into a new person. With this perspective, we realize Paul’s right: we aren’t looking at each other from a human point of view anymore. We see Christ in each other; others see Christ in us.
God makes us new so we can carry in our bodies God’s appeal to the world.
The Gospel truth is God needs us. God’s plan to restore all things in Christ will not happen without humanity being transformed from within. As people who are being transformed, God needs us to live this reconciliation into the world.
God has entrusted this message to us, Paul says. The treasure we carry in our hearts and lives is not given to us to keep. It changes us into new people, people who give the treasure away by our very lives in the world, so it reaches everyone. Only by sharing it can it change the world.
This transforms evangelism for us.
We are made new creations so we can be ambassadors for Christ, not sales people. An ambassador speaks for the one who sent her, carries messages on behalf of the one in whose name he comes. Ambassadors stand for their senders. We represent Christ in the world in our being, in our doing.
So we’re not selling “church” to anyone, or selling God. Evangelism – “Good Newsing” – isn’t about trying to attract people or increase numbers or convince others only we’re right.
Evangelism is bearing the Good News of God in Christ in our very bodies. So when people meet us they meet Christ. We bear forgiving grace so people actually experience it through us. We bear transforming love so people actually are touched by it when they are with us. We bear God’s relentless desire for all people to know God and know they are loved, so that people can’t miss it when we are with them.
Really, we’re like Mary.
Today is the feast of the Annunciation, which wasn’t on my mind two months ago when choosing this part of 2 Corinthians for today. But how wonderful to remember with this word from Paul that today Gabriel came to Mary and invited her to bear God’s Christ into the world.
That is precisely what God is doing to us through Paul. Except instead of giving birth to a child, we are made into God’s Christ ourselves, so that our lives, our words, our love, our hands, our voices, everything about us bears God’s grace in Christ.
We can do this, be this, because God is making us new so we can.
So we go, filled with joy in our calling.
And all our incentive is with Paul’s words: “the love of Christ urges us on.” This love we have come to know in Christ not only changes us. It gets us up in the morning eager to be Christ, motivates us to seek to grow and deepen as disciples, gives us the little bump we need to reach out to another in grace and love rather than hold back.
The love of Christ urges us on. And gives us all we need for this job.
What a joy and purpose for our lives. What a delight that God reaches people through us so they, too, know the hope and love and grace we so deeply drink in from God every day.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
The only thing that matters in the dark places of our hearts and minds is not our nature but God’s, not our heart but God’s. And God’s heart is incessantly and always love willing to lose all to draw us in.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Fifth Sunday in Lent, year B
texts: Jeremiah 31:31-34; Psalm 51:1-12; John 12:20-33
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
What if I’m not worthy of being loved?
What if I’ve not been good enough to be loved?
If people knew the truth about me, would they still love me?
These frightening thoughts are deeply rooted in our hearts. Even the most confident-looking have inward darkness of unworthiness haunting their outward boldness. We all want to be loved. We all need to be loved. We often find it hard to believe we can be. And if we are loved, we fear it can be taken away.
Whether we are loved by other people is enough to make us anxious. As people of faith, even more troubling is the question of God’s love.
This steady talk of God’s covenant promises we’ve heard this Lent raises in us feelings of anxiety, guilt, shame, fear. We know we are not always what God hopes for us. We can say God is not our enemy, and God’s law is a good for us, not to be feared. It is true, God has said so.
That doesn’t mean we easily believe it.
We struggle as if it’s all about us, our failings, our weakness, our unlovability.
There’s truth in that.
If we fear there are things in our heart others find unlovable, things God doesn’t want to see, it’s because we know it’s true. We can’t easily look into the heart of another; we have to live with our own hearts, and we know them, we know the flaws. It’s not outlandish to fear we’re not worthy, not good enough.
As to God, we’ve made centuries of theology describing how broken we are, how sinful, how our human nature is warped. We talk about our relationship to God most often from the perspective of how messed up we are. As if there’s only one nature that matters, our human nature, which is no good. As if there’s only one heart that matters, our human heart, which is turned away from God.
Our problem isn’t that we don’t know the truth about ourselves, our failings.
Our problem is we’re often forgetting a deeper truth, the only one that matters.
The Scriptures tell us about the nature of God, about God’s heart, as if that’s what’s important.
Our readings today aren’t about our unfaithfulness; they’re about God’s intractable love. Jeremiah’s people are in exile, their homeland destroyed, their hope in tatters. From the words of their prophets to the knowledge in their own hearts, these people know they failed God. They know they were unfaithful to God’s covenant promises, their sinfulness led to their downfall.
But Jeremiah declares an astonishing truth: The L ORD, the God of Israel, can’t let go of them. Yes, God kept every covenant God made with them and they broke every one. It’s true. They were and are unfaithful to God, not living as God dreamed and hoped.
None of that matters, Jeremiah says. God still wants to create a relationship of love with them. God’s going to try a new covenant. God says, I won’t write this one on stone or scroll, but on my people’s hearts. They will know me and love me, and know and love each other, from the least to the greatest.
This is the stunning revelation of Jeremiah: The only thing that matters about human sinfulness, about your brokenness, about our unfaithfulness is one thing: the God who made all things loves you, loves us, with an incessant, unexplainable love. The heart of God is irrevocably turned toward you, toward us.
Hear this again: God loves you completely and eternally, no exceptions.
We often say, “God loves you anyway.” “God loves you in spite of your sin.” “God loves you even though you are a failure.” We are doing God’s love a great injustice.
Jeremiah says, “God loves you. Period. End of sentence.” No “anyway”s, no “in spite of”s. But, . . . we sputter, what about all that bad inside us, what we regret, fear, are ashamed of, what about our sinful human nature?
Jeremiah says, You’re not listening. God loves you. And that’s that. There’s nothing you can do about it. You are worthy because God says so. You are good enough because God thinks so.
This is made abundantly clear in God’s final statement: “I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.” For the first time God builds into a divine agreement the promise of forgiveness and forgetfulness.
This is not Sinai, where God saved the people and said, “Now, here’s how you will live.” This is not Abraham and Sarah, where God promised land and blessing and family, and said, “Now, follow me and be faithful.”
Here God says, I will make a covenant relationship with you and I will change your hearts. And built into my part of the bargain is my forgiveness and my forgetfulness. Before you even think about failing, I promise to forgive you. That’s what God’s love truly is.
God wants this to be so clear it’s tattooed on our hearts.
