moadmin – Page 61

The Olive Branch, 3/19/14

March 19, 2014 By moadmin

Accent on Worship

Step In

Singing in public is truly an amazing thing.

There are times, however, when it reminds me of high school days when I used to play in a rock band at dances. We waited with great nervous anticipation for someone to “break the ice” and dance, even though the dance floor was empty. It would take awhile some times. We’d offer several songs, sometimes an entire set, before someone would brave the floor. But we knew that once someone did, the floor would quickly fill up and we’d be set for the rest of the night. And sometimes, when we’d sense some energy coming from the floor, we’d step on the gas a bit (so to speak) and get them going even more!

As you may have guessed, I draw a parallel from this “break the ice” dancing syndrome to congregational singing.

People are very nervous about singing alone, or about feeling like they are being heard by someone else. This is understandable – our voices are very personal, and we can’t change them in for a new one. I’ve also known few who actually like their own voices when they hear them. But when we’re singing together, the good news is that we’re NOT singing solo. The more we all break the ice and step in, the easier it is for all of us to sing out.
sing out.

My predecessor with the National Lutheran Choir, Larry Fleming, once heard all of the voices of one section one at a time. His response was, “Amazing. Individually, they sound terrible. But as a group, it’s magic.” Indeed, when singing together a new sound is created that involves the contributions of all the individual voices with their different sounds to a new collective that can be magic.

I’ve been in situations where all I sense is fear. Everyone half mumbles out of fear that they might stick out if they sing more. I find myself doing the same, and funny thing: can’t sing much, and certainly not very high because to do so involves “stepping on the gas” a bit with my voice. And frankly, I’m not too crazy about my own voice either. But I don’t mind singing when there’s company. In the fear-filled situation, the hymns feel like an obligatory chore rather than the opportunity that they are.

When we all sing together, there’s nothing like it. We’re all breaking the ice, we’re all on a limb together, and none of us sticks out. Then as Cantor, I can sense that, and help us all step on the gas a little more through the use of the organ, or – equally amazing – let it go unaccompanied, which lets the sound float like clouds of paradise! When the singing is strong, that is a fantastic sensation! When it’s weak, we hear fear.

Public song is amazing! Do us all a favor, and decide to let go and sing in. The more sound, the more inviting and encouraging it is to the next reluctant participant in song. So, YOU be the one who breaks the ice.

– Cantor David Cherwien

Sunday Readings

March 23, 2014: Third Sunday in Lent

Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42
_____________________

March 30, 2014: Third Sunday in Lent

1 Samuel 16:1-13
Psalm 23
Ephesians 5:8-14
John 9:1-41

Notice of Congregation Meeting

The April Semi-annual congregational meeting will be held after the second liturgy on Sunday, April 6. Business before the congregation will include election of officers and Vestry members for 2014-2015, annual report of the Mount Olive Foundation, and an update on the Capital Campaign.

At the April 2013 congregation meeting, the congregation approved a limited capital campaign that would help to put Mount Olive and its many ministries on firm financial footing in 2014 and beyond. A target of $182,000 was approved to be used for two purposes. The first is to restore funds that the congregation borrowed over a number of years from its restricted accounts (funds given by individuals who designated them for specific purposes); and the second is to create a cash reserve to help cover routine future expenses at times when donations are insufficient.

Midweek Lenten Worship on Wednesdays
March 12 – April 9

• Noon: Holy Eucharist, followed by soup luncheon

• 7:00 pm: Evening Prayer, preceded by soup supper, beginning at 6:00 p.m.

A Servant Community: Lenten Midweek

Baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, the community of the faithful are also bound into the servant role of our Messiah, called to give of ourselves for each other and the world. Just as the kingdom comes into the world fully when the Son of God sets aside all power and domination and goes to the cross, so too we live out our lives as servant people who are willing to lose all for the sake of the other.

This Lent in our midweek worship, both at the noon Eucharist and evening Vespers, we will be using Paul’s first letter to Corinth as an entrance into reflection on the servant life of the community of Christ, on what our call means in our life together and our life in the world, on what it is to live in the kingdom of God now.

This Week’s Forum

March 23: “Bringing Faith to Our Civic Life,” presented by Sen. John Marty.

Lenten Devotional Available Online

Again this year, Susan Cherwien’s Lenten devotional is also available online. Visit the blog and save it as a favorite, so that it’s easily accessible to you throughout the remainder of the season of Lent.

An Invitation to Confession

During the season of Lent I am making myself available at some regular times to hear individual confession and to offer absolution to any who desire it. I will be in the chancel from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. each Monday in Lent, and continuing through the Monday of Holy Week. If you wish to come for confession, simply come to the altar rail. There will be a worship book so we can follow the rite together. If someone is already there, please wait near the back of the nave and when I’m free, come forward. While waiting, even if I’m free and you want to prepare yourself, praying the psalms in the pew or reading Scripture is worth considering.

– Pr. Joseph Crippen

The Complete Rameau Concerti – This Sunday, March 23, 4 pm

Sponsored by Mount Olive Music & Fine Arts, Tami Morse, harpsichord, Marc Levine, violin, and Tulio Rondon, viol da gambe, will present a complete performance of the five Harpsichord Concertos of Jean-Philippe Rameau.

Virtuoso harpsichordist, Tami Morse, is featured in an exceptional tour de force: a complete performance of the five Harpsichord Concertos of Jean-Philippe Rameau. Unlike the modern concerto requiring a full orchestra, these masterful works, filled with beautiful melodies and exceptional harmonies, are accompanied with perfectly orchestrated baroque violin and viola da gamba parts.
Join us – and bring a friend!

March is Minnesota FoodShare Month!

This is an annual event supported by congregations and other religious and civic associations throughout Minnesota.

Mount Olive has participated every year since it began in 1982. We encourage you to be extra generous with your food or financial donations for our local food shelf during the month of March. This drive fills the shelves of 300 food shelves across the state of Minnesota.

