“When hospitality is viewed as entertainment, the house is never ready.” – Christine Pohl, Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as Christian Tradition

Scripture: Genesis 18:1-10a (Common English Bible)
The Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre while he sat at the entrance of his tent in the day’s heat. He looked up and suddenly saw three men standing near him. As soon as he saw them, he ran from his tent entrance to greet them and bowed deeply. He said, “Sirs, if you would be so kind, don’t just pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought so you may wash your feet and refresh yourselves under the tree. Let me offer you a little bread so you will feel stronger, and after that you may leave your servant and go on your way—since you have visited your servant.”
They responded, “Fine. Do just as you have said.”
So Abraham hurried to Sarah at his tent and said, “Hurry! Knead three seahs of the finest flour and make some baked goods!” Abraham ran to the cattle, took a healthy young calf, and gave it to a young servant, who prepared it quickly. Then Abraham took butter, milk, and the calf that had been prepared, put the food in front of them, and stood under the tree near them as they ate.
They said to him, “Where’s your wife Sarah?”
And he said, “Right here in the tent.”
Then one of the men said, “I will definitely return to you about this time next year. Then your wife Sarah will have a son!”

​Reflection: The last several weeks in worship, we've been focusing on the Core Values of OPCC and the characteristics of Vision as we seek to see through God's eyes.  The last several weeks in our world have also been very hard as we consider the violence and terrorism that has been so stunning on our human family.  The feelings of hopelessness abound as it seems impossible to turn on the news without yet another tragic story of violence.  

In these situations, and in this time, we know we can turn to scripture; scripture is full of situations that remind us to hope, even the ones that don't expressly talk about hope.  This Sunday we will focus on this passage from Genesis that reminds us of the Hope in Hospitality because hospitality is much more than simply getting your house ready for a party.
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We hope you will join us - the table is simply not complete when we are missing some of our family in faith!

There are countless times when I have thought over, re-hashed, listed, catagorized, theorized, analyzed, or otherwise overthought situations, information, and decisions in my life.   Sometimes there is a running circle of I-should-have-dones that paralyze me for the next thing coming.  Nine times out of ten, I know what the answer is, I just forget to stop digging for more information.  

I'm a music teacher.  And there are many times, once a student has done the work of learning notes, words, fingerings, terms, and more, that they just need to stop thinking and do it.  They need to get out of their minds and into their hearts in order to make it to the next level of musical expression. It is the same principle in sports.  Athletes need to do the same thing in order to run a 4-minute mile or a marathon. And only the few who can get beyond the fear actually achieve those hurdles.

Recently, a friend asked me to work with his son who was auditioning for a part in a musical.  He had 16 bars to prove his worth.  Dad had helped him learn the notes and the words, but they were both stuck on making it work.  We talked briefly about what needed to be done physically to make the sound happen, and the son understood what needed to be done, but the kid wasn't doing it. He knew he could and he wanted to, but he couldn't get out of his own way.  

I told him that no matter what I did, he had to keep singing.  We started and I pushed him in the chest and told him to risist, all the while he was singing.  I tried like hell to push him over and he pushed right back.  He began making some glorious sounds he had never made before.  Dad was dumbfounded. And so was son. It wasn't too high.  It wasn't too hard. It was just too scary. All I really did was make him think about something else.  I made him get out of his own way.  It was in him all along.

Nadia Boulanger was a famous French music teacher who coached a number of American composers of the Twentieth Century.  She once said that her only job was to turn on the light and ask why the student couldn't turn it on for himself.  She knew that her students possessed everything necessary to succed. They just needed to get out of their own ways.

The word is already planted in us.  We know what needs to be done.  But we are afriad.  Afraid that we don't know the notes.  Afraid we will make a mistake. Afraid that if we run a mile in six minutes that we have failed.  Afraid of the judgement of others.

Funny thing.  My oldest son seems to know the truth. Shortly after discovering Power Rangers, he made a note for everyone in the family.  It was a few years ago, and I'm not sure how his brother's note survived the piles of paper in the house.  But he knows that hope is in his brother.  It is in you, too.  

