For centuries, Christians have been wrestling with the idea of the Trinity, but in the end we have a God who cannot be contained.
Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
The Holy Trinity, year B
texts: Isaiah 6:1-8, Psalm 29, Romans 8:12-17, John 3:1-17
The love and joy of the Triune God be with you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today being Trinity Sunday, I should stand before you and eloquently explain the doctrine of the Trinity, perhaps even using a three-leafed clover metaphor, as St. Patrick did centuries ago. On the surface, the idea of the Trinity seems pretty straightforward—three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God. Simple enough, right?
The reality is that battles have been fought, and people have died, because of differences in understanding this core element of our faith. There are many heresies defined by particular ways of describing the Trinity, and the eastern and western churches are still divided in part by nuances in this doctrine. And yet the Trinity stands, and we confess it here at Mount Olive each week in the creeds. “We believe in one God, the Father the Almighty . . . . We believe in Jesus Christ, his only son our Lord . . . . We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life . . . .”
I am sure you will be relieved to hear that I will not attempt today to sort out the two millennia of conversations, and arguments, and councils that have wrestled with the question of the Trinity. Far more important for us here today, I believe, is what does the Trinity mean for us? Why does it matter?
Although the word “trinity” never appears in scriptures, the images in our readings for today reveal a lot about the Triune God. In Isaiah and the psalm, we hear about God called Lord, seated on a throne, surrounded by seraphs singing “Holy, holy, holy!” Isaiah is surrounded by the majesty of God, and feels completely inadequate. This is God, Lord of the Universe, deserving of glory, before whom none of us, truth be told, are quite ready to stand. The full majesty of God makes us quake in our boots, at least a little bit.
The power of God revealed in waves crashing on the ocean, in the flashes and crashes of powerful storms, in the silent formidable presence of enormous trees centuries old. God’s majesty surrounds us, overwhelms us, and although it touches us, we can’t quite bear to touch it. It is no wonder that Isaiah’s first response is, “Woe is me! I am unclean, and yet I have seen the Lord!” And it is a miracle of grace that prepares Isaiah, so that he cries “Here am I. Send me!” And God invites not just Isaiah, but us, you and me, to go out for him, to witness to his glory!
Jesus tells Nicodemus about God-in-flesh, God who comes to us in human form so that we can have life, be saved. God loves us enough to give us God’s very self, to be in relationship with us, on our terms. And in that relationship, because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, our brokenness is redeemed, and our joy is made complete.
God enters fully into our suffering, as well as our joy. God-in-flesh embraces our grief at the death of a loved one, and shows us through the resurrection that death will not be the final word. God enters our joy at the birth of a child, revels with us in the beauty of creation. God sits with us, eats with us, laughs with us, cries with us. Because God revealed Godself to us in Jesus, we know that God is not only majesty and splendor and power, but intimately involved in our everyday life. Because God became fully human, we know we are never alone. We have a God who understands what it is to be human!
The Spirit is perhaps the most difficult aspect of the Trinity for us to understand. It’s like trying to capture . . . well, the wind! “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” The Spirit empowers us to recognize who we are as children of God, and it is only through the Spirit that we call God Abba, Father. The Spirit in breath brings life to dry bones in the desert, anoints and calls the apostles in fire at Pentecost, calls Jews and Gentiles alike to baptism in the days of the early church. “The wind blows where it chooses . . .”
Revealed in the Trinity, our God is all these things for us—majesty and power, a fellow traveler intimately acquainted with our human experience, one who tells us who we are and empowers us to witness to the world. There are three persons in our one God. And when these persons come together in the one God, something happens that goes far beyond division of labor, each person filling their appointed role. It cannot be adequately captured in any one metaphor, although I am sure you can imagine that doesn’t stop me from trying!
In Quest for the Living God, Catholic feminist theologian Elizabeth Johnson describes the Trinity as three persons in a dance that never ends. “The three circling around in a mutual dynamic movement of love, God is not a static being, but a plentitude of self-giving love, a saving mystery that overflows into the world of sin and death to heal, redeem, and liberate.”
Johnson presents an image of God in relationship with Godself, equal, fully grounded in love. This is the motivation for creation—God did not create the world to follow law or to do God’s will, but to be in loving relationship with God and the rest of creation. And the Triune God is a God of constant movement, changing, circling, over-flowing. As hard as we may try to neatly define the persons in the Trinity and understand it, God will not be contained.
Paul tells us that we have been given a Spirit of adoption. We are not slaves, but adopted as children of God. The Triune God who is constantly creating, moving, loving, healing, inspiring, transforming. We have been adopted not just as children of God the Father, and not just as brother of Jesus, but adopted into this creative, moving, loving, healing, inspiring, transforming Trinity. We are adopted into the love that overflows into our broken world.
Jesus tells Nicodemus, “The wind blows where it chooses . . . and so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” We are adopted into the Trinity, and we are called to follow the Spirit where it chooses. Not to understand, not to define, certainly not to limit—for ours is a God who will not be so easily contained. We are children of the Triune God, and we follow the wind.
Thanks be to God.
Elizabeth A. Johnson, Quest for the Living God: Mapping Frontiers in the Theology of God (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2007), 213-214.
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Thursday, May 28, 2015
The Olive Branch, 5/27/15
Accent on Worship
My birth story is my favorite story to tell. You may have heard it already, but it’s got a surprise part that I love. It’s the part where, despite ultra sounds and medical knowledge, my parents did not know that they were having two babies instead of just one. Surprise! After my twin sister Amy squirmed her way out into the light of the world, no one was anticipating that there was another baby waiting in the wings, umbilical cord wrapped around my neck, pressing for light and air. Alas, with many exclamations of disbelief greeting me, I made my grand entrance. I’d like to consider it a blessing, although I imagine for my parents it was more of a shock.
My twin sister and I share a type of bond that only other twins can know. It’s one of separation and sameness alike. It’s another person who is so similar to you in experience, there from the literal beginning, and sharing in the lifeblood that makes a human a human. We have the same face, the same mannerisms, and dispute certain memories we both share.
This experience as a twin gives me even the smallest sense of what it means to be one, but three. To be whole, separate, complete, but to be a part, a moving piece with no boundaries or borders between the others. This Sunday we acknowledge the triune God, that there is community within God – not outside, but reflecting from within. One of the most grounding phrases for me right now is “in you we live and move and have our being.” It eliminates any separation between us and the God the flows within, before, beyond, and forever around us. This is an encouragement to me on the days when I feel like I’ve let things fall away, or I’m holding back out of worldly fears, or just laziness- the matter that I the triune God in all the ways that the Spirit moves in the world, despite my efforts or lack thereof.
Far from understanding all of the intricacies of the triune God, I will lean in to my understanding of being a twin – of sharing in the special relationship that we have as a guide to how we all, as sisters and brothers under one God the Father live, move, and have our being together in this world.
- Anna Kingman
Sunday Readings
May 31, 2015: The Holy Trinity
Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 29
Romans 8:12-17
John 3:1-17
______________
June 7, 2015: 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, 10 B
Genesis 3:8-15
Psalm 130
2 Corinthians 4:13—5:1
Mark 3:20-35
Sunday’s Adult Forum: May 31, 11 a.m.
Lora Dundek and Larry Duncan will share high- lights from the recent Minneapolis Area Synod Assembly.
Book Discussion Group Update
Mount Olive’s Book Discussion Group meets on the second Saturday of each month, at 10:00 am in the West Assembly Area at church. All readers are welcome!
For the June 13 meeting, the Book Discussion group will read The Last Chinese Chef, by Nicole Mones, and for July 11, Bleak House, by Charles Dickens.
Calling All Graduates!
On Sunday, June 14, we will honor our graduates at a reception following the 9:30 a.m. liturgy.
If you are graduating from high school, college, seminary, or another post-secondary school, or if you know of some-one else from Mount Olive who is graduating this spring, please take a moment to notify the church office. We want to be sure that all of our graduates are invited!
Personal-sized Toiletries Needed!
During your summer travels, save the personal-sized toiletries provided by hotels. We are collecting them for distribution to the homeless who stay at Our Saviour’s Shelter. Place them in the designated basket in the coat room.
That Campaign? We’re Still Giving
The “asking” phase of last year’s campaign to restore funds borrowed from Mount Olive’s restricted funds and to create a reserve fund to see us through future general-fund shortfalls ended some months ago, but we continue to receive gifts—and they’re welcome and needed.
Paid gifts now stand at $107,578, and outstanding pledges total $10,600. (It should be noted that close to half the dollars received to date come from households that did not turn in pledge cards!)
What should your priority be if you have outstanding pledges to the campaign and to this year’s general fund and find it difficult to give to both just now? Give to the general fund, from which we pay the congregations ongoing expenses.
To check the status of your campaign pledge or to adjust it, phone or email Cha at the church office.
If you’ve forgotten the exact purpose of the campaign, here’s a quick recap. We’ve repaid what the congregation borrowed from its restricted funds in lean times several years ago, and now have formally made those funds unavailable for future borrowing. We’ve established a reserve fund, now about $26,000, from which we could borrow before needing to turn to more costly short-term loans at the bank. The reserve fund will be minimal—but still important—even if all pledges are fulfilled.
- Donn McLellan, Director of Stewardship
YOUR Neighborhood Garage Sale: June 20, 9am to 3pm
This is a great opportunity for you to step into the journey of BEING THE PRESENCE OF GOD in this neighborhood. Please join in this activity and connect hearts, break barriers and spend some fun time in your church neighborhood.
Actions you can take to participate:
• Be a vendor!
Find some items you no longer need and reserve a parking space size spot in our church parking lot to sell your goods and have fun with neighbors. We will call you a vendor for the day. Our youth will be selling food and drink to raise funds for their mission. Bring your own table.
• Be a volunteer!
Take a shift from 8:00am - Noon or Noon - 4:00pm to assist with set up and hosting for the day. We will welcome the vendors, put up signs to encourage neighbors to stop by and shop and just be available and visible. We open our sanctuary doors to welcome any who want to take a peek inside these walls and see who is here and what is going on. We will also offer restrooms to the vendors.
• Be a promoter and spread the word!
Take an assignment to walk the neighborhood and deliver flyers door to doors and/or post flyers in businesses so people know what Mount Olive is doing on June 20.
Questions? Contact any Open Space team member to join in or for further information: Tim Pipkorn, George Ferguson, Connie Marty, Julie Manuel, Carol Austermann, Paul Nixdorf, Patsy Holtmeier, and Anna Kingman.
Thanks be to God for our life together!
Help Earthquake Victims
From your Global Missions Committee--Our ELCA Lutheran Disaster Response is working with the Lutheran World Federation and Lutheran World Relief on large scale disaster response in Nepal. If you would like to contribute to this effort, please mark either a blue envelope contribution or a donation check ELCA Lutheran Disaster Response and our collected contributions will be forwarded to this important work.
Communion Ministers Needed!
Every week, parishioners bring the Eucharist to Mount Olive members who are unable to join us for liturgy. Additional communion ministers are needed, especially for the summer months. If you are willing and able to bring communion to Mount Olive members in their homes, please contact Tom Graves and Ginny Agresti.