Fifty percent of all food shelf recipients are children. Twenty percent of all adult recipients are elderly. More than sixty percent of those adults who use food shelves are the working poor.

If possible, we encourage you to give funds (using your blue missions envelope, clearly labeled for the food shelf) instead of food donations. Ten dollars given to the food shelf can buy $40 worth of food when purchased by the food shelves. How-ever, all donations are welcome! If you enjoy shopping for food to donate, please place your food donations in the cart in the cloak room.

Check out the snack sign-up sheet for Way to Goals Tutoring in the lower level. Snacks for approximately 25 youth and tutors are needed on Tuesday evenings through May 27. Your help is very much appreciated!

Friendly Callers Meeting

Mount Olive Friendly Callers will meet on Sunday, March 30, immediately following the first liturgy. This meeting will take place in the Undercroft.

Please bring the names and numbers of the people you are calling on a regular basis.

Luther College Cathedral Choir to Perform at Mount Olive

The Luther College Cathedral Choir will perform in concert April 5, 2014, 7:00 p.m. at Mount Olive Lutheran Church, 3045 Chicago Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN. No tickets are needed, but a freewill offering will be received at the concert.

The Cathedral Choir, directed by Dr. Jennaya Robison, performs a varied program of sacred music. The concert program will include choral masterpieces by J.S. Bach, Hassler, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. At the heart of the program is Estonian composer’s Ēriks Ešenvalds’ “Stars” for choir, water-tuned glasses and Tibetan singing bowls. Favorite works by Olaf Christiansen, F. Melius Christiansen, Moses Hogan, Z. Randall Stroope, and others are included in an eclectic program suitable for listeners of all ages.

The choir is in need of housing for some of their members. If you are able to provide hospitality for choir members, please contact Cantor Cherwien as soon as possible.

Housing Needed!

Housing is needed for Luther College’s Cathedral Choir, Saturday, April 5. If you can house two or more students, PLEASE call the office, or let Cantor Cherwien know this Sunday or the following Sunday. He’ll be roaming the church with the clipboard.

Students will need to be picked up and brought to your home after their concert here at 7:00 pm, maybe a snack that evening. Two in a double bed is OK. After providing breakfast for them, they need to be back at Mount Olive at 7:00 am Sunday the 6th.

There are 23 hosts needed (four each), so if you can help, please do!

Holy Week at Mount Olive

Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday
Sunday, April 13
Holy Eucharist, 8 & 10:45 am

Monday-Wednesday of Holy Week,
April 14-16
Daily Prayer at Noon, in the side chapel of the nave

Maundy Thursday, April 17
Holy Eucharist at Noon
Holy Eucharist, with the Washing of Feet, 7:00 p.m.

Good Friday, April 18
Stations of the Cross at Noon
Adoration of the Cross at 7 pm

Holy Saturday, April 19
Great Vigil of Easter, 8:30 pm, followed by a festive reception

The Resurrection of Our Lord
Sunday, April 20
Festival Eucharist at
8 & 10:45 am

Lenten Centering Prayer Group

Sue Ellen Zagrabelny, Mount Olive member and an oblate or lay associate at Holy Wisdom Monastery in Middleton, WI is hosting a Centering Prayer group this Lent. Centering prayer, a monastic discipline at the monastery, is an emptying of oneself in prayer in order to be accessible to the Spirit. This Centering Prayer Group will be offered at Mount Olive at two different times over a period of 5 weeks: on Tuesdays, the group will meet after Bible Study, from 1:15 to 1:45 March 4, 11, 18, 25 and April 1. On Wednesdays, the group will meet before the Lenten Supper at 5:30 to 6:00 on March 12, 9, 19, 26 and April 2. Both sessions will meet in the library.

If you have questions, please contact Sue Ellen Zagrabelny at 815-997-6020 or via email to skatzny@yahoo.com

Way to Goals Thanks!

It has been a wonderful ride as your Coordinator of Neighborhood Ministries all these years and I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all those who have supported Neighborhood Ministries with their finances, their volunteer efforts, and their prayers.

I usually thank all those who have supported the Way to Goals Tutoring in May. However, I will not be here at the end of the season, so I would like to thank them at this time. Thank you to all the tutors, for their dedication and time given to the students: Vicar Emily Beckering, Yevette Berard, Diane Brown, Peter Bunge, Patsy Holtmier, Joe Kane, Greicia Pedroso, Catherine Pususta, and Amy Thompson.

Thanks also to all those who have supplied us with snacks: Gail Nielsen, Judy Graves, Naomi Peterson, and Dennis Bidwell.

– Donna Neste

Another Word of Thanks

Thanks to Sedona and Austin Crosby for adding some festive spirit at the community meal on March 15, by making green decorated rice crispy treats to serve!

If you are interested in volunteering for the 3rd Saturday community meal please talk with Kat or Gretchen Campbell-Johnson or Kathy Thurston for opportunities.

Wanted: Confirmation Class Photos of Mount Olive’s Members

Pentecost Sunday, June 8, 2014, is also confirmation Sunday. For the days surrounding Pentecost we would like to display photos of the confirmation classes of current members. They will be in the hallway display case. A small sign next to each photo will identify who’s class is shown, and we will have the opportunity to go on a “where’s Waldo” search of each class photo trying to spot the current member. After several weeks a sign will then be added identifying the location of the member in the photo.

If you want to take part and have your confirmation photo in the display case please place your photo in an envelope and write “To Paul Nixdorf” and also your name, church and town (and year, if you are willing) in which you were confirmed on the envelope and leave it in the church office. With the photo please include a note with your name plus a description of where you are located in the photo. Please submit photos to the office by May 31.

The display will remain up from the first week in June through early to mid-July. Your photo will then be returned to the envelope you provided and can be picked up at the church office.

Thank you.

– Paul Nixdorf

Upcoming Reads

For their meeting on April 12, the Book Discussion Group will read Elizabeth and Hazel, by David Margolick. For the May 10 meeting, they will read, The Small Hand and Dolly, by Susan Hill.

