Blog – Page 359

Love Poured Out

April 18, 2014 By moadmin

In the Word, water, wine and bread—and now through us—Christ pours out his love for all the world.

Vicar Emily Beckering; Maundy Thursday; texts: John 13:1-17, 31b-34; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.”

In tonight’s gospel, and in our own journey through Holy Week, we are nearing the end. We are drawing closer to Jesus’ crucifixion and death. In these last hours, Jesus works intently to show and form his disciple by his love. Through everything that happens in tonight’s gospel, and through everything in our liturgy this evening, Christ is pouring out his love for us and for the world.

Christ pours this love out in water, Word, bread and wine.

Jesus first pours this love out upon his disciples by washing their feet. Their master and teacher is now the one who kneels before them. They do not know what he has done to them, or will do for them, nor will they until his resurrection. He is not only cleaning their feet, or even reversing their roles, but rather expressing his deep love for them; it is a tangible experience of that love for them to cling to in the days ahead that will stir up doubt and fear. As he pours the water out over their feet, he pours out his love over them. In doing so, he shows them the love that he will ultimately pour out on the cross.

He also points to this love as he pours the wine and breaks the bread. In this same night in which he will be betrayed, as we hear from Paul, our Lord Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, saying, “This is my body for you.” And he took the cup saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.”

This evening, in these same Words, water, and wine, Christ pours out his love upon us as he did for the disciples. Jesus is also the one at our feet. When we watch the water being poured out over our sisters’ and brothers’ feet later this evening, we see Christ’s love.

When we dip our fingers into the font, the water which made us God’s own and united us with Christ’s death and resurrection, we touch Christ’s love. By this water, we too have been washed clean.

Through the absolution given to us at the beginning of worship, we heard Christ’s love saying, “I forgive you all of your sins.”

These same words are given to us tonight at the table. When we watch the wine poured out, drink it, and eat the bread, we are fed by Christ’s love. With, in, and under the bread and wine, Christ says to us, “Out of the deep, unfailing love with which I love you, I promise the forgiveness of all your sins and eternal life.”

It is as if through all of this, the Triune God is saying to us, “are you beginning to see how much I love you?”

If we are just beginning to see, then we see the full extent of Jesus’ love by his death on the cross, where he literally empties himself, pouring himself out for the sake of love.

As such, Jesus Christ is the Triune God’s love poured out, wholly and completely for all.

This is how we know what love is: that Christ laid down his life for us. In him, we see God’s aching passion for the world, God’s desire to be united with us, and the lengths that God was willing to go to make that relationship possible and to show us the depth with which we are loved. God the Son would rather die than lose us to disobedience, distrust, or fear of death. By his death and resurrection, he has conquered sin, death, and everything that would otherwise prevent us from loving God or one another so that we need not fear anything; anything that we could lose—even our life itself—has already ultimately been won.

This is also how we know who God is: that Christ laid down his life for us. In him, we know for sure that God is merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. The Triune God did not choose to be revealed through legions of angels, through earthquakes, wind, or fire but through the silence of a tomb entered because he loved us to the point of death while we were still sinners. God did not deal with this sin and brokenness by punishing us, abandoning or giving up on us, or destroying us, but by taking it all on through Christ and offering us forgiveness, relationship, and everlasting life. Even in the night in which he was betrayed, he gives himself fully to his betrayer.

We see God’s full intention in Christ—the one who was born that all might know God’s love, died that no one be separated from it, rose again that we might have life in his name, prayed for us in the garden of Gethsemane before we were born, and comes to us tonight in the bread and wine so that we might trust that all of these promises are for us—we have been loved since the very beginning and that love will never waiver.

Now that we know that we are his own and loved to the end, we are given a new commandment: to love as Christ has loved us.

Now we become Christ’s love poured out.

Through the love with which he loves us, Christ unites us at his table. As we eat the bread and drink the wine, Christ makes us into his actual body and blood. As his body, we will live, love, and die like Christ. As his blood, we will be poured out where God’s love is needed. God will place our neighbor’s feet into our hands and ours into our neighbor’s. This is not done figuratively, but in real and profound ways.

Just as washing the twelve’s feet is physical expression of the love that Jesus will pour out for them on the cross, the disciples are to wash one another’s feet as way to act out laying down their lives for one another. It is a practice meant to train their hearts, minds, and bodies to love one another, first in humble service, and then by giving of themselves for each another.

In the same way, we know that the washing of feet once a year is not the fulfillment of Christ’s command, but we do this to train our hearts, minds, and bodies in the posture of giving of ourselves to care for, support, and love one another.

We do the same when we pass Christ’s peace, so that we learn to live our whole lives sharing Christ’s peace with others through words, service, and presence. We share the peace intentionally before we go to the table so that we make a habit of seeking and offering forgiveness and reconciling relationships in order to prepare for Christ to make us into the one body, without divisions.