The Ninth Annual BACH TAGE
Bach Tage is Saturday and Sunday, June 6 and June 7. Two public concerts are a featured part of Bach Tage – invite your friends!:
• Saturday, June 6, 4:00 pm: Music of Johann Sebastian Bach presented by the Bach Tage soloists and orchestra
Cantata BWV 196, Der Herr denket an uns, by the Bach Tage soloists and orchestra; Concerto for Oboe and Violin, BWV 1060R, with soloists Marc Levine and Stanley King; and Prelude and Fugue in c minor for organ, by Cantor David Cherwien.
• Sunday, June 7, 4:00 pm: Service of Evening Prayer with Cantata BWV 150, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, and Buxtehude’s Befiehl dem Engel dass er komm will be performed by the participants in the weekend conference, with soloists and orchestra. Kathy Romey of the University of Minnesota is our guest conductor for the weekend, with Cantor David Cherwien, organist.
Great music at both programs. Tell others, and don’t miss!!
May 31 Adult Forum
On May 31, there will be an opportunity to hear what the Minneapolis Area Synod did during the Synod Assembly a couple of weeks ago. The Assembly theme was "The Word Was Made Flesh and Moved into the Neighborhood."
The Mount Olive representatives to the Assembly were Lora Dundek and Larry Duncan, and they will present a few observations on the gathering. Meet in the Chapel Lounge following the liturgy, and after you get your coffee, of course!
The Bargain Box
Saturday, August 1 will be a busy day at Mount Olive! We will be helping to get neighborhood children ready for school year with Bargain Box fitting children with new school clothes and distributing school supplies during the Community Meal.
We are looking for donations of cash, new and gently used children’s clothes (no adult clothes, please), school supplies, and backpacks.
If you have time to help with the meal, or assist with clothing or school supplies, please plan to come to the August Community Meals!
- Neighborhood Ministries Committee
Olive Branch Summer Publication
During the summer months of June, July, and August, The Olive Branch is published every other week. June issues will be published on June 4 and June 17. If you have information to be published in these newsletters, please have that information to the church office by Monday, June 1, and Monday, June 15, respectively.
News From the Neighborhood
Anna Kingman
Coming Soon! Summer A.C.T.S. (Adults, Children Teaming to Serve)
This is going to be fun! Neighborhood Ministries Summer Program this year is an opportunity for adults and youth from the congregation and community to work together on “jobs” with meaning and purpose while building relationships and learning from each other. The program will run four half-days a week for four weeks from June 22 through July 16 (10:00 AM to 2:00 PM including a light lunch). Youth ages 9 to 14 can work for four weeks, two half-days a week on either Mondays and Wednesdays or Tuesdays and Thursdays, and earn $30/week. Adults can volunteer to work on a team with youth for any length of time – whatever fits into your schedule. Each week we will focus on a different community project and skill building. The program will culminate on July 17 with a celebration! Job sites include: food packing at CES, Artwork at Courageous heARTS, cooking/baking skills at Mount Olive, Urban gardening, etc!
Do you have a child, grandchild or friend who would like to work this summer, earn a little cash, and learn about service at the same time? Would you like to take two half days off work and be a part of the action? Are you available this summer and looking for a way to serve as a mentor, helper, or kitchen worker extraordinaire? WE NEED YOU!
For applications for participants, sheets are located outside the main office or from Anna
If you are interested in any way, please contact Anna Kingman Coordinator of Neighborhood Outreach and Ministry at 612-827-5919, neighborhood@mountolivechurch.org, or just talk to her on Sunday.
Upcoming Grant-Writing Workshop Opportunity!
Mount Olive is hosting a 2-day grant writing workshop held by Grant Central USA on July 16 – 17, from 9am-4pm. For hosting, we are given two free spots at this event. Are you interested in attending this free workshop? Whether professional, personal, non-profit, or fun, please let Anna know ASAP if you'd like to attend. For more information, visit: http://www.grantwritingclasses.org/gallery.html or contact Anna at church or neighborhood@mountolivechurch.org.
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: “We are a part of Mount Olive Church”
Spanish: ”Somos parte de la Iglesia Mount Olive” (Sow-mohs par-tay day lah Eeg-lay-see-ah Mount Olive)
Review: ‘Where is your family from?”’ Spanish:”De donde es su familia?” (Day-dohn-day es sue fah-meel-ee-ah)
Go out and be fearlessly friendly folks!
Needed!
Neighborhood Ministries is currently in need of two things:
• Paper grocery bags with handles (these may be left in the donation area of the coat room)
• 10x10 pop-up canopies to borrow for the Neighbor-hood Garage Sale on June 20 in our parking lot.
Keep Heroin out of Hennepin County!
Learn, share, and support the Keep Heroin Out of Hennepin County Town Hall. This meeting will take place on Thursday, May 28 (tomorrow!), from 7:00- 8:30 pm at the Church of Gitchitwaa Kateri (3045 Park Ave.) right down the street. Heroin, Opiates, and Meth are a problem everywhere, so let’s support the efforts to stamp them out.
My birth story is my favorite story to tell. You may have heard it already, but it’s got a surprise part that I love. It’s the part where, despite ultra sounds and medical knowledge, my parents did not know that they were having two babies instead of just one. Surprise! After my twin sister Amy squirmed her way out into the light of the world, no one was anticipating that there was another baby waiting in the wings, umbilical cord wrapped around my neck, pressing for light and air. Alas, with many exclamations of disbelief greeting me, I made my grand entrance. I’d like to consider it a blessing, although I imagine for my parents it was more of a shock.
My twin sister and I share a type of bond that only other twins can know. It’s one of separation and sameness alike. It’s another person who is so similar to you in experience, there from the literal beginning, and sharing in the lifeblood that makes a human a human. We have the same face, the same mannerisms, and dispute certain memories we both share.
This experience as a twin gives me even the smallest sense of what it means to be one, but three. To be whole, separate, complete, but to be a part, a moving piece with no boundaries or borders between the others. This Sunday we acknowledge the triune God, that there is community within God – not outside, but reflecting from within. One of the most grounding phrases for me right now is “in you we live and move and have our being.” It eliminates any separation between us and the God the flows within, before, beyond, and forever around us. This is an encouragement to me on the days when I feel like I’ve let things fall away, or I’m holding back out of worldly fears, or just laziness- the matter that I the triune God in all the ways that the Spirit moves in the world, despite my efforts or lack thereof.
Far from understanding all of the intricacies of the triune God, I will lean in to my understanding of being a twin – of sharing in the special relationship that we have as a guide to how we all, as sisters and brothers under one God the Father live, move, and have our being together in this world.
- Anna Kingman
Sunday Readings
May 31, 2015: The Holy Trinity
Isaiah 6:1-8
Psalm 29
Romans 8:12-17
John 3:1-17
______________
June 7, 2015: 2nd Sunday after Pentecost, 10 B
Genesis 3:8-15
Psalm 130
2 Corinthians 4:13—5:1
Mark 3:20-35
Sunday’s Adult Forum: May 31, 11 a.m.
Lora Dundek and Larry Duncan will share high- lights from the recent Minneapolis Area Synod Assembly.
Book Discussion Group Update
Mount Olive’s Book Discussion Group meets on the second Saturday of each month, at 10:00 am in the West Assembly Area at church. All readers are welcome!
For the June 13 meeting, the Book Discussion group will read The Last Chinese Chef, by Nicole Mones, and for July 11, Bleak House, by Charles Dickens.
Calling All Graduates!
On Sunday, June 14, we will honor our graduates at a reception following the 9:30 a.m. liturgy.
If you are graduating from high school, college, seminary, or another post-secondary school, or if you know of some-one else from Mount Olive who is graduating this spring, please take a moment to notify the church office. We want to be sure that all of our graduates are invited!
Personal-sized Toiletries Needed!
During your summer travels, save the personal-sized toiletries provided by hotels. We are collecting them for distribution to the homeless who stay at Our Saviour’s Shelter. Place them in the designated basket in the coat room.
That Campaign? We’re Still Giving
The “asking” phase of last year’s campaign to restore funds borrowed from Mount Olive’s restricted funds and to create a reserve fund to see us through future general-fund shortfalls ended some months ago, but we continue to receive gifts—and they’re welcome and needed.
Paid gifts now stand at $107,578, and outstanding pledges total $10,600. (It should be noted that close to half the dollars received to date come from households that did not turn in pledge cards!)
What should your priority be if you have outstanding pledges to the campaign and to this year’s general fund and find it difficult to give to both just now? Give to the general fund, from which we pay the congregations ongoing expenses.
To check the status of your campaign pledge or to adjust it, phone or email Cha at the church office.
If you’ve forgotten the exact purpose of the campaign, here’s a quick recap. We’ve repaid what the congregation borrowed from its restricted funds in lean times several years ago, and now have formally made those funds unavailable for future borrowing. We’ve established a reserve fund, now about $26,000, from which we could borrow before needing to turn to more costly short-term loans at the bank. The reserve fund will be minimal—but still important—even if all pledges are fulfilled.
- Donn McLellan, Director of Stewardship
YOUR Neighborhood Garage Sale: June 20, 9am to 3pm
This is a great opportunity for you to step into the journey of BEING THE PRESENCE OF GOD in this neighborhood. Please join in this activity and connect hearts, break barriers and spend some fun time in your church neighborhood.
Actions you can take to participate:
• Be a vendor!
Find some items you no longer need and reserve a parking space size spot in our church parking lot to sell your goods and have fun with neighbors. We will call you a vendor for the day. Our youth will be selling food and drink to raise funds for their mission. Bring your own table.
• Be a volunteer!
Take a shift from 8:00am - Noon or Noon - 4:00pm to assist with set up and hosting for the day. We will welcome the vendors, put up signs to encourage neighbors to stop by and shop and just be available and visible. We open our sanctuary doors to welcome any who want to take a peek inside these walls and see who is here and what is going on. We will also offer restrooms to the vendors.
• Be a promoter and spread the word!
Take an assignment to walk the neighborhood and deliver flyers door to doors and/or post flyers in businesses so people know what Mount Olive is doing on June 20.
Questions? Contact any Open Space team member to join in or for further information: Tim Pipkorn, George Ferguson, Connie Marty, Julie Manuel, Carol Austermann, Paul Nixdorf, Patsy Holtmeier, and Anna Kingman.
Thanks be to God for our life together!
Help Earthquake Victims
From your Global Missions Committee--Our ELCA Lutheran Disaster Response is working with the Lutheran World Federation and Lutheran World Relief on large scale disaster response in Nepal. If you would like to contribute to this effort, please mark either a blue envelope contribution or a donation check ELCA Lutheran Disaster Response and our collected contributions will be forwarded to this important work.
Communion Ministers Needed!
Every week, parishioners bring the Eucharist to Mount Olive members who are unable to join us for liturgy. Additional communion ministers are needed, especially for the summer months. If you are willing and able to bring communion to Mount Olive members in their homes, please contact Tom Graves and Ginny Agresti.
The Ninth Annual BACH TAGE
Bach Tage is Saturday and Sunday, June 6 and June 7. Two public concerts are a featured part of Bach Tage – invite your friends!:
• Saturday, June 6, 4:00 pm: Music of Johann Sebastian Bach presented by the Bach Tage soloists and orchestra
Cantata BWV 196, Der Herr denket an uns, by the Bach Tage soloists and orchestra; Concerto for Oboe and Violin, BWV 1060R, with soloists Marc Levine and Stanley King; and Prelude and Fugue in c minor for organ, by Cantor David Cherwien.