Birth Process

March 16, 2014 By moadmin

“Seeing” the kingdom of God and “entering” the kingdom of God are one and the same: when the Holy Spirit moves in us and gives birth to us as children of God who live new lives in God’s reign we participate in what God is doing in Jesus the Messiah, instead of watching from the sidelines.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, Second Sunday in Lent, year A; texts: John 3:1-17; Genesis 12:1-4a

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

There’s a tremendous difference between watching something and thinking about it and actually entering into it and experiencing it. You can’t tell if the water in the lake or pool is lovely and refreshing by looking at it, or even touching a toe. You have to get in and splash around to see for yourself. You can’t tell if a meal is tasty and wonderful just by smelling it, and taking pictures of it. You have to pick up your fork and take a bite, dig in, as we say, and see. This is one of the things parents constantly need to encourage their children to learn: just try it, just see what it’s like. It can’t be explained, only lived.

Nicodemus is taking pictures of food, and dabbing his toe into the water. He’s searching, that’s true. He is looking for God, clearly, and sees something in Jesus that is intriguing. The things Jesus does, he thinks, couldn’t be done by someone who wasn’t somehow connected to God. But Nicodemus also knows that Jesus of Nazareth is treading on dangerous paths. He is saying and doing things that threaten the leadership of the people, threaten Nicodemus and his peers. It’s risky for Nicodemus, in his social and political and religious circles, even to suggest “there might actually be something about this Jesus, this rabbi.”

So he slips out at night, and comes to see Jesus under cover of darkness. He’s looking at the food. He’s thinking about the lake. But he’s not ready to commit, at least not in the daylight. Or that’s how Jesus reads it. Because Nicodemus asks an observer’s question, a viewer’s question: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs apart from the presence of God.”

Jesus doesn’t engage him at his level, which he could do by saying, “Who do you mean by ‘we,’ Nicodemus?” Or by answering his question about whether he comes from God. Instead, Jesus invites him deeper. He says Nicodemus can’t see what he wants to see unless he comes in, can’t know what he wants to know unless he is a part of it, is born anew into it. The kingdom of God, Jesus says, can’t be truly known by spectators, but only by those who live in it.

Do we understand this?

Jesus speaks to us: the only way we’re going to know what God is doing in the world is let God bring us into the kingdom, into this new way.

So is the kingdom something we look at or something in which we live and move? Too often we’re Nicodemus, thinking we know where God is working in the world, but not willing or ready to engage. We sit on the outside, talking about God, and not living on the inside experiencing God. Talking about theology, or talking about the Christian life. Talking about doing justice and loving neighbor (or loving an enemy). Talking, as if that’s all we need to do.

But if we’re only considering the message of Jesus, contemplating theology, debating doctrine, we’re never going to know what we want to know, we’re never going to know if this life in Christ is the real thing, is abundant life. We’ll just be sitting on the edge of the pool, just looking at the food.

Is it feasible to love one’s enemies? You can’t know till you start, till we do it. But we’d rather talk about it than actually try it. We’d rather worry about whether it can work or not than actually do it and see if Jesus is right, that this is life.

Is it feasible to live without fear, trusting God’s love? To live every day as if what Jesus says here – that God’s love is for all, that the Son of God came to save not to condemn – to live as if that were true and find ways to face life unafraid, is that possible? You can’t know till you start, till we do it. But we’re more comfortable talking about it than trying to live as if it were true.

Is it feasible to live in such trust of God that we’re not afraid to let go – of possessions, of our need to win, of our need to be in charge, of our control – is it possible to live that way, the way Jesus invites? You can’t know till you start, till we do it. But we tend to find lots of ways to talk about how it doesn’t work in the real world, rather than simply trying it.

Is Jesus the Son of God, risen from the dead, and desiring a relationship with us that gives us life, that changes us? Is he really able to save us in every way that could mean and make a difference in our lives? You can’t really know till you start to trust that he is, till we do it. To stop talking about who he is and start trusting and living in him as he invites.

It’s the difference between Abram and Nicodemus today. Abram is asked by God to uproot his whole life, his family, everything, and go where God was sending him. To trust, and to follow. Without even a specific destination at first. Just “go to the land that I will show you.”

And he does it. He leaves his home and starts to wander, and for the rest of his life he’s pretty much living in tents, on the move.

Nicodemus is a teacher of Israel, a son of Abraham, someone who knows that model of faithful trusting. Yet he hesitates. Maybe that’s why Jesus asks him how he, a teacher of Israel, doesn’t know these things.

Jesus is the fulfillment of the story of Israel, the next step in God’s continued plan for the redemption of Israel as the blessing of the whole world. Nicodemus, a teacher, should have seen how this was the plan, Jesus says. Yet he comes in the middle of the night with his questions.

Jesus invites us in today, invites us to open our hearts and minds to the movement of the Spirit. To trust and follow and see what happens, like Abram. He invites us to be born from above, born anew, through water and the Spirit. A new start, that’s what you need, Jesus says, then you’ll see.

Once the Spirit brings us to new life, we begin to see amazing things.

It really is a birth into a new life, with new eyes. Paul tells us that faith itself is a gift of the Spirit, so if we believe at all, there’s our first sign the Spirit is moving in us, making us new. Let me say that again: if you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that means the Holy Spirit is already at work in you.

Now it’s just a matter of looking for the other signs. Like the invisible wind is seen in the swaying branches of the tree, Jesus said. The signs are all around us, and in front of you, in front of me.

So Jesus says, be reborn, and then just listen and look: where do you see the movement of the Spirit? Go there, follow. Be Abram, not Nicodemus.

If we feel that God is leading us as a community to do something, that’s the Spirit leading. The only way we can know it is of God is if we follow and see.

