Mount Olive Lutheran Church

Patient Way

By

It is the Triune God who truly practices patient Advent waiting, longing for us and all God’s children to repent, turn around, and begin the healing and restoring of this world we have broken.  This is our hope and our call.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
   The Second Sunday of Advent, year B
   texts:  2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8; Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; Isaiah 40:1-11

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

That’s some vision of a restored world in Psalm 85.  I can’t wait to see it.

We sang that the salvation of God is very near, salvation that looks like this: righteousness and peace kiss each other.  Steadfast love and faithfulness meet together.  Considering the divisions that fracture our society, the injustices and humiliations that some in our country daily endure, the self-centeredness and fear that drive the actions and thoughts of so many in our nation, such a vision as this would be a marvel to see.  Think what the rest of the world could do with it.

God’s steadfast love meets with our faithful service to God and each other?  All people would surely find a better life, a safer world.  God’s righteousness embraces our work for shalom – peace, wholeness, justice?  We would surely see a transformed world.  If Advent is a time to practice waiting for the coming of God, this vision is what such coming might be in reality.

What if we’ve got this waiting backwards, though?  This season we sing of the God for whom we wait, as if Advent teaches us to wait for God to make Psalm 85 a reality.  Peter today suggests otherwise.

The question is whose responsibility is this broken world?

We seem to spend a lot of energy placing this in God’s job description.  The prophets’ dreams speak of God coming to restore all.  The Church has always rested hope on the promise of God’s new creation and life for the world, beginning in Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

Yet Peter today speaks of the patience of God, the waiting of God, not our waiting.  Encouraging people who were worried that God was letting the problems of the world pile up and not coming to heal all, Peter says the Lord isn’t slow about his promise.  God’s just being patient, hoping that all will come to repentance.

Isn’t that interesting?  John the baptizer called people to repentance, to a turning around.  To prepare themselves for the way of the Christ by walking in a different direction than the one they were going.  So if God is patiently waiting for all to repent, so none perish, Peter is saying our repentance is the way God’s restoration will happen.

That is, the healing of the nations, the blessing of the cursed, the enriching of the barren wastes is not something God is going to do for us.  God, in fact, is the one who waits for us to turn into this way, repent, find the path.  The way to the salvation of Psalm 85 is through God’s children.

This is an entirely different Advent, to consider the patient waiting of the Triune God.

To see the pain and suffering of this world and instead of sitting back and praying that God restore the creation, rather to turn our lives around from the ways we contribute to the destruction.  To turn around to find the path of Christ, the path of the cross, already announced at this beginning of Mark’s Gospel.

What would it mean if Advent became a season where we sang of God’s waiting for us to be about the healing of this world?  If we heard John’s call to repent not as some minor course correction – stop doing a sin or two, whatever you can come up with – but as a drastic road altering project the likes of which Isaiah proclaims?

This is ours to do: look at Isaiah.  The call to make a new path, a safe road in the wilderness of the world is to us, not to God.  God’s doing plenty: God will come to us, take us up in loving arms like a shepherd, feed us like a mother sheep.

But we’re the workers here, the ones to fix the mess this world’s in.  Because we’re the ones who made it.

It’s our sin of over 300 years in this country against entire races of people that has given birth to the injustice and sickness of racism that still infests our courts, our laws, our police forces, our churches, our public squares.  That’s our doing.

It’s our sin of greed and capitalism of 300 years that has given birth to greater and greater inequality of wealth and a disgusting reality that people can work two full-time jobs and still not earn enough in this so-called land of opportunity to feed their families.  That’s our doing.

It’s our sin of nearly 400 years in this country of rabid individualism and obsession with personal violence that has given birth to murder rates and gun insanity that no other civilized culture on this planet will tolerate but that we absolutely refuse to address, while week after week our children are shot, our sisters and brothers are abused and killed, and our police feel threatened every time they go out into the streets.  That’s our doing.

If this world is a wilderness, an unsafe place, we needn’t look far to find who has made it so.  And God patiently waits for us to admit it and turn around, change our direction.  So life can begin to be restored.

God’s patience, however, is at great cost.

That’s what patience means.  Our word for patience, like the Greeks and the Romans and other cultures, is related to the word for suffering.  When we speak of patience, for thousands of years of human language, we speak of waiting that involves suffering.

This is God’s patience: to suffer as we destroy this world and wait for us to change rather than wipe us out.  God made a good world, where righteousness and peace embraced, where God’s steadfast love was everywhere.  But we refused to live in love with God, neighbor, and creation, and made it as it now is.

Because God wants us to freely choose such life, God is also committed to our solving this mess.  God will inspire, empower, command, even model such a way, such a path, in person through Christ the Son of God.  God’s love we see on the cross forgives us when we fail, we know this.

But God will not do this all for us.  Think of what kind of suffering that puts the Triune God through.  To see all the hatred and violence and injustice and destruction we do to each other and this creation, and know we could change it all but won’t.  To hear us pray for dramatic rescue from God while refusing to do anything ourselves.  It must make God sick at heart.

This waiting costs God.  Costs the world, while we go our way of destruction.  The longer it takes for us all to repent, the greater the pain of the world, the greater the pain of God.

We say we can’t wait to see this healing.  God can and does wait.  So what shall we do?

