Claimed, gathered and sent

On Sat., Jan 22, I had the privilege of preaching at one of the services we had for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This followed right on the heels of returning from the conference in Atlanta. We met at the Memorial Church of the Brethren in Petersburg. The text was Romans 6:3-11. This is the message I shared:             Some of you may not know me. I’m the vicar or intern at Grace Lutheran Church with Pr. Larry Cantu. I am Lutheran, but am a bit of a denominational mutt. I was raised Roman Catholic, became a Catholic charismatic, and then became a non-denominational charismatic, then a Southern Baptist charismatic, and finally, a Lutheran. I’ve lived in New York, Palestine, Rhode Island, and Pennsylvania, seen Christians of different persuasions work well together and not so well.             This year, it has been a privilege to be involved in the community of ...

This is the message I shared with the people of Zion Lutheran Church, Baker, WV this morning. The text is Romans 15:4-13.              Hope…it’s a word we hear a lot. What does it mean? I hope it doesn’t snow. I hope I win the lottery. I hope I pass this exam. The Jewish people’s hope was in a messiah that was to come. When friends struggle with impossibly painful, awful situations, when asked if things will ever be any better, they may respond, “I hope so.” But biblical hope is more than crossing our fingers and wishing. The hope Paul speaks of in today’s reading from Romans is that “of Christian expectation…hope that faith affords” (BDAG). Hope is “to put one’s confidence in someone or something” (BDAG). And that someone or something is God.             What Paul says here begins with hope. It ends with hope. It’s like a shelf full of books with bookends. They are nam...

Text: John 17:20-26 I love roller coasters—the anticipation as we climb up to the top of big hills and the rush as we roll down them. We were climbing up during lent to Easter and now our 50-day Easter journey is nearly complete with Pentecost next Sunday. In today’s gospel, Jesus is in his last days with his followers before his crucifixion. I feel a bit in this text as if we’re in a figure 8 section of the roller coaster ride with all the pronouns and prepositions. And just when we think we’re coming out of the last curve and into the straightaway, it’s back to prepositions and pronouns So let’s get ready for this ride and see where it takes us… If we throw in some other phrases along with the pronouns and prepositions, things become a bit clearer: …that they may all be one so that the world may believe…so that the world may know… the world does not know you, but I know you. Now as much as I like roller coaster rides, eventually if we stay up there, we’ll get hungry, thirsty, may...

The Spring term at LTSG began today. A few are not yet back from the Jan. term trip to Geneva, Switzerland, but even so, the campus is once again humming with activity. Most of my class came for the 2 week Summer Greek course in August. After Summer Greek, we were divided into 2 sections for the Fall session of Introduction to New Testament Greek. Some of us were in the turtle group while others were in the rabbit group. We were reassured by both profs that in the Spring we would all be together again. That is what happened at 8:30 this morning in our Witness of the Gospels class. We even met in the same room that we'd met in for Summer Greek and some of us sat in the very same seats we were in last August. That seems so very long ago now, yet at the time it seemed Summer Greek would never end. I am grateful for the safe return of most of us who started out together in August (one is still recovering from a car accident, but doing well). G0d has faithfully brought us this far. Thi...