In each of us, the nudge of the Spirit comes every day many times, if only we listen and look: that nudge to love someone and be kind, even though we are used to not liking them; that nudge to reach out to someone even though our tendency is to hold back; that nudge to offer ourselves to be a part of God’s justice in the world, even though there’s part of us that feels too busy, or too afraid. All of this is the work of the Spirit, the blowing in the branches, if only we listen and look.

The really good thing about this new birth of the Spirit is that it’s not something that happens only once; the Spirit constantly works to give us new birth.

We misunderstand Jesus if we read his words today as a statement of a one-time thing. It is true that the Church reads this and understands it to be about baptism, our birth in water and the Spirit. But we Lutherans believe that living into our baptism is a daily renewal, a daily rebirth. Every day we are given a new start in the Spirit, a new beginning. This is very encouraging, especially when we see ourselves falling back into a pattern of holding back.

But if the Spirit is renewing us daily, giving birth to us daily, then we always have this new possibility, this new life. To be forgiven when we fail, when we step back or walk away, and to be strengthened daily to move forward, to get in, to live in the kingdom.

To use the water metaphor: jumping in or sliding in slowly, both are fine so long as you get in. Nicodemus finally gets in himself, if we understand John correctly. At the end of this Gospel we see him openly acting as a disciple, helping bury Jesus’ body.

The point is to know that this is where life is we have to live it, we have to try living as a disciple, living in the kingdom, as often and as well as we can, to get into the water, to eat the food, rather than sitting alongside and watching and talking.

To love, because that’s life in the kingdom, even if it seems hard. And in loving, even in little ways, to discover that loving as Christ loves is something we can learn, and something we can get better at with time, as the Spirit moves in us. And also to find the new life such grace begins, the unending life Jesus promises in John 3:16.

To do justice, to make a difference in this world, because that’s life in the kingdom, even if we think it can’t be much of an impact. And in doing this, even in little ways, to see that we can learn to do this, and get better at it with time, as the Spirit moves in us. And also to find the joy that it does make a difference, it is part of God’s healing of the world, part of that unending life.

To trust God and not fear, because that’s life in the kingdom, even if it seems hard. And so to discover how trusting God is something we can learn, and something that we get better at with time, as the Spirit moves in us. And also to find the joy of life without fear such trust begins, the true unending life with God.

We’re not going to find God’s unending life if we only talk about it.

That’s Jesus’ invitation to us today. Let’s take him at his word, and jump into this new life, trusting that the Spirit will show us the way. It’s a daily new birth so that means we can even just take baby steps into the new life, until we grow and mature. We can start out simply, trusting that we’ll learn what we need as we go, because that’s the way God will help us grow.

It’s a new birth we have before us, every day. It’s time to let that be our reality and joy. And then we’ll really see.

In the name of Jesus. Amen

Midweek Lent 2014 + A Servant Community (Paul’s first letter to Corinth)

March 12, 2014 By moadmin

Week 1: “Foolish God; Foolish Community”

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, Wednesday, 12 March 2014; texts: 1 Corinthians 1:10-31; Matthew 16:21-28

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

There’s a fair bit of negative press for disciples of Christ Jesus in these two readings, or at least intense criticism. Simon Peter, trying to understand what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah, having just declared that to be true, really steps in it and is called “Satan” by Jesus. That’s not a good day. And Paul, in writing to a congregation he founded, to people he loves, in the very beginnings of this letter to them, pretty much tells them they weren’t necessarily the cream of the crop of Corinth. Not wise by human standards, not powerful, not of noble birth. There is little danger that after these two descriptions either Peter or the Corinthian disciples are going to have difficulty with too much self esteem.

Yet these two situations speak profoundly to what it means not only that Jesus is the Messiah of God but also what it means to be a disciple of such a Messiah. It may be that Jesus sounds a little harsh to our ears, but if he doesn’t lay out in no uncertain terms that Peter’s heading in the wrong direction, it’s not likely we’ll pay the attention we need, or that Peter will, for that matter. It may be that Paul sounds a little insulting to his people, but if he doesn’t speak clearly about their reality in terms of the world’s standards, it’s not likely we’ll take seriously our reality as disciples, either, nor will they.

The critiques are related to each other, and both are necessary. We need to understand just what kind of Messiah the Son of God is in the world, what he is about. When we understand that, then we need to recognize the implications of that on us, on our discipleship and status in the world.

On these Wednesdays in Lent this year we will be considering what it means that we are a community of faith, we Christians, a Body of Christ, as Paul says. Our central texts will be taken from this first letter to the Corinthians, and will be in dialogue with readings from the Gospels. But our question in these readings today is the question we need to consider all Lent: what does it mean for us, what does it look like, and what is our call, as the community of Christ in the world?

Before we can consider that, though, we actually need Paul to convince us that we are joined together in this Body.

We can’t understand this letter to the Christians in Corinth without grasping the foundational reality Paul and the early Church assumed: the salvation we know in Christ Jesus is only found in the Body, the community, the Church.

This may seem obvious, but consider the way the Church has tended to speak of salvation. Don’t most people seem to think it’s a personal question for each to decide or know? Lutherans don’t speak of “personally accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior” as the beginning of being a Christian, but we act as if it’s just as individualistic for us. As if the only question is whether or not each person is saved, whatever we mean by that.

I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with Lutherans over the years that involved speculating about the saved status of this person or that person. I can’t tell you how many times it’s been clear to me in conversation with folks that for most Christians, even Lutherans, salvation is only about one thing: am I going to heaven after I die?

There’s not much community in that question, to say nothing of understanding what Jesus meant by life eternal.

For us, it’s not that “accepting” moment that defines us, it’s Baptism, but it certainly feels as if for most Lutherans that’s an individual matter. Anxiety over whether someone’s Baptism still counts if they’ve fallen away from regular church participation: I’ve heard that all my ministry. Anxiety over whether someone can be “saved,” which almost implies “loved by God,” if they haven’t been baptized: again, it’s a constant theme.

Yet Paul begins his letter to his people in Corinth with this criticism: you are divided amongst yourselves, you are not in unity. As if our life together was the important thing. “I appeal to you,” Paul says, “that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.”