Peter says we could consider what sort of people we want to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness.  We could repent, turn around, John says.  We could start making a clean path in the wastelands we’ve created, Isaiah says, so God’s healing can spread.

With the ills and evils that plague our society, it seems impossible any of us could find any new direction that would heal.  But we have each other, this gift of Christ.  We talk to each other, help each other listen better to the world and walk the path of the cross.  We support each other in changes – big and small – we begin to start making in each of our lives, as we begin to turn:  How we vote.  How we see the world.  How we treat others.  How we spend our money.  How we deal with violence.  What we talk about and care about.

We say the problems are too great, we can’t do anything.  Meanwhile, God patiently, sufferingly, waits for us to stop saying that.

Today our Prayer of the Day didn’t ask God to stir up power and come.  We asked God to stir up our hearts to prepare the way of Christ in the world.  That’s the Advent prayer we need.

The Lord’s patience is so that none will perish, all will live.

This is the great grace, why we regard the patience of the Lord as our salvation.  The great heart of the Triune God suffers and longs even more than we do for the healing of all things, hopes beyond hope that we, and all God’s children, will see this path and turn into it.  Will build new bridges and paths in the wilderness so others can see and find hope and light.  Will turn our lives around so all the world’s children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren will live in a better world than we do.

In God’s Advent waiting we find our call to love and life and service, and the world finds hope in us, sees the healing of God come to reality through us.

That I can’t wait to see.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

Patient Way

By

It is the Triune God who truly practices patient Advent waiting, longing for us and all God’s children to repent, turn around, and begin the healing and restoring of this world we have broken.  This is our hope and our call.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
   The Second Sunday of Advent, year B
   texts:  2 Peter 3:8-15a; Mark 1:1-8; Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13; Isaiah 40:1-11

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

That’s some vision of a restored world in Psalm 85.  I can’t wait to see it.

We sang that the salvation of God is very near, salvation that looks like this: righteousness and peace kiss each other.  Steadfast love and faithfulness meet together.  Considering the divisions that fracture our society, the injustices and humiliations that some in our country daily endure, the self-centeredness and fear that drive the actions and thoughts of so many in our nation, such a vision as this would be a marvel to see.  Think what the rest of the world could do with it.

God’s steadfast love meets with our faithful service to God and each other?  All people would surely find a better life, a safer world.  God’s righteousness embraces our work for shalom – peace, wholeness, justice?  We would surely see a transformed world.  If Advent is a time to practice waiting for the coming of God, this vision is what such coming might be in reality.

What if we’ve got this waiting backwards, though?  This season we sing of the God for whom we wait, as if Advent teaches us to wait for God to make Psalm 85 a reality.  Peter today suggests otherwise.

The question is whose responsibility is this broken world?

We seem to spend a lot of energy placing this in God’s job description.  The prophets’ dreams speak of God coming to restore all.  The Church has always rested hope on the promise of God’s new creation and life for the world, beginning in Christ’s resurrection from the dead.

Yet Peter today speaks of the patience of God, the waiting of God, not our waiting.  Encouraging people who were worried that God was letting the problems of the world pile up and not coming to heal all, Peter says the Lord isn’t slow about his promise.  God’s just being patient, hoping that all will come to repentance.

Isn’t that interesting?  John the baptizer called people to repentance, to a turning around.  To prepare themselves for the way of the Christ by walking in a different direction than the one they were going.  So if God is patiently waiting for all to repent, so none perish, Peter is saying our repentance is the way God’s restoration will happen.

That is, the healing of the nations, the blessing of the cursed, the enriching of the barren wastes is not something God is going to do for us.  God, in fact, is the one who waits for us to turn into this way, repent, find the path.  The way to the salvation of Psalm 85 is through God’s children.

This is an entirely different Advent, to consider the patient waiting of the Triune God.

To see the pain and suffering of this world and instead of sitting back and praying that God restore the creation, rather to turn our lives around from the ways we contribute to the destruction.  To turn around to find the path of Christ, the path of the cross, already announced at this beginning of Mark’s Gospel.

What would it mean if Advent became a season where we sang of God’s waiting for us to be about the healing of this world?  If we heard John’s call to repent not as some minor course correction – stop doing a sin or two, whatever you can come up with – but as a drastic road altering project the likes of which Isaiah proclaims?

This is ours to do: look at Isaiah.  The call to make a new path, a safe road in the wilderness of the world is to us, not to God.  God’s doing plenty: God will come to us, take us up in loving arms like a shepherd, feed us like a mother sheep.

But we’re the workers here, the ones to fix the mess this world’s in.  Because we’re the ones who made it.

It’s our sin of over 300 years in this country against entire races of people that has given birth to the injustice and sickness of racism that still infests our courts, our laws, our police forces, our churches, our public squares.  That’s our doing.

It’s our sin of greed and capitalism of 300 years that has given birth to greater and greater inequality of wealth and a disgusting reality that people can work two full-time jobs and still not earn enough in this so-called land of opportunity to feed their families.  That’s our doing.

It’s our sin of nearly 400 years in this country of rabid individualism and obsession with personal violence that has given birth to murder rates and gun insanity that no other civilized culture on this planet will tolerate but that we absolutely refuse to address, while week after week our children are shot, our sisters and brothers are abused and killed, and our police feel threatened every time they go out into the streets.  That’s our doing.

