moadmin – Page 77

Worthy

June 2, 2013 By moadmin

We can come up with plenty of reasons why we are not worthy to be loved by God, forgiven by God, welcomed by God. But Christ, whose love defeats death and our own unworthiness, calls us beloved. Worthy. And it is so.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, Time after Pentecost, Lectionary 9, year C; text: Luke 7:1-10

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

George Herbert, an early seventeenth century Anglican priest, gives us this poem:

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.

A guest, I answer’d, worthy to be here:
Love said, you shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?

Truth, Lord, but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
So I did sit and eat. [1]

There is a question of worthiness that flows through this story.

This centurion, assigned to Capernaum by the occupying Roman government, is a remarkable man. The Jewish elders of the town plead his case, plead his worth to Jesus. “He loves our people. He built us our synagogue. Help him, if you can.” This centurion might not be unique in supporting local religion that is not his own faith; the emperor Augustus recommended such behavior because it helped keep people in order.

But there’s more here, isn’t there? “He loves our people,” they said. This is no cynical bureaucrat, seeking to appease a restless populace. The community of people whose oppression is visibly symbolized by his very office argues on his behalf to one of their own, a miracle worker of the Jews.

So why doesn’t he see that same worth, at least not when it comes to what he asks of Jesus, recognizes in Jesus? Is it just that this centurion honors Jewish custom by not asking Jesus to risk becoming unclean by entering a Gentile home?

Like Naaman the Syrian, whom Jesus mentions in Nazareth a little earlier, the centurion sends people as go-betweens, respecting Jesus’ authority. Unlike Naaman, he seems to consider himself unworthy of direct contact with the Jewish prophet.

The first group of advocates, the Jewish elders, speak of his worth. But then he sends his friends, who downplay his worth. “I’m not worthy to have you come under my roof,” he asks them to convey to Jesus.

This is such a strange, unexpected thing to hear from the representative of an occupying army. Where’s the arrogance? Where are the demands? No, this one doubts his worthiness to receive Jesus.

But there is third assessment of worth here, that of the Incarnate Son of God. Jesus heals this man’s slave, he sees worth and value in the centurion, even if the centurion does not. He made the slave. He made the centurion. And he says, “worthy.”

We’re getting used to hearing this from Luke about Jesus, but it’s still surprising. When Jesus preached for the first time in his hometown he emphasized God’s grace to foreigners. His friends and neighbors were enraged. Why would he say that about unworthy people?

But this goes back even to before his birth, Luke tells us. And when Jesus was a baby, Simeon said that he would be a light to bring light to the nations, and the glory of God’s people Israel. All would be in this love of God, this kingdom he was bringing, Jews and non-Jews. So Jesus declares even this foreign soldier and this unknown slave worthy of God’s grace and love and healing.

And there is also this: even though he felt unworthy, he did trust Jesus’ decision and authority. “If you say this will be so, it will be so.” And Jesus says he is worthy.

This question of worthiness flows through the Rev. Herbert’s poem.

Love, who is Christ, bids welcome to a feast, but the speaker holds back, feeling guilty, sinful. When Love notices the hesitation, the speaker claims there is no guest worthy to be here.

What follows is so beautiful, as Love argues with the speaker about his own worth. “I made you.” “Yes, but I’ve messed that all up.” “But I took that blame.” “Then I should serve you for that.”

But Love insists: no, you must let me serve you. Feed you. Come, sit, and eat. In spite of any perceived unworthiness, the speaker is invited to face this fact: he is loved by Love himself, by the Christ whose love saves all.

The only one who can declare someone worthy is the One who made and redeemed that one. And Love, Christ, says, “you are worthy, indeed.” So the speaker relents, and eats.

So again, there is this: though he feels unworthy, he trusts in Love’s invitation. And Love says he is worthy.

This question of worthiness seems to flow through the heart of our lives.

It’s dangerous to imply that everyone at all times feels similar things, because that’s not true. But I suspect that there are few people who, when they consider God, always and at all times believe themselves to be worthy.

We come here because we long for God’s love and grace and healing. Because here, in this place, we have felt welcomed by God’s grace. People here speak of Mount Olive being a place where many who have been wounded by the Church and by the world have found healing and grace in the love of God. I doubt there are any here who can’t identify with feeling such grace and welcome here. I know I can.

But it’s not always easy to believe we’re deserving of that. How many of us would like every thought, every action, every personality trait we have to be brought into the open amongst the people here? I wouldn’t. How many of us, when we confess our sins in silence before liturgy are grateful that it is done in silence? I am.

We long to hope that we are welcomed with open arms by the Triune God, even by others here, but in our inmost hearts we aren’t always sure we can ask for that.

There are times the law of God needs to come to us from the outside, breaking through walls of denial, but many times at our core, we can feel the sting of God’s law without even being told, we can hear an inner voice saying that we’re not what we should be, what we were meant to be. That maybe we’re not worthy to be here this morning.

It used to be the stereotype that churches were full of holier-than-thou types, people who insisted on their own righteousness.

That has not been my experience as pastor. Again and again, when I talk to people I get a sense that there’s at least a part of everyone that recognizes the view of that poet, a part that recognizes the fretting of the centurion. Even the most holier-than-thou person typically uses that bravado to cover up an inner fear of not measuring up.

Simply, we desperately want to know if God’s face is turned to us in love or against us in anger. We want to know if we’re worthy of God’s love and grace. But like the poet and the centurion, we might be tempted to turn away, or avoid seeing Jesus in person, just in case the answer is what we fear it might be.

