Claimed, gathered and sent

  This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, 9/15 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Mark 8:27-38. While living in Bethlehem, in the West Bank of Palestine, trips to the northern part of Israel were our favorite for vacations with our small children. One of the last places we visited was called Banyas, in Arabic. In ancient times, the Greek god of nature, Pan, was worshiped there. The area is located at the headwaters of the Jordan River and is very lush and beautiful.  Noted as a center of pagan worship, Caesarea Phillipi, is where Jesus asked his followers the powerful question of his identity. In Jesus’ time, “Caesar was honored in the civil religion as Lord, Savior, and Son of God. The issue of whom one confessed as Lord is already posed by the context in which Mark places this story—in a particularly powerful way if, [since], Mark and his readers live[d] in this area” (M. Eugene Boring & Fred B. Craddock, The People’s New Testament Commentary ). In Mark’s go...

  This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Sunday, 9/8. The text was Mark 7:24-37. Jesus is on the move. Earlier, we’re told he was in Galilee, probably Capernaum, where Peter’s house was. Jesus then goes to Tyre for some rest, about 35 miles from Capernaum. That's the location of our story. After that, he goes “by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee,” (v. 31). I don’t think so! Sidon is about 15 miles northeast of Tyre, while Galilee is southeast of Tyre. Jesus’ route was pretty circuitous.  Jesus has gone away to get some rest. The problem is Jesus’ notoriety. I love the way Mark puts it, “Yet he could not escape notice,” (v. 24). Jesus is the master of demons, disease and nature, but he is unable to secure the privacy he wants. Word has gotten around that Jesus was there, and before you know it, he has company.  That’s bad enough, but now a woman has found him. And she’s a Gentile besides. Additionally, women were not supposed to be seen in p...

  Boy, am I behind on posting. I feel like I've just emerged from a cocoon. I was at home for two weeks with Covid, a sinus and ear infection. Tuesday was my first day out of the house. Anyway, here is the sermon I preached on 9/1 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text is Mark 7:1-8,, 14-15, 21-23.   Here again, we have Jesus and his conversation partners talking past each other. Last week, it was Nicodemus who could only understand physical things. Today, it’s the Pharisees and other religious leaders. They looked at the outward, while Jesus considered the inward, the heart.  Let’s not be too hard on the Pharisees. They were, in fact, a reform movement within Judaism. The Pharisees believed every Jewish person could be a priest to God. They made the Jewish faith more accessible to the average person.  They loved God’s law, seeing it as a great gift. The law is so important in Judaism that there is a celebration about its giving, called Simchat Torah. On this holi...