Claimed, gathered and sent

These are some thoughts on this coming Sunday's readings. This month we are celebrating the Season of Creation. John 1:1-14 1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2  He was in the beginning with God. 3  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4  in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. 6  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7  He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8  He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9  The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10  He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11  He came to what was his own, and his own peop...

This is what I preached on Sunday, 7/29 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Ephesians 3:14-21   Imagine a sermon in the form of a prayer, that consisted of only two long sentences (which is the case with the Greek). If we think of the letter to the Ephesians as a sermon, since it is a message, and there in the midst of this letter to the infant church, Paul prays. He prays for the congregations. He knows that he is unable to give them what they need in the face of struggles that lie ahead. Paul knows too, that being the church is not a self-help project. The church has to learn to rely on God, not themselves. So what exactly does Paul pray for? In the opening, Paul emphasizes the unity of humankind under God…” from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name” (vv. 14-15). Every means every—no one is excluded. This sums up what has been the chief argument of the first half of Ephesians, that in Christ Jews and Gentiles have been brought together to ...