But then we come here, and are welcomed by the very Son of God. We begin to see in Christ that the face of God is love toward us and toward the world.

It’s almost more than we can grasp: we come to this altar, to the Meal spread before us, and are welcome. We hear the voice of the Incarnate Son of God, who made us, say “you are worthy of my love. My forgiveness. My healing.” Worthy to bear the same flesh the Word of God put on himself. We hear the voice of the Crucified Son of God, who died for us and rose from death, say, “I have made you whole, healed what is sinful, taken away your judgment. And I love you.”

No one can say we are truly worthy but the One who made us and redeemed us. And here we find that he says, “worthy.”

And in this place, Love, the Christ, speaks through all these people around us, these faces who say to us in our deepest fears: “you are worthy of God’s love and grace. You are loved.” Who serve now as Christ to us, and to the world. In whose eyes we see love and welcome, not judgment. Who take seriously the Word of God, the Incarnate, Crucified and Risen One, and repeat his words to us again and again and again until we believe them: “You are worthy. You are welcome. Come, and eat. Be healed.”

So then there is only this remaining for us: Can we accept this? Can we, too, though unworthy, trust Jesus’ command? Trust his judgment? Can we trust Love’s invitation?

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-ey’d Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.

A guest, I answer’d, worthy to be here:
Love said, you shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
Who made the eyes but I?

Amen and Amen.

The Olive Branch, 5/29/13

May 29, 2013 By moadmin

Accent on Worship

Back to normal?

We’ve now moved into our “normal” time of the Church Year, sometimes called “ordinary” time. After months of seemingly constant festivals, special seasons, times of penitence, times of celebration, we now have nearly as many months ahead where there is not much in the way of special observances. It’s a nice change at this stage, though by the end of the season after Pentecost I usually feel ready for the big run ahead as a Church Year ends and another begins.

But I wonder if we’re really “back to normal” at all. Or if we even want to be. In fact, in these early weeks of the season of Pentecost we are still not far from hearing that marvelous story of the coming of the Spirit to those first believers. Sound of wind, the sight of flames on or around their heads, and the gift of language to tell the Good News of Jesus to all in Jerusalem, that was a remarkable day, that birth-day of the Church. And those disciples never got “back to normal.” Read the account in Acts 2: 3,000 new believers on the first day, the disciples bravely out in the streets and in the Temple telling that the crucified Jesus is raised from death and is Lord and God. Very soon some of these believers were persecuted for their witnessing, some jailed, and some killed. I wonder if they sometimes wished it could be “back to normal.”

I doubt it. Not that there was always something wrong with “normal.” For some, it was a working merchant life as independent fishermen. For others, especially the women, there were families to raise, and daily housework to do. For many, “normal” used to be a state of pain and fear due to illness, or possession. So some of “normal” was good for these disciples, some bad, but for all this was their reality: once they met Jesus they were changed forever. And once he was raised from the dead, they would never know normal again.

It’s not highly likely that we’ll experience 3,000 new believers being baptized in one day, or should be expecting tongues of fire at our times together (though maybe we shouldn’t underestimate the Spirit!), but in the same way those early disciples were changed forever so are we. The Spirit is calling us to new things here at Mount Olive, always opening us to new visions of our service to God here. “Normal” life cannot be lived keeping to our own back yards, or our own church building walls. Once the Spirit has enflamed us with God’s love, filled us with faith in the risen Jesus, and showered us with gifts, we will never be the same.

It could be frightening, what the Spirit calls us to be. Sometimes those early believers must have been scared. But like them, we know that the Triune God is with us always, blessing us with love and sending us out to share that love. We know that we have life in our Lord Jesus as we gather around Word and Sacrament each week and as we are sent out by the Spirit into the world. We know that we are loved by the God of the universe, forever and always, and changed into children of God. Who’d ever want to go back to normal after that?

– Joseph

Olive Branch Summer Publication

Please note that during the months of June, July, and August, The Olive Branch is published every other week. This is the last weekly issue until after Labor Day. The next issue will be published on June 12.

Attention Graduates!

If you are a regular worshipper (member or friend of the congregation) and will be graduating from high school, college, or a graduate school this spring, please let us know as soon as possible. We want to be sure all graduates are included in our upcoming graduate recognition.

Simply call the church office (612-827-5919), or drop an email (welcome@mountolivechurch.org).

Bach Tage Events

Saturday, June 8, 4 pm – Bach Masterworks Concert, featuring Marc Levine (Baroque violin), Tami Morse (harpsichord), and Tulio Rondón (Viola de gamba).

Sunday, June 9, 4 pm – Evening Prayer with Bach Cantatas 36 and 123; Susan Palo Cherwien, Susan Druck, William Pederson, and Daniel Mahraun, soloists.

Hebrews Study on Thursday Evenings

Meeting in the Chapel Lounge from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., Pr. Crippen is currently leading a study of the book of Hebrews, an early Christian sermon preserved in the New Testament. As usual, there will be a light supper when we begin. The final session of this study is June 6. All are welcome to this study opportunity!

Summer Jobs After School

The Summer Jobs After School Program is in need of one more volunteer. If you would like to hang out with three or four cool kids to supervise jobs and an art project once a week for up to two hours for six weeks, call Donna at church, 612-827-5919. Summer Jobs After School will run from the first week in July through mid-August. It’s a lot of fun!

Coffee Hour Birthday Celebration

The families of Andrea Kloempken Volk and David Kloempken will host the coffee hour after the liturgy this Sunday, June 2, in honor of Leanna Kloempken’s 80th birthday. Please come by for the special treats and to help Leanna celebrate!

