Claimed, gathered and sent

Here are some thoughts on this coming Sunday's gospel text. This was sent electronically to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church . Let me know what your thoughts are.  Gospel: Mark 9:30-37 30[Jesus and the disciples went on] and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it;31for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” 32But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.   33Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 35He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” 36Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ...

This is the sermon I preached last Sunday, 9/16/18, at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was Mark 8:27-38 .  Poet and novelist, Rainer Maria Rilke wrote: Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer. This passage of Mark brings with it lots of questions besides those Jesus asked his disciples. For those of you who read the e-ministry, you saw some of mine. And don’t we find ourselves longing for certainty? As we look at this passage, entertain your own questions as well, for you will find that it’s good to have questions. We may not get the answer right away or ever in this life. That’s par...