The new heart David asked for is what God now promises. This heart will be marked with the love of God, “I love you eternally” written on every surface. Forgiveness from God isn’t about avoiding punishment. Forgiveness from God transforms us, gives us heart transplants, makes us new.
Now we are closer to Jesus’ mystery today. “When I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself,” says the One who is God-with-us. Once again, the only heart that matters is the heart of God that will not rest until all people are drawn in. But God will have to die, be “lifted up,” to make it happen. God’s heart of love will break in order to break ours and begin to make ours new.
This willingness to lose everything for love of us is at the center of this new covenant first promised in Jeremiah and now fulfilled in Jesus: if the loving relationship comes with a guarantee of constant forgiveness, it will cost God dearly to keep that promise.
In God’s willingness to die out of love for us, we find our path.
God says, “Follow me into this loss.” Like a seed that must die when it is planted before it can become what it is meant to be, getting this new heart will be death for us.
But everything that will die is what we want gone: all our deepest wrongs, all those things in our heart we don’t want known, all our failings, all our stubborn resistance, all these die away when we are drawn into God’s love. Shame, fear, guilt, anxiety, they die, too. They’re tossed away, the shell of the old seed that gets discarded while the new growth comes forth.
The new heart made in us will be like God’s, willing to break for love of others, willing to begin and end with love and forgiveness, no matter what. The only way we get to that kind of heart is this path God’s heart makes possible for us.
Sometimes the truth that really matters isn’t the one we fear, no matter how true it is.
The only truth that can save us is the relentless, obsessive love of God for us and for the world. God’s is the only heart, the only love, strong enough to change our own hearts.
We will soon see at the cross how much it costs God. We begin to see in our own lives what it costs us to be so changed in heart. But today we rejoice that such unbreakable love is ours, always, and cannot be taken away, not even by those things we think only we know about.
God loves you. Period. End of sentence. And you will never be the same for it.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
Accent on Worship
Toward the end of winter, I always yearn for renewal, and this year is no exception. Learning and changing takes a lot of energy, and winter demands enough as it is, just to stay warm! The infusion of spring we have had this week has been very welcome, indeed. I have been soaking in the longer days and warmer temperatures, reveling in the freedom of leaving my coat at home. Our cats sense it, too, and beg for a chance to be outside anytime we are close to the door.
And as I walked around our yard this week, I saw them . . . buds coming out on every branch of the tree we planted last summer! Nothing symbolizes the coming of spring like buds, and this proof that our new tree had made it through its first winter somehow seemed to carry extra promise. The grain that fell to the ground and died is now bearing fruit. The world is being renewed, before our very eyes!
The process of rebirth that we witness every spring is a tangible reminder of the faithfulness of God. The weariness and grief and suffering and death of Jesus was followed by resurrection, and new life. Our own experiences of weariness and grief and suffering and death are always followed by resurrection, and new life. And as I have passed the midpoint of my time with you—the hump, if you will—I have been filled with gratitude for the Mount Olive community, and with energy for the remaining months of my internship.
The miracle of spring is that trees and bushes and flowers don’t simply come back the way they were before winter stripped them of last year’s green. God’s promise is not just life, but abundant life, one that bears fruit! The bushes grow bigger, the trees more full with leaves, and seeds burst into new life wherever they are planted. Spring is coming! What fruit are you preparing to bear?
- Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
Sunday Readings
March 22, 2015: Fifth Sunday in Lent
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-12
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33
March 29, 2015: Sunday of the Passion
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Mark 14:1—15:47
Sunday’s Adult Forum: March 1-22, 2015:
Scholar-in-Residence, Dr. Craig Koester, on the book of Revelation.
Can You Help?
Mount Olive’s Congregational Care Committee wants to help what has been a “naturally occurring experience” become more inclusive and available to all of its members. The goal is to increase awareness and responsiveness to needs such as:
• A new baby in the family. (A few starter meals can ease the adjustment.)
• A spouse suddenly alone. (A meal, coffee or lunch out, and/or companionship can ease the loneliness.)
• An unexpected illness in the family. (Meals to drop off or share can provide a needed break for caregivers.)
• The loss of job and income. (Meals, a listening ear, and supportive conversation may help lessen feelings of discouragement.)
• A single person experiencing a significant life change. (Help with meals, transportation, etc. can support continued independence.)
How will this work? The hope is to develop a list of people who would be willing to bring a meal, take someone out for lunch, and to participate in the sharing of food and conversation. Think about it! The opportunities are wide open.
Can you help? Please call or email Marilyn Gebauer (phone: 612-306-8872, email: gebauevm@bitstream.net).
Book Discussion Group Update
For the April 11 meeting, the group will read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain; and for May 9, The Boat of Longing, by O. E. Rølvaag.
Paschal Garden
Volunteers will be on hand for the next two Sundays (March 22 and 29) before, between, and following the liturgies to receive your donations to purchase Easter flowers for this year’s Paschal Garden.
Midweek Lenten Worship, Wednesdays during Lent
Holy Eucharist, at noon
Evening Prayer at 7 pm
Final Vestry Listening to be Held This Sunday
Vestry Listening sessions conclude this Sunday, March 22. This is an opportunity for the congregation to discuss the Vision Expression statements introduced earlier this month.
This week’s focus will be on Education. Following both the first and second liturgies, Education Committee Director, John Holtmeier, will be available in the East Assembly room to hear your ideas on the work of his committee.
Grab your coffee and join the small group to talk. Each session will last 30-45 minutes, and you may move in and out as you wish.
March is Minnesota FoodShare Month!
Donate cash or groceries to the local food shelf during Minnesota FoodShare month in March!
A donation of money more than doubles the amount of food available to food shelves, because food shelves can purchase food at discounted prices. If you choose to give in this way, make your check payable to Mount Olive and write Food Shelf on the memo line. If you prefer to donate non-perishable groceries, they may be brought to the grocery cart in the coat room.
Chancel Cleaning Day
The Mount Olive Altar Guild invites interested persons to participate in the chancel cleaning to prepare for the Easter season. The cleaning will take place on Saturday, March 28, from 9 am - noon. If you would like to help, please contact Steve Pranschke at 612-803-0915 or by email to hspranschke@gmail.com.
Your helping hands are truly appreciated. I find it is enjoyable to work alongside one another in preparing our worship space at such a special time. Thanks!