Adult Forum June 9

Jessinia Ruff, daughter of Mark and Lisa, is a recent high school graduate. She will be traveling to the Dominican Republic with SCORE International for an 8 month-long trip to study Spanish and participate in local ministry. Following the liturgy on June 9, she will talk more about the organization, the work she’ll be doing there, and how you can support her.

Vision for the Future/Our Vision and Energy: Sunday June 2, 2013

At our first Vision Event in April, we looked at our history and who we have been and what moved us to become who we are today. Decade by decade God’s purpose was revealed as the people of Mount Olive responded to Word and Sacrament with action, outreach, and service.

At our second Vision Event on May 5, we began by acknowledging that we strive to be Musical, Liturgical and Welcoming, and from there we defined other core values to guide Mount Olive into the future. Two values rose to the top as primary: grace and hospitality. Six other values also were core to our discussion: love, sacredness, justice, commitment, compassion and joy. What would it mean to measure all of our decisions and actions against these values?

Now it is time to use what we have learned and brainstorm together about what we may become over the next five years. Join us this Sunday to Visioning Event #3 and add your ideas to the wealth of information your Vision Task Force will digest over the summer. At Sunday’s event you will have the opportunity to choose from four discussion groups.

• Group #1 will generate a list of Mount Olive’s strengths and select two or three that, if built upon, could really move our ministry forward.
• Group #2 will focus on areas for further development, isolating two or three areas and suggesting ways we can move from good to better.
• Group #3 will examine the community data gained by our Observers and Interviewers over the last six weeks and see what it is telling us about where and how we need to reach out.
• Group #4 is for dreamers who will open doors and windows to what Mount Olive might be, brainstorming without thought of limitations or roadblocks.

Join us June 2 for the final vision gathering to give input on Mount Olive’s strengths (values), neighborhood surrounding the church (community observers and interviewers) and a vision for our next steps. We need your vision and energy! We will gather in the Undercroft after worship on Sunday, share a simple lunch, and work together to discern God’s will for our work in this faith community. See you there!

– Your Vision Leadership Team

Night On the Street Recap

On April 19 I participated in a night out on the street. I would be lying to you if I said I was excited to do it. And when the night rolled around I wasn’t in the greatest of moods, but my attitude changed the further into the night we got.

I and my dear friend, Peter Crippen, arrived there on a Friday afternoon, and as soon as we pulled into the parking lot we saw a huge crowd and a big stage. They had all the currently popular music playing and people having fun. They started us off playing some games and listening to music. Then they went on to tell us about the program and what we would be doing for the rest of the night. So after I got my dinner baggy (which contained some very well done chili, a corn muffin, a chocolate chip cookie and an apple), we went inside the church. They brought our group to a room at the far end of the hall, it was a fairly big room and, compared to the others, rather comfortable.

They sat us down, did their introductions, and then brought in a few groups to speak to us. But the one that caught my attention the most was a man who was homeless when he was a kid. He told us about how he would have to sleep during the day (since sleeping at night was, and still is, rather dangerous). When he could sleep at night it would be at a homeless shelter, and he went on to tell us how they sleep on not much more than a gym mat. He also told us that when they do go to those shelters for a night, they’d have to sleep with everything on, like shoes, socks, and even sometimes backpacks. Because if they didn’t, their possessions would get stolen.

Later that night we went to the chapel of the church and there they hosted an amusing play. The play was not really relevant to what we were doing, and I started to wonder, “what does this have to do with homeless people?” But at the end they explained how the little play tied in with what they were doing and it made better sense. Later, we went outside and the iron clad doors were closed and we were told we are not allowed back in. And so we all prepared for a very cold night. On the stage they “rewarded” the churches who raised the most money, and then we said some prayers and got briefed on what was going to happen and what we would be doing that night. So Peter and I and the rest of the group we were in set out across the slippery parking lot to grab our shelter, a Grade A cardboard box. We set up our little camp, and hey, our “camp” looked like something out of a post- apocalyptic science fiction movie. After some talking, I considered going to sleep and then going home the next morning. But the person I was talking to noticed a group of people congregating at a trailer, and he realized they were giving cookies and cocoa out (one detail of the night I wasn’t made aware of until that night!), so we went over and ate our cookies and drank our cocoa and went to sleep.

The next morning they fed us granola bars and fruit. Then they had us take a big group photo and after all that was done we went back to the chapel and they debriefed us on the night, showed us a video they made with recordings, and then we sang a few songs, or rather, the same song repeated every time a group representative went up to say something. After that we went and cleaned up the mess of the parking lot. I won’t lie, I was disappointed seeing the little post- apocalyptic camp we created with tarps and boxes being taken down, but then I got over it and we went home. And by the end I possessed 3 new things: 1.) a new perspective on homeless, more importantly, homeless youth (witch this thing was all about); 2.) the experience of sleeping on a fairly empty stomach; and 3.) knowing what it was like freezing outside in the dead of night. And yes the last one might sound negative, but it does make you ask yourself, “they sleep like this every night?”

All in all I had a great time! And I would like to thank all the people at Mount Olive who donated money to make it possible for me to attend!

– Eric Manuel

A Note of Thanks

To Our Mount Olive Church Family

We want to thank you for your care, concern, and prayers during Stan’s recent hospitalization and while in transitional care. Thank you to Pastor Crippen and Vicar Neal for your visits to boost our Spirits. Stan is now at home and our journey continues with extensive rehabilitation/therapy.

We also want to thank the prayer shawl committee for the shawl. It has provided soft comfort and warmth (both physically and emotionally) for both of us.

We need your continued prayers of hope for Stan’s recovery toward optimum health.