In all of this—the washing of feet, the passing of peace, the breaking of bread, consoling one another—the Holy Spirit forms us to love one another as Christ. All of these actions are an acting-out beforehand, an internalization of the new commandment so that this love becomes so much a part of us that when the occasion arises to lay down our lives for one another, we do it without hesitation.

We know that we are to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, welcome strangers, and visit the sick and imprisoned—and we do do this, with grateful hearts. But the new commandment that we are given to love one another as Christ has loved us pushes us even further: to love so fiercely that we let go, lose, forgive, die.

This call often comes at the most inconvenient times; the Holy Spirit has a way of putting people on our hearts. When we find ourselves resisting these nudgings, dragging our feet, avoiding—whenever we find ourselves asking, “Lord, let this cup pass from me,”—these moments are when we need to pay the most attention because it is to these places of difficulty and death that we are sent. These are the places where Christ’s love is most needed.

But we are also promised that the Holy Spirit will keep working in us until we become so secure in Christ’s love that we no longer fear death…until we trust that in dying, the Triune God will bring new life: restored relationships, forgiveness, hope, and Christ’s love will show forth. Just as we know who God is through Christ’s love, the world will know Christ through our love. As often as we eat of this bread and drink from this cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. As often as we give of ourselves for one another and for the world, then we proclaim the Lord’s love until he comes.

This day, this week, this whole life—even the new commandment that we are given—is an outpouring of God’s love. All that the Triune God has done through Christ has been done in that love, poured out in water, in wine and bread, in Word, in death, and now through us, in order that all may know that they are Christ’s own, loved without end. We were made and saved in love, by love, for love. That love was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever.

Amen.

The Olive Branch, 4/15/14

April 15, 2014 By moadmin

Accent on Worship

The Triduum

As today’s sun sets, the Triduum quickly approaches. With its arrival, we, together with our brothers and sisters around the world, keep the greater Church’s tradition of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Vigil of Easter. As we do, we move with our Lord Jesus Christ from death into life.

A pastor from Argentina once shared this observation with me: “In Argentina, our crosses always bear Jesus. They help us never to forget that Christ is with us in our suffering. But we are forever in the death of Christ; I never celebrated the resurrection as a child. In the U.S., your crosses are always empty. Christ is risen indeed, and you know hope. We cling to the crucifixion, you to the resurrection. What I have learned is that we must hold them both together.”

The observation is, of course, a generalization that does not capture the breadth of witness in either country. It does, however, witness to the whole of the Gospel. The Triduum does the same. Christ lived, died, and rose again among us all for the sake of love, and so we hold this all together as we tell again the story that shapes our own.

Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Vigil of Easter form the very pattern of our lives. In the breaking of bread and the washing of feet, we are formed to serve as Christ commanded and to love one another as he loves us. Because we are called to follow in the way of Christ, we will also give of ourselves for the sake of love. And through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, God will raise us each day from death, darkness, and despair to live again as Christ.

So as we gather together to keep the Triduum, we sing, pray, eat, drink, wash one another in, and tell again of God’s love and mercy.
In the telling, we are transformed; the Triune God will be in our midst to shape us yet again to be Christ for the world so that not only these Three Days, but our whole lives, witness to the Gospel of our Lord.

– Vicar Emily Beckering

Adult Forum
There will be no Adult Forum on Easter Sunday, April 20. Forums resume next week.

Holy Week and Triduum at Mount Olive

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

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

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

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

The Resurrection of Our Lord, Sunday, April 20
Festival Eucharist at 8 & 10:45 am
Carry-in Easter Brunch, 9:30 am

Noon Liturgy on Maundy Thursday

There will be a simple noon Eucharist on Maundy Thursday this year, in addition to the Eucharist at 7:00 p.m. In the evening will be the full rite beginning the Triduum, including confession and absolution, footwashing, and the stripping of the altar.

The noon service is offered to accommodate those who have difficulty getting out in the evening, and will include confession and absolution and the Eucharist.

Books Needed!
Many public libraries are holding their Friends of the Library Used Book Sales in April and May. The Way to Goals Tutoring Program would very much appreciate some new “reads.” Fiction, non-fiction, or reference books appropriate for reading levels from 2nd grade through 7th grade would be eagerly used by the students.
Thanks for any help you can offer!

Easter Carry-In Brunch

There will be a carry-in Easter Brunch between liturgies on Easter morning, April 20. Bring your favorite Easter treats to share.

Come One Come All to the May Day Parade!

For many years the Mount Olive Neighborhood Ministries Committee and several other Mount Olive members have made a point of participating and marching in this wonderful annual neighborhood event. If you have never watched the parade you have no idea what you are missing. It is unlike any other parade you have ever seen!