If this world is a wilderness, an unsafe place, we needn’t look far to find who has made it so.  And God patiently waits for us to admit it and turn around, change our direction.  So life can begin to be restored.

God’s patience, however, is at great cost.

That’s what patience means.  Our word for patience, like the Greeks and the Romans and other cultures, is related to the word for suffering.  When we speak of patience, for thousands of years of human language, we speak of waiting that involves suffering.

This is God’s patience: to suffer as we destroy this world and wait for us to change rather than wipe us out.  God made a good world, where righteousness and peace embraced, where God’s steadfast love was everywhere.  But we refused to live in love with God, neighbor, and creation, and made it as it now is.

Because God wants us to freely choose such life, God is also committed to our solving this mess.  God will inspire, empower, command, even model such a way, such a path, in person through Christ the Son of God.  God’s love we see on the cross forgives us when we fail, we know this.

But God will not do this all for us.  Think of what kind of suffering that puts the Triune God through.  To see all the hatred and violence and injustice and destruction we do to each other and this creation, and know we could change it all but won’t.  To hear us pray for dramatic rescue from God while refusing to do anything ourselves.  It must make God sick at heart.

This waiting costs God.  Costs the world, while we go our way of destruction.  The longer it takes for us all to repent, the greater the pain of the world, the greater the pain of God.

We say we can’t wait to see this healing.  God can and does wait.  So what shall we do?

Peter says we could consider what sort of people we want to be in leading lives of holiness and godliness.  We could repent, turn around, John says.  We could start making a clean path in the wastelands we’ve created, Isaiah says, so God’s healing can spread.

With the ills and evils that plague our society, it seems impossible any of us could find any new direction that would heal.  But we have each other, this gift of Christ.  We talk to each other, help each other listen better to the world and walk the path of the cross.  We support each other in changes – big and small – we begin to start making in each of our lives, as we begin to turn:  How we vote.  How we see the world.  How we treat others.  How we spend our money.  How we deal with violence.  What we talk about and care about.

We say the problems are too great, we can’t do anything.  Meanwhile, God patiently, sufferingly, waits for us to stop saying that.

Today our Prayer of the Day didn’t ask God to stir up power and come.  We asked God to stir up our hearts to prepare the way of Christ in the world.  That’s the Advent prayer we need.

The Lord’s patience is so that none will perish, all will live.

This is the great grace, why we regard the patience of the Lord as our salvation.  The great heart of the Triune God suffers and longs even more than we do for the healing of all things, hopes beyond hope that we, and all God’s children, will see this path and turn into it.  Will build new bridges and paths in the wilderness so others can see and find hope and light.  Will turn our lives around so all the world’s children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren will live in a better world than we do.

In God’s Advent waiting we find our call to love and life and service, and the world finds hope in us, sees the healing of God come to reality through us.

That I can’t wait to see.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

The Olive Branch, 12/3/14

By

Advent People

     For me and a small group of Advent-observing friends, Advent used to be a time of scorn.  We had much to say about “the world” which didn’t share our Advent observation, jumping straight to Christmas with its commercialism and creating a lust for more “things”.  We often regarded ours as a dark time – and we longed for Christ to stomp down here, coming back to fix things once and for all.
     Now I think of that in a different way:  Christ does come back … on an ongoing basis.  Do I notice and respond to that?

     As I get older, I’ve been re-thinking this world-evaluation thing, too.  Is it really a terrible world?  (no).  Is the world perfect?  (no).  Are we humans really worthy of the gift of hope and/or good?  (yes).  I under-stand Christ to be in a lot more than I used to.  And at the end of the day (so to speak…) is Christ with me?  Has Christ been born in me again?  (yes).  The whole unconditional sense of grace – what does that mean as we regard others – including “the world” and “commercial-ism”?

     Two acquaintances we know are going through pregnancy.  People who have gone through this can develop a new understanding of Advent.  Focus changes.  Not on how horrible everything is, but the excitement and hope of the new life growing inside the woman’s womb.  The possibili-ties!  Parents do what they can to prepare for this life, to do whatever is possible to help that life be its fullest-potential in body and soul.

     For me now, this is Advent: Christ growing inside us, creating a new focus for our outlook.  Sure, there are terrible things in the world.  I wish commercialism didn’t have such a grasp on our hopes and dreams.  But we can adjust our thinking and find peace amidst it all.  In these dark days  (literally here in the Northern Hemisphere),  there is the glow of light and warmth IN us that no one can take away.
     And the commercialism and jumping the gun on Christmas celebrations?  Christ may be in that too.  It doesn’t bother me anymore.  It doesn’t take away my Advent observation.  I still appreciate our lectionary’s trajectory.  I appreciate Wednesday Vespers as a way of removal from the attempts to re-shape our observation.  Yet, I can now allow myself to also enjoy what so many others do:  the lights, the music, the smell of evergreen, the generosity,  the basic sense of good-will and genuine
cheer!

     Nothing can take away that Advent-life growing in all of us — that daily-new-life born in us.  Do we hear its heart-beat?

     Emmanuel.

