HAPPY EASTER! Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

 Love is the magnet that draws believers together and attracts unbelievers to Christ.

Sunday, April 15 The Second Sunday of Easter

8:30AM Worship

9:30AM Sunday School

10:45AM Worship

Bible Readings:

Acts 4:32-35 “the apostles gave their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus”

1 John 1-2  “Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice for our sins”

John 20:19-31 “believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through

believing you have may life in his name.”

3:00PM-5:00PM “Hunger Awareness Walk” around Mt. Olive’s Track.

            Beginning at 3pm with Prayer. Music by Faith Out Loud.

            Bring a canned good. Come enjoy the day, the exercise, and the fellowship!

            Come walk a lap (almost a half mile) or several laps!

            Invite a friend to come walk with you.

5:13PM Contemporary Worship

6:00PM Congregation Council Meeting

Food Collection in April for the Houston Living Center at Sipe’s Orchard Home

Some of our Prayer Concerns – Lord, in your mercy…

+ Pat Townsend, Henry Jarvis, David Benfield

+ Those who have difficulty seeing

+ Those who have difficulty believing

+ Our nation’s military members and their families

+ Disaster relief recovery workers

+ the newly baptized including: Alex Fu and Annabelle Frank

Reminder:
Please Send Your Pledge and Offering Gifts for Lutheran Services for the Aging’s Keeping the Promise Campaign directly to LSA at:

            PO Box 947 Salisbury, NC 28145

For more info go to www.lsakeepingthepromise.org

Sunday, April 22

12 p.m. Spaghetti Lunch Fundraiser for Mt. Olive’s 16 participants going to the ELCA National Youth Gathering in July in New Orleans. RSVP at worship on Sunday, April 15.

Thought for the Week:

Thinking about “Doubting Thomas” and the Gospel reading for Sunday (John 20:19ff). Who was Thomas? Is “Doubting” a fair name for him? Below is an excerpt about Thomas written by Frederick Buechner.

Imagination was not Thomas’ long suit. He called a spade a spade. He was a realist. He didn’t believe in fairy tales, and if anything else came up that he didn’t believe in or couldn’t understand, his questions could be pretty direct.

There was the last time he and the others had supper with Jesus, for instance. Jesus was talking about dying, and he said he would be leaving them soon, but it wouldn’t be forever. He said he’d get things ready for them as soon as he got where he was going, and when their time finally came too, they’d all be together again. They knew the way he was going, he said, and some day they’d be there with him themselves.

Nobody else breathed a word, but Thomas couldn’t hold back. When you get right down to it, he said, he personally had no idea where Jesus was going, and he didn’t know the way to get there either. “I am the way,” was what Jesus said to him (John 14:6), and although Thomas let it go at that, you can’t help feeling that he found the answer less than satisfactory. Jesus wasn’t a way, he was a man, and it was too bad he so often insisted on talking in riddles.

Then in the next few days all the things that everybody could see were going to happen happened, and Jesus was dead just as he’d said he’d be. That much Thomas was sure of. He’d been on hand himself. There was no doubt about it. And then the thing that nobody had ever been quite able to believe would happen too.

Thomas wasn’t around at the time, but all the rest of them were. They were sitting crowded together in a room with the door locked and the shades drawn, scared sick they’d be the ones to get it next, when suddenly Jesus came in. He wasn’t just a figment of their imagination because they were all too busy imagining the horrors that were all too likely in store for themselves to imagine anything much about anybody else. He said shalom and then showed them enough of where the Romans had let him have it to convince them he was as real as they were if not more so. He breathed the Holy Spirit on them and gave them a few instructions to go with it, and then left.

Nobody says where Thomas was at the time. One good thing about not having too much of an imagination is that you’re not apt to work yourself up into quite as much of a panic as Thomas’ friends had, for example, and maybe he’d gone out for a cup of coffee or just to sit in the park for a while and watch the pigeons. Anyway, when he finally returned and they told him what had happened, his reaction was just about what they might have expected. He said that unless Jesus came back again so he could not only see the nail marks for himself but actually touch them, he was afraid that, much as he hated to say so, he simply couldn’t believe that what they had seen was anything more than the product of wishful thinking or an optical illusion of an unusually vivid kind.