Mount Olive has made a commitment to keep the first Sunday in May free of other afternoon events so that all of us can join with our neighborhood in this annual celebration the first Sunday in May every year. This year we are focusing on getting more people involved. We are not marching this year, BUT will have a dedicated Mount Olive observation area reserved so that a whole bunch can watch the parade this year.
Plan to come to the parade on Sunday May 4 after the second liturgy. We will meet in the undercroft where a simple lunch will be provided that can be taken with you to the parade. Vans/cars will be available to shuttle to the Mount Olive observation area on the parade route. We’ll even have extra chairs and blankets so people don’t have to carry anything with them. We will also provide a simple map with directions with where to park and how to find the observation area if people prefer to drive on their own that day.

We are making it as easy as possible for all to come! Please set the time aside now on Sunday, May 4, and watch for more details as the day approaches.

Book Discussion Group’s Upcoming Reads

For their meeting on May 10, The book discussion group will read, The Small Hand and Dolly, Susan Hill. For their June 14 meeting they will discuss The Orphan Master’s Son, by Adam Johnson.

A Note of Thanks

Thank you to the following people who worked hard on sprucing up the chancel and nave in preparation for the Easter celebration: Peggy Hoeft, Elizabeth Hunt, Tim Lindholm, TJ Schnabel, Sandra & Steve Pranschke, Bonnie McLellan, Lynn Ruff, Christina Harrison, Cynthia Prosek, and Eunice Hafmeister.

Three times a year Altar Guild members and other volunteers gather to do in-depth cleaning and brass polishing. I appreciate their efforts.

– Steve Pranschke,
Altar Guild Chair

Capital Campaign Corner

Sometime this week you will receive a letter from Vestry President Lora Dundek and Pastor Crippen asking you make a pledge or donation to our ongoing capital campaign. As the letter explains, the Vestry is asking for everyone’s help to fully fund our designated funds and to provide a two-month cash reserve to help us cope with the ups and downs of congregational giving.

This is a financially healthy church. We meet our budget every year and give generously to causes missions outside our walls. But we need a stronger financial foundation as we move forward into the future, and this is what we hope to gain with this campaign.

Please prayerfully consider your response and return your pledge card as soon as possible. Thanks so much!

Goal: $182,000
Currently pledged: $39,200 Percent reached: 21.5%.

New Video Ministry

The Mount Olive Foundation approved a proposal to start a video ministry project for Mount Olive. The proposal included getting our own fine video camera, tripod, memory cards, and a computer with the capable of producing high quality videos.

As word of this video project has spread, I have heard from several who are interested in helping with the project. We have members with much experience in producing video and I am excited to get people involved. A word of thanks to Elisabeth Hunt for setting up the special Mount Olive YouTube channel.
The first thing I learned is that there is a reason longer movies take time to prepare, edit, add titles, and then have the computer and the internet render them for YouTube and then go through the whole upload and processing process. The learning curve is getting better but the entire process is time consuming, so please be patient. I am excited that we now have our first examples to share with everyone.

Our first video project was to record the four-part Earl Schwartz Adult Forum Series on the Book of Genesis. The entire series is now on YouTube and the links to the videos are below. When you go online to view your first video you will note that under the YouTube screen there is a note that tells you there are four videos. If you click on that note (link) all four videos will appear and you can then click on the next video you want to view. If you save the YouTube link in your “favorite” online file you will be able to access the videos quickly.

This Forum project is the first video project and you will see as you view the four videos that I have experimented with titles etc. Looking back, I see I made a title error in one of the bottom titles of video 3 and called it session 2. I hope to correct the error but it literally will take over 3 hours to make the change. I look forward to your comments so we can always improve our videos and that the videos will reflect the quality of worship and devotion we share at Mount Olive.

– Paul Nixdorf

Earl Schwartz Adult Forum Videos
Video #1 – February 23, 2014: http://youtu.be/nzsw0rvT2TU
Video #2 – March 2, 2014: http://youtu.be/JDUkEsLwCeE
Video #3 – March 9, 2014: http://youtu.be/UXTlVxamxqg
(note) an error in the bottom title says this is the second session,
it should say, the third session.
Video #4 – March 16, 2014: http://youtu.be/tNJPn2voGeU

Sign Up to Bring Tutoring Snacks

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

Life Transitions Support Group to Begin May 14

Caregiver? Chronic Illness? Loss of home? Loss of loved one?

We each encounter a variety of losses throughout our lives. Have you wished for a familiar place where you could find some reassurance, share your story, discover a simple skill or two that could help in those moments when you feel overwhelmed?

Beginning May 14, join us for a four-week structured support group at Mount Olive. Cathy Bosworth will serve as facilitator for this group on Wednesday evenings. Each week a brief educational component will be offered with time for you to share personally in a confidential, supportive setting. Vicar Emily Beckering will offer guidance on the Lament Psalms, which we will use as a vehicle for prayer and healing. Tentatively, the group will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the Youth Room. We will establish a firm meeting time when we know what works best for those who wish to participate.