-Cantor David Cherwien 

Sunday Readings

December 7, 2014: Second Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8
 ______________________

December 14, 2014: Third Sunday of Advent
 Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126
I Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28

This Sunday’s Adult Forum – December 7:

“Poetic Exclamations in the Hebrew Bible and the Gospel of Luke,” presented by Professor Earl Schwartz of Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Fair Trade Craft Sale

     The Missions Committee is hosting a fair trade sale.  Purchase beautiful and unique fair trade items made by artisans in developing regions around the world.  These items are available from SERRV, a nonprofit fair trade organization whose mission is to eradicate poverty wherever it resides by providing opportunity and support to artisans and farmers worldwide.  See the attachment for one of our own member’s experience with how proceeds from SERRV sales helped people in Haiti.

     The handcrafted fair trade items will be available for purchase after both liturgies on December 7, 14, and 21 (cash and check only).  See the attachment/insert to view some of the items that will be for sale.  Fair trade coffee, tea, cocoa, and chocolate from Equal Exchange will also be available.  This is not a fund-raiser, just an opportunity to buy good products for a good cause.  

Book Discussion Group’s Upcoming Reads

     For their meeting on December 13, the Book Discussion group will read Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. For the meeting on January 17, (postponed one week because of the Conference on Liturgy) they will read, The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield.

The Book of Esther: Thursday Evening Bible Study Continues

     Vicar McLaughlin is currently leading a study on the Book of Esther, exploring the historical context and many issues raised in this book, including justice, violence, power and privilege, the role of women, the presence of God, and what it means to be called “for such a time as this.”

       This study meets in the Chapel Lounge on Thursday evenings, beginning with a light supper at 6:00 pm.

     This Bible study runs through December 18.

Annual Conference on Liturgy: “Common Ground: Hearing the Word Through the Lectionary”
Friday–Saturday, January 9-10, 2015

     Each Sunday at Eucharist, Christians of many different traditions gather to be fed by Word and Sacrament and share the same readings from Scripture. In the Revised Common Lectionary there is a visible sign of the unity of the Church for those who know they encounter the same Word of God each week with their sisters and brothers in many places.

     This year at Mount Olive’s annual Conference on Liturgy we will explore the richness of this shared, “common” tradition, consider the ways that the use of a common lectionary can bless the life of the parish, and ask questions of its place in the present and future life of the churches who use it.
     The keynote speaker this year is Dr. Gail Ramshaw; workshop presenters will be Pastor Joseph Crippen, The Rev. John Setterlund, and Dr. Paul Westermeyer.

     Registration fee for Mount Olive members is $35/person.

Alternative Gift Giving

     Are you looking for something different to do this year for Christmas gifts?  Take part in a growing tradition by giving gifts that help those in need.

     The Missions Committee is promoting the idea of alternative gift giving this Christmas.  For example, in honor of a loved one you can buy a month of food for a child orphaned by AIDS through ELCA Good Gifts.  We have catalogues from different charitable organizations that you can use or you can order from the organizations’ websites.  Some of these organizations are:

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
www.elca.org/goodgifts

Lutheran World Relief
http://lwrgifts.org/

Heifer Project International
http://www.heifer.org

Common Hope http://commonhopecatalog.myshopify.com/

Bethania Kids
http://bethaniakids.org/creative-giving-catalog/


Thanksgiving Thanks-Giving

     Thank you to all who donated and to all who helped transport our food donations to their recipients for Thanksgiving.  We received over $2,000 to share between CES and Sabathani – that’s $34,000 worth of food and care for our neighborhood! I hope you see that blessing overflowing in each day and each face on your path.

-Anna Kingman

La Natividad

     Here is a wonderful neighborhood participation opportunity to witness the nativity story come alive in our own neighborhood! In the Heart of the Beast Theater, along with St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, will present LA NATIVIDAD – a bilingual telling of the Christmas story. Audience members move with the puppet actors and process with Maria and Jose as they seek shelter. The show moves from Lake Street to St. Paul’s for the Nativity and celebration with music and food.
     This event takes place December 11,13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, at 6:30 pm, starting at In the Heart of the Beast theater (1500 E. Lake Street).

     Individual and group tickets are available online at hobt.org.
     Flyers with additional information are available at church.

Evening Prayer
Wednesdays in Advent
December 3, 10, and 17
7:00 p.m.

Pledges, Please

     Thanks to all who have turned in pledges. Especially because we’re facing 2015 expenditures up some 7%, at our Vestry meeting Monday, December 8—last of the calendar year—I want to report where pledges stand now compared with those a year ago. If you’ve been intending to turn in your card but haven’t quite gotten to it you’re, well, not alone. You can e-mail your pledge to Cha Posz at the church office (welcome@mountolivechurch.org). Indicate the dollar amount, whether it’s per year/month/week or whatever, and name or names (address and phone needed only if they’re different from current Mount Olive directory). Or, this Sunday put your completed pledge card in the box near the coatroom or in the Stewardship box in the office.

     Our 2015 “budget” is shorthand for the mission and ministry we do together, and it requires some collective stretching, whether we’re pledgers or nonpledgers. Thanks! —Donn McLellan, Director of Stewardship

Weekly Centering Prayer on Advent Wednesdays 

     Centering prayer, a silent acknowledging of the presence of the Divine, is held each Wednesday evening in Advent at 6:15 p.m. in the library. Led by Mount Olive members, the format will begin with a short reading from the Psalms, followed by 20 minutes of silence. At the end there will be a few moments to come together for a closing prayer.

