Claimed, gathered and sent

  This is the sermon I preached today at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The gospel is Matthew 28:16-20.  If you've been with me in a restaurant, you know how hard it is for me to decide what to order. Likely, I will take a survey of what everyone else is ordering to see if their choices appeal to me. Generally, I whittle the possibilities down to at most 2–3 items. By the time it's my turn to order, I may order one of those possibilities or something completely different. This is a very time-consuming process. Just ask Ray.  The dilemma I face when I have to decide what to eat at a restaurant is similar to the one faced by the disciples when they had to decide between worshiping the Lord and doubting his authority. Another way to put this could be, is he or isn’t he?  The reaction of the disciples to seeing Jesus may seem a bit odd. After all, they have spent three years with Jesus—listening to his teaching, watching him work miracles and witnessing his death. After t...

This is the sermon for St. Timothy Lutheran Church that I will be preaching tomorrow. The gospel text is Matthew 28:16-20. If you want to see a video of the sermon, press here .  Do you feel a bit off-balance? We just get used to all the news being about COVID 19 and now there is another hot topic. As Bishop John Macholz recently wrote: The  killing of  George  Floyd by policemen in Minneapolis continues to play itself out across my television screen as I watch it over and over again…out of a  place of deep sorrow and disbelief that this has happened again. Only a few days ago we watched videos regarding the killing of Ahmaud Arbery that took place in February and … only now being brought to light. And after Ahmaud Abery there was Breonna Taylor and last October … Atatiana Jefferson and before her was…a  long, long list of black and brown people whose  lives were needlessly taken by violence in a society that continues to not only remain broke...