Thank You and God’s Blessings,
Stan and Jo Ann Sorenson

Remember the Hungry and Homeless

Now that the end of the school year is at hand, our thoughts turn to vacations. In your travels, please remember to save unused complimentary toiletries for homeless persons. These, as well as trial size toiletries that can be purchased, are ideal because of their small size. Please bring your donations to the coat room at Mount Olive.

Also, as you may know, food needs are even greater in the summer months when children are not in school receiving free lunches. Please keep this in mind when making your food donations. CES (Community Emergency Services) has a food shelf to which we contribute. For our guidance, they have listed some needed items as follows: Chili, Sugar, Beef Stew, Salt, Canned Beets, Cooking Oil, Pudding Cups, Jello Cups, Coffee/Tea, Toilet Paper, Cocoa, Mac and Microwaveable Cups

Your usual generous response will do much to help provide for hungry children. Thank you!

Book Discussion Group

Mount Olive’s Book Discussion group meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 a.m. at church. For the June 8 meeting, they will discuss The Calligrapher’s Daughter, by Eugenia Kim. For July 13, they will read The Violent Bear It Away, by Flannery O’Connor. And advance notification (because of its length) that for August 10 they will discuss Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Lost and Found

The Lost and Found basket is filled to overflowing and our kitchens cluttered with pans and dishes which have been left at church. This Sunday, June 2, please plan to visit the Lost and Found table, which will be set up in or near the coat room. There may be things there which belong to you that you didn’t even know were missing!

TRUST News: Attention Runners

If you are a marathon runner and are looking forward to a summer of running, TRUST’s Parish Nurse Program is sponsoring a 5K and a 10K run on June 8. For information about or enrollment forms for this race, please look on the bulletin board located on the lower level of Mount Olive, just outside Donna Neste’s office.

Mysterious God

May 28, 2013 By moadmin

The Triune God is like a riddle and a mystery that we cannot fully comprehend. And like all good riddles it is in the mystery itself that we are drawn to God. In this mystery we proclaim that through the Triune God all things are possible.

Vicar Neal Cannon; The Holy Trinity, year C; text: John 16:12-15; Romans 5:1-5

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

Today is Holy Trinity Sunday, and being as how the Trinity is one of the most complicated concepts of the Christian faith I thought that we should do some mental stretching with a couple of riddles.

What gets wetter and wetter the more it dries? A towel.

I can run but not walk. Wherever I go, thought follows close behind. What am I? A nose.

What goes around the world but stays in a corner? A stamp.

Some of you may like riddles, others not so much. But for all of us riddles are like a bug in our brain that we can’t get out. We humans have an intense desire to know the answer, to solve the problem. But if you are like me, then knowing the answer to the riddle is far less interesting than being in the mystery of the riddle. In fact, for me, actually knowing the answer makes the riddle seem silly, maybe even a little bit boring.

Our God is a little bit like an unsolved riddle; mysterious and sometimes cryptic. Our God is a God that is impossible to figure out, box up, or define. The Old Testament is full of references to God’s unknowability. For example, when Moses asks for God’s name, God responds to him, I AM WHO I AM or in some translations, I WILL BE WHAT I WILL BE. How’s that for a riddle?

Later Moses approaches God again and asks to see God’s glory. And God infamously responds, “‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.’ But, he said, ‘you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.’”

As Pastor Crippen said in his sermon last week, this is not a God that we can control. And what’s more, in many ways this is not a God that we can fully know. This is a God who shows us God’s back, wrestles with us in the dark, and whose face we cannot look upon and live.

On this Holy Trinity Sunday there seems no greater riddle in all the Old and New Testaments than the fact that we Christians claim a God that is Triune in nature; three and one. This is to say that we believe in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as completely separate and individual, yet completely One God. Solving this riddle seems impossible.

Recently I saw a great satirical YouTube video about the Trinity, where two cartoon Irishmen ask St. Patrick to unravel the mystery of the Trinity with a simple analogy. Every time St. Patrick tries to define the Trinity as a three leaf clover or as how water exists as both ice, vapor, and liquid, in a bantering kind of way the Irishmen explain exactly how these analogies are a heresy of one kind or another. Ultimately, St. Patrick resorts to merely reciting the Athanasian Creed, essentially throwing his hands in the air and admitting there are no adequate human analogies, rather The Trinity JUST IS HOW IT IS.

It feels like God often chooses to come to us in mystery and cloud, and darkness. It feels like God often comes to us in a riddle, only it’s a riddle that we can’t solve and don’t fully understand.

And I can’t help but think that God comes to us in mysterious ways because the more we realize that we don’t understand God, the more we actually want to know God. The more of a riddle that God is to us, the more we desire to be close to God’s very presence. Maybe, God actually desires to be a mystery to us.

This is not to say that we can’t understand anything about God. Our Scriptures, creeds and doctrines actually tell us the story of those things that God has revealed to us. But understanding that God never fully reveals Godself to us simply admits that we don’t know everything about God. God is Triune because God is I AM. We say that while we don’t fully understand how, we believe that God revealed Godself in Jesus Christ, and God continues to reveal Godself in the Holy Spirit who comes to us now.

This means that God has mercy on whom God has mercy, and God will have compassion on whom God will have compassion. It means that the Spirit goes wherever the Spirit goes and reveals whatever the Spirit reveals and we as humans can’t control it, don’t understand it, yet say that it’s true.

After all, in the Gospel of John Jesus tells us that there are some things that we are not ready to hear, and then tells us that when the Spirit of Truth comes the Spirit will guide us into all truth; meaning that right now, we don’t have all the answers and we don’t own the truth. There are things that we haven’t been able to understand and there are things that God is still telling us about what God’s plans are in the world.