• Sunday, June 7, 4:00 pm: Service of Evening Prayer with Cantata BWV 150, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, and Buxtehude’s Befiehl dem Engel dass er komm will be performed by the participants in the weekend conference, with soloists and orchestra. Kathy Romey of the University of Minnesota is our guest conductor for the weekend, with Cantor David Cherwien, organist.
Great music at both programs. Tell others, and don’t miss!!
May 31 Adult Forum
On May 31, there will be an opportunity to hear what the Minneapolis Area Synod did during the Synod Assembly a couple of weeks ago. The Assembly theme was "The Word Was Made Flesh and Moved into the Neighborhood."
The Mount Olive representatives to the Assembly were Lora Dundek and Larry Duncan, and they will present a few observations on the gathering. Meet in the Chapel Lounge following the liturgy, and after you get your coffee, of course!
The Bargain Box
Saturday, August 1 will be a busy day at Mount Olive! We will be helping to get neighborhood children ready for school year with Bargain Box fitting children with new school clothes and distributing school supplies during the Community Meal.
We are looking for donations of cash, new and gently used children’s clothes (no adult clothes, please), school supplies, and backpacks.
If you have time to help with the meal, or assist with clothing or school supplies, please plan to come to the August Community Meals!
- Neighborhood Ministries Committee
Olive Branch Summer Publication
During the summer months of June, July, and August, The Olive Branch is published every other week. June issues will be published on June 4 and June 17. If you have information to be published in these newsletters, please have that information to the church office by Monday, June 1, and Monday, June 15, respectively.
News From the Neighborhood
Anna Kingman
Coming Soon! Summer A.C.T.S. (Adults, Children Teaming to Serve)
This is going to be fun! Neighborhood Ministries Summer Program this year is an opportunity for adults and youth from the congregation and community to work together on “jobs” with meaning and purpose while building relationships and learning from each other. The program will run four half-days a week for four weeks from June 22 through July 16 (10:00 AM to 2:00 PM including a light lunch). Youth ages 9 to 14 can work for four weeks, two half-days a week on either Mondays and Wednesdays or Tuesdays and Thursdays, and earn $30/week. Adults can volunteer to work on a team with youth for any length of time – whatever fits into your schedule. Each week we will focus on a different community project and skill building. The program will culminate on July 17 with a celebration! Job sites include: food packing at CES, Artwork at Courageous heARTS, cooking/baking skills at Mount Olive, Urban gardening, etc!
Do you have a child, grandchild or friend who would like to work this summer, earn a little cash, and learn about service at the same time? Would you like to take two half days off work and be a part of the action? Are you available this summer and looking for a way to serve as a mentor, helper, or kitchen worker extraordinaire? WE NEED YOU!
For applications for participants, sheets are located outside the main office or from Anna
If you are interested in any way, please contact Anna Kingman Coordinator of Neighborhood Outreach and Ministry at 612-827-5919, neighborhood@mountolivechurch.org, or just talk to her on Sunday.
Upcoming Grant-Writing Workshop Opportunity!
Mount Olive is hosting a 2-day grant writing workshop held by Grant Central USA on July 16 – 17, from 9am-4pm. For hosting, we are given two free spots at this event. Are you interested in attending this free workshop? Whether professional, personal, non-profit, or fun, please let Anna know ASAP if you'd like to attend. For more information, visit: http://www.grantwritingclasses.org/gallery.html or contact Anna at church or neighborhood@mountolivechurch.org.
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: “We are a part of Mount Olive Church”
Spanish: ”Somos parte de la Iglesia Mount Olive” (Sow-mohs par-tay day lah Eeg-lay-see-ah Mount Olive)
Review: ‘Where is your family from?”’ Spanish:”De donde es su familia?” (Day-dohn-day es sue fah-meel-ee-ah)
Go out and be fearlessly friendly folks!
Needed!
Neighborhood Ministries is currently in need of two things:
• Paper grocery bags with handles (these may be left in the donation area of the coat room)
• 10x10 pop-up canopies to borrow for the Neighbor-hood Garage Sale on June 20 in our parking lot.
Keep Heroin out of Hennepin County!
Learn, share, and support the Keep Heroin Out of Hennepin County Town Hall. This meeting will take place on Thursday, May 28 (tomorrow!), from 7:00- 8:30 pm at the Church of Gitchitwaa Kateri (3045 Park Ave.) right down the street. Heroin, Opiates, and Meth are a problem everywhere, so let’s support the efforts to stamp them out.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Looking for Jesus
When Jesus ascended, the disciples stood gazing at the heavens in wonder. A man asked them why they were looking at the heavens. Our work is before us, not above us. Jesus came to show us how to live, to be his hands and feet in the world.
Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
The Ascension of Our Lord
texts: Acts 1:1-11, Psalm 47, Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:44-53
The peace of the risen Christ be with you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
What a time, Jesus’ friends were having! They had lived and traveled and worked and eaten with Jesus for several years, before he was taken from them and hung on the cross to die. And then, Jesus rose from the dead and came back to them, just when they had given up hope. The disciples are not sure what is going to happen, as Jesus is preparing to leave again. They had seen him several times over the 40 days since Easter, since the day Jesus rose from the dead. And now he is leaving for good. Jesus didn’t overthrow Rome before he died, and the disciples wonder and ask if maybe now he is finally going to restore justice to their world. The disciples still don’t seem to fully understand what Jesus has been doing, all this time.
Jesus responds to their question by telling them that God’s timing is not for them to know, but THEY will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes. He tells the disciples to wait until they have received the Holy Spirit, and then go and share the good news with the world. Jesus did not come so that HE could set things right. Jesus came, and died, and rose again, so that WE might live as Jesus did, so that WE might be empowered to do justice and mercy in this world.
And after Jesus has ascended, the disciples are still sorting through everything that has happened, all that Jesus has told them, as they stare at the place in the air where they last saw Jesus before he disappeared from view. And as they stand there, they get another message about their mission. “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Jesus has gone, and he is coming again, but the real news lies before the disciples, not above them.
The real news for us, too, lies before us, not above us. The promise is there, and we live in hope, knowing Jesus will come again. We know what Jesus did and said while he was here. Our mission is to live as he did, actively, with love, engaged in what is happening in the world in front of us. Our mission is to understand and live knowing that Jesus is all around us!
We are called to look for Jesus among our neighbors. We are called to see Jesus in the man who comes to Mount Olive asking for a laundry voucher. We meet Jesus in the fellow community member learning of a cancer diagnosis. Jesus is among the people of Nepal living in grief for those they have already lost to earthquakes, and living in terror that more will die. We don’t look up to find Jesus, we hear Jesus in the person on the other end of the phone at the pharmacy when we call to renew prescriptions, we see Jesus in the mail carrier delivering our mail. Jesus comes to us every day in our co-workers and classmates, our spouses, our children.
Like the disciples, we can easily forget this simple truth: we find Jesus in everyone we meet, and we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus, working for justice, caring for those around us. Fortunately, like the disciples, when we forget, we are reminded. “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” And the Holy Spirit inspires and empowers us to do what Jesus is calling us to do: go, share the good news. Jesus is alive. Jesus is coming again. And in the meantime, we have work to do, seeking Jesus in the world, doing the work of Jesus in this world.
Today, we stand with the disciples, saying goodbye once again to Jesus-in-flesh-and-blood, re-focusing on what Jesus has taught us, and what we are called to do. On this feast, it is tempting to look at the place we last saw Jesus, rising to God. It is tempting to ask ourselves and each other, when is Jesus coming again? Where, and how? Is this the time when God will finally heal the wrongs of this world? Together with the disciples, we get our answer: “It is not for us to know the day or hour. Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”
Because Jesus died and rose, we won’t ever be alone, even though we will not physically see him anymore. Today, we anticipate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, knowing that through the power of the Spirit Jesus will be with us wherever we go, empowering us to do his work in this world. We can, with the disciples, be joyful and expectant, knowing Jesus will come again. And like the disciples, we are sent out from here to carry on the work of Jesus wherever we are.
Jesus’ Ascension is not the end of his work in the world. It is just the beginning. Jesus’ life, teaching, preaching, healing was all to prepare us. Jesus has shown and told us what we are to do, after his Ascension. Have we been listening? Are we looking ahead of us, or are we still looking to the sky? Listen to the voices saying, “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” Jesus is coming again, we don’t know when and where and how. In the meantime, let us go out and carry on the work he has given us to do.
Amen.
Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
The Ascension of Our Lord
texts: Acts 1:1-11, Psalm 47, Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:44-53
The peace of the risen Christ be with you, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
What a time, Jesus’ friends were having! They had lived and traveled and worked and eaten with Jesus for several years, before he was taken from them and hung on the cross to die. And then, Jesus rose from the dead and came back to them, just when they had given up hope. The disciples are not sure what is going to happen, as Jesus is preparing to leave again. They had seen him several times over the 40 days since Easter, since the day Jesus rose from the dead. And now he is leaving for good. Jesus didn’t overthrow Rome before he died, and the disciples wonder and ask if maybe now he is finally going to restore justice to their world. The disciples still don’t seem to fully understand what Jesus has been doing, all this time.
Jesus responds to their question by telling them that God’s timing is not for them to know, but THEY will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes. He tells the disciples to wait until they have received the Holy Spirit, and then go and share the good news with the world. Jesus did not come so that HE could set things right. Jesus came, and died, and rose again, so that WE might live as Jesus did, so that WE might be empowered to do justice and mercy in this world.
And after Jesus has ascended, the disciples are still sorting through everything that has happened, all that Jesus has told them, as they stare at the place in the air where they last saw Jesus before he disappeared from view. And as they stand there, they get another message about their mission. “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” Jesus has gone, and he is coming again, but the real news lies before the disciples, not above them.
The real news for us, too, lies before us, not above us. The promise is there, and we live in hope, knowing Jesus will come again. We know what Jesus did and said while he was here. Our mission is to live as he did, actively, with love, engaged in what is happening in the world in front of us. Our mission is to understand and live knowing that Jesus is all around us!
We are called to look for Jesus among our neighbors. We are called to see Jesus in the man who comes to Mount Olive asking for a laundry voucher. We meet Jesus in the fellow community member learning of a cancer diagnosis. Jesus is among the people of Nepal living in grief for those they have already lost to earthquakes, and living in terror that more will die. We don’t look up to find Jesus, we hear Jesus in the person on the other end of the phone at the pharmacy when we call to renew prescriptions, we see Jesus in the mail carrier delivering our mail. Jesus comes to us every day in our co-workers and classmates, our spouses, our children.
Like the disciples, we can easily forget this simple truth: we find Jesus in everyone we meet, and we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus, working for justice, caring for those around us. Fortunately, like the disciples, when we forget, we are reminded. “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” And the Holy Spirit inspires and empowers us to do what Jesus is calling us to do: go, share the good news. Jesus is alive. Jesus is coming again. And in the meantime, we have work to do, seeking Jesus in the world, doing the work of Jesus in this world.
Today, we stand with the disciples, saying goodbye once again to Jesus-in-flesh-and-blood, re-focusing on what Jesus has taught us, and what we are called to do. On this feast, it is tempting to look at the place we last saw Jesus, rising to God. It is tempting to ask ourselves and each other, when is Jesus coming again? Where, and how? Is this the time when God will finally heal the wrongs of this world? Together with the disciples, we get our answer: “It is not for us to know the day or hour. Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?”
