Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached Sunday at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The gospel was John 1:29-42. I want to take a minute to clarify something. There are several people named John in the New Testament. John the Baptist is not the same person as John, the author of the Gospel. I will be very specific as I refer to each in my sermon. Jesus’ baptism again??? Didn’t we just read about John the Baptist baptizing Jesus last week? Here it is again? Jesus’ baptism is in all four gospels, but in John’s gospel, we don’t see John the Baptist actually baptizing Jesus. He’s more of an onlooker to what was happening. We are seeing John the witness, not John the Baptist. In the reference to Jesus’ baptism in today’s gospel, God and the Spirit are the actors. The purpose of the baptism isn’t as much to encourage Jesus and prepare him for his mission, but to reveal Jesus as the Lamb and Son of God. We have a kinder, gentler John the Baptist in today’s gospel. He is not shouting “Repent!!” as in the fi...

Last week we celebrated the Baptism of Our Lord. The setting for that action was the Gospel of Matthew. At that point, John initially resisted baptizing Jesus. In John, we don’t have the actual baptism taking place. However, in retrospect, John finds that the whole reason for John the Baptist’s ministry was “… I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel” (v. 31).  We are in the season after Epiphany. Epiphany isn’t just any old kind of understanding. It means revealing, insight, revelation. John the Baptist’s ministry was to point away from himself and to show everyone who Jesus is. Right out of the gate, John the Baptist identifies Jesus as “… the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” (v. 29). Jesus makes us new.  John saw and understood who Jesus was. What did he do about it? He testified to what he knew. John the Baptist told the story of seeing the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus.  This passage is full of verbs, act...

Here are some thoughts on this coming Sunday's gospel reading that were sent to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church. I would like your input. What do you see and hear? John 1:29-42a 29 The next day he saw Jesus coming towards him and declared, ‘Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, “After me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.” 31 I myself did not know him; but I came baptizing with water for this reason, that he might be revealed to Israel.’ 32 And John testified, ‘I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water said to me, “He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.” 34 And I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.’ 35 The next day John again was standing with two of his disciples, 36 an...

This is the sermon I preached last Sunday, 1/15 at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran Churches. The text was John 1:29-42 .   Don’t we share things that excite us with friends and family? Did you see that new movie that’s out? It was so exciting. You have to go see it! Or what about that new restaurant that’s opened up? The food is great. The service is wonderful. And the atmosphere is so relaxing. To top it all off, the prices are very reasonable. I’m telling all my friends about it. Today’s gospel reading is a whole series of people telling each other that they have seen Jesus, who they think he is and inviting those people to come with them to see for themselves. That is the way God grew the church then and we are given the basic things we need to know to allow God to grow the church today. It’s called evangelism, which is simply noticing what God is doing in our lives, sharing that with others and inviting them to come and see for themselves. A very simple pattern...