     New to the process?  Look for brochures in the rack by the glass display case to get a more detailed description.

     Plan on coming on Wednesday evenings during Advent for Centering Prayer, December 3, 10, and 17.

National Lutheran Choir Christmas Festival Concerts:
“The Hopes and Fears of All the Years”

Fri., December 12, 2014 – (4:30 pm & 8 pm) and Sat.,  December 13, 2014 – 8pm
Basilica of Saint Mary, 88 N. 17th St., Minneapolis

     Immerse yourself in the beauty and majesty of the Basilica of Saint Mary for the National Lutheran Choir’s signature Christmas Festival Concert. During this busy season of parties, shopping and rushing around, take time to reflect upon the true meaning of Christmas through sacred song, poetry and readings.

     Tickets: $28 Adult, $25 Senior, $10 Student, age 17 and under FREE. For tickets or more information call (888) 747-4589, or visit www.nlca.com.

Mount Olive Christmas Cards
     There are still some of the Mount Olive Christmas cards available for sale this year. The cards cost $2.50 each if you buy 5 or less.  If you buy 6 or more they are $1.75 each. The cards are available in the church office and will be available Sunday mornings.  Please contact Paul Nixdorf or Andrew Andersen with any questions.

Pray for Nigeria

     Weekly we pray for Naomi and the other kidnapped girls in Nigeria. The ELCA is working closely with the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria (LCCN) in this effort. This week the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria is holding its General Church Assembly in Yola.  Some 200 members and leaders will gather in the Cathedral Church in Yola in the midst of killings and church burnings. We are asked to these support faithful followers of Christ with our prayers.

     In addition to your private prayers and prayers of the church at Mount Olive, you are invited to join in a Nigeria Prayer Vigil this Sunday, December 7th at Lake Nokomis Lutheran Church, 5011 31st Ave S. in Minneapolis at 5:00 p.m.

– Global Mission Committee

Help with the Greens – Up and Down!

     Many hands make light work, and there are several opportunities for people to help decorate the nave and chancel for our Christmas celebrations at Mount Olive.  On Sunday, Dec. 21, after second liturgy, is the hanging of the greens, where all wreaths and roping are placed.  Any who wish to help, just come to the nave after coffee time.

     Also, and probably most important given it’s more easily forgotten, the taking down of the greens and trees will happen on Wednesday, Jan. 7, beginning at 8:30 a.m.  In particular, this last task requires a lot of hands, so having a good group come will make the work much easier.

Staff Christmas Gifts

     The six people who work at Mount Olive serve us and God in many and exciting ways.   At a recent congregational meeting I stated that it feels as though Mount Olive is “humming on all cylinders” right now, and that is due in large part to our capable and faithful Pastor Joseph,  Vicar Meagan, Cantor David, Neighborhood Ministries Coordinator Anna, Administrative Assistant Cha and Sexton William.  Every year we provide a special Christmas gift for them, and we want to remind you of that opportunity again.  Please submit your monetary gifts to the church office or in the offering plate.  Checks should have “Staff Christmas Gift” noted on the memo line.   The congregation has been very generous in the past, and I thank you in advance for your gifts this year.

– Lora Dundek, Vestry President

 A Note of Thanks

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

     Thank you for your prayers, cards, calls, and visits. They gave me a great deal of comfort and assurance that the Lord was with me and all would be fine.

     I have asked to have my name removed from the prayer list because I am doing well. However, it will be several months before I have fully recovered, so an occasional prayer for me would be greatly appreciated.

Yours in Christ,
Mary Rose Watson

The Olive Branch, 12/3/14

By

Advent People

     For me and a small group of Advent-observing friends, Advent used to be a time of scorn.  We had much to say about “the world” which didn’t share our Advent observation, jumping straight to Christmas with its commercialism and creating a lust for more “things”.  We often regarded ours as a dark time – and we longed for Christ to stomp down here, coming back to fix things once and for all.
     Now I think of that in a different way:  Christ does come back … on an ongoing basis.  Do I notice and respond to that?

     As I get older, I’ve been re-thinking this world-evaluation thing, too.  Is it really a terrible world?  (no).  Is the world perfect?  (no).  Are we humans really worthy of the gift of hope and/or good?  (yes).  I under-stand Christ to be in a lot more than I used to.  And at the end of the day (so to speak…) is Christ with me?  Has Christ been born in me again?  (yes).  The whole unconditional sense of grace – what does that mean as we regard others – including “the world” and “commercial-ism”?

     Two acquaintances we know are going through pregnancy.  People who have gone through this can develop a new understanding of Advent.  Focus changes.  Not on how horrible everything is, but the excitement and hope of the new life growing inside the woman’s womb.  The possibili-ties!  Parents do what they can to prepare for this life, to do whatever is possible to help that life be its fullest-potential in body and soul.