Clearly there were lots of cracks developing in the Corinthian church, along all sorts of fault lines, since this is how Paul begins his letter. But this is how we understand the whole of this letter, really: Paul is exploring what it is to be the Body of Christ.

He addresses it in terms of a call: that is what we are. And in terms of how that affects all sorts of things within the community: divisions, disagreements, differences in status, differences in gifts. So to enter this letter and get what Paul is doing means grasping first and foremost this understanding: we are baptized into the Body of Christ, and it is together that we find life.

And really, the rampant individualism is not always just of persons, as we see in Corinth. It seems as if there was an individualism of communities, ironically. The Apollos followers were sniping at the Paul followers, who were biting at the Peter followers.

So as much as we are called by Paul to set aside this sense that salvation is only about each individual person, we also are challenged to set aside our sense that our congregation is the main thing. Or that our denomination is. Or any other subdivision lesser than the Church of Christ on earth.

The kingdom of God preached by Jesus, inaugurated in his death and resurrection, and set afire at Pentecost, is a salvation of the world worked through the servant followers of Christ, the Body of Christ. We are saved together, as a Body, a Church, a community, that we might change the world.

And our unity comes from the cross, not anything else. That’s the next thing Paul claims.

This community, this Body, is the community created by the cross of Christ Jesus.

There are lots of ways for groups to find unity, most of which are destructive; it’s important we understand what truly unites us.

Paul’s description of how unimportant the Corinthians are is related to his sense of his own unimportance, and how that is linked to the humiliating death our Lord suffered. What’s the point in bragging about your leaders, Paul says, whether me or Cephas or Apollos? We’re not important, nor were we called to be eloquent and impressive.

And what’s the point in bragging about yourselves, either? Paul says. Or finding unity by banding against other groups, other people? Or finding unity by believing you’ve got all the right answers? Be honest, Paul says, you’re not that impressive a group of people.

But that’s OK, Paul says, because we belong to the One who to the world didn’t look impressive at all, who suffered a humiliating death, who was a failure in the eyes of the world. And the wonder of that, Paul says: this is the heart, the center of what God is doing in the world. It looks like foolishness, but only because God’s wisdom is incomprehensible to the way of the world.

That’s the most important thing: the way of the cross, the way of losing, the way of death, is the way God is saving the world. Jesus’ prediction of his suffering and death is not a dire warning, or a complaint, or a frightened whimper. It is Jesus declaring that this is the path he will walk, that this is the way he will bring life.

Now, of course, this is why Paul calls this God’s foolishness. And why Peter resists so strongly Jesus’ description of this way. It looks like a terrible thing, that the Messiah will die. Peter legitimately thinks that means the Messiah fails. He doesn’t understand what it really means.

But it is this that unites us, Paul says: not our prominence, not our eloquence, not our wealth, not our intelligence, not our gifts, not our correct answers, not our institutions or organizations. It is that we are claimed as a servant Church in the death and resurrection of Jesus, and nothing else.

That is our unity, our connection, our life. And in that unity, as Peter learned, we are called to follow our Lord’s model.

That’s the inevitable result: the life of the community of Christ is to model such servant giving, such losing, such foolishness.

This is one of the worst results of individualistic salvation focus, of concern only for whether I’m not going to hell when I die: the Church misses the whole meaning of salvation. The kingdom Jesus proclaimed in his ministry he begins by his dying, his giving up of all power, because that is the way the world will be changed, be saved.

Not by the Church becoming yet another power-hungry group that dominates others to get its way, who thinks that force will accomplish what God wants. Whenever the Church has gone that way it has been devastating and horrible, and undermined everything Jesus our Lord intended.

No, the world will be and is changed when the Church becomes as foolish as the Triune God, and as willing to lose, to be run over, even to die to bring life to this world.

Jesus’ call to take up the cross is his reminder that as his followers, we take his path, too, or we aren’t really following him. You are called to be servant people in the world, he says, losing yourself for the sake of others, giving up of yourself for the sake of the world, dying, even, to bring life.

You can see why it’s easier for Christians to reduce the cross to the means by which we get to heaven. The call to follow Jesus’ way is frightening. But in the history of the Church that is where salvation for the world has always happened, when we were a servant community standing in the face of evil with love and transforming it from within.

If any one of us fears what that might mean individually for our lives, our choices, our decisions, that’s fair. But isn’t it marvelous, then, that we are not alone in this, that we are called together as a Body? Being a servant Church together means we support and encourage and embolden each other in our service, our sacrificial love. It means we can do more together than alone. The servant life is a lot easier to handle together, and a lot more joyful and profoundly beautiful.

Jesus knew what he was doing.

So for now, this is where we leave it: we know who we are and what we are called to be.

This is the work of the Spirit we ask God to make happen among us, that we are prepared and strengthened for our work as the kingdom of God, as the servant Church. Everything else we need to know about how we are together as Christ’s Body flows from this center.

And yes, Paul’s right, God’s way does sound foolish. But we have met our Risen Lord, and we know how things aren’t always what they seem. We know this is our life, and the life of the world. God grant us the courage to live together in the world as if that were so.

In the name of Jesus. Amen

The Olive Branch, 3/12/14

March 12, 2014 By moadmin

Accent on Worship

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him,” said Jesus to Nicodemus in the Gospel for the Second Sunday in Lent.

That is what Jesus was all about. He was a healer, one who restored and spoke the truth to those who benefited by wounding, withholding and tearing apart. That is what Christ’s Church should be about and (though we fail at times) often it is. It has been a body to come to for comfort, one that works to heal and make whole, one that does not ask, “what’s wrong with you?’ but “what happened in your life that is in need of healing?”

And that is why the congregation that belongs to the beautiful brick church on the corner of 31st and Chicago hired me almost 30 years ago.

