Holy Week at Humble Walk

Palm Sunday at Acme—April 1
Jesus rides into Jerusalem (St Paul) on a colt. All along the way, people throw their coats down on the road—red carpet style. They (we) sing, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” Don’t miss this drama. Then, if you are so inclined, stick around for a post-liturgy feast.

Too Much Love Feast—Maundy Thursday, April 5 at Acme
Jesus gathers his disciples and feeds them. Jesus tells us to love one another. So, we do. Don’t miss this gracious meal (provided and catered by our own, Jean Hyde). 6PM. Yes, you can bring friends.

Good Friday Prayer Stations—April 6 at Highland Park
At your own pace, walk through the prayer stations. Stations will be available from 6-8PM in the picnic area of Highland Park.

Easter Vigil, Holy Saturday—April 7 at Acme
This is the night! We move from darkness to light, death to life. It’s the pinnacle of the church year. Hear the ancient stories of our faith as we gather around a pillar of fire. The good news of the resurrection is proclaimed. And then we have a breakfast potluck. 6PM at Acme.

Easter Sunday—April 8
No services at Humble Walk. Go on and enjoy your people—with eyes trained to see new life.

Holy Week with Humble Walk recap
Palm Sunday (April 1) 4:30PM Acme
Maundy Thursday (April 5) 6PM Meal Acme
Good Friday (April 6) 6PM-8PM Highland Park Picnic area
Easter Vigil,  Holy Saturday (April 7) 6PM Acme
Easter Sunday, (April No service. Enjoy your people.

I keep thinking about my friends. The ones I have known for a couple decades now. You might recognize this tribe: they went to college…or a bit of college…then gave themselves fully to something. They served, working toward the common good in the Peace Corps, Lutheran Volunteer Corps, Youth Encounter, fulltime camps and retreat centers, Up with People, Habitat for Humanity, YWAM, etc.

One friend went off to be a shepherd in New Zealand. Really. It was some sort of volunteer farm program. A real live shepherd! Me? I moved to North Idaho and lived at Camp Lutherhaven.

Now, fast forward 10-20 years and most of these friends are still living lives of service. The sad part is that they  have trouble believing it.

Jesus bids us to “come and die.” When you sign up for a year of fulltime volunteering–or get sent overseas–when you sign on for voluntary poverty–it feels like you are actually doing something. You are sure you know what it feels like to “come and die.” It feels like you are making a difference. You know what it means to “take up your cross and follow.” But at this age, it doesn’t feel clear at all.  Because now, you find yourself with people to tend. Children and aging parents. You make commitments to partners. You walk with a friend through a life-altaring diagnosis. You have mortgages to pay and jobs that require much of you.

And then you think back to those early twenties and think, “What the hell am I doing to help?” Or “Remember when we were going to single-handedly take down poverty?”

Guess what? You are doing something. Anyone who has spent the day tending to a kid in diapers knows what it means to “come and die.” Walking with your friends through a shitstorm breakup? You do, too. And when you were twenty and so passionately serving? You had the option to quit and go home. These complex lives you have now? Well, friends, you don’t get to quit and go home. You are here–and making all sorts of goodness in this world. I see it even if you don’t.

This Sunday…Holding the Space
We begin with prayers and communion, then the kids get to walk down to Subway with Michelle for dinner (provided)  and their own Weight of the Word. The rest of us enjoy a space of quiet prayer. We will close our time together with a brief (but mighty) lenten hymn sing led by Justin Rimbo.

Read more about it here: http://humblewalkchurch.org/2012/03/08/what-sunday-will-look-like/

Holy Week with Humble Walk looks like…
Palm Sunday (April 1st) 4:30PM Acme
Maundy Thursday (April 5th) 6PM Meal Acme
Good Friday (April 6th) 6PM Location TBA
Easter Vigil,  Holy Saturday (April 7th) 6PM Acme
Easter Sunday, (April 8th) No service. Enjoy your people.

Weight of the Word
We have four different small gathering groups who meet, check in, read the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday, listen and pray. If you are interested in this sort of thing and want to be connected with one, contact Pastor Jodi. jodihouge@gmail.com

Spring Work
Want to put your body to work? Volunteer at Bay Lake Camp the first two weekends of May. They will feed and house you. You roll up your sleeves and get to work. Win/win. Contact  director, Brenda Olson brendajolson@me.com.

