Claimed, gathered and sent

It's been a long time, hasn't it? I have been in the process of rehabilitation from back surgery in November and December 2020. The doctor said it could take up to a year to be completely healed and he wasn't kidding! I'm now back to work as pastor of St. Timothy Lutheran Church for only 15 hours/week and that I find exhausting. So...I haven't posted my first couple of sermons since coming back or my midweek reflections on the text, but that changes, as of today. This is what I sent to the people of St. Timothy. Gospel: John 11:32-44   32  When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33  When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34  He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35  Jesus began to weep. 36  So the Jews sai...

This is the sermon for Sunday, 3/29/20, the Fifth Sunday in Lent. This was for the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was John 11:1-45 . “Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs...Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign” sang the Five Man Electrical Band. In John’s gospel, we don’t encounter parables, but there are plenty of signs. Jesus performed miracles, but they were not the big picture. They were signs, which do not point to themselves, but elsewhere, to Jesus. John’s gospel surprises us with frequent and personal expressions of Jesus’ self-disclosure. This week’s reading too is fraught with double meanings and further revelation of who Jesus is. The raising of Lazarus signals the beginning of the end of Jesus’ teaching and signs. It was the tipping point of Jesus’ relationship with the Jewish authorities and the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, putting into motion the events that led to Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus’ enemies shifted ...

Here are some thoughts on this Sunday's gospel. What do you think? Let's talk about it. I shared this with the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church.   Gospel: John 11:1-15, 38-45 1 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha.  2 Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill.  3 So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”  4 But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”  5 Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus,  6 after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.   7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.”  8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying...

This is the sermon I preached this past Sunday at Bethel Lutheran Church, Portville, NY. It is based upon John 11:1-45 .  “Signs, signs, everywhere there's signs...Do this, don't do that, can't you read the sign” sang the Five Man Electrical Band. In John’s gospel, we don’t encounter parables, but there are plenty of signs. Jesus performed miracles, but they were not the big picture. They were signs, which do not point to themselves, but elsewhere, to Jesus. John’s gospel surprises us with frequent and personal expressions of Jesus’ self-disclosure. This week’s reading too is fraught with double meanings and further revelation of who Jesus is. The raising of Lazarus signals the beginning of the end of Jesus’ teaching and signs. It was the tipping point of Jesus’ relationship with the Jewish authorities and the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back, putting into motion the events that led to Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus’ enemies shifted from generalized oppo...