Eight days later, when Jesus did come back, Thomas was there and got his wish. Jesus let him see him and hear him and touch him, and not even Thomas could hold out against evidence like that. He had no questions left to ask and not enough energy left to ask them with even if he’d had a couple. All he could say was, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28), and Jesus seemed to consider that under the circumstances that was enough.

Then Jesus asked as question of his own. “Have you believed because you have seen me?” he said and then added, addressing himself to all the generations that have come since, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe” (John 20:29).

Even though he said the greater blessing is for those who can believe without seeing, it’s hard to imagine that there’s a believer anywhere who wouldn’t have traded places with Thomas, given the chance, and seen that face and heard that voice and touched those ruined hands.

April 4 Holy Wednesday
7:00PM Service of Healing in Olive Chapel

April 5 Maundy Thursday
5:30PM Dinner in Fellowship Hall
7:00PM Worship Service with Footwashing & Holy Communion

April 6 Good Friday    
12-3:00PM Community Ecumenical Service
The Seven Last Words of Christ in Mt. Olive’s Sanctuary
7:00PM Tenebrae Service in Sanctuary

April 7 Holy Saturday
10:00AM Children’s Easter Egg Hunt and Party

April 8 Easter Sunday  The Day of Our Lord’s Resurrection
6:30AM Community Sunrise Service at Oakwood Cemetery
7:30AM Worship with Holy Communion in Sanctuary
8:30AM Breakfast in Fellowship Hall
9:30AM Sunday school activities in Fellowship Hall
10:30AM Worship with Holy Communion in Sanctuary

Some of our Prayer concerns - Lord, in your mercy...

+ Weyburn Seabock, Pat Townsend, Henry Jarvis, David Benfield

+ Christian Sympathy to the family of Marguerite Nelson (cousin of Elizabeth Moore) at the death of her husband David Nelson

+ April Fool’s Day’s Fools for Christ

+ those who harvest palms fronds for Palm Sunday

+ those who “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord” (Philippians 2:11)

+ justice and peace in all the earth

Thought for the week: Palm Sunday on April Fools Day 

Sunday, April 1 or April Fools Day kicks off Holy Week 2012.

On April Fools Days in the past…. have you ever call the grocery store and ask for Prince Albert in a can; or call the zoo and ask to speak to Mr. Lyon or Guy Rilla; or done something to someone’s clothing (kick me); or put salt in the sugar bowl (so the victim puts the salt in their coffee); or set someone’s alarm clock an hour or more early? 

So, why call it a day for fools and why pull jokes on April 1? The origins of April Fools Day are mysterious but best guesses include:

When the world began using the Julian calendar, New Years Day was on March 25, which was also Holy Week. So “New Years Day” festivals were moved to a week later – April 1. Then, in the 1500’s the world adopted the Gregorian calendar which put New Years Day on January 1. So, for a while in the 1500’s, people tried to convince other people that the new year was still celebrated on April 1 rather than on January 1.

Another idea was that April 1 was connected to the arrival of Spring, when nature “fools” mankind with fickle weather.

Some thought it was tied to the Romans’ end-of-winter celebration called “Hilaria.”

Good April Fool jokes and pranks are supposed to strike out at our routines, shake up our perceptions, make something ordinary odd and extraordinary. Sometimes April Fools is jokes are contrived. Sometimes April Fools just happens. For example, Andy Warhol, who turned out to have been a devout Christian, received a Catholic burial at St. Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan on April Fool's Day 1987, attended by 2000 people. Whether contrived or natural, to be an "April Fool" is to embrace the surprises and new experiences of Spring. 

There is no better day for Palm Sunday to fall upon than April Fool's Day. Jesus' entry into Jerusalem is a classic "April Fool" experience. 

First, the two disciples Jesus chose to go "borrow" that colt in Bethphage must have been waiting for Jesus to say "April Fool." But he doesn't. Instead Jesus seriously instructs his disciples to go and commit the first-century equivalent of "grand theft auto." "Borrowing" a valuable animal, a pristine, unbroken young colt, was frowned upon and punished in first century Palestine as seriously as horse-thieving was in the Old West. 

Jesus' suggested to his donkey borrowing disciples a "get out of jail free" card which sounds like another "April Fool" — just say, "The Lord needs it." Yeah. Right. That will work. But . . . it does! 