Being followers of Jesus, they saw all the pain and need in the community. They needed someone to organize their efforts as healers, and they were so ahead of their time. I wasn’t even the first person to hold that position when I came in the mid-eighties. Mount Olive congregation was reaching out to the community with someone at the head of an organized effort since the early 1970s.

As I leave you, I want to thank you with my deepest gratitude for giving me the gratitude, for giving me the opportunity to serve this neighborhood in the name of Jesus. It has been a tremendous honor and I will hold you in my heart for as long as I live. You are truly blessed to be so close to opportunities to serve, to restore, and to heal. I have witnessed the outpouring of your compassion to those in need, and your willingness to be a part of the salvation of the world as followers of Jesus, as the precious children of God that you are.

Thank you for everything.
– Donna Pususta Neste

Sunday Readings

March 16, 2014: Second Sunday in Lent
Genesis 12:1-4a
Psalm 121
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17
John 3:1-17
_____________________

March 23, 2014: Third Sunday in Lent
Exodus 17:1-7
Psalm 95
Romans 5:1-11
John 4:5-42

This Week’s Adult Forum

March 16: “From Earth, to Eden, to Ground: The Opening Chapters of the Book of Genesis” (part 4 of a 4-part series), presented by Scholar-in-Residence, Prof. Earl Schwartz of Hamline University.

Midweek Lenten Worship on Wednesdays, March 12 – April 9

• Noon: Holy Eucharist, followed by soup luncheon
• 7:00 pm: Evening Prayer, preceded by soup supper, beginning at 6:00 p.m.

Farewell Celebration: This Sunday

This Friday, March 14, will be Donna Neste’s last day as our Neighborhood Ministries Coordinator. Donna has served God and Mount Olive admirably for many decades and it’s time to bid her a fond farewell. There will be a meal and celebration after the second liturgy this Sunday, March 16.

Soup-Makers Needed!

Soup makers are needed to provide soup and bread for our midweek Lenten meals. Soup and bread for the lunch following Wednesday midday Eucharist should feed 40-50 people, and for the supper before Wednesday Evening Prayer, we need soup and bread for about 10-12 people.

If you can help by signing up to bring a meal (or two!), the sign up chart will be on the refreshment table at coffee hour on Sundays.

Lenten Devotional Books

Copies of Susan Cherwien’s Journey Into Lent 2014 are available in the narthex and in the church office, for your devotional use during this Lenten season.

Again this year, the devotional is also available online. Visit the blog and save it as a favorite, so that it’s easily accessible to you throughout the season of Lent.

An Invitation to Confession

During the season of Lent I am making myself available at some regular times to hear individual confession and to offer absolution to any who desire it. I will be in the chancel from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. each Monday in Lent, and continuing through the Monday of Holy Week. If you wish to come for confession, simply come to the altar rail. There will be a worship book so we can follow the rite together. If someone is already there, please wait near the back of the nave and when I’m free, come forward. While waiting, even if I’m free and you want to prepare yourself, praying the psalms in the pew or reading Scripture is worth considering.

– Pr. Joseph Crippen

March is Minnesota FoodShare Month!

This is an annual event is supported by congregations and other religious and civic associations throughout Minnesota.

Fifty percent of all food shelf recipients are children. Twenty percent of all adult recipients are elderly. More than sixty percent of those adults who use food shelves are the working poor.

Wanted: Confirmation Class Photos of Mount Olive’s Members

Pentecost Sunday, June 8, 2014, is also confirmation Sunday. For the days surrounding Pentecost we would like to display photos of the confirmation classes of current members. They will be in the hallway display case. A small sign next to each photo will identify who’s class is shown, and we will have the opportunity to go on a “where’s Waldo” search of each class photo trying to spot the current member. After several weeks a sign will then be added identifying the location of the member in the photo.

The display will remain up from the first week in June through early to mid-July. Your photo will then be returned to the envelope you provided and can be picked up at the church office.
Thank you.

– Paul Nixdorf

Book Discussion Upcoming Reads

For their meeting on April 12, the Book Discussion Group will read Elizabeth and Hazel, by David Margolick. For the May 10 meeting, they will read, The Small Hand and Dolly, by Susan Hill.

A Servant Community: Lenten Midweek

Baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, the community of the faithful are also bound into the servant role of our Messiah, called to give of ourselves for each other and the world. Just as the kingdom comes into the world fully when the Son of God sets aside all power and domination and goes to the cross, so too we live out our lives as servant people who are willing to lose all for the sake of the other.

Lenten Worship on Wednesdays: Eucharist at noon, followed by soup and bread lunch. Soup and bread supper will be served at 6:00 p.m., followed by Vespers at 7:00 p.m.

Church Library News

Thanks to Susan Cherwien for her wonderful gift to the Mount Olive community of a special book of Lenten devotions. Awaiting your perusal is a further display of Lenten books in our main library, including:

Portraits of the Christ (Messages for Lent and Easter), by John McCollister, editor
The Lord’s Prayer and the Lord’s Passion, by Paul G. Lessmann
The Grace of the Passion, by Olive Wyon
The Scandal of Lent (Themes for Lenten Preachings in the Gospel of John), by Robert Kysar
A Cross to Glory (Lenten Sermons), by Alton F. Wedel
Followers of the Cross (Messages for Lent and Easter), by Harry N. Huxhold
Cross Words (Sermons and Dramas for Lent), by Kent Poovey
Come, Lord Jesus, Come Quickly (Lenten Meditations), by Constance F. Parvey
The Man Who Died for Me (Meditations on the Death and Resurrection of Our Lord),
by Herbert Lockyer
A Book of Easter (with daily devotions), by Paul M. Lindberg
Come to Easter, by Anna Laura and Edward Gebhard
The Splendor of Easter, compiled and edited by Floyd W. Thatcher
We Call This Friday Good (Meditations based on the 7 last words of Christ), edited by Howard G. Hegaman
The Ascension of Our Lord, by Peter Toon

Last time our article mentioned a newer bookmark (these are always available to take for free) which listed suggestions for “What Good Readers Do” and to complete, the reverse side mentions “Hints for Choosing a Book You’ll Enjoy” such as:

Pick a genre (mystery, fantasy, history, etc.) you like,
Read the description on the book’s cover,
Be sure the topic interests you,
Make sure the reading level is right for you,
Select a book by an author you like,
Choose a book from a series you enjoy,
Talk to someone who has read the book,
Ask a librarian or teacher to recommend a book.

