NICKEY'S NOTES -- Holy Host

My dear friends,

We sometimes have difficulty dealing with change, so I thought that I should warn you about the newest worship ware. If you notice a change in your communion wafer, don’t be alarmed.

Worship attendance is down in traditional churches across the country. Some businesses associated with worship have experienced critical short-falls this past year. One of these companies is Holy Host, maker of fine communion wafers and table wines for sacramental use.

When interviewed, C. H. Allis, president and CEO of Holy Host said, “With the increased popularity of non-denominational churches and their lack of emphasis of the Eucharist, sales of sacramental wafers and wines has been soggy in the last three quarters, but we expect sales will rise soon as we introduce our new products. Research and Development has been market-testing a new niche market. We think that we have a product that is ready to meet the needs of the 21^st century church.”

Holy Host intends to introduce wafers made in liturgical colors and flavored to get away from the old tasteless wafers to which we have become accustomed. These new wafers will be available April 1^st.

Advent blue are blueberry-flavored. Alternatively, for those denominations still adhering to purple and pink, the concord grape wafers have a fine fruity taste; the pink wafers are peppermint (a sacramental Chablis is recommended for this Sunday).

Christmas and Easter white maintain the tradition of the ages for those who are adverse to change.

Ash Wednesday black has a bold licorice flavor. Lenten purple reprises the concord grape.

Pentecost red, is a fine full-flavored pomegranate.

For Sundays in ordinary time, primarily the Sundays after Pentecost, two greens will be offered. Lime is perfect for the early part of the season which includes those hot days in June, July and August. A salty green olive is recommended for the latter part of the season as harvest and fall colors approach. This one would help communicants remember that they are to be salt of the earth.

These wafers offer great flexibility for use—chips for church casino nights; embossed with bingo numbers in sets of seventy-five to prevent game tampering; special red editions for Lutherans embossed with numbers and a thesis on each wafer in packs of ninety-five; and special pricing for wafers blessed by the Pope.

With a little salt, the lime wafers could make a tasty picnic snack with an alternate beverage. The olive green ones could be threaded on a pick to be added to another beverage as well.

There has even been some thought given to embossing congregational identification numbers on one side with the name of the church on the other. As you travel and visit other churches, you could collect or trade holy moments with friends you meet along the way. Collector booklets could also be published.

C. H. Allis noted, “Some of these items are still in development, but I think that they really have possibilities for the future of Holy Host. Our goal is to give greater meaning to the ritual practices of church people and make a statement of faith. Let there be no doubt, “In God we trust; we believe in spreading that trust throughout the world; and we believe in Holy Host.”

Dealing from the bottom,

Your Joker,
Casino Nick de Mouse

Because the Stone Is Rolled Away CORRECTED

Because the Stone Is Rolled Away 

corrected 3/18

Peter Heide

In wilderness contention, from Jabbok water baptisms, 
Wrest us to your restoration highway, to resurrection gardens of possibility—
For we walk, limp, grope, and crawl
In your likeness, in your imago dei, in your gifts of touch and action.
With loving grace, help us reveal your saving works and goodness,
The joy of justification healing,
And your active incarnate presence
As we claim your living body and find our distinctive wholeness in the midst of this broken world.
So, as Braille is known by the touch of the blind,
Let our lives be known to you, O Lord.
As action speaks meaning to the lives of the deaf,
Let our actions bear witness to your Word, O Christ.
As wheelchairs, walkers, canes, and crutches support us in our lives,
Let our lives support others in your Spirit.

Sermon for Easter Sunday—Running on Empty

The Resurrection of Our Lord

He is risen! He is risen, indeed, Alleluia!

I am always struck by the sense of duty that draws these women to the tomb on the first day of the week. Not having been able to anoint properly the body of Jesus before the Sabbath, the two Marys and Salome come to care for Jesus’ body while the temperature is still cool, before more decomposition can occur. They come out of duty, knowing what needs to be done, yet wondering how they will do it.

This is women’s work after all, but usually the stone of the tomb is not rolled and sealed until after the body has been cared for. Today they come wondering how they will manage rolling that large stone away. Will there be somebody who will do the heavy work of rolling the stone for them?

They do not question if they should be the ones doing the job; they are only considering how it will be done. To their amazement, the stone is already rolled away. What does this mean?

They run into the tomb, discovering a young man sitting where the body of Christ is supposed to be, but where is Jesus?

The young man begins to tell them the good news and the bad. “You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised. He is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.”

In the world of GPS, this might be the time that one might check one’s co-ordinates. What do you mean that he is not here? We followed the instructions dictated by our locator. We turned on the prescribed road; we went to the cemetery; we turned on the right path; this is the place. He was dead! We have the spices for washing and anointing the body! Where could he go?

These women must have had that awful feeling we have when walking out into the parking lot at the mall, knowing exactly where the car was parked, only to discover that you walked out the wrong door and your car is nowhere to be found. “I know I parked it right there. Where did it go?”

