Claimed, gathered and sent

  Boy, am I behind on posting. I feel like I've just emerged from a cocoon. I was at home for two weeks with Covid, a sinus and ear infection. Tuesday was my first day out of the house. Anyway, here is the sermon I preached on 9/1 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text is Mark 7:1-8,, 14-15, 21-23.   Here again, we have Jesus and his conversation partners talking past each other. Last week, it was Nicodemus who could only understand physical things. Today, it’s the Pharisees and other religious leaders. They looked at the outward, while Jesus considered the inward, the heart.  Let’s not be too hard on the Pharisees. They were, in fact, a reform movement within Judaism. The Pharisees believed every Jewish person could be a priest to God. They made the Jewish faith more accessible to the average person.  They loved God’s law, seeing it as a great gift. The law is so important in Judaism that there is a celebration about its giving, called Simchat Torah. On this holi...

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, Aug. 30 at St. Timothy  and St. Mark Lutheran Churches. The text was Mark 7:1-8,14-15, 21-23 . How many of us have had this experience as we have prepared a meal? You have your vegetables all ready and they look fabulous. You got an especially great deal on them.  Let's say you are ready to chop up a green pepper. You cut the pepper in half. When you see the inside, it's all nasty and moldy. It was so beautiful on the outside and you could just imagine the wonderful flavor it would add. However, the pepper was not what it appeared to be. This example illustrates the gist of what Jesus is talking about in today's gospel reading.   Jesus was in Galilee with his disciples when his frequent opponents the scribes and Pharisees who traveled from Jerusalem, arrive on the scene. We tend to have a very negative impression of the Pharisees. They often seem hung up on such minutiae. But, believe it or not, they ...