Because Jesus died and rose, we won’t ever be alone, even though we will not physically see him anymore. Today, we anticipate the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, knowing that through the power of the Spirit Jesus will be with us wherever we go, empowering us to do his work in this world. We can, with the disciples, be joyful and expectant, knowing Jesus will come again. And like the disciples, we are sent out from here to carry on the work of Jesus wherever we are.
Jesus’ Ascension is not the end of his work in the world. It is just the beginning. Jesus’ life, teaching, preaching, healing was all to prepare us. Jesus has shown and told us what we are to do, after his Ascension. Have we been listening? Are we looking ahead of us, or are we still looking to the sky? Listen to the voices saying, “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” Jesus is coming again, we don’t know when and where and how. In the meantime, let us go out and carry on the work he has given us to do.
Amen.
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Complete Joy
We abide in God’s love, and Jesus promised that his joy would be in us and our joy would be complete. We are called to practice joy, and share it with the world.
Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
The Sixth Sunday of Easter, year B
texts: Acts 10:44-48, Psalm 98, 1 John 5:1-6, John 15:9-17
Joy and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
For Christmas last year, we gave my 2-year old nephew a drum. And not just any drum. We found a lollipop drum, with a long narrow handle and rainbow colored swirls covering the metal surface, complete with a drum stick with a ball at the tip. He opened it and laid the drum on the floor and began to hit it with the stick. The sound was somewhat flat with the drum laying on the floor, so I picked up the drum by the handle and held it for him, and he struck it a couple more times, producing a very satisfying—and LOUD—bang that echoed through the house. I watched his face, and in a flash, there it was—pure joy. Eyes sparkling under his curly mop of hair, mouth wide open with all his teeth showing, giggling as he eagerly took the drum from me and marched around the room as he continued to play it.
My nephew’s unbridled joy didn’t come from achieving anything. His joy wasn’t the result of a carefully crafted plan that went something like, “I would be really, really happy if only . . . .” It didn’t come from our approval—he didn’t need an audience, although he certainly had one! The joy my nephew felt simply bubbled up in him as he reveled in wonder and amazement at the sound he could create by hitting the drum with the stick. And his joy overflowed, filling me with joy as I watched him!
What brings you joy? What does the face of joy look like to you?
Jesus says his joy will be in us, that our joy may be complete. Joy, true joy, comes from God, not from external circumstances. It might be thought of as “grace recognized,” the knowledge of God’s love and care for us. And all of this, Jesus tells us, comes out of knowing we are chosen, abiding in God’s love.
I have been watching my garden beds hopefully, since the snow melted, waiting to see if the Japanese Lilac tree we planted last spring would bloom again. To see if the hosta we planted in the summer would come back this year. And sure enough, our tree is covered in buds waiting to burst into leaves, and even the slowest-growing hosta has poked little fleshy spikes of green above the soil.
And the miracle of it, to me, is that I didn’t have to do anything to make that happen. Thank goodness! And neither, really, did the tree, or the hosta. The tree and hosta simply abided in the water and soil that surrounded and fed them, and they grew. They abided in the sun and warmth, and what looked like dead branches and lifeless dirt have been transformed into new life before our eyes.
As we have heard over and over the last few weeks in the Gospel of John, we, each one of us, abide forever in God’s love. We abide in God’s love, and just like the tree and hosta, we are transformed. We are not slaves any longer, Jesus tells us. And we did not have to do anything to make that happen. We have been chosen. Jesus calls us his friends, his joy is in us, and we are appointed to bear the fruit of joy in the world.
Joy is an emotion, one that often takes us by surprise. It is not within our control, and we don’t always feel it. Joy is also a choice, a spiritual discipline, if you will. We can practice joy by listening to God say to us, in the midst of fear, “Be not afraid, I am with you.” God loves us, and in Jesus God laid down his life for us. Just think about that for a moment. Jesus laid down his life for you. Because Jesus died, we can live. Because Jesus died, and rose, we need never be afraid, because we can face even our own death knowing the promise of the resurrection. Each one of us abides in God’s love, a love so deep that death itself has been banished, forever.
We can practice the discipline of joy by seeking evidence of God’s presence in each moment, seeking evidence that Christ is alive, as Mary and Thomas did. In doing this, we consciously abide in the extravagant love of God in each moment as it comes. We meet God in the present. Children, like my nephew, seem to know this instinctively, finding wonder in things that we adults often overlook. You children can teach us adults a lot about joy!
Jesus tells us to love one another—“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” As Jesus’ friends, we are called to love one another, as God loves us. We are to lay down our lives for each other, to love each other with everything that we are, and that too, is joy.
Just like my nephew’s infectious grin and giggle, joy is contagious, and it grows as it is shared. We as a community are called not just to practice joy ourselves, but to go and tell others. In our baptisms, we celebrate the Spirit of God that pours over everyone, without distinction, lavishing us with gifts meant to be shared with the world. And the greatest gift is the joy of the hope we have in Jesus.
Our joy doesn’t come from achievement or success. It isn’t the result of a carefully crafted plan that sounds something like, “I would be really, really happy if only . . . .” It doesn’t come from the approval of others. Joy comes from simply being in the presence of God who loves us abundantly. We are transformed by God’s love in Jesus into people of the resurrection, knowing that whatever happens in our lives, God is with us, God loves us, and the best is yet to come. And because of that, we can be the presence of God’s love and joy for others. The joy of Jesus is in us, and our joy is complete.
Thanks be to God!
Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
The Sixth Sunday of Easter, year B
texts: Acts 10:44-48, Psalm 98, 1 John 5:1-6, John 15:9-17
Joy and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
For Christmas last year, we gave my 2-year old nephew a drum. And not just any drum. We found a lollipop drum, with a long narrow handle and rainbow colored swirls covering the metal surface, complete with a drum stick with a ball at the tip. He opened it and laid the drum on the floor and began to hit it with the stick. The sound was somewhat flat with the drum laying on the floor, so I picked up the drum by the handle and held it for him, and he struck it a couple more times, producing a very satisfying—and LOUD—bang that echoed through the house. I watched his face, and in a flash, there it was—pure joy. Eyes sparkling under his curly mop of hair, mouth wide open with all his teeth showing, giggling as he eagerly took the drum from me and marched around the room as he continued to play it.
My nephew’s unbridled joy didn’t come from achieving anything. His joy wasn’t the result of a carefully crafted plan that went something like, “I would be really, really happy if only . . . .” It didn’t come from our approval—he didn’t need an audience, although he certainly had one! The joy my nephew felt simply bubbled up in him as he reveled in wonder and amazement at the sound he could create by hitting the drum with the stick. And his joy overflowed, filling me with joy as I watched him!
What brings you joy? What does the face of joy look like to you?
Jesus says his joy will be in us, that our joy may be complete. Joy, true joy, comes from God, not from external circumstances. It might be thought of as “grace recognized,” the knowledge of God’s love and care for us. And all of this, Jesus tells us, comes out of knowing we are chosen, abiding in God’s love.
I have been watching my garden beds hopefully, since the snow melted, waiting to see if the Japanese Lilac tree we planted last spring would bloom again. To see if the hosta we planted in the summer would come back this year. And sure enough, our tree is covered in buds waiting to burst into leaves, and even the slowest-growing hosta has poked little fleshy spikes of green above the soil.
And the miracle of it, to me, is that I didn’t have to do anything to make that happen. Thank goodness! And neither, really, did the tree, or the hosta. The tree and hosta simply abided in the water and soil that surrounded and fed them, and they grew. They abided in the sun and warmth, and what looked like dead branches and lifeless dirt have been transformed into new life before our eyes.
As we have heard over and over the last few weeks in the Gospel of John, we, each one of us, abide forever in God’s love. We abide in God’s love, and just like the tree and hosta, we are transformed. We are not slaves any longer, Jesus tells us. And we did not have to do anything to make that happen. We have been chosen. Jesus calls us his friends, his joy is in us, and we are appointed to bear the fruit of joy in the world.
Joy is an emotion, one that often takes us by surprise. It is not within our control, and we don’t always feel it. Joy is also a choice, a spiritual discipline, if you will. We can practice joy by listening to God say to us, in the midst of fear, “Be not afraid, I am with you.” God loves us, and in Jesus God laid down his life for us. Just think about that for a moment. Jesus laid down his life for you. Because Jesus died, we can live. Because Jesus died, and rose, we need never be afraid, because we can face even our own death knowing the promise of the resurrection. Each one of us abides in God’s love, a love so deep that death itself has been banished, forever.
We can practice the discipline of joy by seeking evidence of God’s presence in each moment, seeking evidence that Christ is alive, as Mary and Thomas did. In doing this, we consciously abide in the extravagant love of God in each moment as it comes. We meet God in the present. Children, like my nephew, seem to know this instinctively, finding wonder in things that we adults often overlook. You children can teach us adults a lot about joy!
Jesus tells us to love one another—“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” As Jesus’ friends, we are called to love one another, as God loves us. We are to lay down our lives for each other, to love each other with everything that we are, and that too, is joy.
Just like my nephew’s infectious grin and giggle, joy is contagious, and it grows as it is shared. We as a community are called not just to practice joy ourselves, but to go and tell others. In our baptisms, we celebrate the Spirit of God that pours over everyone, without distinction, lavishing us with gifts meant to be shared with the world. And the greatest gift is the joy of the hope we have in Jesus.
Our joy doesn’t come from achievement or success. It isn’t the result of a carefully crafted plan that sounds something like, “I would be really, really happy if only . . . .” It doesn’t come from the approval of others. Joy comes from simply being in the presence of God who loves us abundantly. We are transformed by God’s love in Jesus into people of the resurrection, knowing that whatever happens in our lives, God is with us, God loves us, and the best is yet to come. And because of that, we can be the presence of God’s love and joy for others. The joy of Jesus is in us, and our joy is complete.
Thanks be to God!
Thursday, May 7, 2015
The Olive Branch, 5/6/15
Accent on Worship
About those hymns…
I’ve noticed in my travels that very few of our colleague congregations practice what we do with hymnody: alternation. (Alternation means that various sub-groups sing stanzas, like “men,” “women,” “choir,” “organ,” etc). In case you’ve wondered why we do that, the bottom line is that this practice helps bring and maintain vitality to our hymnody. How?
First, it provides variety. When we have men and women alter-nate, it’s really two different octaves, musically. I’ve experienced other attempts to accomplish the same without using gender language, but it always led to confusion. With the example of “high voices” and “low Voices,” tenors and altos would say, “which am I?” I’ve found it most clear to simply say “men” and “women.” I’ve also noticed that when we return to an “all” stanza after taking turns, the singing is always increased – as if having the unity of the entire room adds to the freedom to sing out more! We also achieve variety through alternating unison and harmony, and often in canon. These, too, are tools for variety which contributes to vitality in our song. We had a rule in Germany when I studied there, and we prepared 12-14 stanza hymns: Never the same thing twice.
When a choir sings a stanza, it provides the opportunity for a more involved setting, since they have the great advantage of a rehearsal prior. Or, in the case of our young choir singers, they spend time memorizing that particular stanza.
