Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, 8/28/22 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The gospel text was Luke 14:1, 7-14 .  Jesus continues his journey to Jerusalem to the cross. Along the way, he has altercations with the religious leaders, hence, “they were watching him closely.” “They” were those religious leaders of the day who were waiting for Jesus to make a misstep.  Jesus was not simply invited to eat at the home of a friend. This was no simple meal. The Greek shows us that it was a lavish affair—hence the jockeying for position at the table. The closer you sat to the host, the greater your importance. There were no place cards. You just can’t take Jesus anywhere without there being a scene. As Jesus arrives at this lavish dinner party, Luke describes the scene as if we were seeing it through Jesus’ eyes. Can you imagine Jesus walking in and slowly taking in the setting—the extravagance, the opulence, the rich and famous, and a few poorer folks? There was likely plenty of...

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Sunday, 8/21/22. The text was Luke 13:10-17 . It’s easy to identify what God is up to in today’s gospel, “God is reaching out to the bound-up to proclaim release from captivity…God is satisfying the needs of the afflicted…a precious daughter…of Abraham [is] set free” (sundaysandseasons.com). In this case of Jesus healing, the woman or her friends are not initiating the healing. It totally belongs to Jesus. He was in the middle of teaching and seeing her, stops what he’s doing.  Being of shorter stature than most, I can identify with the woman. We are not often seen. At the deli counter or pharmacy, I typically have to call out to get the attention of someone behind the counter.  The woman could not see Jesus—not all bent over with her eyes facing the floor. Jesus saw her. She did not have to look to him for healing, but was used to her situation, as painful as it was. But Jesus saw her. He not only saw her, but c...