Jesus and his disciples were observant, pious Jews who knew their scripture. His disciples knew the significance of their master riding a young colt into Jerusalem. This was a statement of kingship, of deliverance, of prophetic fulfillment. It is then with great anticipation and expectation that Jesus' disciples decide to disrobe. They bare their arms and backs, they lay their cloaks, the garments that most physically identify who they are, down upon the roadway, creating a cushioned path for the skittish young animal bearing their master. What April Fool's was this? They were for stripping down and looking undignified and under-dressed, in order to honor a scriptural image of the messiah?  

Palm Sunday and April Fool’s Day are the same because the people in the story are expecting something when Jesus comes into Jerusalem.  The people who are cheering for Jesus are Israelites, and they are looking for the next great king to help them.  They imagine Jesus to be a king who will build an army, kick the Romans out of Jerusalem and save them from their enemies, but that’s not where the story goes.  Jesus certainly has come to save them, but not from the Romans, and not from any enemy that we can see.  Over the course of this next week, Jesus goes from being the crowd favorite to being the one person that everyone seems to hate.  His closest friends turn their backs on them, and the crowds that cheered for Jesus call for his crucifixion, call for Jesus to be killed.  The story doesn’t go the way they expect – just like an April Fool.

This Week with Mt. Olive Evangelical Lutheran Church
2780 N. Center St. Hickory, NC 28601. (828)-324-6198
Sunday Worship Times: 8:30AM. 10:45AM. 5:13PM.
Sunday School: 9:30-10:30AM.
 
 

Sunday, January 1 – Happy New Year!

Worship in the Fellowship Hall at 8:30AM, 10:45AM and 5:13PM Worship Times.
(due to the HVAC being replaced in the Sanctuary)
Holy Communion at both morning worship times.
Sunday school at 9:30am.

Halloween edition: is teaching our kids about money too scary?

Rev. Tim Coltvet
Dorothy C. Bass and Craig Dykstra once unpacked the meaning of Christian practices. They write: "By Christian practices we mean things Christian people do together over time to address fundamental human needs in response to and in the light of God's active presence for the life of the world. Thinking of a way of life as made up of a constitutive set of practices breaks a way of life down into parts that are small enough to be amenable to analysis, both in relation to contemporary concerns and as historic, culture-spanning forms of Christian faith and life. At the same time, practices are not too small; each Christian practice is large enough to permit us to draw together the shards and pieces of particular understandings, beliefs, events, behaviors, actions, relationships, inquiries and skills into sets that are capacious and cohesive enough to show how they might guide one into a way of life." (Bass, Practicing our Faith, 1997)

As Bass and Dykstra speak of the connection between our behaviors and the larger aspects of living a Christian life, I begin to wonder about our practices with money, and in particular, our practices of talking about money with our children. Do we have tried and true practices that help us to bring about meaningful understandings and behaviors with regard to the gift of money? Is saving and sharing with others (say 10 percent) a regular part of our practice with our children, or do we fall prey to the cycles of greed and spend, spend, spend that seem to be lurking around every corner in a consumer-obsessed society?

Carrie Carroll and her daughter, Anna, have discovered a way of living into the Christian practice of tithing. In addition to giving money away to various charities and/or her local church each month, 11-year-old Anna is also learning to manage money that previously had been simply spent for her by her parents. Learn more about the innovative idea that Carrie and her husband have adopted as an effective way to teach their daughter about money—its challenges, joys and strong connections to impacting the world that God so loves—by watching a video of Carrie and Anna <http://www.luthersem.edu/stewardship/resource_detail.aspx?resource_id=1549> .

Teaching about tithing can happen at home, as the Carrolls have shown, and it can also be readily engaged in our congregations this time of year. As a parish pastor, I enjoyed watching children bring in 10 percent of their windfall of candy every Sunday after Halloween. Not only was this an opportunity to give some of those sweets to kids at homeless shelters—kids that don't have a neighborhood street to trick or treat at—it was also an opportunity to teach our kids about giving joyfully from that which they enjoy so much! I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, my bag of Halloween candy was something special. It was as close as I would ever get to stumbling upon a treasure chest.

Having some bearings for how to steward those resources might be the best teaching gift you can give to children in your congregation this year! Oh, don't be scared to talk about money this Halloween. Go forward boldly trusting that God will transform your teaching moments into the blossoming of generous hearts.