- Steve Pranschke
Holy Week at Mount Olive
Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday, Sunday, March 29
Holy Eucharist, 8 & 10:45 am
Monday-Wednesday of Holy Week, March 30-April 1
Daily Prayer at Noon, in the side chapel of the nave
Maundy Thursday, April 2
Holy Eucharist at Noon
Holy Eucharist, with the Washing of Feet, 7:00 p.m.
Good Friday, April 3
Stations of the Cross at Noon
Adoration of the Cross at 7 pm
Holy Saturday, April 4
Great Vigil of Easter, 8:30 pm, followed by a festive reception
The Resurrection of Our Lord, Sunday, April 5
Festival Eucharist at 8 & 10:45 am
Easter Brunch at 9:30 am
Night On the Street
Night On the Street (NOTS) is coming right up! On Friday, April 17, TRUST Youth will once again participate in helping raise awareness and funds to help alleviate youth homelessness. Sponsored by Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, hundreds of youth from around the Twin Cities will participate in an overnight in the parking lot of Plymouth Congregational Church near Downtown Minneapolis. The youth (and chaperones) will get their own cardboard box to sleep in for the night, have a soup line meal, and learn from former homeless youth and those that help them what can be done to help.
Donations from Night On the Street go to help fund the interim housing facilities run by Beacon Interfaith. If you would like to help make a difference, you can make a tax deductible donation through April 16. Please make checks payable to “Night On the Street.” You can give your tax deductible donation to Julie or Eric Manuel or leave it in the church office. If you have any questions, please contact Julie or Eric Manuel.
Sabbatical Information: Interim Pastor to Serve
During Pr. Crippen’s sabbatical (April 6 through July 15), The Rev. Robert Hausman will serve as full-time interim. He will be covering the normal duties of our pastor, and also supervise Vicar McLaughlin’s next months. Rev. Hausman was ordained in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod in 1965, holds a master’s and a doctorate from the University of Chicago, and has taught at both the seminary and undergraduate levels. He most recently served 25 years as pastor of the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection (ELCA) in Roseville. He has two sons and five grandchildren.
When asked about what to include in this biographical sketch, he mentioned his ordination, and then added: “God has called me to tasks both in academia and in parish ministry. I love the church. I kind of think that is enough.”
He will begin among us on Tuesday, Apr. 7, with his first Sunday being Apr. 12.
News From the Neighborhood
Anna Kingman
Better Halves Workshop
Register for the Better Halves Workshop! This Saturday, March 21, 9:00- 11:30 am at Mount Olive. This is a financial enrichment workshop for ANY couple that wants to practice talking about money well with their partner. *Childcare and donuts will be in supply!
Register at: brighpeakfinancial.com/betterhalves Promo code: mountolive15.
Opportunities to BE Involved
Check out the information located in front of the main office for more details.
Needed: Food donation deliverer! Is anyone available and willing to take a load of food to CES at 1900 11th Ave. S.? A drop-off time can be arranged and helping hands to load. Please let Anna K. know.
Spanish phrase:
Part of sharing in community is understanding one another through language, culture, or experience. As we explore our community and get to know our neighbors, let's continue with some helpful language lessons:
English: “How can I help you?”
Spanish: “Como le puedo ayudar?” (Coh-mow lay pooh-ay-doh eye-u-dar)
Review: “Do you live in this neighborhood?”
Spanish: “‘Usted vive en este barrio?” (Oo-sted vee-vay ehn es-tay bah-ree-oh)
Mark Your Calendars for the May Day Parade: Sunday, May 3, 2015!
The May Day Parade and Festival is produced by In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre. Since 1975, Heart of the Beast has invited the entire community to participate by brainstorming, organizing, sculpting, sewing, building, painting, and joining in the parade and festival as actors, singers, dancers, musicians, and attendees.
The May Day Parade and Festival has become a joyous annual rite of spring. More than 2,000 participants, along with amazing puppets and floats, parade down Bloomington Avenue telling a story and creating a moving theatrical performance. Thousands more line the streets to watch the parade and participate in day-long activities. Following the parade, a pageant and tree of life ceremony in Powderhorn Park ushers in the renewal of a new spring season.
For more information or to get involved check the HOBT website: http://hobt.org/mayday/
Who We Are, Where We Are Map
Have you “pinned” yourself yet? If not, please do so by letting us know where you live, using the map hanging in the East Assembly room. Instructions are posted by the map – please contribute your pin!
Meeting Our Somali Neighbors Over Rice and Bananas
This winter, a small group of Mount Olive members met to talk about culture—who we are as individuals, and how we welcome those different from us. We shared experiences that took us out of our comfort zone. Four of us visited Karmel Square Mall with new Somali friends, Abdi and Osman. We looked in shops, saw the Mosque entrance, and went to Abdi and Osman’s preferred coffee shop for sambosa and Somali tea and conversation. We discovered that Osman practices Islam, Abdi does not. They explained the importance of having a male in our group, since we were meeting Somali men. We learned about each other.
To continue our friendship, we joined Abdi and Osman at Hamdi Somali Restaurant for lunch. We washed hands in nearby sinks, and got our tea from the dispenser on the wall. Osman and Abdi ordered one of everything on the menu, including chicken, and the best fish I've had in a restaurant. We had two goat dishes, one roasted and one steamed. Our guides taught us to eat green bananas with rice--wonderful! And then, spaghetti. Yes, spaghetti. Who knew Somalia had spaghetti?
The conversation was as wonderful as the food. Abdi came to the US in the 1980's to go to college, before the wars, and lived in Washington DC. Osman and his wife came to Texas as refugees in the 1990's through the Lutheran Church, and moved to Minnesota, where all eight of their children were born. His children love American food, especially burgers, but Osman eats Somali fare at Hamdi, nearly daily. Two of Osman’s children attend St. Olaf College in Northfield! By sharing food with Osman and Abdi, we were able to share things like how we define success and what cultures we relate to. We discovered that Osman and Abdi disagree about wearing a hijab, and that both of them identify as Minnesotan.
This experience showed me that we really are more similar than different.
- Julie Manuel
Action Alert
Sign up now to visit Guatemala and our Common Hope partners. One or two groups will be going. Pick your dates and get in on the action. Leave your name at the office, sign a yellow info sheet or contact Judy Hinck either by email to judyhinck@gmail.com or by calling 612-824-4918. Teams will be set by Easter.
How’s our giving going?
