Claimed, gathered and sent

These are some thoughs for the second Sunday of Creation, when I'm focusing on the second lesson. This was sent electronically to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church . Philippians 2:1-8 2  If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, 2  make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. 4  Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5  Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6  who, though he was in the form of God,     did not regard equality with God     as something to be exploited, 7  but emptied himself,     taking the form of a slave,     being born in...

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, August 5 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was John 1:1-14 . This is the first Sunday of our celebration of God the Creator and our focus is on earth. If we look at the first reading from Genesis, it begins, “In the beginning…God…” When we look at the first verse of John’s gospel, it begins, “In the beginning was the Word…” It’s kind of like Yogi Berra’ s statement,  “It’s deja vu all over again.” Today we are engaging the Prologue of John’s gospel, which reads like the poetry of a song, and so it likely is. Many scholars believe it is one which was sung in the churches of John’s time. Music helps us remember and it was and is a great way to learn scripture and theology. Like an overture to an opera or oratorio, John’s writing strikes the major themes that will occupy the entire gospel of John. In this song we see The Word at Creation, The Word in History and The Word Incarnate. Let us hear God’s love song. First of all, ...