Sunday, April 4, 2010

Even You - EVEN me?, huh.....




Today is Easter and I had an interesting experience during communion at our church today.  

I am at the front of the church, on my knees receiving communion with my family and other members of
the congregation when former Bishop E. Harold Jansen of the Lutheran Church says to me,  'The body of Christ, that was given for you. The blood of Christ, that was shed for you" and then the Bishop looks at me at says "EVEN YOU."  I then said loud, "EVEN me, huh?"

As we were leaving,  I made sure I was in Bishop Jansen's line so I could shake his hand and have a nice laugh with him, which we both did.

Needless to say, this was a first at our church, I think :-)  So why did Bishop Jansen decide to point out that EVEN Dave Edstrom can get communion?  Well, first of all Bishop Jansen is a great man with a great sense of humor.  But, what prompted this is that a month ago he called my house looking for my dad.   He just says,  "is John there?"  I immediately recognize his voice and realize that he has dialed the wrong number, so I say "John Edstrom?  John is in jail and I am not sure when he is going to be out.  I can give him a message though the next time I visit him?"

There is a three second silence on the other end and then I hear, "who is this?"    I then reply, "hi Bishop Jansen, this Dave and you dialed my house."   We then joke around for a little bit before he hung up and called my father.

For some reason, it did not occur to me that there would be a payback on Easter :-)   Bishop Jansen is a great man and we are very lucky that he agrees to be part of our church.