Our committee’s letter last November outlined some of the reasons our president, Lora Dundek, described our 2015 budget as “challenging,” requiring increased giving totaling some 7%. Among those reasons: increased health-care premiums, paying an interim pastor during Pastor
Crippen’s sabbatical (which starts after Easter), and increasing our support for the work of the ELCA (churchwide and synod) from 3% to 4%—the level at which we continue to fund Missions and Neighborhood Ministries.
With the first two months of the year behind us, how are we doing? We got off to a strong start, with January giving up 25% from the same month a year earlier. Giving in February showed a more modest 4% over the previous February. Giving for the two months was 14% over the same period a year earlier.
But it’s still early in the year. Let’s be cautiously optimistic that our giving will remain strong throughout the year. Our treasurer, Kat Campbell-Johnson, reminded the Vestry that January giving was 108% of that month’s expenditures, while February giving was only 81% of that month’s expenses. For now we’re not needing to use our line of credit at the bank, thanks in part to members’ gifts to last year’s campaign (some members are continuing to give), which fully funded our restrictive accounts and left us with a modest but important reserve fund.
Let’s also keep that word “challenging” in mind as we consider and make our gifts in the months
ahead.
- Donn McLellan, Director of Stewardship
Week 4: "Hope for New Life"
Our time on earth, in these bodies, is short. Today, we are here together to experience the love and grace of God that abounds in this world. And when our time here is finished, we’re going home.
Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
Wednesday, 18 March 2015; texts: 2 Corinthians 4:16-5:7, John 14:1-7, 25-29
My fellow sojourners in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Life is short! How many times have we heard it said, in different ways? Just before he is killed, William Shakespeare’s tragic hero Macbeth cries, “Out, out brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Some days, it feels like Shakespeare’s Macbeth has a point. The older we get, the faster life seems to go, and the harder it feels to keep up, until our candle will ultimately go out, our hour here expired. And some days, it does feel like we are walking shadows, doing a whole lot of strutting and fretting and not making much of a difference in this world.
In the Bible, The Book of Ecclesiastes begins its reflection on our lives with a similar feeling: “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What do people gain from all the toil at which they toil under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but the earth remains forever. The people of long ago are not remembered, nor will there be any remembrance of people yet to come by those who come after them.”
I could easily use an hour, if we had one, just sharing quotes from authors and poets across the ages, but I will stop there!
Macbeth and Ecclesiastes are right about one thing. We are just here for a short time, in the scheme of things. In God’s time, it must seem like the blink of an eye. Because, as Paul reminds us today, this world is not our home. Not really. Our true home is in God’s house, the great beyond, heaven. We are more like tourists here, come to explore and experience a land that is not our own.
Our time on earth was never meant to be a long-term, permanent arrangement for us, but that does not mean, as Macbeth suggests, that our lives signify nothing. Because this where Macbeth got it wrong. Our lives on this earth, brief as they are, do have purpose and meaning, and we mean far more to God than mere shadow.
So, why are we here? How are we called to live, in the brief time we are given on this planet? This life is not simply a test that must be passed or a hoop to be jumped through in order for us to get to heaven when we die. There is already a place prepared for us there. It is our home. Jesus promised that there are many rooms in God’s house, and we don’t have to earn or prove our way in.
Our time on this earth is not a punishment or a penance, although there is suffering here. God created this world, and everything in it, and called it good. And there is good and abundance and beauty on this earth, along with the pain and brokenness that is also a part of our human experience.
If we are to know how to live, what to do with our short time on earth, we must first remember where we came from, whose we are. The story of our coming to this place, the story of our creation in the Book of Genesis, reveals God’s purpose, and our role here. Genesis tells us that God provided this world for us as a place of abundance, and beauty. God created us to be in relationship with the rest of God’s creation, while we are here.
We are in this life here on earth to do the work God has for us to do, and to enjoy the fruits of this world. We are to remember that creation was given to all of us as a gift, and we are called during our short time here to care for it and share its abundance with everyone. And God, knowing it would not be good for us to be here alone, created us to be in relationship with each other, to share the love of God with those around us. In short, we are here to live!
And God has not left us here to fend for ourselves. God is with us, loving us and guiding us. Paul writes that we are being inwardly renewed, even as our physical bodies age and we grow closer to death and the end of our time here. The world may see growing older as a sign that we are outliving our usefulness, but we walk by faith and not by sight. Aging, facing illness, even nearing death, does not lessen our worth as children of God. It just brings us closer to home.
We don’t need to be anxious or afraid about what will happen when we die. In a world that offers hundreds of ways to slow the aging process, look younger, and extend your life, this is not a message we hear often. Death is the end of our life here, but more significantly, it is our return home to the one who created us, the one who loves us without condition. We have nothing to fear in dying. Jesus promises us peace, not based in security in this world, but a peace that comes from knowing that God has a place for us when our life here is over.
Our time on earth, in these bodies, is short. Today, we are here together to experience the love and grace of God that abounds in this world. And when our time here is finished, we’re going home. You’re going home. Home to the place God has created, with a new body that will never fail. A home where separations and barriers between us and God and between us and others are swept away. A home that is without the suffering and brokenness of this world. So don’t let your hearts be troubled. There are many rooms in God’s house, and God has a place waiting just for you.
Thanks be to God!
God never promised that life would be easy, or go according to our plans, but God did promise that God would be faithful to the covenant, and that suffering and death will not be the final word. And this promise is revealed in the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross.
Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
The Fourth Sunday in Lent, Year B
Texts: Numbers 21: 4-9, Psalm 107, Ephesians 2: 1-10, John 3: 14-21
Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
On Sunday, March 7, 1965, Bloody Sunday, several hundred people began to march from Selma to Montgomery to claim the right to vote and equality under the law for Black Americans. They were attacked that day with tear gas and billy-clubs, and several people died, but they did not give up, because they believed that, eventually, the discrimination and violence they faced would end. They trusted that God would ultimately see them through.
Last Sunday, fifty years later, members of Mount Olive joined people of all ethnicities and faiths all over the country to remember that day. We marched to celebrate how far we have come. We marched to remind ourselves that we still have a long ways to go. We hear in the news this week of police officers shot in Ferguson, and messages of hate from an Oklahoma fraternity, and we know we have a long ways to go. On Sunday, we sang and prayed to the God we believe will ultimately see us through, knowing we aren’t there, yet.
