Claimed, gathered and sent

Here are some thoughts about this Sunday's first lesson. What do you think? This was sent out to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church. First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10 1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.   2 The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord .   3 His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord . He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;   4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.   5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.   6 The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fat...

This is the sermon I preached for the First Sunday of Advent, Dec. 1, 2019, at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was Matthew 24:36-44. When on a road trip, do you find yourself being just a little antsy—wondering how much longer it will take to get to your destination—checking your watch? It’s hard to wait. I don’t like to wait either. When I’m on a road trip, I frequently check on my phone just how much longer it will be until I arrive at my destination. I enjoy watching the minutes and hours decreasing. And I do take a certain perverse pleasure when traffic is flowing along well and I make good time. After all, I do have a lead foot. Just ask Ray. This is one type of waiting, but there are other, less pleasant types of waiting. It’s not easy to wait for medical test results, especially if something is wrong. My daughter, Sarah, has spent the last two years having every kind of test imaginable to find out why she is tired all the time. Finally…there’s a diag...