The organ occasionally “sings” a stanza as well – which provides the opportunity for the music painting a picture of what the text is saying, thus bringing out the meaning of the words even more profoundly.
The practice of alternating stanzas also provides rest. Orchestra players know this: a trumpet cannot play through an entire symphony without rest, nor can wind instruments. The rests are important rejuvenation time. This is also true for us. When it’s our turn to “not” sing, it never implies that we cease participating – we can notice the words more, we can participate through listening. It’s also a time when we can appreciate our singing partners through listening.
For me it’s very practical. When alternation is used, the singing is almost always stronger in general. When we all sing every stanza, it’s more taxing and harder to maintain vitality and, for me, less effective. Because alternating is our constant practice, we’ve grown accustomed to it and it’s not tricky. Indeed – even when directions are omitted for a hymn, you all decide on your own alternations - which I love!
Now you know!
- Cantor David Cherwien
Sunday Readings
May 10, 2015: Sixth Sunday of Easter
Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
I John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
May 17, 2015: Seventh Sunday of Easter
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Psalm 1
I John 5:9-13
John 17:6-19
Sunday’s Adult Forum: May 10, 9:30 am
There will be no adult Forum this Sunday. Instead, all are invited to attend the annual Mother’s Day recital, presented by the youth of Mount Olive.
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 this evening Wednesday, May 6, from 6- 7 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.
Congrats to our Amazing gRace Racers
Anna Dundek and Eric Bell raced hard on Saturday, riding bikes from north to south Minneapolis and through St. Paul, and completing tasks from planting a garden to matching housing applicants with just the right house, all the while learning about the peace and justice work of Lutheran Volunteer Corps volunteers. . Together with your Global Mission Committee, Anna and Eric raised over $1,400 in support of the work carried out by LVC volunteers throughout the Twin Cities. Many thanks to Anna and Eric, and to all who supported their efforts. It was a fun day; we learned much and met many others who are being God's presence in our world.
Book Discussion Group Update
Mount Olive’s Book Discussion Group meets on the second Saturday of each month, at 10:00 am in the West Assembly Area at church. All readers are welcome!
For the May 9 meeting, the Book Discussion group will read, The Boat of Longing, by O. E. Rølvaag. For June 13, The Last Chinese Chef, by Nicole Mones, and for July 11, Bleak House, by Charles Dickens.
Calling All Graduates!
On Sunday, June 14, we will honor our graduates at a reception following the 9:30 a.m. liturgy.
If you are graduating from high school, college, seminary, or another post-secondary school, or if you know of some-one else from Mount Olive who is graduating this spring, please take a moment to notify the church office. We want to be sure that all of our graduates are invited!
The Ascension of Our Lord
Thursday, May 14
Holy Eucharist at 7:00 pm
Manz Endowment Fund Established
In recognition of the long-time excellence of the musical and liturgical experience at Mount Olive, anonymous donors recent-ly completed their initial funding of the “Ruth and Paul Manz Endowed Fund for Music and Liturgy at Mount Olive Lutheran Church.” Meeting the initial $25,000 threshold, the Manz Fund will be managed by the ELCA Foundation as a separate fund within Mount Olive Lutheran Church Foundation's overall endowment.
Income from the Fund may be used for out-of-the-ordinary course expenses for the Schlicker organ and its successors as well as fees and expenses which benefit and promote Mount Olive's music program. The donors' overall intent is to help sustain the high standards of the worship experience which they find so meaningful.
The donors intend to supplement the Manz Fund in the future but welcome anyone who shares their passion to join them by benefiting this endowment through a one-time gift, multi-year pledge, or an estate provision.
New Members to be Received on May 17
New members will be received on May 17, 2015, at the second liturgy. A welcome brunch will follow the liturgy in the Undercroft.
Please contact Andrew Andersen at 763-607-1689, or call the church office at 612-837-5910, if you are interested in becoming a member at Mount Olive. The brunch is open to all Mount Olive folk as well as families and friends. Plan to come to meet our newest members and welcome them!
Help Earthquake Victims
From your Global Missions Committee: ELCA Lutheran Disaster Response is working with Lutheran World Federation and Lutheran World Relief on large scale disaster response in Nepal. If you would like to contribute to this effort, please mark either a blue envelope contribution or a donation check ELCA Lutheran Disaster Response and our collected contributions will be forwarded to this important work.
Spiritual Gifts Workshop
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” ~ 1 Peter 4: 10-11
Have you been asking yourself these questions?
Explore these questions and more in the upcoming Unwrapping Your Spiritual Gifts Workshop to be held Saturday, May 23, 9 a.m.–noon at Mount Olive Lutheran Church.
Workshop Leaders:
Connie Marty and Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
Before the workshop, take an online gifts inventory:
RSVP Required: Vicar McLaughlin at 612.827.5919 or vicar@mountolivechurch.org
News From the Neighborhood
Anna Kingman
Profiles: Meseret which means ‘Foundation of Jesus’ in Amharic
Meseret was told by a friend “Go to Mount Olive and they will help you.” So she came with her lovely daughter and her father and a heavy heart. Without many personal details and a love of bravery, she simply said, “things are very complicated for us.” Her father, an elderly man who only speaks Amharic, had just moved to a new public housing apartment and has nothing at all. Meseret needs to care for him, as well as her two other children all by herself and this is all very over-whelming for her. And yet she said to me, “I don’t want to complain. Everywhere I look there is hope.” Even the way Cantor Cherwien opened the door to her told her that she was in the right place. But this family needs our help and I assured her that we will do just that! Can you and will you help with any of these items to help make this empty apartment a home? Here’s what she is requesting:
- PRAYERS! “Prayer is my road, my sunshine” (Meseret asked mostly for prayers for strength)
- A bed and bedding (sheets, a blanket) - A small table and chairs
- Bathroom rug & shower curtain, supplies - Small kitchen items (kettle, mugs, towels)
- Lamp, small fan, bedside table - Toiletries, paper products
- Her father has already received towels, silverware and a microwave – thanks to who brought those!
If you can help with any of these items, please call Cha at the church office so that we don’t double up on items, and then bring the items (smaller items) to church, so that Meseret can pick them up. We must arrange for delivery of larger items.
Just so you know…
A few MO folks and I walked over to All God’s Children Metro Community Church, just west of Mount Olive on 31st St. This was prompted by the Open Space project to connect with our neighbor churches, and just good old fashioned neighborliness. We met with Donna Olsen, who wears many hats at AGC, and learned about what programs they run there and things they care about, as we shared ours as well. It’s a good reminder of the opportunities for collaboration and care that we easily overlook. So - Opportunities to BE involved: Go somewhere new this week! Pick a new coffee shop, art store, local food corner you haven’t been in yet, or head to a different park than usual and see what lies beyond the beaten path that has something of the marvelous waiting for you to discover!
Open Space First Event
Outdoor Community Garage Sale & Local Art Sale: June 20, 9am - 2pm in our “Open Space” (the parking lot!) Neighbors, friends, and local artists can have a parking space plot, bring their own table, and set up their goods to sell to the public. We will go door to door to invite neighborhood residents to reserve a spot or come to the sale, and ask churches, coffee shops and businesses to help publicize the event. Mount Olive will publicize and host, opening our doors to offer a glimpse of who we are inside and out.
We need members willing to post flyers around the neighborhood, assist with hospitality that day, and put up direction signs that morning. Because we are hosting the community meal that noon hour, around 100 friends and neighbors will be dining with us already, and perhaps they will be customers at the sale. (In case of rain the event is canceled).
Can you help distribute flyers? Please contact Anna at neighborhood@mountolivechurch.org.
The Ninth Annual BACH TAGE: Time to Register!
The conference this year will focus on two cantatas from Bach’s youth, plus a piece by Dietrich Buxtehude, whose music was an important influence on young Johann. Bach Tage is Saturday and Sunday, June 6 – 7.
Two public concerts are a featured part of Bach Tage – invite your friends!:
Saturday, June 6, 4:00 pm: Music of Johann Sebastian Bach performed by the Bach Tage soloists and orchestra
Cantata BWV 196, Der Herr denket an uns
Concerto for Oboe and Violin, BWV 1060R, with soloists Marc Levine and Stanley King
Prelude and Fugue in c minor for organ, by Cantor David Cherwien.
Sunday, June 7, 4:00 pm: Service of Evening Prayer
Cantata BWV 150, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, and Buxtehude’s Befiehl dem Engel dass er komm will be performed by the participants in the weekend conference, with soloists and orchestra. Kathy Romey of the University of Minnesota is our guest conductor for the weekend, with Cantor David Cherwien, organist.
Musical scores will be mailed next weekend, so the time to register is now. Brochures were sent in the mail, and are still available at Mount Olive. Or, you can find a brochure at www.mountolivechurch.org.
This is a great opportunity, not to be missed!
Mother’s Day Recital – This Sunday!
All are invited to attend the annual Mother’s Day Recital by our church youth. The recital takes place this Sunday, May 10, during the Education Hour, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
Encounters with Jesus: Bible Study on Thursday Evenings
The spring Bible study series on encounters with Jesus continues this Thursday, May 7, in the Chapel Lounge from 6:00-7:30pm. The fifth and final session next week on May 14, will conclude with Eucharist for the Feast of the Ascension. The study begins with a light supper at 6 pm. RSVPs to (vicar@mountolivechurch.org) not required, but appreciated for meal planning purposes.
New Giving Update
At our April 26 semi-annual meeting we reported that we ended the first quarter with general-fund giving about where it was in the first quarter of last year—not good news in a year we face increased expenses of some 7%.
However, our April giving total, which we got a couple days after the meeting, was about 21% over the same month in 2014 and brought our cumulative giving for the four months to 5% over the same period a year ago. The danger, of course, is that this 5% lead could evaporate over the eight Sundays remaining in our second quarter. Together, let’s make certain it doesn’t and keep working toward our 7% target—which is really about mission and ministry.
- Lora Dundek, Vestry President
- Donn McLellan, Director of Stewardship
Attention Mount Olive Worship Assistants!
The Servant Schedule for the 3rd quarter of 2015 (July-September) will be published at the beginning of June, 2015. The deadline for submitting requests to me is May 10, 2015. Please email your requests to peggyrf70@gmail.com.
About those hymns…
I’ve noticed in my travels that very few of our colleague congregations practice what we do with hymnody: alternation. (Alternation means that various sub-groups sing stanzas, like “men,” “women,” “choir,” “organ,” etc). In case you’ve wondered why we do that, the bottom line is that this practice helps bring and maintain vitality to our hymnody. How?
First, it provides variety. When we have men and women alter-nate, it’s really two different octaves, musically. I’ve experienced other attempts to accomplish the same without using gender language, but it always led to confusion. With the example of “high voices” and “low Voices,” tenors and altos would say, “which am I?” I’ve found it most clear to simply say “men” and “women.” I’ve also noticed that when we return to an “all” stanza after taking turns, the singing is always increased – as if having the unity of the entire room adds to the freedom to sing out more! We also achieve variety through alternating unison and harmony, and often in canon. These, too, are tools for variety which contributes to vitality in our song. We had a rule in Germany when I studied there, and we prepared 12-14 stanza hymns: Never the same thing twice.
When a choir sings a stanza, it provides the opportunity for a more involved setting, since they have the great advantage of a rehearsal prior. Or, in the case of our young choir singers, they spend time memorizing that particular stanza.