     For me now, this is Advent: Christ growing inside us, creating a new focus for our outlook.  Sure, there are terrible things in the world.  I wish commercialism didn’t have such a grasp on our hopes and dreams.  But we can adjust our thinking and find peace amidst it all.  In these dark days  (literally here in the Northern Hemisphere),  there is the glow of light and warmth IN us that no one can take away.
     And the commercialism and jumping the gun on Christmas celebrations?  Christ may be in that too.  It doesn’t bother me anymore.  It doesn’t take away my Advent observation.  I still appreciate our lectionary’s trajectory.  I appreciate Wednesday Vespers as a way of removal from the attempts to re-shape our observation.  Yet, I can now allow myself to also enjoy what so many others do:  the lights, the music, the smell of evergreen, the generosity,  the basic sense of good-will and genuine
cheer!

     Nothing can take away that Advent-life growing in all of us — that daily-new-life born in us.  Do we hear its heart-beat?

     Emmanuel.

-Cantor David Cherwien 

Sunday Readings

December 7, 2014: Second Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 40:1-11
Psalm 85:1-2, 8-13
2 Peter 3:8-15a
Mark 1:1-8
 ______________________

December 14, 2014: Third Sunday of Advent
 Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11
Psalm 126
I Thessalonians 5:16-24
John 1:6-8, 19-28

This Sunday’s Adult Forum – December 7:

“Poetic Exclamations in the Hebrew Bible and the Gospel of Luke,” presented by Professor Earl Schwartz of Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Fair Trade Craft Sale

     The Missions Committee is hosting a fair trade sale.  Purchase beautiful and unique fair trade items made by artisans in developing regions around the world.  These items are available from SERRV, a nonprofit fair trade organization whose mission is to eradicate poverty wherever it resides by providing opportunity and support to artisans and farmers worldwide.  See the attachment for one of our own member’s experience with how proceeds from SERRV sales helped people in Haiti.

     The handcrafted fair trade items will be available for purchase after both liturgies on December 7, 14, and 21 (cash and check only).  See the attachment/insert to view some of the items that will be for sale.  Fair trade coffee, tea, cocoa, and chocolate from Equal Exchange will also be available.  This is not a fund-raiser, just an opportunity to buy good products for a good cause.  

Book Discussion Group’s Upcoming Reads

     For their meeting on December 13, the Book Discussion group will read Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen. For the meeting on January 17, (postponed one week because of the Conference on Liturgy) they will read, The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield.

The Book of Esther: Thursday Evening Bible Study Continues

     Vicar McLaughlin is currently leading a study on the Book of Esther, exploring the historical context and many issues raised in this book, including justice, violence, power and privilege, the role of women, the presence of God, and what it means to be called “for such a time as this.”

       This study meets in the Chapel Lounge on Thursday evenings, beginning with a light supper at 6:00 pm.

     This Bible study runs through December 18.

Annual Conference on Liturgy: “Common Ground: Hearing the Word Through the Lectionary”
Friday–Saturday, January 9-10, 2015

     Each Sunday at Eucharist, Christians of many different traditions gather to be fed by Word and Sacrament and share the same readings from Scripture. In the Revised Common Lectionary there is a visible sign of the unity of the Church for those who know they encounter the same Word of God each week with their sisters and brothers in many places.

     This year at Mount Olive’s annual Conference on Liturgy we will explore the richness of this shared, “common” tradition, consider the ways that the use of a common lectionary can bless the life of the parish, and ask questions of its place in the present and future life of the churches who use it.
     The keynote speaker this year is Dr. Gail Ramshaw; workshop presenters will be Pastor Joseph Crippen, The Rev. John Setterlund, and Dr. Paul Westermeyer.

     Registration fee for Mount Olive members is $35/person.

Alternative Gift Giving

     Are you looking for something different to do this year for Christmas gifts?  Take part in a growing tradition by giving gifts that help those in need.

     The Missions Committee is promoting the idea of alternative gift giving this Christmas.  For example, in honor of a loved one you can buy a month of food for a child orphaned by AIDS through ELCA Good Gifts.  We have catalogues from different charitable organizations that you can use or you can order from the organizations’ websites.  Some of these organizations are:

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
www.elca.org/goodgifts

Lutheran World Relief
http://lwrgifts.org/

Heifer Project International
http://www.heifer.org

Common Hope http://commonhopecatalog.myshopify.com/

Bethania Kids
http://bethaniakids.org/creative-giving-catalog/


Thanksgiving Thanks-Giving

     Thank you to all who donated and to all who helped transport our food donations to their recipients for Thanksgiving.  We received over $2,000 to share between CES and Sabathani – that’s $34,000 worth of food and care for our neighborhood! I hope you see that blessing overflowing in each day and each face on your path.

-Anna Kingman

La Natividad

     Here is a wonderful neighborhood participation opportunity to witness the nativity story come alive in our own neighborhood! In the Heart of the Beast Theater, along with St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, will present LA NATIVIDAD – a bilingual telling of the Christmas story. Audience members move with the puppet actors and process with Maria and Jose as they seek shelter. The show moves from Lake Street to St. Paul’s for the Nativity and celebration with music and food.
     This event takes place December 11,13, 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, at 6:30 pm, starting at In the Heart of the Beast theater (1500 E. Lake Street).

     Individual and group tickets are available online at hobt.org.
     Flyers with additional information are available at church.

Evening Prayer
Wednesdays in Advent
December 3, 10, and 17
7:00 p.m.

