Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached on 10/2 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Luke 17:5-10.   Well, what can be said? This passage from Luke’s gospel is another doozie! I had to really do my homework to get my mind around this. Is Jesus reprimanding the apostles for their lack of faith? Is Jesus supporting the system of slavery? That can’t be our Jesus, can it? Let’s look at the context. First, we’re missing the preceding verses, 1-4, in our text for today. Those verses help us understand why the apostles were so worked up. The first few verses are about forgiveness, even when someone has sinned against you multiple times in a day. Jesus said, “If you see your friend going wrong, correct him. If he responds, forgive him. Even if it’s personal against you and repeated seven times through the day, and seven times he says, ‘I’m sorry, I won’t do it again,’ forgive him” (vv. 3-4). This seemed so impossible. No wonder they wanted more faith.  We usually think of faith as ide...

What are your thoughts about this passage from Isaiah? I'm curious, even though I'm not preaching this week. We have a special guest. This is being sent out to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church.  First Reading: Isaiah 35:1-10  1The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,         the desert shall rejoice and blossom; like the crocus 2it shall blossom abundantly,   and rejoice with joy and singing.  The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,   the majesty of Carmel and Sharon.  They shall see the glory of the LORD,   the majesty of our God.  3Strengthen the weak hands,   and make firm the feeble knees.  4Say to those who are of a fearful heart,   “Be strong, do not fear!  Here is your God.   He will come with vengeance,  with terrible recompense.   He will come and save you.”  5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,   and the ears of the deaf unstopped;  6then the lame shall leap like a deer,   and the tongue of the speec...

  This is the message I shared with God's people at St. Timothy Lutheran Church and St. Mark Lutheran Church on Sunday, 11/5/17. The scripture text is Matthew 5:1-12 . Today we celebrate the Feast of All Saints. We remember those who have gone before us in the faith as well as the living church of Christ, God’s saints today. Then we get to today’s gospel reading, the Beatitudes, the beginning of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. It all sounds so beautiful and churchy, but what does it mean? What does it take to be a saint and to be among the blessed of the Beatitudes? In my pre-Lutheran days, we used to talk about the Beatitudes being be-atttidues. It was how we were supposed to be! Others put the values of the Beatitudes off into eternity because of their difficulty, while others strive and strive to obey them because they are Jesus’ commands. Luther’s view concerning the Sermon on the Mount is that it represents an impossible demand, much like th...

 This is the message I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church and St. Mark Lutheran Church  this past Sunday, 1/24. The text is 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a .   Paul writes that we are all "baptized into one body" v. 13.There is tremendous diversity within the groups Paul mentions--some of which are expected, such as Jews and those who are free. But God and Paul also include Greeks, who are Gentiles and slaves who are complete nobodies. And yet, in the waters of baptism, they are made new and become part of the body of Christ. Even from the beginning of the church, God included outsiders in his body. Baptism is the great equalizer that destroys the walls that divide people. Everything in today's epistle is based upon and grounded in baptism. As Lutheran Christians, we emphasize that all we do in life flows out from our baptism. Martin Luther wrote:1 C "Therefore every Christian has enough in Baptism to learn and to practise all [their] life; for ...