If you are interested in attending, or have questions, please contact Cathy Bosworth (952-949-3679, email marcat8447@yahoo.com) or call the church office. If three or more people express interest in participating, each will be contacted to confirm the group will meet as planned.

Travel to Italy!

Walt Blue will host a trip to Italy next fall (October 6-20) under the aegis of the OLLI Program (University of Minnesota).

The group will visit (briefly) Milan, Cremona, Bologna and Ravenna, and will spend over a week in Florence, with multiple day trips to the regional cities of Pisa, Siena, Lucca, and San Gimignano. The cost of the trip is $4,700, and it includes airfare, accommodations, meals (all breakfasts, five group dinners), ground transport, sightseeing, porterage, local guides, gratuities and taxes. For more information, contact Walt Blue at 651-646-3355, or via email to wagane@gmail.com. You may also contact Group Travel Directors (952-881-7811 / groups@gtd.org).

National Lutheran Choir to Present “Exalt.”

This Spring’s “Exalt” program showcases the artistic excellence of the National Lutheran Choir with works for choir and organ alongside unaccompanied choral pieces.

Nationally renowned organist, Aaron David Miller, joins the NLC for a program that is both affable and energizing. Some of the works on the program include: Benjamin Britten’s Te Deum; a world premiere of a commission by Zachary Wadsworth, Great or Small; and Frank Martin’s Mass for Unaccompanied Double Chorus.

Organ pipes and choral pipes join together for a unique experience that will leave the listener inspired and revitalized. NLC Artistic Director, David Cherwien, conducts.

When: Sunday, May 4 – 4pm
Where: St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, 900 Stillwater Rd, Mahtomedi, MN 55115
Tickets: $25 Adult, $23 Senior, $20 Student
Contact: visit www.nlca.com or call 612-722-2301.

Kingdom Come

April 13, 2014 By moadmin

It is in this Passion of our Lord that Christ Jesus becomes king, shows the depth of divine royalty, reveals the shape of God’s plan to regain rule over this disobedient planet: God, and so also we, will enter into the depths of evil to redeem it from within.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, the Sunday of the Passion, year A; texts: Isaiah 50:4-9a; Matthew 26:14 – 27:66

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

You want to know what we’ve been missing about today, and this whole week? This is not a day that begins in triumph and ends in tragedy, it is a day that from beginning to end is about seeing the kingdom of God come to be. The cross isn’t a setback; it’s the whole plan. It’s where Jesus acts as the true king.

Matthew, along with Luke and John, reminds us that Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem this week was the coming of a king. Riding on a donkey, with palms and shouts, this evoked the prophet’s promise that this is how the king would arrive. So there’s nothing humble about Jesus’ actions on this Sunday, at least not in the sense of the symbolism of his ride into town. He was declaring himself king.

But we also just heard Matthew tell us that on Friday of this week the soldiers also hailed Jesus as king, and gave him royal appointments and clothes, and the religious leaders also called him king, on the cross. At the same time, the Gospels all agree that over Jesus’ head at his death was a sign – the same sign all criminals received over their crosses, the sign announcing their name and their crime – and that on Jesus’ sign it declared him a king, the King of the Jews. Now, Pilate likely intended that as mocking – his crime was his kingship – and the religious leaders certainly read it as such. And the soldiers and religious leaders also were mocking when they named this of Jesus. But actually, they all, unknowingly, were proclaiming God’s truth, that here, on this cross, the King was beginning his rule. And the Gospel writers all understand this.

Jesus becomes king on the cross, that’s what the Gospels say. The reason for our walking through the events of this week every year, as we’ve done for 2,000 years, is that we more and more understand what happened and why and what it means for us. But we seemed to have missed this point.

There is a disconnect in our thinking between Jesus’ ministry before this week and the week itself and that has misled us.

We’ve always considered Jesus’ teachings and miracles and ministry as good and worthy of consideration, the start of a great story. And then we come to this week and we think that it all ends badly.

We blame Judas for his betrayal, the disciples for their fear, the Jewish authorities for their blindness and jealousy, the crowds for their fickleness, or the Roman governor for his cowardice. If only people would have seen the truth about Jesus, we think, none of this would have happened. This week is a tragic mistake, an accident.

Or sometimes we see the events of this week as a divine court judgment where the Son of God is tortured and punished because of our sin. Sometimes it almost sounds like we think almighty God has a blood lust that has to be satisfied, and since our sins are deserving of death, if we’re to avoid that, someone needs to die, someone’s blood needs to be shed. So in comes Jesus.

But in fact, the Gospels tell us from the beginning that Jesus, the Son of God, will bring in God’s kingdom, will inaugurate the rule of the Triune God, in losing and dying, in entering evil and suffering personally in order to overturn it.