– Leanna Kloempken

Friendly Callers Meeting

Mount Olive Friendly Callers will meet on Sunday, March 30, immediately following the first liturgy. This meeting will take place in the Undercroft. Please bring the names and numbers of the people you are calling on a regular basis.

The Complete Rameau Concerti

Plan to come – and bring a friend!

Luther College Cathedral Choir to Perform at Mount Olive

The Luther College Cathedral Choir will perform in concert April 5, 2014, 7:00 p.m. at Mount Olive Lutheran Church, 3045 Chicago Avenue S, Minneapolis, MN. No tickets are needed, but a freewill offering will be received at the concert.

The Cathedral Choir, directed by Dr. Jennaya Robison, performs a varied program of sacred music. Composed of nearly 90 select singers drawn from the college’s sophomore class, its membership reflects a wide range of academic disciplines. The concert program will include choral masterpieces by J.S. Bach, Hassler, and Ralph Vaughan Williams. At the heart of the program is Estonian composer’s Ēriks Ešenvalds’ “Stars” for choir, water-tuned glasses and Tibetan singing bowls. Favorite works by Olaf Christiansen, F. Melius Christiansen, Moses Hogan, Z. Randall Stroope, and others are included in an eclectic program suitable for listeners of all ages.

The choir is in need of housing for some of their members. If you are able to provide hospitality for choir members, please contact Cantor Cherwien as soon as possible.

Lenten Centering Prayer Group

If you have questions, please contact Sue Ellen Zagrabelny at 815-997-6020 or via email to skatzny@yahoo.com

Adult Forum Videos

The four-part adult forum series with Dr. Earl Schwartz is being recorded on video and will soon be available to view online using a new Mount Olive Lutheran Church private channel on YouTube.

Establishing that secure channel, uploading our videos, and ensuring that accessibility for Mount Olive members is easy is requiring a bit more time than originally thought.

The project is well underway and our team of experts will hopefully soon have the process working smoothly. Once that occurs, we will send a link out to the entire Mount Olive community so that you can begin viewing this first series of videos and many more in the future.

Holy Week at Mount Olive

Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday, Sunday, April 13
Holy Eucharist, 8 & 10:45 am

Monday-Wednesday of Holy Week, April 14-16
Daily Prayer at Noon, in the side chapel of the nave

Maundy Thursday, April 17
Holy Eucharist at Noon
Holy Eucharist, with the Washing of Feet, 7:00 p.m.

Good Friday, April 18
Stations of the Cross at Noon
Adoration of the Cross at 7 pm

Holy Saturday, April 19
Great Vigil of Easter, 8:30 pm, followed by a festive reception

The Resurrection of Our Lord, Sunday, April 20
Festival Eucharist at 8 & 10:45 am

The Right Road

March 9, 2014 By moadmin

These stories of temptation show us a way to engage such temptation in our daily lives; our gift is that we walk this journey of faith together, and can help each other even as the Spirit is working within us.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, First Sunday in Lent, year A; texts: Matthew 4:1-11; Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7

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

We have such compelling contrasts in these two stories that frame our readings from God’s Word for us this morning. A lush garden, paradise really, and an arid, hot desert, a wilderness. Two people standing in for all of humanity in that garden, and the divine Son of God who is also fully human, in that desert. A tempter in both places. In the garden, the human beings succumb to the temptation. In the desert, the truly Human One resists the temptation. It’s easy to see why the Genesis reading was chosen in this year to pair with the story of Jesus’ temptation.

The crux of these two stories is how we as human beings handle temptation to disobey God, to walk away from God’s path, to go our own way. This Lenten journey we do together each year is, as we said last Wednesday, a practicing, a rehearsing of the greater journey of faith each of our lives are, and the of shared road we all are walking together as disciples of Jesus.

If we are walking this road of life in faith together, seeking the faithful paths together, the godly directions, helping each other as we aspire to live as our Lord has called us to live, then learning what’s at stake in these two crossroad moments is important.

And what we learn is that neither of these stories describe a once-and-for-all moment, a fixed point in time, a story in the past for us to consider. As we consider both stories and think of our journey of faith, we recognize that these events, these temptations, these issues, come before us again and again.

In other words, both the temptation in the garden and the temptation in the wilderness stand before us as examples of the decisions we make every day.

This isn’t how we’ve tended to read the Genesis story, which has been as simple history: Adam and Eve did a bad thing, and ruined it for everyone. We even call this “the Fall,” as if it were a once and for all kind of thing. I remember as a child regretting that they had sinned, because that permanently made a mess of things, as if no one since had ever contributed to the mess, as if I myself was not contributing to the mess. So the point of this story has been for many that we look at the one moment when humanity destroyed everything, ruined the creation. And ever since then, we’ve been tainted by this.

Of course, a problem with that is that then we can also compartmentalize this story as not about us. If they hadn’t done this, we’d be fine. If we weren’t guilty of original sin – which we don’t have to take credit for since it really wasn’t our fault, it was theirs – then we wouldn’t be sinful today.

In fact, I think the authors of Genesis understood the problem with this, and in fact told this story to move us to the opposite reaction. This story is not intended to be an explanation of a single past event as much as a description of the situation which stands before every human being at multiple levels on every day of our lives: are we or are we not going to obey God? Do we live for ourselves, by our way, or live as children of God, by God’s way?

And in the same way, telling the story of the temptation of Jesus isn’t intended as a history lesson but as the same kind of template for our daily lives: what will we do when confronted with choices that are not easily understood as simply right or wrong, good or bad, but complicated, difficult choices? How will we deal with temptation in whatever way it confronts us?