The Israelites journey from Egypt to the Promised Land had been really long, and, like the march to Montgomery, not exactly easy. They had been walking in the desert for literally years, and nearly starved before God provided Manna for them, and when some of them were taken captive by the Canaanites, they had to fight to defeat them. And they still weren’t there yet. Their walk continued, and after all that time, they were getting really sick of eating only Manna.
When things are going well for us—financial success, career success, health, family, friends—it is easy for us to see these things as signs of God’s faithfulness to us without even realizing it. And when challenges arise, we are almost wired to see it as a vacuum of God’s care, evidence that God is not providing for us, or that maybe we or someone around us aren’t doing the right things.
At the very least, poor health or loss of a job or the death of a loved one feels like an interruption to “what is supposed to be happening” in our lives. There is never a good time, is there? We are not supposed to be going to doctor’s appointment after doctor’s appointment, having tests, and waiting for results. We are not supposed to be living through a loved one’s last days, or planning a funeral, or grieving. We aren’t supposed to be without a job, working on resumes or interviews, and struggling financially, unless of course, that’s what WE had planned.
So often, we move along in our routines, things happening more or less as anticipated, until we find ourselves expecting that this is how life should be. Work gets done, bills paid, vacations taken, decisions made, perhaps with some bumps along the way, but more or less predictable. And when things happen to make life difficult, our first response is typically to complain, as the Israelites did. The food is not good or hot or fast enough. The internet keeps cutting out on us, right in the middle of that e-mail we’re sending. We have to wait too long in traffic, or the doctor’s office, or the grocery store.
The Israelites were sick of Manna, and they complained, and they soon found themselves facing something much bigger than bad food. Poisonous snakes came into the camp, and many of them died. Suddenly the food didn’t matter, and they realized how foolish they had been, thinking that God owed them anything. They realized their sin, and told Moses to ask God to have mercy on them. And in the minds of the Israelites, mercy meant removing the snakes that were biting them.
God didn’t remove the snakes, but God did show mercy. Interestingly enough, the proof of God’s mercy looked just like the thing the Israelites feared most—the snakes. By looking at the bronze serpent raised in their camp, the Israelites saw that their God was bigger than a few poisonous reptiles. God assured them that God was with them, even in the midst of the snakes. The snakes remained, but the people lived, in spite of that. A source of pain and fear and death for the Israelites was transformed into a symbol of God’s faithfulness and triumph over death.
Often, the big challenges in our lives—unemployment, illness, death—are not removed either. These things are not interruptions to the life we are supposed to live, although they can certainly feel that way. Nor are they, as the Israelites felt, punishment from God for sin, although at times, if we are honest, it can feel like that, too. The truth is, the challenges of life are all a part of human experience, and our life is meant to be lived in their midst. Sometimes these challenges are of our own making, or someone else’s, and they are truly the results of choices made, natural consequences of our sin. And sometimes, difficult things just happen. Life is not always easy, and it is certainly not what we might think of as fair. But either way, the struggles and pain we experience does not mean that God has abandoned us.
God never promised that life would be easy, or go according to our plans, but God did promise that God would be faithful to the covenant and always be with us, no matter what happens. God did promise that suffering and death will not be the final word. And the proof of that for us as Christians is revealed in another symbol of pain and humiliation and death—the suffering and death of Jesus on the cross. As we make our way through Lent, we remember not only the reality of Jesus’ death, but that because of the resurrection, the cross, like the bronze snake, is transformed into evidence that God has power over everything, even death.
Our encounter with the cross of Jesus does not take away the challenges of our lives, but it transforms them—it transforms us. When we are finished with our complaining, our questioning, our blaming, God is still right there with us, and the cross of Jesus is proof of that promise. The cross reminds us that the little things in life—long lines, or spotty internet service, or cold food—are not really that important. And the big things, the real pains and struggles of life, are not too much for God to handle.
We are created by God to live this life as it comes, knowing God is with us. God created us to bring good and beauty into this world, and we can trust God to make it possible for us to do that, even when things seem so dark that we don’t see how we can possibly make a difference. The Israelites, and centuries later, the marchers in Selma, lived out that trust in every step they took. We, too, are called to march on, carrying the light of faith in the darkness.
When we in our humanity fail, as we are bound to, the cross reminds us that God is still there, giving us the courage and the strength to face the ways we have caused or contributed to the struggles of this world. We look to the cross, acknowledge our sin, and ask God for forgiveness and help. And we are renewed for the journey.
And when we are in pain, the cross is a symbol of the promise that even death is not the final word. We have a God who answers prayer, if not in the ways we might expect. God has promised to be with us even in the darkness, to lead us through to the light when we can’t see the way.
God will not break the covenant, no matter how we stumble. From the Israelites in the desert, to the marchers in Selma in 1965, to each of us today, God loves, forgives, and strengthens us. Nothing is too much for God to handle. And every time we see the cross, we are reminded of the lengths God will go to keep that promise.
Thanks be to God!
Godly Promises Kept
Our readings from the Old Testament this Lent have been a journey through a series of covenants the LORD God of Israel made with the people of Israel. To Noah, to Abraham and Sarah, and to the whole people of God at Sinai and in exile, God promises a relationship, and commits to do certain things, including hold these people in loving faithfulness forever.
This week is the outlier, the story not of a specific covenant but of God’s way of keeping these promises. The people have sinned in their wilderness journey, again. (Isn’t it helpful how much like us they are?) Angry at Moses, angry at God, they complain, not for the first time. “There is no food and no water.” Forgetting they’ve just said there is no food, they add, “And we detest this miserable food.”
Strangely, serpents then come amongst the people and bite them, and many die. The writer attributes them to God. If that’s so, then even more strangely, God immediately instructs Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole, so that if the people look at it they will live, recover from the venom. And so it is. The people survive, in spite of their sin.
It’s a weird story. Yet Jesus refers to it in Sunday’s Gospel, comparing himself to the serpent on a pole. He says he will be lifted up so all may see him and live.
Setting aside the questions around the snake attack, for Israel this moment in the wilderness was a clear sign God had not abandoned them. When they were in peril, admittedly of their own making, God provided a way to life. A thousand years later, God’s keeping of the promise of everlasting faithfulness and love to the people leads to the very Son of God being lifted up on the cross to provide a way of life.
The challenge in God’s covenants with us is our persistent inability, unwillingness, and failure to keep our part. What we hear on Sunday is, regardless of our failings, we belong to a God who always keeps promises, always, and provides a way to life. Even if it means dying to do it.