From the beginning of his ministry, Jesus says “the kingdom of God is near, is at hand.” And he says that in that kingdom, the blessed ones are the meek, the sufferers, the peacemakers. He says he will rule as king, but that he didn’t come to be served, but to serve.

He declares that in him God has come to be with the broken, the weak, the sad, the dispossessed, and will take on all of that with them, and so bring them to life. He says that in the kingdom, you lose your life instead of trying to save it, and that you pray for your enemies, love your enemies, even.

How could anyone have expected anything other than the cross from someone who talks like this?

We talk a lot about how the people of Jesus’ day had expectations of Messiah that Jesus didn’t fulfill, that he’d be a political leader, and we smugly note how misguided they were. We ignore that we have the same expectations post-Easter. We expect now that he’s risen, now God ought to clean house, rule with power, take care of all this evil, these problems.

We pray as if God’s whole role is to remove suffering from our lives and our world by magic or miracle. And we act in the world like people always have acted, seeking our own way, using power whenever we can to make happen what we think needs to happen.

And we expect that is how God is supposed to work in the world. But that’s because we haven’t seen that the cross was the beginning of Jesus’ rule. We’ve learned nothing from the mistakes of 2,000 years ago.

The Hebrew prophets actually saw the truth coming. We heard today the first part of the servant songs of Isaiah which speak of God’s anointed servant offering his life for the people, and not just for Israel, but to bless the whole world. That it would come by God’s anointed taking on suffering and pain, undeservedly, in order to transform it. Why else do you think the Evangelists persist in saying that all this was told in the Scriptures already?

If this week’s events are a tragic mistake, or Judas’ (or anyone’s) fault, how do you make sense of the prophets, of Jesus’ teaching? If this week’s events are God’s need for blood and punishment of someone, and Jesus is going to get it instead of us, how do you make sense of the prophets, of Jesus’ teaching?

So this is what we know from Scripture: Pilate’s sign is the hidden truth of God. This is the way God will rule in the world, not through power and might and destruction of evil. We just heard Matthew tell us Jesus had 72,000 angels to command should he have wanted a way of power and dominance. He could have avoided the cross. That he did not needs to teach us something.

By entering into evil and losing all power to it, by offering himself to restore all things, the Son of God begins God’s rule. The cross isn’t the Father’s bloodlust being answered by the Son’s death, because in the Triune God, Father, Son and Spirit are offering God’s own life for the sake of the world.

The cross isn’t a tragic mistake, or the blame of any ancient or modern sinners, but God’s ultimate and final way to deal not just with my sin or yours, but the sinful disobedience of this entire world.

God rules by losing, at the cross, and still today. That’s what this week needs to teach us.

So this is why we do what we do today, and for the next seven days.

We face this week as a solemn contemplation, not as our seeking maudlin pantomime, trying to re-create emotions from 2,000 years ago. We contemplate the events of today, and each day, that we might learn the truth about God’s rule in the world, a truth we’ve lost by not seeing this week as God would have us see it. We walk this path each year because we need to take evil as seriously as God does, and because only by regular contemplation can we begin to learn what God is doing.

If we avoid such contemplation, we take great risks.

We risk missing the whole point about God and evil even for today, how God is actually working, not how we want God to work. Knowing that this is how God did and does deal with it is critical to our understanding of how God acts in the suffering of the world today.

We also risk missing the whole point about how we are to engage the world and evil, how this completely sets aside any question of power/over and dominance for us as well. Isaiah’s servant songs are famously ambiguous: you can’t tell by reading if it’s God’s anointed, one person, who enters suffering to redeem all, or if it’s God’s anointed, the whole people of God, who do. I think the answer is both. Baptized into Christ’s death and resurrection, this path of loss and sacrifice, of entering evil and suffering, is not just Jesus’ chosen path. It’s our called path.

The Son of God says that suffering is not necessarily the worst thing that can happen, that by sharing the suffering of others we redeem it, that by offering ourselves to stand against evil, though it will cost us, we take the path by which all will be restored. This is not what the world thinks. And we can’t know this, believe this, live this, if we don’t take seriously our contemplation of God’s work in this week every year.

This is the truth about this week: we see how God is truly King over all things.

We just sang, “Here might I stay and sing, no story so divine; never was love, dear King! That is the truth: there is nothing more divine, nothing more loving, nothing more kingly, than this story, this truth, this week. This is the true love of the true King and God of the universe. This passion and death are the point of how God will be in the world.

That’s why we “stay and sing.” So we can learn this. Trust this. Begin to understand this. And so we are ready to follow in the same path when our King calls to us.

In the name of Jesus. Amen

The Olive Branch, 4/9/14

April 10, 2014 By moadmin

In the midst of life…

One thing I like about a hymn festival for which I travel: it’s usually three days of intense focus – I practice, rehearse, and lead the festival, away from everything else that normally defines my days when I’m here at home. That focus really helps provide for an intense journey for the hymn festival! Each piece becomes joined in a great flow with great clarity – without distractions in my preparations.

