Claimed, gathered and sent

  This is the sermon I preached August 6 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The passage is Matthew 14:22-33. The Sea of Galilee is not a sea. It is a lake, often called Kinneret. It is larger than Chautauqua Lake, but not a lot. The word, translated ”sea,” could also be translated “Lake.” Given the storm we find the disciples in, it’s no wonder translators opted for “sea.”   The sea was understood to be a living, chaotic, potentially deadly spirit (David Ewart, holytextures.com). And it was between 3 and 6 am when Jesus was walking toward the disciples. How would you feel? Don’t things always seem worse in the middle of the night? And in a storm? The disciples were frightened. Scripture says they were “terrified” when they saw Jesus walking in the storm on the sea. The word used here for “terrified” can also be used to describe a sea that has been agitated and stirred up. In other words, the disciples' inner state is now a perfect reflection of their outer circumstances (Ew...

  This is the message I preached on Sunday July 30 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 . So… I have to admit that when I first read this gospel passage, I thought, what in the world am I supposed to do with this? I did a bit in the e-ministry, yet found that I could not morph that into a sermon. We’re not going to do a flyover of all five of these parables, but are taking two that are similar, yet have differences as well, the treasure in a field and the precious pearl. The purpose of parables is to shake people up with the unexpected. They are to afflict the comfortable; being thorny and disturbing. We are not to walk away from parables saying, “Oh, what a nice story.”  How are these two parables similar, how are they different and what does that mean for us? Professor Amy-Jill Levine writes: The parables share common ideas, characterizations, and results. Both depict a person who sells all that he has to purchase something desired. Both also...