And Summer Will Find Us…

2nd and 3rd Grade Weekend at Camp Wapo July 6-8.

Bay Lake
Yes, summer will come. And with it, the promise of a weekend on an island up north. Run away with us to Bay Lake. It’s like going to bible camp, minus the counselors, plus every age. With better food than you remember (because, well, this is actually better food). Humble Walk will converge at Bay Lake Friday, June 29-Sunday, July 1. Reserve your room or tent sight. jodihouge@gmail.com

National Youth Gathering
We are sending our entire senior high to New Orleans, July 18-22. PLUS two adults. Brylle, Val, Slade and Michelle are going to take New Orleans by storm. Our own Rachel Kurtz will be there to lead music. We have already paid for registration costs. We still need to fund transportation and meals. I am certain that soon you will hear of ways that you can support this trip. http://www.elca.org/ELCA/Youth-Gathering.aspx

Vacation
Jodi Houge (your pastor) is on vacation March 12-16. If you have pastoral emergency, please call Rev. Paul Erickson on his cell: 651.402.8434

Next Sunday (18th)
Justin Rimbo returns with a guitar and a lenten round of songs for you. And your friends.

Holy Week with Humble Walk looks like…
Palm Sunday (April 1) 4:30PM Acme
Maundy Thursday (April 5) 6PM Meal Acme
Good Friday (April 6) 6PM Location TBA
Easter Vigil,  Holy Saturday (April 7) 6PM Acme
Easter Sunday, (April No service. Enjoy your people.

Weight of the Word
We have four different small gathering groups who meet, check in, read the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday, listen and pray. If you are interested in this sort of thing and want to be connected with one, contact Pastor Jodi. jodihouge@gmail.com

Spring Work
Want to put your body to work? Volunteer at Bay Lake Camp the first two weekends of May. They will feed and house you. You roll up your sleeves and get to work. Win/win. Contact  director, Brenda Olson brendajolson@me.com.

And Summer Will Find Us…

Bay Lake
Yes, summer will come. And with it, the promise of a weekend on an island up north. Run away with us to Bay Lake. It’s like going to bible camp, minus the counselors, plus every age. With better food than you remember (because, well, this is actually better food). Humble Walk will converge at Bay Lake Friday, June 29-Sunday, July 1. Reserve your room or tent sight. jodihouge@gmail.com

National Youth Gathering
We are sending our entire senior high to New Orleans, July 18-22. PLUS two adults. Brylle, Val, Slade and Michelle are going to take New Orleans by storm. Our own Rachel Kurtz will be there to lead music. We have already paid for registration costs. We still need to fund transportation and meals. I am certain that soon you will hear of ways that you can support this trip. http://www.elca.org/ELCA/Youth-Gathering.aspx

Sunday (Lent 2)
New Restless liturgy from the likes of Tim Snyder. The liturgy came from asking: “If you knew you were headed into a restless night, what would that evening liturgy look like?” Jodi’s preaches. Everyone breaks bread. Then, it’s more bread-breaking with our monthly potluck feast. If you feel so moved, bring something to share.

Holding the Space
Next Sunday (March 11) and March 25, Sunday worship will look a bit different. We begin with prayers and communion, then the kids get to walk down to Subway with Michelle for dinner (provided)  and their own Weight of the Word. The rest of us enjoy a space of quiet prayer.

Read more about it here: http://humblewalkchurch.org/2012/02/02/change-for-real/

Weight of the Word
We have four different small gathering groups who meet, check in, read the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday, listen and pray. If you are interested in this sort of thing and want to be connected with one, contact Pastor Jodi. jodihouge@gmail.com

Theology on Tap rides again. Monday, March 5 from 7-9PM at Shamrock’s Pub. Guest theologian, Tim Snyder. Topic: Restlessness.

Spring Work
Want to put your body to work? Volunteer at Bay Lake Camp the first two weekends of May. They will feed and house you. You roll up your sleeves and get to work. Win/win. Contact  director, Brenda Olson brendajolson@me.com.