This Sunday once again we enter into a week of intense focus: we step into the story, right into the middle of it. What I find so amazing about this week for us, is that most of us must go through it in the midst of our regular, normal (for most, busy and distracted) lives. Work, sleep, school, relationships, bill paying, car repair, etc., continue to demand our attention, yet every day we gather to retell and relive the story which defines us.

While it may seem easier if we were to all leave town and go through the week with total focus, I rather like the “in the midst of life” dimension to Holy Week for most of us. It exposes that inner part of us to our co-workers, friends, and even families. We decline invitations for dinners, parties, etc. because we have something important to do. “I’d love to, but I’m committed to be at church…” It says who we actually are. (Or rather, “whose” we are). It becomes a week of intense focus reminding us that all of our busy-ness is NOT the center for us.

The week begins this Passion Sunday with what has become a two-fold drama. The first is the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. We reenact this, beginning outside (or in the undercroft, depending on the weather) and process in with palm branches. Yet, this part of the story is a great switcheroo, as the people thought –“Finally a just King,” not yet knowing they would be the ones yelling, “Crucify him!” Rather, the liturgy quickly moves to the story of the crucifixion from the Gospel of Matthew, dramatically changing the mood of the day’s liturgy.

Then on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, we gather for prayer at noon. These times of devotion help me maintain a sense of focus for this week. In the center of the day, we’re brought back to the drama. For those who can make the trek, even though a short service, these draw us back to the week’s significance.

Thursday, the Triduum, “The Three Days,” includes the washing of feet, the community meal, and the dramatic stripping of the altar.

Friday, a prayer service recalling the stations of the cross – at high noon – reminding us of the pain and suffering of Jesus. This powerful service moves through the room filling it with smoke and the anguish of the story through our songs and powerful organ interpretations. At the end, the organ goes silent until the Easter Proclamation of the Easter Vigil liturgy. Once again on Friday in the evening we gather again to recall the crucifixion and adore the cross. The great Solemn Reproaches are sung: “O my people, what have I done to you?”

Saturday evening we begin in darkness and silence as we wait. Five of the great stories of salvation are told, after each we sing in response in darkness. We remember our baptism and its promises – and we dramatically proclaim Christ is Risen – to blaring bells and organ, and we sing a full throttled: “Now All the Vault of Heaven Resounds.” After this great liturgy, a great party! Celebrating with champagne and treats – what we love to do for life’s points of celebration!

A few hours later in Easter Sunday, again we gather – a bit blurry eyed but happily so. The choir warms up their voices, and with trumpet and organ again we celebrate a family meal of celebration: Christ is Risen!

Now what is more important than all of this? See you — each day.

– Cantor David Cherwien

Sunday Readings

April 13, 2014: Sunday of the Passion Palm Sunday
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31:9-16
Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 26:14—27:66
____________________

April 20, 2014: Resurrection of Our Lord
Jeremiah 31:1-6
Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24
Colossians 3:1-4
Matthew 28:1-10

This Week’s Adult Forum

April 13: Cantor Cherwien will lead us through the musical responses for Easter Vigil.

An Invitation to Confession

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

– Pr. Joseph Crippen

Can You Help? Do You Know Someone Who Can Help?

We have an urgent need for two more tutors for the Neighborhood Ministries Tuesday Evening Way to Goals Tutoring Program. The tutoring program meets the 8 Tuesday evenings in April and May from 7:00 – 8:30 pm.

Tutors work with one or two eager grade school learners – sometimes helping with homework, sometimes working on basic reading or math skills, and always being a mentor. If you can help or would like more information, contact Connie Toavs in the Neighborhood Ministries office or at connietoavs@comcast.net.

Book Discussion Group’s Upcoming Reads

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

Holy Week and Triduum at Mount Olive

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dusting and Polishing Day

The Altar Guild will host a chancel-cleaning event on Saturday, April 12, from noon to 3:00 p.m. Bring your favorite duster and polishing rags, and help our worship space glow for Holy Week and the Triduum. Questions? Contact Steve Pranschke: hspranschke [at] gmail [dot] com.

Paschal Garden

Volunteers will be on hand for one more Sunday (April 13) before and after the liturgies to receive your donations to purchase Easter flowers for this year’s Paschal Garden.

Noon Liturgy on Maundy Thursday

There will be a simple noon Eucharist on Maundy Thursday this year, in addition to the Eucharist at 7:00 p.m. In the evening will be the full rite beginning the Triduum, including confession and absolution, footwashing, and the stripping of the altar.

The noon service is offered to accommodate those who have difficulty getting out in the evening, and will include confession and absolution and the Eucharist.

Easter Carry-In Brunch

There will be a carry-in Easter Brunch between liturgies on Easter morning, April 20. Bring your favorite Easter treats to share.