In Jesus’ name,
- Joseph
Sunday Readings
March 15, 2015: Fourth Sunday in Lent
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
March 22, 2015: Fifth Sunday in Lent
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-12
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33
Sunday’s Adult Forum: March 1-22, 2015
Scholar-in-Residence, Dr. Craig Koester, on the book of Revelation.
Save the Date: Saturday, April 18, 10:00 am-Noon
End of Life Decisions: The Conversation Continues
The conversation began at the February 1 Sunday Forum (to view Pastor Crippen’s presentation online, visit http://youtu.be/npRfQf8TTJg) and the February 7 workshop at Mount Olive.
We will continue to look at how we as people of faith approach our deaths and the deaths of our loved ones by specifically addressing the Honoring Choices Health Care directive. How do we know what we want and what are the options? How, when, and with whom do we have the conversation?
These and other questions will be addressed. Help with completing the form will be available, as well as a notary to finalize any documents that are completed on that date.
Scheduling this workshop is dependent upon the demand for it. If you would like to participate, please let Marilyn Gebauer or the church office know in advance. You can contact Marilyn at 612-306 -8872 or gebauevm@bitstream.net, or the church office at (612) 827-5919.
Some suggestions made previously for future workshops include:
• Estate planning – with or without an agent
• Funeral planning – burial rites, “green funerals”,
the Columbarium
• Writing a will
• Assisted suicide – ethical and faith considerations
• Establishing a volunteer group at MO to serve as
healthcare proxies for fellow members who are
without close family, friends, etc.
• Near death experience
• You may have ideas for future topics of discussion.
If so let Marilyn or the church office know.
Book Discussion Group Update
For the March 14 meeting we will discuss The Alchemist, by Paulo Coelho; for April 11, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain; and for May 9, The Boat of Longing, by O. E. Rølvaag.
Paschal Garden
Volunteers will be on hand for the next three Sundays (March 15, 22, and 29) before, between, and following the liturgies to receive your donations to purchase Easter flowers for this year’s Paschal Garden.
Midweek Lenten Worship
Wednesdays during Lent
Holy Eucharist, at noon
Evening Prayer at 7 pm
A Note of Thanks
Adam and Thomas wish to thank the Mount Olive family for the many kindnesses shown them at the recent death of Adam’s father, Al Krueger.
The many prayers offered before, during and after his illness, cards received, email and Facebook greetings posted, and tutor substitutes are all an immense witness to the love we feel from this congregation and her staff.
From the depths of our hearts, we say thank you for your love and support during these times. It’s always great to be part of such a caring community, but especially so when you experience the loss of a loved one. God bless you all!
- Adam Krueger & Thomas
March is Minnesota FoodShare Month!
Donate cash or groceries to the local food shelf during Minnesota FoodShare month in March!
A donation of money more than doubles the amount of food available to food shelves, because food shelves can purchase food at discounted prices. If you choose to give in this way, make your check payable to Mount Olive and write Food Shelf on the memo line. If you prefer to donate non-perishable groceries, they may be brought to the grocery cart in the coat room.
Chancel Cleaning Day
The Mount Olive Altar Guild invites interested persons to participate in the chancel cleaning to prepare for the Easter season. The cleaning will take place on Saturday, March 28, from 9 am - noon. If you would like to help, please contact Steve Pranschke at 612-803-0915 or by email to hspranschke@gmail.com.
Your helping hands are truly appreciated. I find it is enjoyable to work alongside one another in preparing our worship space at such a special time. Thanks!
- Steve Pranschke
Mount Olive Music & Fine Arts Presents Jearlyn Steele on Sunday, March 15, 4 pm
A native of Indiana, Jearlyn relocated to Minnesota and, after much encouragement, ventured out singing in churches, community centers, and nightclubs. This eventually led her to theater where she has performed at such venues as Penumbra Theater of St. Paul, the Old Log Theater in Excelsior, The Historical State Theater in downtown Minneapolis, The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul, and the world-renowned Guthrie Theater. Over a decade ago, Jearlyn, along with her siblings, “The Steeles,” began a successful run of the pop/gospel musical Gospel At Colonus, which made its way to Carnegie Hall.
Come to see and hear Jearlyn – and bring your friends! A reception will follow the concert.
Action Alert
Sign up now to visit Guatemala and our Common Hope partners. One or two groups will be going. Pick your dates and get in on the action. Leave your name at the office, sign a yellow info sheet or contact Judy Hinck either by email to judyhinck@gmail.com or by calling 612-824-4918. Teams will be set by Easter.
Opening Reception for the Paul Granlund Exhibit to be Held This Sunday
This coming Sunday, March 15, there will be an opening reception for the Paul Granlund sculpture exhibit from 2:00-4:00 pm, prior to the Jearlyn Steele concert. A video will be presented at around 3:00 pm in which we see Paul Granlund at work in his studio and view parts of the foundry process for creating the finished metal sculptures.
Members of the Granlund family will be at the reception. Please invite your friends and family and especially artists you may know to join us.
Holy Week at Mount Olive
Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday
Sunday, March 29
Holy Eucharist, 8 & 10:45 am
Monday-Wednesday of Holy Week,
March 30-April 1
Daily Prayer at Noon, in the side chapel of the nave
Maundy Thursday, April 2
Holy Eucharist at Noon
Holy Eucharist, with the Washing of Feet, 7:00 p.m.
Good Friday, April 3
Stations of the Cross at Noon
Adoration of the Cross at 7 pm
Holy Saturday, April 4
Great Vigil of Easter, 8:30 pm, followed by a festive reception
The Resurrection of Our Lord
Sunday, April 5
Festival Eucharist at
8 & 10:45 am
Easter Brunch at 9:30 am
Vestry Listening Sessions Continue
Vestry Listening sessions continue this Sunday, March 15. This is an opportunity for the congregation to discuss the Vision Expression statements introduced earlier this month.
This week’s focus will be on Worship and Finance. Following both the first and second liturgies, Al Bipes (Worship) and Kat Campbell-Johnson (Business & Finance) will be available in the East and West Assembly rooms to hear your ideas on the work of their committees.
Grab your coffee and join the small group to talk. Each session will last 30-45 minutes, and you may move in and out as you wish.
Opportunities to BE involved:
Check out the information located in front of the main office or in the Olive Branch for more details. There is also a sheet listing coming events and opportunities throughout March. Post it on the fridge or door and pick at least one in which to participate!
