from Pastor Sarah Moat
There is a saying in my family that pretty clearly illustrates what we value. Back when we were kids we had the wonderful experience of spending summers at the lake with our grandparents and extended family. I have wonderful memories of those lazy days with long afternoons on the boat or on the beach, playing hard and eating well. On one of our boat trips we were disappointed at not finding the snacks that were always carefully stowed away for an offshore excursion. My cousin woefully complained, “nothing to eat and nothing to drink, we’re not having any fun.”
That phrase has now become a fixture in our family’s vernacular and we always make sure that we have plenty to eat and drink when we get together - because it is fun to be with people around the table surrounded by good food and special drinks. Many of my memories with my family include celebrations around the table with extended family as we eat and relish in the company of one another. I try to continue this tradition with my girls as well.
In the book, Take This Bread, Sara Miles writes about her memories of gathering at a table of a different kind. She shares her story of transformation after encountering the body and blood of Jesus Christ at the communion table, where she encountered the “eternal and material core of Christianity: body, blood, bread, wine, poured out freely, and shared by all.” Miles has opened a food shelf in her congregation, serving food to people in need right from the altar. And in doing so she serves people who aren’t familiar with the inside of church; they don’t know the creeds or ways to process or pray but she is sharing the body of Christ with them – a sign of unconditional acceptance and forgiveness. In her radical faith she is loving and serving just as Jesus did – crossing the barriers that get set up sometimes by those of us in the church as we try to decide who is welcome and who should remain on the outside.
As we gather each week for worship here at Gethsemane we come together for good food and drink as well. The meal around the table shapes our life together and it sustains us for the week ahead but it also calls us into the world to spread the gift of Christ to all people – even people who don’t look like us, believe like us or live as we do. The good food served from our altar really is for everyone.
It is always a privilege to partake in communion with you. The longer that I am here and have had the opportunity to learn your stories, your joys and your concerns I recognize over and over again the deep need that we all have to be fed with the body of Christ. We come to the table humble and broken, hungry and in need, and it is in the good food and drink that we receive Christ – unconditional love and forgiveness. It is my prayer that as we are fed and forgiven we can find ways to bring the same unconditional acceptance into our community. All of God’s people always need something to eat and something to drink!
from Tiphanie Dirnberger, Children's Ministry Director
Today I attended and participated in the Hopkins Raspberry Parade with 35 other Gethsemane members. The weather was perfect – partly cloudy, a little breezy and the thermometer was in the mid seventies – uncharacteristically comfortable for the parade. I was not the only one enjoying the beautiful weather; it looked and felt like a record crowd watching from the sidewalks.
As I was walking the parade route I was thinking how lucky my kids are to live in a town with an old-fashioned Main Street and a town festival steeped in tradition. My kids are proud to say they live in Hopkins and thoroughly take advantage of living close to Main Street. They often walk downtown to go to the movies or bowling, ride their bike to the library, eat at restaurants with friends or go shopping in the numerous antique stores. I grew up in a town of 500, and though Hopkins is 35 times larger than the five streets of my hometown it still has that same small town feeling.
Though more people probably attended the parade because the weather was pleasant, most people go because it is something they have always done. The parade is fun – but face it – it is often miserably hot and after you see a couple waving princesses they all start looking alike. Yet while walking the parade route you often see three generations watching the parade together. Parents bring their kids to the parade because their parents brought them.
Church is the same way – parents often bring their kids to church because their parents brought them. If your parents only brought you to the parade a couple of times while growing up, you as a parent probably wouldn’t feel a strong need to bring your kids. The same can be said about church.
My hope as Gethsemane’s Children’s Ministry Director is that parents will bring their kids to church regularly so that kids experience church as something that is part of a routine, not something that just happens when the conditions are right. Going to church can be work, but I promise you will not have to reserve your seat at 4 am like many diehard parade goers do. As a parent I do realize that getting everyone out the door early on a Sunday morning is hard – but so worth it!
I want every Gethsemane child to feel part of our community and when they grow up to want to share their faith and Gethsemane’s traditions with their kids.
from Pastor John Nelson
When we think about summer I believe we all fall back into the idea that this is a “time off,” or at the very least, a break from the routine. It is imbedded in us from the days of our youth, anxiously waiting for the end of school so we could be off for the summer. “Off,” meaning not having the same obligations of school, waking up early, doing homework, busy schedules, etc. These expectations, or at least these yearnings, persist even though as adults we don’t get summer “off” anymore. We might take a vacation but for the majority of the time we are all still working, be it at home or at the office. And if you are at home your work just doubled if the kids are there with you now.
Yet this expectation to be “off” is persistent; we each want a break. And it is one of the beautiful ironies of life that when we get it we quickly become bored with “nothing to do.” Funny how only two days into summer the refrain I hear year after year from my kids is, “I’m bored! What can I do?”