"For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline."
2 Timothy 1:7


(NO KINDERCHOR REHEARSAL TONIGHT)

 WAMO next week (10/26): Presentation from the Family Care Center of Catawba Valley led by Pastor Scott Bollinger. http://www.familycare-center.com

Sunday, October 23

 Bread for the World Sunday (see below at Thought for the Week for info about Bread for the World)

 8:30 and 10:45AM Worship with Holy Communion

Matthew 22:34-40 What is the Greatest Commandment?

9:30AM Sunday school

NOON: Youth Group to the Amazing Maize Maze

Located near Charlotte, AMM is one of the largest corn mazes in the Southeast, with 1.25 miles of interconnecting path.

Pack or bring a lunch and comfy clothes. We'll leave shortly after the 10:45

service ends and return to Mt. Olive by 5pm. Contact Eric Griggs.

2:30pm Chrismon Workshop in the Fellowship Hall

5:13pm Worship and Praise in the Fellowship Hall

Faith Out Loud’s Contemporary Worship and Praise Service is back!

Sundays, 5:13pm, in the Fellowship Hall.

Bring your Bible. Bring your voice. Bring a neighbor. Bring your heart.

6-Week Message - “God Working in You” - based on the oldest letter in the New Testament, First Thessalonians.

Thursday, October 27, 7:00PM SpiriTed in Concert at Mt. Olive!

Invite a friend. Freewill offering to be collected.

- The SpiriTed duo of Jonathan Richard Cring and Janet Clazzy recently completed a 297-day tour of the United States in 261 cities, 30 states, and 249 performances!

- SpiriTed has appeared in over 1000 ELCA Congregations!

- The duo is responsible for 13 feature length films, 16 CD’s and 11 books.

- Janet Clazzy was the first female symphony conductor in Tenneessee.

- Jonathan Richard Cring is the author of “Mountain” – the Sermon on the Mount set to music, an off-Broadway show recently revived.

- Janet Clazzy plays the oboe, English horn, and the WX-5 Wind Machine which has 250 different instrument sounds.

- Jonathan Richard Cring’s movies have won awards at 32 film festivals. 

Some of our Prayer Concerns – Lord, in your mercy…

+ Bread for the World organization

+ the hungry

+ bread-makers and bread-sharers

+ those who work in cafeterias, restaurants, and bars

+ Weyburn Seabock, Ian Smail

+ The Work and Workers on Mt. Olive’s Sanctuary

+ military personnel and their families including Christopher Todd Metcalf, Adam Moose, and Chris Atwater

Thought for the Week
www.bread.org

Remember Vicar Jillian’s Sunday school class based on the book “Exodus from Hunger”? It was written by the Rev. David Beckmann, current President of Bread for the World. Bread was started in 1972 by Lutheran pastor, Arthur “Art” Simon, brother of deceased U.S. Senator Paul Simon.

Bread for the World encourages congregations to renew their commitment to ending hunger and poverty on World Food Day (10/16) by participating in Bread for the World Sunday. Thousands of congregations nationwide will recommit themselves to the fight against hunger and poverty in the United States and around the world.

“From the Horn of Africa to many places across the United States, nearly 1 billion people around the world are hungry,” said Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World. “What better way to observe World Food Day than to take action—especially at a time when our voices are most needed to influence lawmakers.”

As the congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (or Super Committee) works to identify $1.2 trillion in federal funds to help reduce the deficit, many programs that support hungry and poor people are in danger of being cut. Internationally, proposed cuts would take food aid away from about 14 million of the hungriest people in the world. The cuts would also reduce agricultural development assistance in places such as the Horn of Africa, where recurring famine could threaten the livelihoods of millions for years to come.

In the United States, Congress is considering devastating cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly food stamps). If passed, these cuts could remove 1 million recipients from the rolls and leave 200,000 children without school lunches at a time when U.S. poverty and food insecurity rates are the highest on record. By participating in Bread for the World Sunday, congregations will learn about these issues, pray for hungry people, and be empowered to lift their voices on behalf of vulnerable people.

“Churches have enormous influence in their communities, and they can play a tremendous role in changing history for hungry people,” added Beckmann. “I challenge congregations and organizations to participate in this event and learn how to use their influence in the fight for justice.”