And Summer Will Find Us…

Bay Lake
Yes, summer will come. And with it, the promise of a weekend on an island up north. Run away with us to Bay Lake. It’s like going to bible camp, minus the counselors, plus every age. With better food than you remember (because, well, this is actually better food). Humble Walk will converge at Bay Lake Friday, June 29-Sunday, July 1. Reserve your room or tent sight. jodihouge@gmail.com

National Youth Gathering
We are sending our entire senior high to New Orleans, July 18-22. PLUS two adults. Brylle, Val, Slade and Michelle are going to take New Orleans by storm. Our own Rachel Kurtz will be there to lead music. We have already paid for registration costs. We still need to fund transportation and meals. I am certain that soon you will hear of ways that you can support this trip. http://www.elca.org/ELCA/Youth-Gathering.aspx

Last fall, a group of clergy colleagues and I applied for a grant through Austin Presbyterian Seminary. Santa came early and we received a grant of 10,000 bones…to be used over the next two years.

Who is this lucky cohort that I go covorting with? Kara Root (Lake Nokomis Presbyterian), Phil GebbenGreen (Edgecombe Presbyterian), Jamie Schultz (Bryn Mawr Presbyterian), Travis Gerjets (Faith Lutheran) and Marc Ostlie-Olson (St Anthony Park Lutheran). Yes, lucky me.

The fourth Wed/Thurs of each month, this group stops, unplugs (mostly…this is a growing edge), and travels an hour north to a retreat center for twenty-four hours.* We eat, talk, sit in silence, discuss, walk, sleep, pray.

We have an evolving booklist. Our over-arching theme is: What does it mean to belong? What does is mean to belong to God, one another and a church? What does membership (in church) even mean anymore?

Our booklist so far include:
The Quotidian Mysteries by Kathleen Norris
Theological Worlds by W. Paul Jones
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

With two retreats under our belts, I am entirely grateful that we are only at the beginning of this trip together.

*In addition to funding these books/retreats, our whole group gets to travel to Austin, Texas this coming October for additional study. Austin just happens to be one of my very favorite cities. They know how to keep things weird.

This year, we added a second Ash Wednesday service. Yes, we are growing just so fast that we couldn’t be contained in just one.

In the afternoon, a couple of us gathered at the bus stop shelter at Randolph Ave and W 7th and offered ashes for foreheads and candles to light. Many walked by–curious looks and sideways glances. We had a few conversations with (guilt-ridden) lapsed Catholics. Two Occupy kids paused and asked, “Will you give me ashes even if I’m holding this sign?” Um, of course. (Read between the lines: will the church take me as I am? Or, will God take me as I am?) Um, let’s hope so. Many of the foreheads we touched with ashes were people coming in and out of the clinic across the street. Shuffling off bus 54, bodies obviously in pain and in need of care, waiting to shuffle across the street to the clinic.

This wasn’t Humble Walk serving the poor. This wasn’t Humble Walk doing ministry in the street. It was Humble Walk. Those people who paused, those who asked for ashes, those who wanted to talk about the history of the day, those who we made uncomfortable, those who said “Thank you” and “Amen.” That’s our congregation. It doesn’t even really feel radical. It feels obvious.

Our second service was in the park. Around a fire. Many of these bodies were younger, delighted to be in crunchy snow (finally)…in the dark…on a school night…around a fire. Here is a lovely reflection of the service from one of our people: http://eileencampbellreed.org/blog/2012/02/22/ash-wednesday-3/ One thing I learned from this service is that ashes mixed with oil become nearly solidified in the cold. So, when you all move your services outside next year, keep the container close to your body until it’s time to use them.

Bodies. Shuffling, spritely, reluctantly, uncomfortably, willingly headed toward the dusty grave and the cross. And finally, the empty tomb.

This body is tremendously grateful to have entered this season.

Sunday (Lent)
New Restless liturgy from the likes of Tim Snyder. The liturgy came from asking: If you knew you were headed into a restless night, what would that evening liturgy look like? Guest preacher Rev. Mark Aune from Augustana Lutheran in West St Paul.

Changes in our Worship Life
Change is approaching. Have no fear, Humble Walk. It’s good change. Read about it here: http://humblewalkchurch.org/2012/02/02/change-for-real/

Weight of the Word
We have three different small gathering groups who meet, check in, read the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday, listen and pray. If you are interested in this sort of thing and want to be connected with one, contact Pastor Jodi. jodihouge@gmail.com

Theology on Tap rides again. Monday, March 5 from 7-9PM at Shamrock’s Pub.

Spring Work
Want to put your body to work? Volunteer at Bay Lake Camp the first two weekends of May. They will feed and house you. You roll up your sleeves and get to work. Win/win. Contact  director, Brenda Olson brendajolson@me.com.