The organ occasionally “sings” a stanza as well – which provides the opportunity for the music painting a picture of what the text is saying, thus bringing out the meaning of the words even more profoundly.
The practice of alternating stanzas also provides rest. Orchestra players know this: a trumpet cannot play through an entire symphony without rest, nor can wind instruments. The rests are important rejuvenation time. This is also true for us. When it’s our turn to “not” sing, it never implies that we cease participating – we can notice the words more, we can participate through listening. It’s also a time when we can appreciate our singing partners through listening.
For me it’s very practical. When alternation is used, the singing is almost always stronger in general. When we all sing every stanza, it’s more taxing and harder to maintain vitality and, for me, less effective. Because alternating is our constant practice, we’ve grown accustomed to it and it’s not tricky. Indeed – even when directions are omitted for a hymn, you all decide on your own alternations - which I love!
Now you know!
- Cantor David Cherwien
Sunday Readings
May 10, 2015: Sixth Sunday of Easter
Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
I John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
May 17, 2015: Seventh Sunday of Easter
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Psalm 1
I John 5:9-13
John 17:6-19
Sunday’s Adult Forum: May 10, 9:30 am
There will be no adult Forum this Sunday. Instead, all are invited to attend the annual Mother’s Day recital, presented by the youth of Mount Olive.
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 this evening Wednesday, May 6, from 6- 7 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.
Congrats to our Amazing gRace Racers
Anna Dundek and Eric Bell raced hard on Saturday, riding bikes from north to south Minneapolis and through St. Paul, and completing tasks from planting a garden to matching housing applicants with just the right house, all the while learning about the peace and justice work of Lutheran Volunteer Corps volunteers. . Together with your Global Mission Committee, Anna and Eric raised over $1,400 in support of the work carried out by LVC volunteers throughout the Twin Cities. Many thanks to Anna and Eric, and to all who supported their efforts. It was a fun day; we learned much and met many others who are being God's presence in our world.
Book Discussion Group Update
Mount Olive’s Book Discussion Group meets on the second Saturday of each month, at 10:00 am in the West Assembly Area at church. All readers are welcome!
For the May 9 meeting, the Book Discussion group will read, The Boat of Longing, by O. E. Rølvaag. For June 13, The Last Chinese Chef, by Nicole Mones, and for July 11, Bleak House, by Charles Dickens.
Calling All Graduates!
On Sunday, June 14, we will honor our graduates at a reception following the 9:30 a.m. liturgy.
If you are graduating from high school, college, seminary, or another post-secondary school, or if you know of some-one else from Mount Olive who is graduating this spring, please take a moment to notify the church office. We want to be sure that all of our graduates are invited!
The Ascension of Our Lord
Thursday, May 14
Holy Eucharist at 7:00 pm
Manz Endowment Fund Established
In recognition of the long-time excellence of the musical and liturgical experience at Mount Olive, anonymous donors recent-ly completed their initial funding of the “Ruth and Paul Manz Endowed Fund for Music and Liturgy at Mount Olive Lutheran Church.” Meeting the initial $25,000 threshold, the Manz Fund will be managed by the ELCA Foundation as a separate fund within Mount Olive Lutheran Church Foundation's overall endowment.
Income from the Fund may be used for out-of-the-ordinary course expenses for the Schlicker organ and its successors as well as fees and expenses which benefit and promote Mount Olive's music program. The donors' overall intent is to help sustain the high standards of the worship experience which they find so meaningful.
The donors intend to supplement the Manz Fund in the future but welcome anyone who shares their passion to join them by benefiting this endowment through a one-time gift, multi-year pledge, or an estate provision.
New Members to be Received on May 17
New members will be received on May 17, 2015, at the second liturgy. A welcome brunch will follow the liturgy in the Undercroft.
Please contact Andrew Andersen at 763-607-1689, or call the church office at 612-837-5910, if you are interested in becoming a member at Mount Olive. The brunch is open to all Mount Olive folk as well as families and friends. Plan to come to meet our newest members and welcome them!
Help Earthquake Victims
From your Global Missions Committee: ELCA Lutheran Disaster Response is working with Lutheran World Federation and Lutheran World Relief on large scale disaster response in Nepal. If you would like to contribute to this effort, please mark either a blue envelope contribution or a donation check ELCA Lutheran Disaster Response and our collected contributions will be forwarded to this important work.
Spiritual Gifts Workshop
“As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ.” ~ 1 Peter 4: 10-11
Have you been asking yourself these questions?
- What gifts has God given me?
- I can’t do the same things I did before.
- Where is God calling me now?
- How can I be the presence of God for my family? My co-workers? My neighbors?
Explore these questions and more in the upcoming Unwrapping Your Spiritual Gifts Workshop to be held Saturday, May 23, 9 a.m.–noon at Mount Olive Lutheran Church.
Workshop Leaders:
Connie Marty and Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
Before the workshop, take an online gifts inventory:
RSVP Required: Vicar McLaughlin at 612.827.5919 or vicar@mountolivechurch.org
News From the Neighborhood
Anna Kingman
Profiles: Meseret which means ‘Foundation of Jesus’ in Amharic
Meseret was told by a friend “Go to Mount Olive and they will help you.” So she came with her lovely daughter and her father and a heavy heart. Without many personal details and a love of bravery, she simply said, “things are very complicated for us.” Her father, an elderly man who only speaks Amharic, had just moved to a new public housing apartment and has nothing at all. Meseret needs to care for him, as well as her two other children all by herself and this is all very over-whelming for her. And yet she said to me, “I don’t want to complain. Everywhere I look there is hope.” Even the way Cantor Cherwien opened the door to her told her that she was in the right place. But this family needs our help and I assured her that we will do just that! Can you and will you help with any of these items to help make this empty apartment a home? Here’s what she is requesting:
- PRAYERS! “Prayer is my road, my sunshine” (Meseret asked mostly for prayers for strength)
- A bed and bedding (sheets, a blanket) - A small table and chairs
- Bathroom rug & shower curtain, supplies - Small kitchen items (kettle, mugs, towels)
- Lamp, small fan, bedside table - Toiletries, paper products
- Her father has already received towels, silverware and a microwave – thanks to who brought those!
If you can help with any of these items, please call Cha at the church office so that we don’t double up on items, and then bring the items (smaller items) to church, so that Meseret can pick them up. We must arrange for delivery of larger items.
Just so you know…
A few MO folks and I walked over to All God’s Children Metro Community Church, just west of Mount Olive on 31st St. This was prompted by the Open Space project to connect with our neighbor churches, and just good old fashioned neighborliness. We met with Donna Olsen, who wears many hats at AGC, and learned about what programs they run there and things they care about, as we shared ours as well. It’s a good reminder of the opportunities for collaboration and care that we easily overlook. So - Opportunities to BE involved: Go somewhere new this week! Pick a new coffee shop, art store, local food corner you haven’t been in yet, or head to a different park than usual and see what lies beyond the beaten path that has something of the marvelous waiting for you to discover!
Open Space First Event
Outdoor Community Garage Sale & Local Art Sale: June 20, 9am - 2pm in our “Open Space” (the parking lot!) Neighbors, friends, and local artists can have a parking space plot, bring their own table, and set up their goods to sell to the public. We will go door to door to invite neighborhood residents to reserve a spot or come to the sale, and ask churches, coffee shops and businesses to help publicize the event. Mount Olive will publicize and host, opening our doors to offer a glimpse of who we are inside and out.
We need members willing to post flyers around the neighborhood, assist with hospitality that day, and put up direction signs that morning. Because we are hosting the community meal that noon hour, around 100 friends and neighbors will be dining with us already, and perhaps they will be customers at the sale. (In case of rain the event is canceled).
Can you help distribute flyers? Please contact Anna at neighborhood@mountolivechurch.org.
The Ninth Annual BACH TAGE: Time to Register!
The conference this year will focus on two cantatas from Bach’s youth, plus a piece by Dietrich Buxtehude, whose music was an important influence on young Johann. Bach Tage is Saturday and Sunday, June 6 – 7.
Two public concerts are a featured part of Bach Tage – invite your friends!:
Saturday, June 6, 4:00 pm: Music of Johann Sebastian Bach performed by the Bach Tage soloists and orchestra
Cantata BWV 196, Der Herr denket an uns
Concerto for Oboe and Violin, BWV 1060R, with soloists Marc Levine and Stanley King
Prelude and Fugue in c minor for organ, by Cantor David Cherwien.
Sunday, June 7, 4:00 pm: Service of Evening Prayer
Cantata BWV 150, Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich, and Buxtehude’s Befiehl dem Engel dass er komm will be performed by the participants in the weekend conference, with soloists and orchestra. Kathy Romey of the University of Minnesota is our guest conductor for the weekend, with Cantor David Cherwien, organist.
Musical scores will be mailed next weekend, so the time to register is now. Brochures were sent in the mail, and are still available at Mount Olive. Or, you can find a brochure at www.mountolivechurch.org.
This is a great opportunity, not to be missed!
Mother’s Day Recital – This Sunday!
All are invited to attend the annual Mother’s Day Recital by our church youth. The recital takes place this Sunday, May 10, during the Education Hour, beginning at 9:30 a.m.
Encounters with Jesus: Bible Study on Thursday Evenings
The spring Bible study series on encounters with Jesus continues this Thursday, May 7, in the Chapel Lounge from 6:00-7:30pm. The fifth and final session next week on May 14, will conclude with Eucharist for the Feast of the Ascension. The study begins with a light supper at 6 pm. RSVPs to (vicar@mountolivechurch.org) not required, but appreciated for meal planning purposes.
New Giving Update
At our April 26 semi-annual meeting we reported that we ended the first quarter with general-fund giving about where it was in the first quarter of last year—not good news in a year we face increased expenses of some 7%.
However, our April giving total, which we got a couple days after the meeting, was about 21% over the same month in 2014 and brought our cumulative giving for the four months to 5% over the same period a year ago. The danger, of course, is that this 5% lead could evaporate over the eight Sundays remaining in our second quarter. Together, let’s make certain it doesn’t and keep working toward our 7% target—which is really about mission and ministry.
- Lora Dundek, Vestry President
- Donn McLellan, Director of Stewardship
Attention Mount Olive Worship Assistants!
The Servant Schedule for the 3rd quarter of 2015 (July-September) will be published at the beginning of June, 2015. The deadline for submitting requests to me is May 10, 2015. Please email your requests to peggyrf70@gmail.com.
Friday, May 1, 2015
The Olive Branch, 4/29/15
Accent on Worship
This Monday I attended a conference about Church as a Community Asset, presented by the founder of Oasis in the UK, Steve Chalke. Oasis flows around a Christ -centered ethos of holistic, inclusive, community transformation. They started by looking out-side the doors of an enormously empty London church and not just wishing for better, but dreaming about what it could, should, be and then they went about creating just that. This was a valuable piece to the question we are constantly asking ourselves at Mount Olive. What is our neighborhood? Well, maybe one way to begin answering would be to ask “what do we want our neighborhood to be?” then go about making it so.
Along the day we discussed the definitions of church; church as a religious service provider, a community space provider, a social service provider, then church AS the community. These were revealing in what many in the room were struggling through. How can you move the church from one of the provider categories in to the realm of full, whole, collective community? This is the “in the presence, being the presence” question.