Pledges, Please

     Thanks to all who have turned in pledges. Especially because we’re facing 2015 expenditures up some 7%, at our Vestry meeting Monday, December 8—last of the calendar year—I want to report where pledges stand now compared with those a year ago. If you’ve been intending to turn in your card but haven’t quite gotten to it you’re, well, not alone. You can e-mail your pledge to Cha Posz at the church office (welcome@mountolivechurch.org). Indicate the dollar amount, whether it’s per year/month/week or whatever, and name or names (address and phone needed only if they’re different from current Mount Olive directory). Or, this Sunday put your completed pledge card in the box near the coatroom or in the Stewardship box in the office.

     Our 2015 “budget” is shorthand for the mission and ministry we do together, and it requires some collective stretching, whether we’re pledgers or nonpledgers. Thanks! —Donn McLellan, Director of Stewardship

Weekly Centering Prayer on Advent Wednesdays 

     Centering prayer, a silent acknowledging of the presence of the Divine, is held each Wednesday evening in Advent at 6:15 p.m. in the library. Led by Mount Olive members, the format will begin with a short reading from the Psalms, followed by 20 minutes of silence. At the end there will be a few moments to come together for a closing prayer.

     New to the process?  Look for brochures in the rack by the glass display case to get a more detailed description.

     Plan on coming on Wednesday evenings during Advent for Centering Prayer, December 3, 10, and 17.

National Lutheran Choir Christmas Festival Concerts:
“The Hopes and Fears of All the Years”

Fri., December 12, 2014 – (4:30 pm & 8 pm) and Sat.,  December 13, 2014 – 8pm
Basilica of Saint Mary, 88 N. 17th St., Minneapolis

     Immerse yourself in the beauty and majesty of the Basilica of Saint Mary for the National Lutheran Choir’s signature Christmas Festival Concert. During this busy season of parties, shopping and rushing around, take time to reflect upon the true meaning of Christmas through sacred song, poetry and readings.

     Tickets: $28 Adult, $25 Senior, $10 Student, age 17 and under FREE. For tickets or more information call (888) 747-4589, or visit www.nlca.com.

Mount Olive Christmas Cards
     There are still some of the Mount Olive Christmas cards available for sale this year. The cards cost $2.50 each if you buy 5 or less.  If you buy 6 or more they are $1.75 each. The cards are available in the church office and will be available Sunday mornings.  Please contact Paul Nixdorf or Andrew Andersen with any questions.

Pray for Nigeria

     Weekly we pray for Naomi and the other kidnapped girls in Nigeria. The ELCA is working closely with the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria (LCCN) in this effort. This week the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria is holding its General Church Assembly in Yola.  Some 200 members and leaders will gather in the Cathedral Church in Yola in the midst of killings and church burnings. We are asked to these support faithful followers of Christ with our prayers.

     In addition to your private prayers and prayers of the church at Mount Olive, you are invited to join in a Nigeria Prayer Vigil this Sunday, December 7th at Lake Nokomis Lutheran Church, 5011 31st Ave S. in Minneapolis at 5:00 p.m.

– Global Mission Committee

Help with the Greens – Up and Down!

     Many hands make light work, and there are several opportunities for people to help decorate the nave and chancel for our Christmas celebrations at Mount Olive.  On Sunday, Dec. 21, after second liturgy, is the hanging of the greens, where all wreaths and roping are placed.  Any who wish to help, just come to the nave after coffee time.

     Also, and probably most important given it’s more easily forgotten, the taking down of the greens and trees will happen on Wednesday, Jan. 7, beginning at 8:30 a.m.  In particular, this last task requires a lot of hands, so having a good group come will make the work much easier.

Staff Christmas Gifts

     The six people who work at Mount Olive serve us and God in many and exciting ways.   At a recent congregational meeting I stated that it feels as though Mount Olive is “humming on all cylinders” right now, and that is due in large part to our capable and faithful Pastor Joseph,  Vicar Meagan, Cantor David, Neighborhood Ministries Coordinator Anna, Administrative Assistant Cha and Sexton William.  Every year we provide a special Christmas gift for them, and we want to remind you of that opportunity again.  Please submit your monetary gifts to the church office or in the offering plate.  Checks should have “Staff Christmas Gift” noted on the memo line.   The congregation has been very generous in the past, and I thank you in advance for your gifts this year.

– Lora Dundek, Vestry President

 A Note of Thanks

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

     Thank you for your prayers, cards, calls, and visits. They gave me a great deal of comfort and assurance that the Lord was with me and all would be fine.

     I have asked to have my name removed from the prayer list because I am doing well. However, it will be several months before I have fully recovered, so an occasional prayer for me would be greatly appreciated.

Yours in Christ,
Mary Rose Watson

Living in Hope

By

Advent calls us to live in hope that God is with us today, to trust that the kingdom of God is at hand.  So we stay awake, and keep watching for signs of God’s coming and presence in our lives and in the world.

Vicar Meagan McLaughlin
   First Sunday of Advent
   Texts: Isaiah 64:1-9, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

I can still feel the anticipation that filled me as a child when Thanksgiving came, and I knew Christmas was “just around the corner.” When we were expecting company, I would watch from the couch in our living room, because it had a great view of the street and I would be able to see the guests arriving. I spent the entire month of December, figuratively speaking, leaning over the back of the couch, trying to make the time go faster! I was desperately curious about all the details of the parties being planned—what food would be served, when my cousins would come in from out of town, what service we would attend at church, what Santa would bring me, and could I please, please, please go along when my dad went to pick up my grandmother and great aunts? Every minute seemed like an hour, hours like days, days like weeks.  Christmas was all I could think about, and at the same time it felt like it would never get there. Advent is a time to follow what Jesus calls us to do in Mark—stay awake, keep watch, and I certainly had that down, even if I was more focused on parties and presents than the birth of Jesus!