Despite this, many branches of Christianity expect that we have perfect doctrine and that we know all the right words and have said all the right prayers in order to be accepted by God and communities as “true believers.” So Christians for centuries have tried to rationalize their beliefs about God and put the infinite in a neat little box. For example, many Christians even today insist that the world is 6,000 years old despite scientific evidence to the contrary. And so when dinosaurs were discovered many Christians claimed that God was merely testing our faith. And, at one point in our history the Pope put Galileo under house arrest for claiming that the Earth was not at the center of the universe, because it went against doctrine.

And it’s not that other Christians are the only ones unable to hear the Spirit of Truth. We have to ask ourselves, what am I unwilling to hear? Are we really ready to know who made our iPhones and Nike shoes? Do we really want to know where our food comes from, or are we content with how things are?

The point is that God is always bigger than our imaginations, bigger than us; that God has done, is doing, and will do things in this world that we have not yet even imagined. And so maybe the Triune God, who comes to us in mystery, wants us to embrace mystery itself.

Embracing mystery is much harder than embracing easy answers. Embracing mystery means not relying on ourselves or our own knowledge or works, but rather relying on something we don’t understand and sometimes isn’t fully here yet. For example, Paul writes in his letter to the Romans that we are justified and forgiven not by our own works, but through Jesus Christ. And in our reading today, Paul says something that is rather peculiar, Paul says, “And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

Now think about who Paul is talking to for a minute. Paul is addressing the early Christians who are being persecuted by the Romans for their beliefs and essentially tells them to hope. What’s odd about this, is that hope, by its very definition is not certain. We hope that someday we’ll win the lottery, but we don’t know that we will. We hope that we’ll have nice weather this summer, but we don’t know that it’s coming. We hope that two years from now we’ll be promoted or still have our jobs but the truth is, we don’t know.

Note that Paul doesn’t try to explain their suffering and evil. He doesn’t tell them that they are suffering because they are sinful or because of a particular ideology. Too often in the world Christians have tried to explain evil as if God allowed 9/11 or Hurricane Katrina to happen because of one group or one sin. What’s more, Christians have used the Scriptures as a way of saying all the things that God can’t do – slaves can’t be free, women can’t be pastors, gay men and women can’t be married – rather than submitting ourselves to all the things that God can do. But the truth is that explaining evil is just another way that we try to put God in a box by explaining things that we don’t understand.

Paul doesn’t do this. Instead, Paul opens our imaginations to hope in what God does through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Paul says that because the Son of God suffered, died, and rose for the world, we learned something about God. We learned that this mysterious God isn’t seeking to destroy us, but desperately wants us to be in community with the Trinity.

And so when tragedy, and death, and sadness enter our lives – when tornadoes destroy and bombs explode and jobs are lost – Paul says that we too can have certain hope even when we can’t answer the question, “Why is this happening?” We don’t have to search for answers and blame evil on certain “other” groups or on ourselves. No. Because of what God has done we can say that evil exists AND the Triune God’s love for us is certain, even if we don’t understand how. As Paul says later in I Corinthians, “For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end.”

And it is in the riddle of God’s Triune mystery and in these words, that the Holy Spirit dares us to see God as bigger than our imaginations, bigger than our limitations, and yes, even bigger than our creeds and doctrines. In these words we admit that we see God only in part and submit ourselves to the not yet imagined things that God is doing in the world.

So through this Spirit we see the unexpected things that God has done, slave and free are equal, women preach and prophesy as men do, and gay and lesbian couples can love and be loved by God and the world in the same way as straight couples. Therefore, let us open our hearts and minds to the infinite possibility of God.

I AM WHO I AM, says the Lord. What a great mystery.

The Olive Branch, 5/22/13

May 22, 2013 By moadmin

Accent on Worship

The Holy Trinity

In this Sunday’s readings for The Holy Trinity, we are given a vision in the lessons, the Gospel and the Psalm of a cosmic Creator God, and the story of God’s creation in spirit and matter. Wisdom, a spiritual entity, is personified in Proverbs as a feminine being, a companion to the Creator from the beginning. Psalm 8 is a tribute to the Creator for the majesty of the universe, the material world. Paul writes in his letter to the Romans about suffering, which is done in the physical body and the powerful spiritual force of hope. Jesus, who will soon physically depart from his disciples, tells them of how he will continue to be with them in the Spirit who will guild them and communicate with them in this world.

The life force that resonates through all that is living originates with the spiritual force of God’s love. “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us,” writes Paul.
We are called by the life and love of Jesus to manifest God’s love in the material world, in which we live. We love by being physically present to those in need. When our sisters and brothers are suffering, we are called to suffer through the sacrificial giving of our material (matter) and ourselves (spirit). And, “that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,” writes Paul.

We have been created to live in love, trust, kindness, and hope with God and one another. And we do this in the spirit and the flesh. For this reason Wisdom is portrayed as “rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race.”

– Donna Neste

Sunday Readings

May 26, 2013 – The Holy Trinity
Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31 + Psalm 8
Romans 5:1-5 + John 16:12-15

June 2, 2013 – Time after Pentecost: Sunday 9
I Kings 8:22-23, 41-43 + Psalm 96:1-9
Galatians 1:1-12 + Luke 7:1-10

Summer Worship Schedule Begins This Weekend!

Beginning this Sunday, May 26, and running through Sunday, September 1, Mount Olive celebrates one Sunday Eucharist at 9:30 a.m.

