Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the reflection sent electronically to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Thursday, April 18, 2019. SCRIPTURE FOCUS Gospel: Luke 24:1-12 1 On the first day of the week, at early dawn, [the women] came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.  2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,  3 but when they went in, they did not find the body.  4 While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them.  5 The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.  6 Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee,  7 that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.”  8 Then they remembered his words,  9 and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest....

This is the homily I shared with the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church for Maundy Thursday.  The gospel text was John 13:1-17, 31b-35 . Tina Turner sings: “What's love got to do, got to do with it What's love but a second hand emotion What's love got to do, got to do with it Who needs a heart when a heart can be broken?” I understand Tina’s frustration. At times in my life I have felt that way. But the thing is, in tonight’s gospel reading, love has everything to do with Jesus’ new commandment. For the commandment being given is not to wash each other’s feet as much as it is to love one another as Jesus loved us. What kind of love is Jesus talking about? For one thing, there is a depth of love that is beyond what the disciples had experienced before. Wherever the word “love” appears in John’s gospel, it is best understood as “attachment, commitment and loyalty.” It is a love that is in it for the long haul. John makes clear from the get go that Jesus...

I shared these words  with the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church last Sunday, 4/14/19. This is my response to today’s Palm Sunday readings. I was moved by these words and they eloquently echoed my own thoughts. Here are excerpts from a Palm Sunday sermon by Frederick Buechner entitled “The Things That Make For Peace” from A Room Called Remember : We call it Palm Sunday because maybe they were palm branches that were thrown into the road in front of him as he approached the city-a kind of poor man's red-carpet treatment, a kind of homemade ticker-tape parade. Just branches is all the record states, but maybe palms is what they actually were, and in any case it's as palms that we remember them; and all over Christendom people leave church with palm leaves of their own to remember him by on the anniversary of his last journey, to pin up on the kitchen bulletin board or stick into the frame of the dresser mirror until finally they turn yellow and bri...