Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the message I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church and Grace Lutheran Church, Dunkirk. The text is Luke 24:44-53. Why do we celebrate Ascension Sunday? We don’t hear much about the Ascension in the New Testament. Paul doesn’t talk about it in his letters. John's letters don't say anything about this. Neither do Peter’s. The Ascension is not mentioned in any of them. If Jesus died and rose from the dead, isn’t that enough? After all, he would be alive. But if Jesus did not ascend to his Father, his mission would have been limited to the Holy Land. The disciples would have spread the faith there and died. Potentially, the Christian faith may well have died out. Jesus' ascension is an important event. It enabled the Holy Spirit to pour out its power on the early followers of Jesus. This facilitated the outpouring of power so that God’s word was spread all over, not just in a small area. In today’s gospel, Jesus is preparing the disciples not for his crucifixion, wh...

This is the sermon I'm preaching at St. Timothy Lutheran Church for our first Drive-In Service. We will be celebrating Ascension Sunday. The gospel text is Luke 24:44-53 . If you like, here is a video of the sermon.  There are three movements in today’s gospel: the past, (vv. 44-47), the promise, (vv. 48-49) and the “while you wait,” the meantime. Each has its role. In the past we find the foundation that connected Jesus’ followers with their history. For us, that is BC—before Coronavirus. We also have the promise of Jesus: the call to be his witnesses (vv. 48-49), which is the disciples’ future. That is when things will be “back to normal,” a future that we long for. The final section is “While you wait” or what to do in the meantime (vv. 50-53) (Troy Troftgruben, workingpreacher.org). This is where we find ourselves today. In this in-between time, don’t we long for the days of being able to come and go freely? Oh, if only we could just gather together like we used to! But w...

Here are some thoughts on the gospel for Ascension, which we'll be using at St.Timothy Lutheran Church this Sunday. Gospel: Luke 24:44-53 44[Jesus said to the eleven and those with them,] “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”   50Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up int...

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Sunday, 6/2. The text was Luke 24:44-53.  Marty and Sandy were with me at Synod Assembly and together we heard Bishop Jim Hazelwood preach on Friday evening. I will need their help for parts of today's message. Tag--you're it!  Luke's closing section of the gospel is like a holy game of tag in which Jesus tags followers, saying, "You're it. Now you're me in the world."  These are words we gather in worship to wait for, and we don't have long to wait. We're a part of Christ's family. When we meet at the table, we taste promises. We become Christ's body.   Today we are celebrating Jesus' Ascension. Jesus leaves his disciples with instruction, a commission, and a promise of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus' time of instruction with his disciples serves to bring closure by recapping major themes of the gospel and to set the stage for the coming of the Sprit and the ...

This is the reflection I sent to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church.  Gospel: Luke 24:44-53 44[Jesus said to the eleven and those with them,] “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”   50Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped him, an...

This is the message I shared with God's people at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Sunday, 5/13. We celebrated Jesus' Ascension. The text was Luke 24:44-53 . Memories are powerful things. Because of this, I grow sentimental when Ascension Day, which was Thursday comes around. It is one of those feast days that can be moved to the Sunday after. When my family lived in Bethlehem, we worshipped at Redeemer Lutheran Church in the Old City of Jerusalem. On Ascension Day afternoon, when the kids were out of school, the various congregations of Redeemer (Arab, Danish, German and English) would meet on the Mount of Olives, behind Augusta Victoria Hospital for a picnic and a multi-lingual service. The hymns we sang all had very familiar tunes, so each of us sang in our own language. It was like an aural symphony. Throughout this post, you'll see pictures of the grounds of Augusta Victoria Hospital. To the left is  a picture of the area all the kids liked to play on. By the way, ...

This is the reflection I shared with the people of St. Timothy for our weekly e-ministry.  Gospel: Luke 24:44-53 44 [Jesus said to the eleven and those with them,] “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures,  46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day,  47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  48 You are witnesses of these things.  49 And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”    50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them.  51 While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them an...

  This is the message I shared with St. Timothy Lutheran Church and St. Mark Lutheran Church on Ascension Sunday, 5/8/16. The scripture text is Luke 24:44-53 . Tag--you're it!   Luke's closing section of the gospel is like a holy game of tag in which Jesus tags followers, saying, "You're it. Now you're me in the world."   These are words we gather in worship to wait for, and we don't have long to wait. We're a part of Christ's family. When we meet at the table, we taste promises. We become Christ's body.   Today we are celebrating Jesus' Ascension. Jesus leaves his disciples with instruction, a commission, and a promise of the Holy Spirit. Jesus' time of instruction with his disciples serves to bring closure by recapping major themes of the gospel and to set the stage for the coming of the Sprit and the work of the disciples as witnesses in the months and years following his Ascension. Jesus' training consisted of...

This is the message I shared on 5/17 with God's people at St. Timothy, Bemus Point and St. Mark, Mayville. The gospel text is Luke 24:44-53 . What is Ascension and why are we celebrating it? Jesus' ascension to the Father is basically the conclusion of Easter. The ascension both closes the period of Jesus' ministry on earth and opens the period of the church's mission. It is like God is saying, "Tag--you're it! Now you're me in the world." This important feast is often overlooked in the American Protestant church. The irony is, this is the third pillar of the Christian faith. Christ became incarnate, Christ died and rose from the dead and Christ ascended into heaven. We confess these every week in the Creed. The Feast of the Ascension is always on a Thursday, right before the last Sunday of Easter. If it is not observed on Thursday, we can observe it on the following Sunday, as we are doing today. Many times it is skipped altoget...