Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached on 12/8/19, the second Sunday of Advent, at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was Isaiah 11:1-10 Who wouldn’t want to live in a paradise like the one Isaiah describes? It’s an unimaginable world! But it didn’t start out that way for the people of Israel. Judah had been devastated. In Isaiah 6, it’s likened to a tree that’s been destroyed with only the stump remaining. But God had promised that there would be new life that would usher in a new age of righteousness and justice. This would not be limited to Israel alone, but is an ideal world for all people. Isaiah preaches hope in a time of terror and justice in a time of oppression. The stump, which dominated the political situation, was the dynastic reign of King David’s family, which was believed to be the carrier of God’s goodness and faithfulness in the world. But the royal family disappointed its people and left them in despair. God’s Spirit enters into this malaise. God’s wind has come to...

This is the sermon I preached on Pentecost, 6/9/19 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Acts 2:1-21. In high school, I had a dear Jewish friend. Desiring her salvation, I happily told her that we Christians also celebrate the Jewish feast of Pentecost. She had never heard of it! It wasn’t until many years later that I learned that what we call Pentecost, which is from the Greek, is the Jewish feast called Shavuot. Had I referred to it in that way, by its Hebrew name, then I suspect she would have had a better understanding. Shavuot began as an agricultural feast, originally celebrated seven weeks after the beginning of the grain harvest (Deut.16:9). Later on, it celebrated the giving of the Law, being celebrated fifty days after Passover. Still, my friend and I would have had very different understandings of what we call Pentecost. For us, it’s about the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit and how that power launched God’s work through the church. In Acts we see the beginn...