And Summer Will Find Us…

Bay Lake
Yes, summer will come. And with it, the promise of a weekend on an island up north. Run away with us to Bay Lake. It’s like going to bible camp, minus the counselors, plus every age. With better food than you remember (because, well, this is actually better food). Humble Walk will converge at Bay Lake Friday, June 29-Sunday, July 1. Reserve your room or tent sight. jodihouge@gmail.com

National Youth Gathering
We are sending our entire senior high to New Orleans, July 18-22. PLUS two adults. Brylle, Val, Slade and Michelle are going to take New Orleans by storm. Our own Rachel Kurtz will be there to lead music. We have already paid for registration costs. We still need to fund transportation and meals. I am certain that soon you will hear of ways that you can support this trip. http://www.elca.org/ELCA/Youth-Gathering.aspx

This Sunday…Heatherlyn and T-figgity
Heatherlyn http://www.heatherlynmusic.com/ makes her triumphant (yet gentle) return to our worship life. Lucky us. Also, it’s Transfiguration Sunday. Or, as some would call it, T-fig. Actually, no one calls it that…yet.

Ash Wednesday Worship
“In these bodies we will live. In these bodies we will die. Where you invest your love, you invest your life.” -Mumford and Sons. Join us for an outdoor imposition of ashes (complete with fire) on Wednesday, February 22 at 6:00PM. Appropriate for every age.

Location: Highland Park picnic area. (Where we squatted this summer). 1200 Montreal Ave., across from Circus Juventas.  http://mn-stpaul.civicplus.com/facilities.aspx?pagenum=20&RID=164&Page=detail

Next Sunday (Lent)
New liturgy from the likes of Tim Snyder, guest preacher Rev. Mark Aune from Augustana Lutheran in West St Paul.

Changes in our Worship Life
Change is approaching. Have no fear, Humble Walk. It’s good change. Read about it here: http://humblewalkchurch.org/2012/02/02/change-for-real/

Weight of the Word
We have three different small gathering groups who meet, check in, read the Gospel for the upcoming Sunday, listen and pray. If you are interested in this sort of thing and want to be connected with one, contact Pastor Jodi. jodihouge@gmail.com

And Summer Will Find Us…

Bay Lake
Yes, summer will come. And with it, the promise of a weekend on an island up north. Run away with us to Bay Lake. It’s like going to bible camp, minus the counselors, plus every age. With better food than you remember (because, well, this is actually better food). Humble Walk will converge at Bay Lake Friday, June 29-Sunday, July 1. Reserve your room or tent sight. jodihouge@gmail.com

National Youth Gathering
We are sending our entire senior high to New Orleans, July 18-22. PLUS two adults. Brylle, Val, Slade and Michelle are going to take New Orleans by storm. Our own Rachel Kurtz will be there to lead music. We have already paid for registration costs. We still need to fund transportation and meals. I am certain that soon you will hear of ways that you can support this trip. http://www.elca.org/ELCA/Youth-Gathering.aspx

Annual reporting time. It’s actually a tiny bit fun to see it all on paper. Since Humble Walk isn’t a congregation in the technical sense (we are a “congregation under development”) (which is something I hope for all congregations)…we cannot officially have members. This works out swimmingly, because we don’t have any members. Ha.

We don’t do many of the normal church things around membership. No new member classes or orientation. No New Member Sunday. If you show up at anything Humble Walk related–you are in/us. We trust that God has gathered us–whether that is in the park or at Shamrock’s Pub.

All the edges are terribly and wonderfully blurry. Theology on Tap, ice cream socials, Wild Week in the park, worship, Weight of the Word, camping at Bay Lake. I could go on and on. If we see your face around these gatherings–um, you get added (by pen) to a list of names in a notebook page titled “Humble People.” And since I burn through these notebooks about every 9 months, we have a new list every 9 months.

Who needs spreadsheets and computers when you have Uniball pens and paper? I LOVE Uniball pens. Too much, perhaps.  I also love thinking back through the year and all the ways we have put bits and pieces together and deemed it church. Scraps, really. When I was doing the report, I asked folks on fb to raise their hands if they wanted to be included in our annual report. It was a hilarious and sweet exchange. “We are fringe people. Can we be counted?” Oh honey, fringe is all we got.