Olive Branch Summer Publication

Please note that during the months of June, July, and August, The Olive Branch is published every other week. Weekly publication resumes after Labor Day.

Attention Graduates!
If you are a regular worshipper (member or friend of the congregation) and will be graduating from high school, college, or a graduate school this spring, please let us know as soon as possible. We want to be sure all graduates are included in our upcoming graduate recognition.

Simply call the church office (612-827-5919), or drop an email (welcome@mountolivechurch.org).

Hebrews Study on Thursday Evenings

Summer Jobs After School

The Summer Jobs After School Program is in need of one more volunteer. If you would like to hang out with three or four cool kids to supervise jobs and an art project once a week for up to two hours for six weeks, call Donna at church, 612-827-5919. Summer Jobs After School will run from the first week in July through mid-August. It’s a lot of fun!

Book Discussion Group

Mount Olive’s Book Discussion group meets on the second Saturday of each month at 10:00 a.m. at church. For the June 8 meeting, they will discuss The Calligrapher’s Daughter, by Eugenia Kim. For July 13, they will read The Violent Bear It Away, by Flannery O’Connor. And advance notification (because of its length) that for August 10 we will discuss Team of Rivals, by Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Adult Forum June 9

A Letter of Thanks

Dear Friends at Mount Olive—

It is my pleasure to forward to you a letter I recently received on behalf of Mt. Olive from our Bethania partners in India. You may recall that some months ago Bethania received a $5,000 grant out of the Capital Campaign tithe to help fund the start of a new mission project for children in the State of Odisha in India. Thanks in no small part to that “seed money”, the work in this remote and largely unchurched part of India has successfully begun.

You may also be interested to know that the author of the letter was Godfrey Immanuel Rajkumar. Godfrey was one of the two visitors from Bethania who were at Mount Olive two years ago. As the Odisha project has taken shape, Godfrey has been one of the key leaders in getting this project off the ground.
Let me finally add a personal word of thanks for the grant that was awarded. As some of you know, Mount Olive was one of the original supporters of Bethania going back to 1987. The faithful support over the years has been much appreciated as Bethania continues to spread the “Good News” to some of India’s neediest children.
God bless you and all the good people at Mount Olive!

– Gene Hennig

Remember the Hungry and Homeless

Your usual generous response will do much to help provide for hungry children. Thank you!

“Procession” arrives at Mount Olive

Thanks to a generous gift by the Mount Olive Foundation, John August Swanson’s magnificent painting “Procession” has come to Mount Olive. It is hanging in the Chapel Lounge, though that placement may change. “Procession” is a beautiful, complex painting of a massive, celebratory liturgical procession, with portrayals of biblical stories throughout, banners and musical instruments and singing people. The artist says this about the painting: “It is not my desire that the complexity and intricacy of this work confuse or confound, but that it illuminate and inspire. We are invited to join together in the procession to help each other see in ways we have never seen before, to help each other see again what we have forgotten, to see something familiar in a new way, in a new light, from a different perspective. The great procession is a celebration of life and faith where the rich and poor march in unison; the strong carry the weak, and the weak humble the proud; those who know the dance teach those who are just learning; and a child lifts high the banner for all to follow in joy, in peace, in love. This is the reality, the spirit I want to make real in this work.” This painting celebrates a life of worship and praise of God to which Mount Olive aspires.

Swanson painted “Procession” in 1980, and created a signed, serigraph edition of 250 in 2007; Mount Olive’s is number 180 in the series. For more information and reflections by the artist, see his website description of this work: http://www.johnaugustswanson.com/default.cfm/PID=1.2.21.

Thanks are due to the Mount Olive foundation for this gift, and to Paul Nixdorf and Brian Jacobs for their assistance in procuring it and having it framed.

Church Library News

We are pleased to invite you into our library to see and browse in the newest display of books. Included are three books given in memory of someone and almost a dozen books that have been donated by one of our congregation’s members. There are also some nice additions to our children’s book section.
Memorial Books:
• WHAT A SON NEEDS FROM HIS DAD (How a Man Prepares His Sons for Life) by Michael A. O’Donnell, Ph.D., given in memory of Warren Bartz
• GOD’S ANSWERS TO LIFE’S DIFFICULT QUESTIONS (Living With Purpose series) by Rick Warren, given in memory of Bill Laack
• MY HEART’S CRY — Longing for More of Jesus by Anne Graham Lotz, given in memory of Vernette Schroeder

Donated Books:
• THE HIDDEN GOSPEL OF MATTHEW, Annotated and Explained by Ron Miller, given to our library by David Ludwig
• THE RIVER OF GOD (a New History of Christian Origins) by Gregory J. Riley, given by David Ludwig
• THE UNVARNISHED NEW TESTAMENT, A New Translation from the Original Greek Translation by Andy Gaus, given by David Ludwig
• THE JOURNEYS OF ST. PAUL (Bible Wisdom for Today) by James Harpur, given by David Ludwig.
• CAREGIVING FOR YOUR LOVED ONES by Mary Vaughn Armstrong, given by Adam Krueger
• WISDOM ABOUT WAR AND NON-VIOLENCE (30 Thoughts to Discuss and Ponder) with Lowell Erdahl and Duane Kamrath, given by Al Bostelmann
• ONLY ANGELS CAN WING IT (The Rest of Us Have to Practice) by Liz Curtis Higgs, given by Hans Tisberger
• MARTIN LUTHER — A PENGUIN LIFE by Martin Marty, given by Mary Dorow.
• MY REAL FAMILY (a Child’s Book About living in a Step Family) by Doris Sanford, given by Leanna Kloempken