This conference was full of quotable wisdoms, big dreams, and inspiring possibilities, but no magic answers, because there is no short-cut way to building community and provoking real change. It comes from the roots of our spiritual questions, “who am I,” and “where am I going?” and answering in faith that “I am a beloved child of God and my life has purpose and meaning.” It means staring at Jesus’s full command, not just the Mark 12 or Matthew 22 versions, but the Leviticus 19:18 "'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” It means letting go of hurts and fears. It means showing up, serving one another, and living in to the world that God desires for us.
There is much more I wish I could share. There is much more that I need to learn and talk through and discover. We all do. So let’s keep talking and dreaming and working towards the world that has Christ at the very center whether in a coffee shop, a school, a public restroom, or face-to-face with one another.
- Anna Kingman
Sunday Readings
May 3, 2015: Fifth Sunday of Easter
Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 22:25-31
I John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8
May 10, 2015: Sixth Sunday of Easter
Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
I John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
Sunday’s Adult Forum: May 3, 9:30 am
“Wisdom From the Desert: Stories from Women in the Early Church,” part 2 of a 2-part series presented by Prof. Sr. Mary Foreman, Assoc. Professor of Theology, St. Benedict University, St. Joseph, MN, and author of Praying With the Desert Mothers.
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, May 6, from 6- 7 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.
Encounters with Jesus: Bible Study on Thursday Evenings
The spring Bible study series continues this Thursday, April 30, in the Chapel Lounge from 6:00-7:30pm. The fifth and final session on May 14 will conclude with Eucharist for the Feast of the Ascension. RSVPs to (vicar@mountolivechurch.org) not required, but appreciated for meal planning.
Vicar McLaughlin is leading a study focusing on five stories of encounters with Jesus from the New Testament. In addition to discussing the context and background, we are using the Ignatian meditation form Praying with Imagination as a way of entering into the stories.
As usual, there will be a light supper when we begin.
Book Discussion Group Update
Mount Olive’s Book Discussion Group meets on the second Saturday of each month, at 10:00 am in the West Assembly Area at church. All readers are welcome!
For the May 9 meeting, the Book Discussion group will read, The Boat of Longing, by O. E. Rølvaag. For June 13, The Last Chinese Chef, by Nicole Mones, and for July 11, Bleak House, by Charles Dickens.
Calling All Graduates!
On Sunday, June 14, we will honor our graduates at a reception following the 9:30 a.m. liturgy.
If you are graduating from high school, college, seminary, or another post-secondary school, or if you know of some-one else from Mount Olive who is graduating this spring, please take a moment to notify the church office. We want to be sure that all of our graduates are invited!
The Ascension of Our Lord
Thursday, May 14
Holy Eucharist at 7:00 pm
Heads Up!
Summer worship schedule begins Memorial Day weekend, Sunday, May 24 (The Day of Pentecost). From Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend, we celebrate one Eucharist each Sunday at 9:30 a.m.
Race Day is Saturday!
This Saturday is the day that Anna Dundek and Eric Bell will compete in the Amazing gRace. They will race between Lutheran Volunteer Corps service sites, performing all sorts of amazing feats that support the peace and justice work of LVC. Mount Olive Global Missions supports Anna and Eric, and we hope that you will too!
Financially, you can support Anna, Eric, and the LVC work by donating at their web site:
https://www.firstgiving.com/team/293972 or by placing your contribution in a blue mission envelope and writing in "Amazing gRace."
All are invited to the end-of-race potluck Saturday from 4-6 pm at St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church (100 North Oxford Street in St. Paul). Bring a dish to share and cheer for Anna and Eric as they arrive.
Lutheran Volunteer Corps does amazing work in promoting peace and justice while helping to form and sup-port young Christians as they explore their role in being God's presence in the world. We have Lutheran Volunteer Corps graduates who have been part of our Mount Olive community, and we are committed to supporting the good work that they do. Join this Amazing gRace event.
Congregation Meeting Recap
Attached to this issue of The Olive Branch is an annual report prepared by several members of the Vestry, which describes the activities of their respective committees during the past year. (For those who receive hard copy newsletters, copies of the report are available at church in the office and the narthex).
At the April 26 Semi-Annual meeting of the congregation, the following Vestry officers and directors were elected:
• President, Lora Dundek
• Vice President, Tom Graves
• Secretary, Peggy Hoeft
• Treasurer, Tim Lindholm
• Amy Thompson, Education Director
• Art Halbardier, Property Director
• Steve Manuel, Education Director
Thanks to the outgoing officers and directors of the Vestry, Robert Gotwalt, Kat Campbell-Johnson, John Holtmeier, and Brenda Bartz. They have served us all very well.
Other actions taken at the meeting:
• Presentation of nearly $35,000 from the Mount Olive Foundation to the congregation to be used for various projects, and an update of the status of the Foundation's funds;
• A review of the current budget status and encouragement for all to prayerfully consider their giving to the church.
Minnesota Brain Tumor 5K
Inspired by Gene Hennig, the “Lean Mean Gene Machines” are raising research funds with the MN Brain Tumor 5K event on Sunday, May 17, 2015, at Lake Phalen in St. Paul.
We have set a goal of $5000. One hundred percent of tax-deductible donations support the Musella Foundation for Brain Tumor Research and Information, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit public charity. Please visit our team fundraising page here: http://bit.ly/1OYNUAA.
All are invited to join us for the non-competitive, fun run/walk! Families and dogs are welcome, provided that their caretakers assume responsibility. We are working on some fun “extras” as a part of the event, too. Feel free to contact Emily Hennig at emilyhennig@gmail.com, or Kate Teece at k8teece@gmail.com with any questions. We hope you will join us!
- The Hennig family
News From the Neighborhood
Ask me about “Open Space!”
As a way to live into our new vision expression, this summer we will open up our parking lot space to build community and see what can happen! The question was: “What is an asset outside the walls of our building that we at Mount Olive can make better use of?” Someone came up with the thought of the parking lot!
A six month task force was created and goals established: to offer our parking lot space to create connection, be the presence of God, to partner with our neighbors, and to break the barrier of “us” and “them.” We hope to have a little fun and celebration while we connect hearts and build community. We are calling this project “Open Space.”
In addition to communicating with you, we want to talk with our neighbors. So we are scheduling dates to meet with folks from the churches within a few blocks of Mount Olive to see if we can partner with them in this “Open Space” project. In our first phone call to a neighboring church, the staff person told us they had actually been looking for a parking lot option to host a large event. It’s already creating connections!
The task force has come up with a few ideas to share with the congregation for some first steps. Here are a couple of them:
1. Outdoor Community Garage Sale & Local Art Sale: June 20, 9am - 2pm in our “Open Space.” Neighbors, friends, and local artists can have a parking space plot, bring their own table, and set up their goods to sell to the public. We will go door to door to invite neighborhood residents to reserve a spot or come to the sale, and ask churches, coffee shops and businesses to help publicize the event. Mount Olive will publicize and host, opening our doors to offer a glimpse of who we are inside and out.
We will need members to post flyers around the neighborhood, assist with hospitality that day, and put up direction signs that morning. Because we are hosting the community meal that noon hour, around 100 friends and neighbors will be dining with us already, and perhaps they will be customers at the sale. (In case of rain the event is canceled).
2. Later in summer, we have registered our “Open Space” to be a site for National Night Out on August 4, from 6 - 8pm. The city of Minneapolis will list us as one of the neighborhood locations. We will invite the neighbors to bring a lawn chair and some appetizers or a dessert to share. There will be activities for the kids and we have invited the fire and police departments to bring a truck or squad car to the event.
What else could take place in our under-used parking lot? Do you have ideas? Can you join in any of this summer's activities? Contact any of us with your ideas. Let's see what we can do to take an empty parking lot and make God's creative, abundant presence be seen in this place.
Taskforce members: George Ferguson, Patsy Holtmeier, Julie Manuel, Tim Pipkorn, Carol Austermann, Paul Nixdorf, Connie Marty & Anna Kingman.
Hospitality Help Wanted!
Could you help with a behind-the-scenes hospitality task? We are in need of two or three persons who would be willing and able to launder table linens after they are used at funeral receptions or congregation events such as the Easter Vigil.
Please call the church office at 612-837-5919 to volunteer or talk with Gail Neilsen, Carla Manuel, or Andrew Andersen.
May Day Parade to be Held This Sunday, May 3, Noon
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/
(Find the Mount Olive crew to watch the parade at the corner of Bloomington Ave. & 28th St. at Noon!)
Attention Mount Olive Worship Assistants!
The Servant Schedule for the 3rd quarter of 2015 (July-September) will be published at the beginning of June, 2015. The deadline for submitting requests to me is May 10, 2015. Please email your requests to peggyrf70@gmail.com.
Unwrapping Your Spiritual Gifts
Saturday, May 23 9 a.m.–noon
Mount Olive Lutheran Church
Explore your spiritual gifts—and how and where you are called to use them. We all have spiritual gifts, but do we need some new paradigms for discovering and using them? Live into Mount Olive’s vision: Being the Presence of God.
Workshop Leaders: Connie Marty and Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
Before the workshop, take an online gifts inventory at
www.elca.org/Our-Work/Congregations-and-Synods/Faith-Practices/Assessment-Tools
RSVP Required: Vicar McLaughlin at 612.827.5919 or vicar@mountolivechurch.org
Guatemala Vision Team to Meet This Sunday
Are you interested in going to Guatemala with a group from Mount Olive this summer? An informational meeting is planned for this Sunday, May 3, at 9:30 am in the Undercroft. If you have already signed up to go, or if you just want to learn more about it, plan to come to this meeting!
Mount Olive Foundation Presents Annual Gift
This past Sunday, President Keith Bartz of Mount Olive Lutheran Church Foundation presented a check for $34,894.00--its annual gift to the congregation. For the fifth consecutive year, this sum represents the largest gift that the Foundation has given to the Church. Over its history, the Foundation now has given almost $350,000 to the Church.
Subject to the Vestry’s approval, the Foundation’s Board of Directors recommended that these funds be apportioned as follows:
• Neighborhood Ministries Kiosk and Display Case 3,000.00
• Bach Tage $ 4,000.00
• Guatemala Partnership Trip $ 4,000.00
• New Staff Member Accounting Role $ 3,000.00
• Purchase new stove/oven for galley (upstairs) kitchen $ 800.00
• Design for Undercroft Refurbishment $ 4,000.00
• General Improvements to Building Exterior $16,094.00
TOTAL $34,894.00
To learn more about the Mount Olive Foundation and how you can build its endowment and annual giving, please contact Keith Bartz at (612) 823-3572 or albsinmpls@yahoo.com, or speak with other Foundation board members: Michael Edwins, Victor Gebauer, Reid Peterson, Mark Ruff, or Pat and Doug Spaulding.
This Monday I attended a conference about Church as a Community Asset, presented by the founder of Oasis in the UK, Steve Chalke. Oasis flows around a Christ -centered ethos of holistic, inclusive, community transformation. They started by looking out-side the doors of an enormously empty London church and not just wishing for better, but dreaming about what it could, should, be and then they went about creating just that. This was a valuable piece to the question we are constantly asking ourselves at Mount Olive. What is our neighborhood? Well, maybe one way to begin answering would be to ask “what do we want our neighborhood to be?” then go about making it so.