Night On the Street

On Friday night, April 11, Mount Olive and TRUST Youth will again participate in Night On the Street at Plymouth Congregational Church. Night On the Street is an opportunity for teens to learn about youth homelessness through activities, speakers, and by experiencing what it is like to sleep in a card board box in the parking lot.

We’ve been asked to raise enough funds to provide one week’s worth of safe housing and supportive services for a homeless youth, $140 (seven days of housing and supportive services). All donations to A Night On the Street will go to Beacon Interfaith Housing Collaborative, which provides housing and services for homeless youth. If you would like to make a donation, please contact the church office or Julie Manuel.

Capital Campaign Corner

Sometime this week you will receive a letter from Vestry President Lora Dundek and Pastor Crippen asking you make a pledge or donation to our ongoing capital campaign. As the letter explains, the Vestry is asking for everyone’s help to fully fund our designated funds and to provide a two-month cash reserve to help us cope with the ups and downs of congregational giving.
This is a financially healthy church. We meet our budget every year and give generously to causes missions outside our walls. But we need a stronger financial foundation as we move forward into the future, and this is what we hope to gain with this campaign.
Please prayerfully consider your response and return your pledge card as soon as possible. Thanks so much!

Goal: $182,000
Currently pledged: $39,200 Percent reached: 21.5%.

New Video Ministry

The Mount Olive Foundation approved a proposal to start a video ministry project for Mount Olive. The proposal included getting our own fine video camera, tripod, memory cards, and a computer with the capable of producing high quality videos.

The first thing I learned is that there is a reason longer movies take time to prepare, edit, add titles, and then have the computer and the internet render them for YouTube and then go through the whole upload and processing process. The learning curve is getting better but the entire process is time consuming, so please be patient. I am excited that we now have our first examples to share with everyone.

Dwight Penas and Susan Cherwien do a masterful job in organizing thought-provoking adult forum sessions throughout the year. As Dwight explains in the opening video, the Mount Olive Foundation approved a grant which allowed Mount Olive to bring Earl Schwartz in for four consecutive weeks. Before Earl’s sessions even began some Mount Olive members were concerned because they knew they would have to miss one or more of his lectures and choir members always had to step out before each session was over. With our new videos anyone can now go back and view all four sessions in their entirety
This Forum project is the first video project and you will see as you view the four videos that I have experimented with titles etc. Looking back, I see I made a title error in one of the bottom titles of video 3 and called it session 2. I hope to correct the error but it literally will take over 3 hours to make the change. I look forward to your comments so we can always improve our videos and that the videos will reflect the quality of worship and devotion we share at Mount Olive.

– Paul Nixdorf

Earl Schwartz Adult Forum Videos
Video #1 – February 23, 2014: http://youtu.be/nzsw0rvT2TU
Video #2 – March 2, 2014: http://youtu.be/JDUkEsLwCeE
Video #3 – March 9, 2014: http://youtu.be/UXTlVxamxqg
(note) an error in the bottom title says this is the second session,
it should say, the third session.
Video #4 – March 16, 2014: http://youtu.be/tNJPn2voGeU

Sign Up to Bring Tutoring Snacks

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

Life Transitions Support Group to Begin May 14

Caregiver? Chronic Illness? Loss of home? Loss of loved one?
We each encounter a variety of losses throughout our lives. Have you wished for a familiar place where you could find some reassurance, share your story, discover a simple skill or two that could help in those moments when you feel overwhelmed?

National Lutheran Choir to Present “Exalt.”

This Spring’s “Exalt” program showcases the artistic excellence of the National Lutheran Choir with works for choir and organ alongside unaccompanied choral pieces.

Organ pipes and choral pipes join together for a unique experience that will leave the listener inspired and revitalized. NLC Artistic Director, David Cherwien, conducts.

When: Sunday, May 4 – 4pm
Where: St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, 900 Stillwater Rd, Mahtomedi, MN 55115
Tickets: $25 Adult, $23 Senior, $20 Student
Contact: visit www.nlca.com or call 612-722-2301.

Out of the Tomb

April 6, 2014 By moadmin

Today, Jesus calls us out of our tombs and releases us from everything that binds us so that we may live anew and set others free in Jesus’ name.

Vicar Emily Beckering, Fifth Sunday in Lent, year A; texts: John 11:1-45, Ezekiel 37:1-14

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Before we get to what God would have us hear today, I’d like to share how the Holy Spirit has been at work for us this week.

Last Sunday, after praying for God to reveal what we would need to hear in worship today, something very clear and specific emerged from John’s gospel. It was such good news and so life-giving that I thought, “Wow! That’s worth sharing!” So I did share it with some of my friends at seminary during Bible study on Monday. Afterwards, based on how the news affected them, I felt even more convicted about what God wanted us to hear.