Time has changed since then, or perhaps, it is my perception that has changed. Now rather than being painfully slow, the month of December flies by so quickly that I hardly have time to realize that it’s Advent before suddenly here it is—Christmas Eve. Being who I am, I am always prepared, at least in one sense. The presents are bought and wrapped, the tree trimmed, food for the family meal prepared. But spiritually and emotionally, I am always taken by surprise when Christmas comes. I spend more time on my to do list and less time leaning over the back of the couch, and as the years go by I find myself yearning for the time I spent as a child simply anticipating.

Our effort to be present and wait during Advent is certainly not helped when we have to walk past several aisles of Christmas decorations in the store in order to get to the Halloween costumes in mid-October, all the while listening to Deck the Halls and Frosty the Snowman piped through the sound system. Everything around us seems to call us to a flurry of activity . . . . buy, bake, order, send, and hurry up because time is running out! And of course, it is important to do the things necessary to get ready to welcome and celebrate with family and friends. But in the midst of all of this activity, on top of the regular daily life that continues, it is easy to forget that Advent is about waiting, and it is particularly easy to forget what we are waiting for.

So, what are we waiting for? The obvious answer is that Advent is a season of waiting for Christmas, Jesus’ birth. But it is so much more than the birth of a baby that we await. God, in all God’s fullness—the God who, as Isaiah described, makes the mountains quake, the God who Mark tells us has the power to make the sun dark and the stars fall, the God of all creation—came to live with us in the messiness of life in the person of Jesus. We remember not just the historical event of Jesus’ birth, but the reality of God’s presence and work in us and in the world, here and now. Advent is a time to remember that God is with us today, a time to live in hope.

When we look at the world, it can sometimes be really challenging to have hope. All we need to do is read the headlines to see evidence of pain, suffering, and evil in the world. This week in Ferguson, Missouri, and cities all over the country, we see fear, anger, even rage in the wake of the grand jury decision to exonerate Police Officer Darren Wilson of Michael Brown’s death. Just a mile down the road from here, thousands of people rallied for hours on Tuesday night, calling for justice. If we listen, we hear stories of those who live in fear, who have experienced the daily threat of discrimination, who can’t ever forget that they are treated differently in countless ways because of the color of their skin. If we listen, we hear stories of those who commit themselves to protecting others, often putting themselves at risk, and know daily the reality that they or someone they love may not come home. Setting aside guilt or innocence, right or wrong, justified or unjustified, in these events the damage and grief of centuries of systemic racism has been brought fully to the surface. We are all impacted, in one way or another. It is overwhelming, and it is hard not to turn away, to minimize the pain. Today, on the first Sunday of Advent, we take a few minutes to hear these voices, and ask the question of how we can have hope, and see God at work, in the midst of it all.

The pain of this world is not new. In the verses before our passage from Mark, Jesus describes war, betrayal, murder, destruction. And he encourages his followers, promising that nothing is too much for God to overcome. With the psalmist, we can bring the brokenness of our communities, and our own pain and brokenness, to God, and cry out—“Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, shine forth. Stir up your might, and come to save us! Restore us, O God; let your face shine, that we may be saved.”

The miracle of the hope we have in Advent is that we are waiting on a God who has never turned away from our pain. As Christians today, whatever circumstances we find ourselves in, whatever challenges we face, we await the birth of Jesus knowing the rest of the story—Jesus lived, taught, challenged, loved, forgave, healed, called. And Jesus died—and rose again. Death was not the last word then, and it is not the last word today. Jesus transformed people’s lives, and we are invited to put ourselves completely in God’s hands, like clay ready to be formed by the potter, willing to be changed, to be made new.

In Advent, we are called to live in hope that God is with us today, to trust that the kingdom of God is at hand. Waiting, anticipating, living in hope don’t easily find their way onto our “to do lists,” but in this moment, for this season, it is the most important thing for us to do. We don’t know the day or the hour when the kingdom of God will be fully accomplished, but we can keep watch, and if we do, we will see glimpses of it. We can see God at work in the world in the way people love and care for each other, in voices courageously speaking truths that are hard to hear, in the beauty of creation. And we can call out like a watchperson—Hey, look, there it is, God is here, did you see it?—so those around us will also know that we have great reason for hope. We are called to witness to God’s presence by being the hands and feet of God in the world ourselves, by showing God’s love and care for others and calling for justice where it is due, so others can see God at work through us. And most of all, we can put our trust in God, who sends Jesus to show us that we are never alone.

I plan to spend a lot of time leaning over the back of the couch this Advent, anticipating God’s coming into the world anew. I invite you to join me, so we can support each other in our commitment to take seriously the call to keep watch for the presence of God in our midst. We don’t know the day or the hour, but there is plenty of room on the couch, and it has a great view.

MOUNT OLIVE LUTHERAN CHURCH
3045 Chicago Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55407

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612-827-5919
welcome@mountolivechurch.org


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