This past week, I have been re-reading a favorite historical fiction novel called The Expected One. Similar to Dan Brown's approach with The DaVinci Code, Kathleen McGowan weaves together pieces of histories, stories, and images to create a compelling account of Mary Magdalene, her life in the teachings of The Way, and the aftermath of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection.  The story, in may circles, is considered heretical, and the results of that heresy are played out in the modern story line of the book.  I am not a biblical scholar, so I'll skip over any thoughts I might have about which historical pieces are supported and which are creatively manipulated by the author, but I will share my experience reading it for the first time.

I was travelling on business when I was pregnant with Andrew and had two long cross-country flights.  After the first, I knew I would need something better than television and magazines to occupy time during my evenings in the hotel and on the flight home.  I picked up the book on my first evening, read about three quarters of it during my stay, and - on the third day - took the return flight home.  It was there, in a single front-row seat, adjascent to the flight attendant's station, that I found myself weeping overtly at the foot of the cross.  McGowans description of scene was vivid, and her care in expressing Mary's overwhelming emotions carried me directly into the moment. The roar of the engines and the scraping metal sounds of the wobbling  beverage cart drowned out the sound of my sobs, Mary's sobs, as Jesus died.  Had they not, I'm sure the passangers behind me would have thought that the pregnant lady in the front was about to come unglued.  The stewardess had her suspiscions and eyed me closely.

I write today, on Good Friday, having calculated that I have one hundred and one pages to finish reading after I sing the Agnus Dei at service tonight.  I know what's coming.  But I will still read into the night. And I will weep.  I will follow Mary's example, because I love Him. And because God reveals himself to those who love Him, as he did to Mary that first Easter morning.

May your Easter refelctions be blessed by these thoughts.

                                                                                                  - Blessings, Amy

Lent is completely over at this point – 40 days of penitential prayer and fasting and waiting for that glorious third day.  Some of us had given up coffee, taken on more prayer time, and all of us had waited for Easter morning.  Forty days is a long time, and we’ve put energy into being penitential and spiritual for these 40 days of Lent.  And then we celebrate Easter on ONE Sunday, and then that’s it? Really? That's all we get?

But why?  It’s like taking hours upon hours to get ready for the big party and then staying at the party of the century for 10 minutes.  Really?  Why not celebrate?  Why not stay at the party?  Why not see what joy and life lessons this season can bring?

The early Christians did not believe that Easter was just ONE day, and neither do we!  Easter was on SUNDAY, but it is also an entire season of feasting, a season of celebrating that lasts for 50 days, all the way up to Pentecost.  So why don’t we observe these Great Fifty Days of celebration?

Kate Moorehead says in her book Resurrecting Easter, “I don’t think it’s because we don’t like parties, or we refuse to celebrate.  I think we can’t celebrate for that long because we have forgotten how to sustain joy.  We simply don’t know how.”  These next several weeks will be an invitation to celebrate the resurrection – for the entire 50 days – and sustain the joy of a resurrected Christ!

Beginning Easter Sunday, and these next 50 days that follow we will take a peek at the appearances that Jesus made to specific disciples.  Each Sunday we will focus on a particular appearance, to Mary Magdalene, to Peter, James, Paul and Thomas; we will continue Sundays by glimpsing the visions of the book of Revelation and finally the gift of the Holy Spirit.  

In addition we will also be posting blogs here to go along with that theme of the resurrection appearance.  We will keep focusing on the resurrection appearance of which we heard on the previous Sunday.  Different writers from our faith community will over reflections and thoughts on what it means to "Resurrect Easter."

Join us over these next 8 Sundays, and with the blogs in between (join in the conversation by leaving comments), as we RESURRECT EASTER and focus on what it means to experience the Resurrected Christ in our lives!

Check out what Kate Moorehead has to say about one of the resurrection appearances to Mary!

- Blessings, Laura