Then, on Tuesday morning, I felt nudged, drawn—compelled, really—to read ahead in Journey into Lent, by Susan Cherwien, to her reflections for the upcoming Saturday, which was yesterday, April 5th. Upon reading it, I discovered that she and I had heard the same thing from today’s Gospel. And I thought, “Shoot! Do I really need to say it again when it’s already been written so beautifully?”

Through the people at Tuesday noon Bible study, however, and through more conversations throughout the week, it became evident that the Holy Spirit had led me to Susan’s devotion. It was as if God was saying, “Look, this really needs to be said.” Through all of this, the Holy Spirit was at work to make sure that we could all hear God’s word for us multiple times and in multiple ways if need be. Apparently, God has something very important for us to hear today, and it’s just what we need.

In order to hear it, we must first recognize that Lazarus is not the only one who is locked in a tomb; he isn’t the only one who needs to be unbound and set free.

There is much in our own lives that holds us captive, that binds us, that prevents us from being who God has made us to be. We can feel like prisoners without choices or power: we are in bondage and cannot free ourselves.

Some of us are in bondage to productivity, to accomplishment, to feeling like we always have to do everything perfectly, to have everything under control. Others of us are in bondage to other people’s opinions about us; it can be difficult to make decisions without feeling the need to please or to look good in others’ eyes.

Some of us are chained to defining ourselves by our talents, intelligence, or our perceived lack thereof. These chains can weigh so heavily upon us that we always feel the need to prove ourselves to others.

There are economic binds which we face: we worry if there will be enough, if we will be able to pay the bills and are uncertain about which decisions to make. We are also bound by unethical systems: systems in which we contribute to environmental destruction, to racism, to prejudice, to poverty. We can even be chained by anger, bitterness, unfaithfulness, and comparing ourselves to others. Although we wish that we could live differently, we may find ourselves doing that which we do not want to do; time and time again we hurt those who we love.

Sometimes, these worries and patterns of thought and behavior can become so all-encompassing that we are literally entombed: we can be locked away in a tomb of feeling helpless, of guilt or shame, of insecurity, of hiding who we are in order to win love. We can feel trapped in a grave of sickness, of mental illness, of an abusive relationship, of addictions, of perfecting our body. And of course, there is fear; fear in all of its forms. Fear of what tomorrow will bring. Fear that the end is near or nowhere in sight. Fear of failure: of failing as a partner, a spouse, a parent, a friend, a disciple. In the darkness of the tomb, we may begin to doubt whether Christ’s promises are true or are for us.

Although we are afraid, we can also be terrified by life outside of the tomb that we have come to know so well, and so we may retreat even deeper into the darkness. We may wrap ourselves tighter in that which binds us because we are afraid to deal with it. We can lock ourselves away in the tomb rather than risk exposing that which with we struggle.

All of this can feel too overpowering, too big for us to handle, too shameful for God or for anyone else to know about. Like Martha who says, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead for four days,” we can find ourselves saying, “Lord, don’t go there. Don’t bother. It’s too late. There’s only death.”

We look within our tombs and like Israel say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely.” “We’ve messed up too much this time, gone too far. There’s nothing left to do, nothing left to say.”

But God does have something to say, and yearns for us to hear it!

God’s word to us today is this: “I am the Lord your God: I am going to open you graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people: and I will bring you back to the land of the living. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people.”

Jesus is calling each of us by name saying, “Come out! Come out of ¬fear and out of shame. Come out of loneliness and self-hatred. Be free of the guilt, you are forgiven. Let go of doubt, you are mine!”

See how Jesus loves us!

There is no darkness too thick, no grave too deep, no stone, no sin, no tomb—nothing— that can prevent Christ from getting to us.

The resurrection is not only a future promise that we will be with God in eternity; resurrection is happening right now! Christ is making us new. God would have us live anew, live again today!

But the resurrection is not for us alone; it does not stop here with us.

Jesus speaks to Lazarus and to all who have gathered around him. He says to the crowd: “Unbind him and let him go!”

Sometimes we are so tightly bound in our wrappings that we need the community around us to help set us free. This is why God has given us one another: so that we can surround each other with love in our suffering, remind each other what Christ has promised us, and help each other be on the lookout for what God is doing in our midst. We are at once Lazarus and the community at the tomb. There are many other people already in our lives and some whom the Holy Spirit has yet to lead us to who also long to hear Jesus’ words: who need to be released from everything that ensnares them, from everything that weighs on them.

The Spirit of the Lord has been poured out upon us in our baptisms; God has anointed us to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives, to let the oppressed go free, and to preach the Lord’s favor. We do this when, with actions and with words, we sow love where there is hatred, seek union where there is discord, and offer forgiveness in response to wrong. Jesus is sending us out today saying, “Unbind them, and let them go!”

When we do this in Jesus’ name, then by the power of the Holy Spirit, out of the tomb of darkness shall come light, out of despair, hope, and out of the tomb of death, God will bring life for all.

Amen.