• Needed: Food donation deliverer! As food is being donated for Minnesota FoodShare month, is anyone available and willing to take a load of food to CES at 1900 11th Ave. S.? A drop-off time can be arranged and helping hands to load. Please let Anna K. know.
• "Bottom," a play about sex-trafficking – Saturday March 17, 7 pm Minnehaha Upper Academy
• Better Halves Couples' Workshop – Saturday March 21, 9:00- 11:30am at Mount Olive
Who We Are, Where We Are Map
Have you “pinned” yourself yet? If not, please do so by letting us know where you live, using the map hanging in the East Assembly room. Instructions are posted by the map – please contribute your pin!
Peace With Justice Forum
All are invited to a Peace with Justice Forum on Sunday March 15, 2015, 12:30-2:00 pm at Central Lutheran Church, 3rd Ave and 12th St, Minneapolis, next to the Minneapolis Convention Center.
The topic is “Immigration is in the News: A Faith Response.” The presenter for this forum is Reverend John Guttermann. He will discuss President Obama’s proposals for executive action on immigration reform and the court decision that delayed the President’s executive action, and the current realities for area immigrants and their families and work being done in Minnesota. He will describe the program that visits detained immigrants here in the Twin Cities and give some direction on how our churches can helpfully respond.
Reverend Guttermann has been an advocate for immigrants and their families and sees the immigration reform and the immigrant rights movements as connected to the ongoing struggle for civil and human rights for all people.
Lunch is available ($7.00). Validated parking is available in the Central parking lot/ ramp on the south side of the church.
JRLC Day on the Hill: Dignity in Democracy
Submitted by Connie Marty
Dignity in Democracy! was the theme of the 2015 Joint Religious Legislative Coalition (JRLC) Day on the Hill on Tuesday, March 10. Six members of Mount Olive joined over 700 people of faith from across Minnesota to use their gift of citizenship and civic engagement to speak out on social justice issues. In the morning we listened to speakers, prayed together, were updated on key legislative issues and met by legislative districts to plan our meeting in the afternoon at the Capitol with our legislators.
We advocated on the following social justice issues:
1. Support affordable, accessible Child Care for all Minnesota families;
2. Raise MFIP grants by $100 per month (they have not been raised for 30 years);
3. Restore the Vote that would remove barriers that limit offenders' from voting after they have
served their time in prison;
4. Safe Harbor Funding for Victims of Human Trafficking;
5. Reform of the Payday lending industry.
(If you would like to see more detail on any of these pieces of legislation currently being introduced at the Capital, check out JRLC.org or our Neighborhood Ministries bulletin board.)
Senator Jeff Hayden represents District 62, the neighborhood around Mount Olive. Some of us met with him and he had some insights to share with us as members of the faith community:
“These are human issues that affect real people and real lives. The faith community can lead the way. It's a perception-- a way we model and talk about how and what we value as we live with one another. We have to remember that we are a community and these are neighborhood issues. All the churches in the neighborhood should work together. Our faith is our commonality that breaks down barriers between races and erases our differences.” (paraphrased)
He told the story of how one constituent asked him to sponsor legislation that would affect the neighborhood. Senator Hayden told that person that if he would go to the three other churches in the area and ask them to join in coming to the capital and advocating for the legislation then he, as their Senator, would sponsor the bill. But he insisted that the people of his district bring the call to action to the capital and not just assume Senator Hayden could accomplish it by himself. The community can lead the way.
JRLC invited us continue to take action and engage on these issues until they become law:
to sign up to get timely action alerts, to communicate with our legislators throughout the session about issues we care about, to write letters to the editor of our neighborhood papers to educate the general public on these concerns, to form a social justice email tree in our faith community, and more.
Mount Olive members who attended were: Mary Rose Watson, Kathy Kruger, Judy Hinck, Carol Austermann, Connie Marty and Anna Kingman.
(Photos from Day on the Hill are included in this newsletter)
Sabbatical Information, part 2
Pr. Crippen will be on sabbatical from April 6 through July 15. He will be taking time to put together and reflect on the work he’s been doing on preaching, some of which was presented in January forums here. The scope is covering the theology and heart of preaching as well as the craft and art of preaching. Part of the work is to see if there’s something publishable, or usable to the church in some way. There will also be time for relaxation and rest, including a couple trips with family.
Next week: more about who is serving as interim during this time.
Church Library News
In response to a request for library materials on parenting, which might be helpful to the Youth Committee as they were engaged in a Listening session Sunday, I found the following books, which could be quite helpful to couples and/or families:
• Five Cries of Parents (new help for families on the issues that trouble them most), by Merton P. Strommen and A. Irene Strommen
• Families Where Grace is in Place (getting free from the burden of pressuring, controlling and manipulating your spouse and children), by Jeff Van Vonderen
• Mothers and Daughters Together (we can work it out), by Kay Strom and Lisa Strom
• Stepfamilies (living in Christian harmony), by Bobbie Reed
• How to Parent Your Tw/Teenager, by Dr. Mary Manz Simon
• Parenting Your Disabled Child, by Bernard Ikeler
• Nine Challenges for Parents, (leading your child into responsible adult-hood) by Lucy and William Hulme
• Firstborn, by William Hulme
• WHY JOY? (learning to love my special child) by Jane Jennings
• Family Planning on a Crowded Planet, by Wilton Yates
• Be Good to Each Other (an open letter on marriage), by Lowell and Carol Erdahl
• Marriage to a Difficult Man, by Elisabeth D. Dodds
• Helping Your Children Feel Good About Themselves (a guide to building self-esteem in the Christian family), by Kenneth A. Erickson
• When Children Ask About Sex (a guide for parents), by Joar Graham Selzer MD
• Superkid? (raising balanced children in a Super Kid world), by Dr. Elaine McEwan
• The Strong-Willed Child (birth through adolescence), by Dr. James Dobson
• What a Son Needs From His Dad, (how a man prepares his sons for life), by Michael A. O'Donnell, PhD
• Different Children-Different Needs (the art of adjustable parenting), by Charles F. Boyd, w/David Boehe and Robert A. Rohm, PhD
• When Your Child Hurts (hope for parents of children undergoing long-term medical care), by Charlotte Adelsperger
• Where Does a Mother Go to Resign?, by Barbara Johnson
These books are on display in the library in two places -- on the wall directly across from the check-out desk and also in a smaller group near the left-hand window. There is also a display of good Lent and Easter reading near the window on the right. Stop in soon to browse among these areas or any particular need or interest you may have at this or any time.