Some might call it God’s sick sense of humor on us, that we are restless without something “to do,” or at least we feel like couch potatoes after doing nothing for very long. So we each come up with a summer project or list of things we had put off that we always meant to get to. Things like gardening projects, books we wanted to read, places we wanted to see. But what if there was a more intentional purpose for our yearning?
What if God implanted this “restlessness” into creation so that we might continually seek to engage life differently? But not merely engage life, but to actually engage God in new ways. You see, to be engaged by God in a living relationship, in a living faith, is not a seasonal or part-time occupation. To be engaged in a living faith is a year-round activity with seasonal shifts. It is a lifelong pursuit, a pursuit approached differently at different times, but one with the same goal in mind—growth.
So how might you possibly engage God differently this summer? Better yet, how do you expect that God will be engaging you differently over the next few months? We have each learned that if you wait for God to surprise you, you might be really surprised. So how about you proactively take up one of the Elements of a Living Faith as your “summer project?” It might be a Bible study you were not free to take before, or you might join a new social ministry you had always wanted to do, or be a part of the small group that has been inviting you. Thinking in holistic terms; how could you be a better steward of your faith life and the gifts, the talents God has given you?
This summer, rather than simply working on a tan or your golf game, how about you work on your God game… and get engaged.
Hope to see you in the field!
from Pastor Sarah Moat
The cabin of Sigurd and
Elizabeth Olson on Listening Point.
Finally…it’s summer time. After a few weeks of pretty questionable spring weather accompanied by plenty of rain it finally seems like summer is here and I’m ready! I don’t know about you but I long for the change of routine, the laid-back rhythm of life, the increased hours of daylight, the ability to spend time outside and the opportunity to play with my family without all of the expectations of the school year. Come fall, I am usually just as ready for that change to occur as well but, for now, I am rejoicing in the reality that summer is upon us.
One soul-edifying summer ritual that I enjoy each year is to reread the book "The Listening Point" by Sigurd Olson. Olson is a northwoods travel and nature writer who talks about finding a quiet place to contemplate and be in awe – a place to return to. We share a love of Minnesota’s north woods and he does a fine job of quietly reflecting on the same rocks, trees and shoreline that draw me in on each visit. Olson calls this place his listening-point. He writes, "Everyone has a listening-point somewhere. It does not have to be in the north or close to the wilderness, but some place of quiet where the universe can be contemplated with awe."
I encourage you to seek out those listening-points in your life this summer. They may be with family, on vacation, at the cabin, at your work place, at church, in the garden, or in your community. Look for opportunities to contemplate God’s goodness in the midst of the new rhythms of daily life. I suspect that you too, will be renewed in your own listening-point.
We are working to making Gethsemane a listening-point for you this summer and trust that you will experience God here in new and comforting ways. One worship service with familiar music and liturgy will provide an opportunity to reconnect with your community. Our intentional Sunday forum schedule will offer occasional learning opportunities to provide sustenance for listening. If you are away on the weekend we have summer devotional materials available at the front desk and as a download. Our children and youth have many opportunities for renewal through camp and mission experiences as well as a new community-building group each Wednesday at Gethsemane.
Enjoy these summer days exploring, praising, thanking and rejoicing in new and different ways!
from Pastor John D.F. Nelson
When you think of the word “apocalypse,” what image comes to mind: fire, brimstone falling from the sky? Perhaps you imagine the complete destruction and end of all things?
Did you know that we are in the season of Apocalypse? Spring is nature’s natural apocalypse. Apocalypse comes from the Greek word, Apokálypsis; meaning "lifting of the veil" or "revelation." It is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of humankind, the lifting of a veil from misconception.
Now do you see the connection to spring? This is the time of year when the world that we thought was completely dead and frozen just a few months before, has totally come to life. Where there were snow drifts, now we have daffodils; where there were ice sheets, now we have jumping fish. I have a friend who moved into a new home over the winter and they are amazed at everything that is popping up out of nowhere in their yard, things they had no idea were there. Every day it is like a new gift as something springs forth.
In church we find the Apocalypse of John but we know it better as the Book of Revelation, or the last book of the Bible. The lectionary texts that we read on Sundays in this Easter season all turn to the book of Revelation, not because this is the end of all things, but because it is the beginning of something new. You may think of this as the time we are getting towards the end of the school year, the end of the program year, but this is just the beginning. What we thought was dead is alive; what we thought was done has now set us free.
Many people have misconceptions about Revelation as a confusing and depressing book of condemnation and judgment. But it is one of the greatest books of hope we have. What it reveals is that God has completed through Christ a rather amazing thing, the salvation of the world. No matter how evil tries to rear its ugly head, Christ reigns. No matter how many calamities fall upon us, justice will rule. No matter who stands before the throne, Christ’s forgiveness is offered.
Join us for our Sunday adult education series this spring as we study the book of Revelation and discover together how we can reclaim the Apocalypse and be a part of God revealing his love for the world.