These temptations are ongoing for us: to disobey God, to take God’s authority, to test God, to use our gifts for ourselves.

Will we let God decide what is good and evil, and follow that decision, or will we try to be God ourselves and claim we know better? Will we obey God, even if we don’t always understand why God is asking something of us?

This is the question of Adam and Eve.

And if you don’t think that ever happens for us, let me ask you this: how are you doing on loving your enemies? Following that command of Jesus requires obedience often without explanation or understanding, because it seems counter to everything we know about ourselves and the world. We know what is right and what is wrong, and loving our enemies doesn’t seem to fit that. So, like Adam and Eve, we’re asked to obey without fully understanding why our Lord would ask this of us.

And then: will we test God’s grace and love for us and not trust it? Will we seek to be in charge, to use power and control over others in our lives so we can get what we want, or recognize we are not in control of our lives, God is?

These are the questions Jesus faced.

And if you don’t think that ever happens for us, let me ask you this: how often in your life have you justified something you’ve done that harmed another, or let you get your way, or made something happen, justified it on the basis that the ends justified the means, that you knew what needed to be done and they didn’t?

These questions Jesus faces in the wilderness on use of power and gifts for ourselves, on giving authority to the powers of this world, on trusting God’s care and trust above our own manipulations, these are not unknown questions to us.

Every day, in little ways and sometimes in large ways, we are faced with the same questions of obedience and direction as Adam and Eve, as Jesus.

But here’s a piece of good news: just as these stories are not given as past history, once for all decisions but as models for us, so, too, we are not simply good or bad, either/or. We are on the road, on the journey. Sometimes we walk God’s ways, sometimes we fail. It’s not a once-for-all kind of thing, but a daily process.

The quote from Martin Luther on our service folder cover today reminds us of this. [1] Luther was responding to a criticism that he believed that after baptism we still had growth to do, changing to do. That even though we were washed in the waters of baptism the Spirit still had work to do on us.

So he contrasts words that spoke of absolute, final status, for words of process and development: We are not necessarily living in godliness yet, but we are becoming more godly. We are not healthy, but we are getting well. We are not what we will be, but we are on the way; we are not at the goal, but we are on the right road.

This is good news. We can sometimes despair that we aren’t what God wants us to be. Today we learn that is only part of the question.

But it does matter that we know the difference. That we understand the choices of these stories and the importance of what they say. Every day we have to figure out not only which path is God’s path, but whether or not we want to go in that way.

You want to walk the right path but if you can’t tell the difference, how will you choose? And you can know the right path from the wrong path, but if you don’t want to listen to God, will you choose the one you know is best?

You see, if this is a process, a direction, not the final goal yet, then our direction is of critical importance.

What these stories raise for us is warning. Are we on the right road? On the way to godliness, health, becoming like Christ?

Both stories have a confidence that the paths we choose matter. It is true that when we fail we are forgiven and picked up again by God. But that assumes that there is a path of life onto which we desire to be placed, and a path of death that we want to avoid. It assumes our decisions at crossroads of life matter. Not because we risk God not loving us, but because we risk going where there is no life.

When we set out on our own way, doing our thing, not God’s, we move further and further away from the life God gives and desires for us. All the decisions shown in these two stories imply that the decisions matter.

So, simply, to use some examples we already have: if we do not love our enemies, there is a cost to us, to our hearts, to our souls, to our lives. We are less than we could be. We are diminished. And if we control others to get what we want, there is a cost to us, to our souls, to our lives. We are less than we could be. We are diminished.

And in all such decisions we face, in all kinds of ways (because those are only two examples of countless such decisions and crossroads), if we persist in these paths that lead away from God instead of the paths of life, we end up dying more and more inside.

So, these stories tell us that at the crossroads it matters which way we go. It matters that we know there is a right road, even if it’s hard to discern at times. This is why we need each other on our journey so badly, so that we can ask each other: is this the right road? Is this the way God is calling us to go? Are we moving toward healing, toward growth in godliness?

Are we on the way?

Imagine how different it would look if we lived into the Genesis story not in the way we usually do – which is like Adam and Eve, blaming others for our sin, denying our part, not talking to each other about it – and instead used each other as guides, as help?

What if Adam and Eve would have talked to each other during the temptation, and encouraged each other? How might that have changed things? What if we, who are Adam and Eve, would do the same when struggling: ask for help, wisdom, encouragement, guidance on the road? What difference would that make in our lives?

Together we can help each other be faithful in our journey.

We not only help each other find the right paths, our encouragement to each other to want the paths of life is vital to our faithful walk.

Because we begin all this where we always begin, in the certain knowledge of our Lord’s love and forgiveness for us, we have this hope and promise: in the grace of God we can always trust God will pick us back up and get on the right road again when we fail.

While we are still living, there is time to be corrected, and to move toward God’s life of grace. But together, we will be much more faithful in all our listening, all our journeying.

We’re not where we will be, but the Spirit is moving us there.

We rejoice that we are given each other on this journey, so that we can help each other listen, and see. As each of us stand at crossroads in our lives, we stand with each other, as God’s grace to each other, in choosing which way to go. As our community, as even the Church stands at crossroads, too, we listen together for God.

It matters which way we choose, which direction we go. That we learn from the garden and the wilderness today. Let us walk together, with the grace of the Holy Spirit, that we might listen to our God, find the paths of life, and walk them.

In the name of Jesus. Amen

[1] “This life, therefore, is not godliness but the process of becoming godly, not health but getting well, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way. The process is not yet finished, but it is actively going on. This is not the goal but it is the right road. At present everything does not gleam and sparkle, but everything is being cleansed.”

Martin Luther, “Defense and Explanation of All the Articles,” a response of Martin Luther, March 1521, to Exsurge Domine, the papal bull of condemnation of his writings issued by Pope Leo X in July, 1520. Luther’s Works, vol. 32, The Career of the Reformer II, p. 24.