As we close this article, I will provide a smile for your day with two questions posed from Corny Humor: More Wit and Witticisms, published by the National Federation of the Blind, as follows: "Why did the book join the police?" (So he could work undercover!) and "What is the smartest insect in the world?" - (a bookworm!)
- Leanna Kloempken
Week 3: “So We Do Not Lose Heart”
The Triune God opens our hearts to care about our own sin and the world’s pain, fills our hearts with grace and mercy that cannot be killed, and so makes our hearts God’s heart for the world that will change everything.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
Wednesday, 11 March 2015; texts: 2 Corinthians 4:1-16a
Sisters and brothers, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
You have to have a heart to be concerned about losing it.
Paul’s beautiful encouragement today in 2 Corinthians only matters if we are so engaged in our lives and in the world that our hearts are committed and open.
There is much about our lives that is not what we are created to be. We are not always the loving person toward God and toward our neighbor Christ Jesus calls us to be. If we care about that, our hearts are at risk.
There is much about the world that is not what it was created to be. The suffering, pain, and evil we see in our city, nation, and world has damaged the good creation the Triune God made. If we care about that, our hearts are at risk.
There is much we fear about what we can’t control, including death. If we care about that, our hearts are at risk.
When our hearts engage with our own lives, with this world and its problems, with our fears, we risk losing them, having our courage fail us, falling into despair. But if we don’t engage our hearts, we lose everything of value to life in this world.
There’s a tremendous grace that helps us here, received when we gather together as Christ’s community: we find our hearts in the heart of God.
Here our hearts are opened and aligned with God’s.
Unlike most of the rest of our lives, we are called outside ourselves when we come here. We hear a Word from the God who made us, an external voice that calls to us to open our hearts to the truth so that we care.
Here we are reminded of our sinfulness, our flaws, our brokenness. That we keep coming back, knowing we’re going to hear more of that, means our hearts are being engaged. We are learning to care that we aren’t what God would have us be. Instead of ignoring that pain and pretending we’re just fine, as much of the world would, we come here for the truth, and it opens our hearts.
Here we are reminded of the good of God’s creation and the broken mess we have made. That we keep coming back, knowing we’re going to hear more of that, means our hearts are being engaged. We are learning to care about how God would have the world be. Instead of looking only to ourselves and ignoring the rest of the world, as much of our culture would, we come here for the truth, and it opens our hearts.
Most importantly, here we find the truth answering those deepest fears about what can harm us, what we can’t control. For here, in Word and Meal and community we receive the heart of the Triune God. We receive the love of God for us and for the world that led God to take on our existence and even suffer death on our behalf. Here we learn that God brings life to the world in Jesus’ resurrection, and we are loved fully, in spite of our flaws, our death, and the world is loved fully, in spite of its flaws, its death. We learn God’s heart is even more engaged with bringing life to death and brokenness and sin than ours ever can be.
We come here and are changed by this. Our hearts are shaped to be like God’s, to care as God cares.
That’s when the pain starts. The only way to avoid pain is to stop feeling. We can’t do that, now we care about our own brokenness and the world’s. So now we’re ready to hear Paul’s good news.
It sounds like Paul starts with the opposite. He says we’re fragile.
We’re like clay jars, easily broken. We face affliction, perplexion, persecution, even death, he says, because our hearts are engaged in the ministry God calls us to do, in ourselves and in the world. Fragile sounds like a bad thing.
It’s not. Paul’s helping us let go of that last protection we want. He’s saying if our hearts are engaged as Christ invites, expect it’s going to hurt. In other parts of the world Christians know this, as some are persecuted in horrible ways for living their heart-led, Christ-shaped ministry. In our safe country we’ve taught ourselves to expect no negative impact from committing our hearts and lives to serve Christ in the world. Paul says that’s foolish.
We’re fragile, breakable, clay jars. We’ve got no power or strength on our own. Which of course we already knew. The reason we shut off our hearts toward growing deeper as disciples or shut off our hearts toward the pain of the world, is that deep inside we realize we aren’t very strong. Imagining how we could become more Christlike in our loving in our personal lives, how much work that would take, how many things we’d have to change, is daunting because we know we aren’t strong enough. Imagining how we might make a difference in a world of evil and pain, how much work that would take, how many things would have to change, is daunting because we know we aren’t strong enough.
Paul says, Good. Now you’re starting to get it. You don’t have the power to do this. Now you’re ready to hear what’s really good about this news.
Here it is: we don’t need to have the strength because we are filled with the treasure of God’s grace and mercy.
This isn’t about us. It’s about God’s hope and dream. When we consider our own brokenness and sin or the pain of the world, no matter how huge a task of healing it seems, it doesn’t matter. We, fragile, clay, jars, carry in our hearts the death-destroying, eternally forgiving, unstoppably loving heart of the Triune God. We can risk our hearts engaging ourselves and the world because even if we are wounded, even if it costs a lot, even if we break to the point of death, we have God’s heart inside us giving us life.
We do not proclaim ourselves, Paul says. It’s not about us. We are vessels of the grace and mercy of God we have come to know in Christ Jesus, and that is all we need.
This treasure transforms us into completely different people.
We see everything now through the lens of God’s grace and mercy that is poured in us.
So we never look at our own problems the same again. So many, even in the church today, see their own issues and sin and difficulties and rarely ask, “What is God going to do about this in me?” There is nothing wrong with us and our lives that God cannot heal and transform. This is God’s truth that changes us.
We never look at the world’s problems the same again, either. How often, even in the church today, do people discuss what needs to be done, what problems ail society and the world, and rarely ask, “What is God going to do about this through us?” There is nothing wrong in this world that God cannot heal and transform. This is God’s truth that changes us.
So we do not lose heart.
We do not lose heart, even when we consider the work we each need to do to be people who love God and love neighbor with our every breath. God will make this happen in us. We do not lose heart, even when we consider the depth of work that needs to be done in this world to make it whole and at peace. God will make this happen through us. We do not lose heart, even when we see all the fearful things we can’t control, even death. God will bring life to us and the world in Christ Jesus; God will make this happen.
It is by God’s mercy we are engaged in this ministry, and we have this treasure in clay jars so that it may be made clear – to us and to the world – that this extraordinary power belongs to God and does not come from us. It’s in God’s hands, always has been. We’re just blessed to be the vessels, fragile as we are, carrying God’s healing of the world and of our lives.
Now we get to see that grace extend to the whole world.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
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