More New Books:
• TRAVELING LIGHT (Releasing the Burdens You Were Never Intended to Bear), by Max Lucado
• REDEMPTION, RETURN, and TUESDAY MORNING (3 separate books about the Victim of the September 11, 2001 Terrorism Attack), the first two by Karen Kingsbury and Gary Smalley and the last in the series is written by Karen Kingsbury alone.
• GOD’S BEAUTIFUL HEAVEN, by Julie Cadalbert
• HELP WANTED (Devotions for Job Seekers), by Aaron M. Basko
• ALWAYS THERE (Reflections for Mom’s on God’s Presence), by Susan Wallace
• 3 Special Children’s books in the Helping Hand Books series, written by Sarah, Duchess of York — EMILY’S FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL, MICHAEL AND HIS NEW BABY BROTHER, and MATTHEW AND THE BULLIES.

Also, remember that with the coming of the summer church schedule, our church library’s hours will change to being open 45 minutes after each Sunday’s liturgy.

I’ll close with this quote from Archibald MacLeish: “What is more important in a library than anything else — than everything else — is the fact that it exists!

– Leanna Kloempken

Come, Spirit of Truth

May 19, 2013 By moadmin

The Holy Spirit leads us to the truth of God: Jesus our Savior, God-with-us, who calls us to bear God’s love to the world. However, we are not capable of controlling where the Triune God works, nor are we called to that task.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, Day of Pentecost, year C; texts: John 14:8-17, 25-27; Acts 2:1-21

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

One of many impressions I had of the recent vote for marriage equality in our state’s legislature is the image of impassioned Christians on both sides of this issue, and the sense that to a large degree this was an internal Christian debate overlaid upon a civil question of equal protection and rights under the law. This is, no doubt, due to the fact that Christians are still the majority religion in this state. But still, it was striking to me how often senators and representatives invoked God’s will on their points of view on a public, civil issue, and specifically the will of the Triune God, because most claimed to be Christian. At one point a senator who was opposed to the measure cried out that voting for this bill was a vote against religious freedom. What was clear by her argument, however, was that for her, religious freedom was the state enforcing and endorsing her own religious views, her own understanding of Christian teaching, in spite of the fact that some Christians, people of her own faith, passionately disagreed with her view of Christian teaching. Likewise, when a senator argues on the floor of the State Senate that he is more interested in being on the “right side of eternity” as opposed to the right side of history, we have a conversation that has been hijacked from the realm of civil discourse into the realm of inter-Christian discourse. It was disconcerting, to say the least.

But it is not a new thing. Christians in power tend to use that power against each other as well as against people of other faiths with whom they disagree. We fight over what we consider to be the truth, God’s truth, and if we get political power, it can become very ugly. Only the protections of our federal and state constitutions keep us from falling into the sins and errors of our ancestors, who took this enforcing of their sense of God’s truth on others to sometimes violent and tragic extremes, such as the Inquisition or the Crusades.

Jesus promises today to send us the Spirit of truth. At the birth of the Church, that same Holy Spirit filled the believers and they preached the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. 3,000 people became new believers that day. How do we get from there to Inquisition and Crusade? From there, to what we see in America today, some Christians arguing for what essentially would be a Christian state, for a nation where there’s no room for those who are not true believers? From there to denominations in fights with each other and with other denominations over who has the truth and who really believes the right things? If the Spirit of God is supposed to lead us to truth how do we listen over the din of our fighting?

It is true that because of our constitutions, we are not talking about persecution on the scale of past Christian abuses. But we really must not forget our past.

In fact, I found myself remembering a particularly horrible incident this past week, from the 13th century. In particular, the Inquisition against the Cathars in southern France, something the Church itself called a Crusade, though it was a crusade against others who claimed to be Christians.

This was actually the time when the Inquisition officially began. A chronicler of the early 13th century records that as the forces of the French nobles and the Pope were attacking a city in what is now southern France, Béziers, when Abbot Arnaud (the papal legate), leading the army both spiritually and militarily, was asked whom to kill (because there were also orthodox Catholics in the city) he said, “Kill them all. The Lord will recognize his own.”

And they did. They burned the city, a large one for those days, to the ground, and slaughtered all within, men, women, children, all.

Now, of course, this is far more serious than any public debates in the United States. I am not saying anything like that these things have equal standing. But we wouldn’t be truthful if we didn’t note that actual violence and even killing has been done by American Christians against others in this country whom they deemed sinful, wrong, on many different issues including racism, slavery, sexuality, doctrines and others. Some of my direct ancestors sent public letters of support and encouragement to the leaders of the Salem witch trials.

We cannot pretend that we are much more civilized. And we cannot be so foolishly naïve as to think that Christian hate rhetoric doesn’t have a seriously negative impact on our effectiveness in witnessing to Christ’s love for the world.

And there is a piece of this 13th century story that still won’t go away for me.

You see, it is also recorded that while the soldiers were attacking or besieging a city during this crusade, bent on total destruction, the priests and bishops and monks who always marched with the “Host,” as they called the army, would sing “Veni Creator Spiritus” to encourage the troops in their holy cause.

Maybe you don’t recognize the Latin. “Come, Creator Spirit,” is how that is translated, and it’s a hymn which dates to the 8th century, both music and text. It’s number 577 in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, and we’re singing it next. Our translation begins “Creator Spirit, Heavenly Dove,” but it’s the same hymn.

