Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached on 8/28 at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran churches. The text was Luke 14:1, 7-14 . Are we all familiar with Tupperware? We all know how Tupperware is sold. Someone has a party and invites friends to come to the party and buy stuff. Have you ever been to a Tupperware party? What are your two biggest fears about going to a Tupperware party? The first is that you’re going to be asked to hold your own party and the second is that you know everyone who is at the party is going to have their own Tupperware party later on and you’re going to be invited. Although Jesus is not talking about Tupperware in today’s gospel, he does talk about parties and whom to invite and whom not to invite. And where do we find Jesus in today’s gospel? We find him attending a meal.  Much of the action in Luke’s gospel takes place around meals. Jesus is either going to a meal, at a meal, or coming from a meal. Jesus always appears to be eating. He’d fit right...

This is the sermon I preached on 8/21 at St. Timothy and S t. Mark Lutheran churches. The text is Luke 13:10-17. Some people are noticed wherever they go. You can’t miss them. But then, some of us are barely seen because of our stature or lack thereof. When you’re short, it is hard to get noticed in a crowd of much taller people. I will never forget a conversation that I had with one of the clerks at Microtel in Olean when I came for my interview with the church council of my first call. The clerk asked the Council president how he would recognize me.   The president's response was, “She’s very short!” In today’s gospel, Jesus was not teaching in the temple in Jerusalem, rather he was in a small town synagogue. The bent-over woman was likely well known in her village and people were so used to her that they no longer paid any attention to her and her ailment. After 18 years of being this way, she was invisible to other villagers. But Jesus saw her, not because sh...