MORGAN'S MOMENT...
Stopping at the downtown light
    I noticed two hopeful things
    against dark economic clouds.
First the sunrise
    not bright in its fog shroud
    but full of the promise of light.
Second a bus stop
    where dozens of students stood
    waiting to ride to college.
Our community college
    offers hope to those students
    skills to match opportunities.
I was seeing
    an economic stimulus plan 
    standing at the bus stop.
The stop light changed
    before I could begin to count
    all the jobs they might perform.
But memory flipped back pages
    to years in libraries and classes
    acquiring keys that opened doors.

t’s hard for me to understand
    those who don’t think education
    is a priority stimulus package.
I saw a bright future and a sunrise
    in one inspiring moment
    at a downtown stop light.
— Art Morgan 

BOOK CORNER
 “Jesus,”  published in 2006, is another book drawn from Marcus Borg’s scholarship, teaching and world-wide lecturing as a New Testament scholar. He is Distinguished Professor of Religion and Culture at Oregon State University. Other books I have recommended include “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time,” and “The God We Never Knew.” Good pre-Easter reading.
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MOMENT MINISTRIES
– April 6, 2009 –
    A MOMENT MINISTRIES production – Art Morgan a-morgan@peak.org
CELEBRATE EASTER AT INAVALE FARM!
 31798 HORSE FARM LANE PHILOMATH OR
929-5706
Program that into your GPS or look it up
On your Map-Quest
Or
Drive right past the Morgan home on Airport
For about 4 miles
Continue West – With a brief jog to the right
Right on Horse Farm Lane
Drive in through the gate, past the Horse Barn
To the home of Alice and Norm Glass
at the very end of the lane
Enjoy the views
MUSIC AND SERVICE START AT 10
 CELEBRATIVE BRUNCH FOLLOWS
(Bring an item to Share!)

ON A HILL FAR AWAY
A must see art exhibit is now featured at Pegasus in downtown Corvallis. Find the corner that has a large photo of the face of a man (a story in itself!) and another photo of a mass of crosses, entitled “The Hill of Crosses.” The caption says:
“For the last several hundred years, Lithuanians have been placing countless crosses of every shape and size on and around this hill as a gesture of collective pride, solidarity and piety; and especially as a peaceful resistance to foreign occupation.”
There’s much more to the story. I will try to have a photo and further comments on Easter morning.
The artist J. Bittner is a thoughtful young man who, when I described the non-conventional Easter group where I was going to talk about his exhibit, said, “They sound like the kind of people to appreciate this.”
I found it a moving moment for the beginning of Holy Week.
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A PREACHER’S HARDEST DAY

     I’m talking about Easter.
     I’m skipping over some of those tragic moments that ministers go through from time to time. My mind flicks back to scenes that won’t go away. In fact, the day before I left my church career, I was standing at the graveside of a young man who died in a motorcycle accident. The memory is of his sister sobbing in my arms. Days like that are not usual. Just thinking of it reminded me that my first funeral in that church was for another young man killed in a motorcycle accident. Bookends on a ministry. Those are more than hard days.
     But here’s another - Easter. It comes every year. You would think that preachers would look forward to Easter. It’s the biggest crowd of the year. You get to see people that don’t come any other Sunday. You have extra services. There is great music. Did I mention lots of Easter lilies.
     Besides, you have the most dramatic story in the world to tell. How can you beat it? Most people are happy on Easter. It is an inspiring day.
     If it were only that easy.
     I probably make it too hard. Sometimes we know too much…or too little. I remember sitting next to my New Testament professor on a flight from Cairo to Jerusalem. On take off I noted that he gripped the arm rest so hard his fingers were white. I knew he was a pilot. I asked him if flying worried him. He said, “If you knew what I know you’d be worried too.”
     If you knew what I know about the Easter story you would understand why it is so hard.
     The problem is that Easter is not a good time to be talking about Easter. You only have one shot. Most people haven’t been there for Palm Sunday or for the Last Supper Betrayal or for the Trial or the Crucifixion and Burial. It’s like showing up at a basketball game when the winning shot beats the buzzer and everyone is standing and cheering. You don’t know how it happened.
     But that’s not the hardest part for me.
     There is a great divide, particularly in the western world where we want to think literally rather than in metaphors. We want to be shown what the Bible says so we’ll know what to believe. We think that all we need is the words. For some it’s the literal understanding that makes the story. For others, that kind of understanding misses the story. Does the preacher ignore the divide, or try to deal with it for sake of those who wonder.
     My guess is that 90% of the Easter crowd thinks it knows what the story is. It’s like a familiar story that they want to hear again. You don’t change the endings of bed time stories and you don’t change the ending of Easter stories.
     And you don’t have time to show how the Easter stories evolved into a faith story. You don’t have time to show that the earliest written reports of an Easter story came from Paul, who knew nothing of an empty tomb. But how the latest reports, many decades after Jesus died, have the story well-developed into the form we like the best, with angels and an empty tomb with the stone rolled away.
     I have chosen one of the “resurrection” stories for this Easter. It’s the one about the two disciples on the road to Emmaus who met a stranger. In most churches where this story is told I am sure it is made to seem like a news event written by a reporter. The hard truth is that the story didn’t “happen”. The real truth is that the story “happened” in so many ways over many decades that it evolved into a rather complete Easter story. What the preacher needs to deal with is, what happened and does it still happen? I said it wasn’t easy.
     It’s hard to do. You can’t say all that I’ve just said on Easter Sunday. The preacher must leave out most of what he/she knows. The preacher must shorten the message, simplify it. The preacher must trust the story to raise its own questions and maybe offer its own answers. The great Albert Scweitzer in Quest for the Historical Jesus was ahead of his time and most of those who must preach on Easter when he said.
“As one unknown and nameless, He comes to us…He puts us to tasks to carry out in our age…He will reveal himself through all that they are privileged to experience in his fellowship of peace and activity, of struggle and suffering, until they come to know as an inexpressible secret, Who He is…”
─ Art Morgan, Easter 2009