The young man continues, “Go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.”

I don’t know about you, but I am not surprised to discover that the women run, that terror and amazement seizes them. Nor am I surprised that they might even want to keep it quiet. I mean, seriously, when the laws of nature change, when you drop something and discover that it floats instead of falls, when up is down, when women and not men are chosen to be the witnesses of God’s activity to the world, when tombs for the dead become wombs of new life, would you just calmly walk out and tweet your friends?

Or, might you try to find another answer? Maybe I walked out the wrong door? My car might be on the other side; in a different place. Maybe I should call the police? Did someone steal my car?

Of all the accounts of the resurrection, this is my favorite. It addresses the limits of the human condition. When confronting something that is seemingly impossible, our first response is to deny it!

Later, when all of the facts are in, when we have time to embrace the reality of the new, then we can talk about the forces of change in our lives, then we can cope with our altered realities.

One of the vehicles I owned had a broken gas gauge. When I first discovered the problem, I panicked. Would I make it to the station in time? But when I got to the gas station, it only took five gallons of gas.

I tried to put more gasoline into the tank, but it only ran down the side of the car. I got back into the car and turned on the ignition, but the gauge still read empty. So, of course, I took it to the service station to be repaired only to discover that I couldn’t afford the repairs.

A friend said, “Well, if you’re running around town, stop and put a couple gallons in. You know your approximate mileage, so just keep track of the odometer and don’t let the tank get too low.” For years I drove with a gauge that always said empty.

Every once in a while, someone else would drive the car. They’d tell me that the tank was empty; I’d have to explain. When someone borrowed the car, I’d tell them not to bring the car back with an empty tank and laugh as they looked at the gauge.

The irony is that it is the only car that I never ran out of gas with. Because I was always running on empty, I made sure that I stopped to fill more regularly.

Today, we are confronted with some seemingly conflicted information. Like my old car, we come to the tomb to discover that it is empty, but it is that emptiness that fills our lives.

With the women, we come seeking Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified only to discover that he is not here! He is going ahead of us, into the world of ministry, into Galilee, to those places where we have seen him before—into the world of the lepers, the lame and the maimed, the blind and the deaf, the widowed and the orphaned, and the poor—to the dead of the world, to raise them up into new ways of living, into an altared place. There you will find him.

In knowing the proclamation of emptiness and the reality of that new way of living, we come again and again to be reminded of the emptiness of the tomb that fills our lives. We do not turn away from the amazement and the fear of what that emptiness means. Rather, we join with the women, the two Marys and Salome, with the disciples and Peter, with the angels and archangels, with the church on Earth, with the great cloud of witnesses; and we proclaim the great resurrection message of our new life in Christ. We tell the world that we are recognizing our altered and altared being in Christ, right here and now, when we say, “Τhe beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” We are running on empty, and we are filled.

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

SignPost Easter Day—Topel’s

Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24

Years ago, when we really had American car makers, more than Ford and GM, when new models all came out at the same time, great secrecy was kept concerning what the new cars might look like. Dealership showrooms had a few of the older models, but with sale price signs on them. We were putting the past behind and looking to the future.

One by one, cars showed up covered with white tarps until the showroom and adjacent lot were filled with shrouded vehicles. Signboards displayed the date of the great unveiling. As the day approached, we would drive past Topel’s dealership anticipating the first view of the new cars. What would they look like?

Finally the day would come. It was really a big deal. Arc lights cut the skies, pennant flags were strung up from the corners of the lots to the tops of the signs. Some dealers offered free hot dogs, popcorn, and soda. Newspapers sent journalists to cover the event.

People dressed up, men put on suits; women put on heels and makeup. Families drove from all over town to their favored dealership to see the wonders of the new cars. They would make a night of looking at engines, marveling at the latest innovations, take test drives, and go home dreaming of owning one of those fine machines.

I particularly remember the year of the 1959 Nash Rambler, the special release year of the Marlin in 1965, and 1968 with the AMX and the Javelin, “Hey Javelin!” It was a time of innovation and re-creation. There was not much talk about fuel economy in those days. It was about power, speed, and maneuverability. Fuel economy was still in the future.

Today, we celebrate our re-creation. We commit ourselves to the new way of living that Christ makes possible for us—a life freed from the fear of death, freed to live in full relationship with God and one another—knowing that there will be mistakes along the way (let’s not forget the Marlin), but that, through the grace of God, we can make corrections in our lives in the world of forgiveness in Christ’s loving presence. There is power for change; there is flexibility for addressing the world of service opened to us; and this transformation happens, as St. Paul says, in the twinkling of an eye. The days of fuel economy are coming as we settle down for ministry in the long haul, but today we can celebrate in the time of the great un-shrouding.

He is risen! He is risen indeed! Hallelujah!

Prayer

Lord, in your power we are re-created and sent out new into your ever-changing world equipped with all the gifts we need to do your work. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Amen