Along the day we discussed the definitions of church; church as a religious service provider, a community space provider, a social service provider, then church AS the community. These were revealing in what many in the room were struggling through. How can you move the church from one of the provider categories in to the realm of full, whole, collective community? This is the “in the presence, being the presence” question.
This conference was full of quotable wisdoms, big dreams, and inspiring possibilities, but no magic answers, because there is no short-cut way to building community and provoking real change. It comes from the roots of our spiritual questions, “who am I,” and “where am I going?” and answering in faith that “I am a beloved child of God and my life has purpose and meaning.” It means staring at Jesus’s full command, not just the Mark 12 or Matthew 22 versions, but the Leviticus 19:18 "'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” It means letting go of hurts and fears. It means showing up, serving one another, and living in to the world that God desires for us.
There is much more I wish I could share. There is much more that I need to learn and talk through and discover. We all do. So let’s keep talking and dreaming and working towards the world that has Christ at the very center whether in a coffee shop, a school, a public restroom, or face-to-face with one another.
- Anna Kingman
Sunday Readings
May 3, 2015: Fifth Sunday of Easter
Acts 8:26-40
Psalm 22:25-31
I John 4:7-21
John 15:1-8
May 10, 2015: Sixth Sunday of Easter
Acts 10:44-48
Psalm 98
I John 5:1-6
John 15:9-17
Sunday’s Adult Forum: May 3, 9:30 am
“Wisdom From the Desert: Stories from Women in the Early Church,” part 2 of a 2-part series presented by Prof. Sr. Mary Foreman, Assoc. Professor of Theology, St. Benedict University, St. Joseph, MN, and author of Praying With the Desert Mothers.
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, May 6, from 6- 7 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.
Encounters with Jesus: Bible Study on Thursday Evenings
The spring Bible study series continues this Thursday, April 30, in the Chapel Lounge from 6:00-7:30pm. The fifth and final session on May 14 will conclude with Eucharist for the Feast of the Ascension. RSVPs to (vicar@mountolivechurch.org) not required, but appreciated for meal planning.
Vicar McLaughlin is leading a study focusing on five stories of encounters with Jesus from the New Testament. In addition to discussing the context and background, we are using the Ignatian meditation form Praying with Imagination as a way of entering into the stories.
As usual, there will be a light supper when we begin.
Book Discussion Group Update
Mount Olive’s Book Discussion Group meets on the second Saturday of each month, at 10:00 am in the West Assembly Area at church. All readers are welcome!
For the May 9 meeting, the Book Discussion group will read, The Boat of Longing, by O. E. Rølvaag. For June 13, The Last Chinese Chef, by Nicole Mones, and for July 11, Bleak House, by Charles Dickens.
Calling All Graduates!
On Sunday, June 14, we will honor our graduates at a reception following the 9:30 a.m. liturgy.
If you are graduating from high school, college, seminary, or another post-secondary school, or if you know of some-one else from Mount Olive who is graduating this spring, please take a moment to notify the church office. We want to be sure that all of our graduates are invited!
The Ascension of Our Lord
Thursday, May 14
Holy Eucharist at 7:00 pm
Heads Up!
Summer worship schedule begins Memorial Day weekend, Sunday, May 24 (The Day of Pentecost). From Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day weekend, we celebrate one Eucharist each Sunday at 9:30 a.m.
Race Day is Saturday!
This Saturday is the day that Anna Dundek and Eric Bell will compete in the Amazing gRace. They will race between Lutheran Volunteer Corps service sites, performing all sorts of amazing feats that support the peace and justice work of LVC. Mount Olive Global Missions supports Anna and Eric, and we hope that you will too!
Financially, you can support Anna, Eric, and the LVC work by donating at their web site:
https://www.firstgiving.com/team/293972 or by placing your contribution in a blue mission envelope and writing in "Amazing gRace."
All are invited to the end-of-race potluck Saturday from 4-6 pm at St. Paul-Reformation Lutheran Church (100 North Oxford Street in St. Paul). Bring a dish to share and cheer for Anna and Eric as they arrive.
Lutheran Volunteer Corps does amazing work in promoting peace and justice while helping to form and sup-port young Christians as they explore their role in being God's presence in the world. We have Lutheran Volunteer Corps graduates who have been part of our Mount Olive community, and we are committed to supporting the good work that they do. Join this Amazing gRace event.
Congregation Meeting Recap
Attached to this issue of The Olive Branch is an annual report prepared by several members of the Vestry, which describes the activities of their respective committees during the past year. (For those who receive hard copy newsletters, copies of the report are available at church in the office and the narthex).
At the April 26 Semi-Annual meeting of the congregation, the following Vestry officers and directors were elected:
• President, Lora Dundek
• Vice President, Tom Graves
• Secretary, Peggy Hoeft
• Treasurer, Tim Lindholm
• Amy Thompson, Education Director
• Art Halbardier, Property Director
• Steve Manuel, Education Director
Thanks to the outgoing officers and directors of the Vestry, Robert Gotwalt, Kat Campbell-Johnson, John Holtmeier, and Brenda Bartz. They have served us all very well.
Other actions taken at the meeting:
• Presentation of nearly $35,000 from the Mount Olive Foundation to the congregation to be used for various projects, and an update of the status of the Foundation's funds;
• A review of the current budget status and encouragement for all to prayerfully consider their giving to the church.
Minnesota Brain Tumor 5K
Inspired by Gene Hennig, the “Lean Mean Gene Machines” are raising research funds with the MN Brain Tumor 5K event on Sunday, May 17, 2015, at Lake Phalen in St. Paul.
We have set a goal of $5000. One hundred percent of tax-deductible donations support the Musella Foundation for Brain Tumor Research and Information, Inc., a 501(c)3 non-profit public charity. Please visit our team fundraising page here: http://bit.ly/1OYNUAA.
All are invited to join us for the non-competitive, fun run/walk! Families and dogs are welcome, provided that their caretakers assume responsibility. We are working on some fun “extras” as a part of the event, too. Feel free to contact Emily Hennig at emilyhennig@gmail.com, or Kate Teece at k8teece@gmail.com with any questions. We hope you will join us!
- The Hennig family
News From the Neighborhood
Ask me about “Open Space!”
As a way to live into our new vision expression, this summer we will open up our parking lot space to build community and see what can happen! The question was: “What is an asset outside the walls of our building that we at Mount Olive can make better use of?” Someone came up with the thought of the parking lot!
A six month task force was created and goals established: to offer our parking lot space to create connection, be the presence of God, to partner with our neighbors, and to break the barrier of “us” and “them.” We hope to have a little fun and celebration while we connect hearts and build community. We are calling this project “Open Space.”
In addition to communicating with you, we want to talk with our neighbors. So we are scheduling dates to meet with folks from the churches within a few blocks of Mount Olive to see if we can partner with them in this “Open Space” project. In our first phone call to a neighboring church, the staff person told us they had actually been looking for a parking lot option to host a large event. It’s already creating connections!
The task force has come up with a few ideas to share with the congregation for some first steps. Here are a couple of them:
1. Outdoor Community Garage Sale & Local Art Sale: June 20, 9am - 2pm in our “Open Space.” Neighbors, friends, and local artists can have a parking space plot, bring their own table, and set up their goods to sell to the public. We will go door to door to invite neighborhood residents to reserve a spot or come to the sale, and ask churches, coffee shops and businesses to help publicize the event. Mount Olive will publicize and host, opening our doors to offer a glimpse of who we are inside and out.
We will need members to post flyers around the neighborhood, assist with hospitality that day, and put up direction signs that morning. Because we are hosting the community meal that noon hour, around 100 friends and neighbors will be dining with us already, and perhaps they will be customers at the sale. (In case of rain the event is canceled).
2. Later in summer, we have registered our “Open Space” to be a site for National Night Out on August 4, from 6 - 8pm. The city of Minneapolis will list us as one of the neighborhood locations. We will invite the neighbors to bring a lawn chair and some appetizers or a dessert to share. There will be activities for the kids and we have invited the fire and police departments to bring a truck or squad car to the event.
What else could take place in our under-used parking lot? Do you have ideas? Can you join in any of this summer's activities? Contact any of us with your ideas. Let's see what we can do to take an empty parking lot and make God's creative, abundant presence be seen in this place.
Taskforce members: George Ferguson, Patsy Holtmeier, Julie Manuel, Tim Pipkorn, Carol Austermann, Paul Nixdorf, Connie Marty & Anna Kingman.
Hospitality Help Wanted!
Could you help with a behind-the-scenes hospitality task? We are in need of two or three persons who would be willing and able to launder table linens after they are used at funeral receptions or congregation events such as the Easter Vigil.
Please call the church office at 612-837-5919 to volunteer or talk with Gail Neilsen, Carla Manuel, or Andrew Andersen.
May Day Parade to be Held This Sunday, May 3, Noon
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/
(Find the Mount Olive crew to watch the parade at the corner of Bloomington Ave. & 28th St. at Noon!)
Attention Mount Olive Worship Assistants!
The Servant Schedule for the 3rd quarter of 2015 (July-September) will be published at the beginning of June, 2015. The deadline for submitting requests to me is May 10, 2015. Please email your requests to peggyrf70@gmail.com.
Unwrapping Your Spiritual Gifts
Saturday, May 23 9 a.m.–noon
Mount Olive Lutheran Church
Explore your spiritual gifts—and how and where you are called to use them. We all have spiritual gifts, but do we need some new paradigms for discovering and using them? Live into Mount Olive’s vision: Being the Presence of God.
Workshop Leaders: Connie Marty and Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
Before the workshop, take an online gifts inventory at
www.elca.org/Our-Work/Congregations-and-Synods/Faith-Practices/Assessment-Tools
RSVP Required: Vicar McLaughlin at 612.827.5919 or vicar@mountolivechurch.org
Guatemala Vision Team to Meet This Sunday
Are you interested in going to Guatemala with a group from Mount Olive this summer? An informational meeting is planned for this Sunday, May 3, at 9:30 am in the Undercroft. If you have already signed up to go, or if you just want to learn more about it, plan to come to this meeting!
Mount Olive Foundation Presents Annual Gift
This past Sunday, President Keith Bartz of Mount Olive Lutheran Church Foundation presented a check for $34,894.00--its annual gift to the congregation. For the fifth consecutive year, this sum represents the largest gift that the Foundation has given to the Church. Over its history, the Foundation now has given almost $350,000 to the Church.
Subject to the Vestry’s approval, the Foundation’s Board of Directors recommended that these funds be apportioned as follows:
• Neighborhood Ministries Kiosk and Display Case 3,000.00
• Bach Tage $ 4,000.00
• Guatemala Partnership Trip $ 4,000.00
• New Staff Member Accounting Role $ 3,000.00
• Purchase new stove/oven for galley (upstairs) kitchen $ 800.00
• Design for Undercroft Refurbishment $ 4,000.00
• General Improvements to Building Exterior $16,094.00
TOTAL $34,894.00
To learn more about the Mount Olive Foundation and how you can build its endowment and annual giving, please contact Keith Bartz at (612) 823-3572 or albsinmpls@yahoo.com, or speak with other Foundation board members: Michael Edwins, Victor Gebauer, Reid Peterson, Mark Ruff, or Pat and Doug Spaulding.
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