Anchoring St. Olaf

On a day of unholy weather, the people of St. Olaf gathered, as we do monthly, to discuss what is going on at the church.   For those who haven’t been around, this is a chance to bring any questions you have about what is going on at your church and ask Pr. Mark directly.   Here are a few things we discussed this month. ·         A group of our High School kids are going to New Orleans for the ELCA National Youth Gathering!   Ben Pischke (chaperone) and Leah introduced the congregation to these happenings.   In order to make this happen, it will take a lot of work by the kids to raise funds and they have some good plans in place. o    Congregation members will have the opportunity to buy stock in their trip.   Owners of trip stock will have access to a blog with happenings and pictures from the kids, a dinner with the kids after they return to hear first hand about what happened, and other perks.   o ...

This Sunday, January 14th, St. Olaf kicks off an Epiphany season sermon series called, “The Four.” It’s a nod to the first four women named in the genealogy of Jesus according to the Gospel of Matthew. Now, the genealogy of Jesus is the opening to Matthew’s Gospel ; the first 17 verses are all dedicated to the ancestors of Jesus. We see some notable names, like Abraham, Isaac, and King David. You’ll also notice that all of the names are those of men, the paternal ancestors of Jesus…except for five. Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and of course, Mary, the mother of Jesus.   I won’t make you count all of these names, but it breaks down to 42 generations between Abraham and Jesus. Out of 42 generations, the names of all but five women have been forgotten. Sure, we hear about Abraham’s wife Sarah, and Jacob’s wife Rebecca, but these names were left out of the written account of ancestors. The erasure of all but 5 of these women from Jesus’ ancestry is alarming, but unfortunately n...