Now, here at Mount Olive we value using the gifts of 2,000 years of Christians in our worship, singing words and music that are created in praise of God in the past year as well as 1,500 years ago. It enriches us tremendously. But here we have this beautiful hymn, whose words are deeply important to our lives, misused by our ancestors to justify terrible things. We can’t pretend that isn’t important for us to consider, any more than the truth that the Scriptures, which are God’s Word for our lives, have also been so misused. The juxtaposition of the abbot’s statement and the singing of the hymn to the Holy Spirit and the wholesale slaughter of neighbors in the name of the Spirit chills me to the bone.

And it’s not just ancient texts and hymns. We’re singing a relatively new text, set to a familiar tune, at communion today. “God of tempest, God of whirlwind.” It’s a powerful text, and has been a good addition to Lutheran hymnody in the past few years. But here is stanza 2: “God of blazing, God of burning, all that blocks your purpose, purge! Through your church, Christ’s living Body, let your flaming Spirit surge! Where deceit conceals injustice, kindle us to speak your truth.” [1]

Wow. Now it’s true, that stanza does not need to be interpreted as a hymn inviting destructive crusades and inquisitions. It’s true that the error the hymnwriter lifts up in this stanza is injustice, not heresy. Nonetheless, it’s striking how easily language of the Spirit and fire can be interpreted to exclude, drive out, ostracize, and even destroy others.

The problem most likely lies with our need to control God.

It’s a basic part of human nature. It’s not enough for us to believe what we think is true. We almost always want to control it, too. And control others. We believe Jesus is God’s Son, risen from the dead, offering life now and life forever. We believe that because of our Lord Christ’s gift we have new life in the Spirit as children of God. But then we want to control that. We want to make sure that only those who think and believe the right things are part of the in group, part of the saved.

We take the gift of God given us freely by the Spirit without any work on our part, and try to control access, try to control God, try to control who’s got it and who doesn’t. We even like to believe that we can decide who is filled with the Holy Spirit and who is not.

But the very reality of the Holy Spirit is that the Triune God cannot be controlled. The Spirit blows like the wind, Jesus says in John 3, where she will.

So the Triune God is working in people in ways we cannot see or know. God is leading people to things we may not have imagined or planned for, things we cannot control. God is filling the people of the world with the Spirit, even if they haven’t heard of Jesus yet.

That’s something that frightens a lot of Christians, and leads to hurtful and even awful things, not just crusades, but think about it for a moment. If Christ Jesus is who we say he is, the risen Son of God; if God is Triune, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as we say the Scriptures proclaim; and if this God loves the whole world; is it not the height of arrogance for us to assume that the Triune God either can or will only listen to those who know this truth about God? The height of arrogance to assume that the Triune God will not bless even unbelievers with the Spirit, even if they don’t know it?

Even though we believe we have the deepest revelation of God’s will for the world in Jesus, we cannot rule out that the risen Son of God, Christ himself, will find and is finding ways to connect through the Holy Spirit even with those who do not believe in him or know him.

So what does this mean for our lives with others who do not share our faith?

It leads us to humbly being kind neighbors in the name of the One in whom we have life and love, Jesus Christ.

One of the many tragedies of that Crusade of the early 1200’s is that in that southern area of what is now France and most of the Spanish peninsula, people of many faiths were living peacefully with each other. Jews, Muslims, orthodox Catholics, and these Cathars. These people lived together for centuries in peaceful coexistence for the most part. Then the Church decided that the heresies needed to be stamped out (and this was as much a political land and power grab as anything else). And they destroyed thousands of lives, hundreds of homes and villages and cities.

Now there’s no question the Cathars had moved away from some central Christian teachings. They didn’t believe in the Trinity, or that Jesus was really a human being. They didn’t value the Sacraments, they rejected the rituals of the Church. They really weren’t Christians by definition.

But they lived good lives, were good neighbors. They followed Jesus’ teachings, actually; they believed in God’s love and they cared for each other and their communities. Whether they had the truth or not, they certainly didn’t deserve slaughter and death, and being wiped off the face of the earth, which is what happened. Any more than any of the peoples slaughtered by the many Crusades in Jesus’ name deserved their fate.

And that’s what I think the Spirit is leading us to hear today: our job is not to enforce the truth of God as if we are the controllers of it. It is to love the world in Jesus’ name, to be the love of Christ.

If people do not know the truth about the Triune God, then we can tell them by our words and actions. By our Christly love. It’s a truth worth telling, a world-changing and life-giving truth, and it’s our anointed call by Christ to tell it.

But as important, we have to remember that only God will sort out in the end what that means for them. I suspect God’s love is great enough to accommodate all; Christ seems to say that. But I know it’s not our call to decide this or know this. In fact, the truth of the Spirit that our Lord Christ has sent us leads me to hope that we can reverse the abbot’s statement as we consider our Spirit-filled call: “Love all of them. The Lord will recognize his own.”

And the gift of the Holy Spirit is that we are given the power and ability to do all this, become models of God’s love. That’s the kind of power we pray for today.

When we sing, “Creator Spirit, Heavenly Dove,” “come, Creator Spirit,” it’s not a prayer inviting destruction of those who do not believe. It’s a prayer inviting God’s Spirit to keep leading us to truth, correcting us when we err, guiding us, together, to God’s truth, which is Christ, showing us who God is.

It’s a prayer inviting God’s Spirit to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

It’s a prayer inviting God’s Spirit to make us like Christ Jesus, who never led a crusade, armed or otherwise, but simply loved the world in God’s name and called the world to the same kind of love for each other.

God’s love for the world in Jesus goes to the world in us. That’s the reality of Pentecost. That’s the gift of the Holy Spirit. And that’s our hope and our joy, and the world’s hope and joy as well.

In the name of Jesus. Amen