Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached last Sunday, 4/7/19 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Philippians 3:4b-14 .  Today’s second lesson exudes God’s overwhelming grace. That grace called the Apostle Paul and turned his world upside down. God’s grace is poured out upon us to that we may grow and go to proclaim the good news to all. The last paragraph is a picture of running a race. I can identify with this because my son, Christian, ran from middle school into college. I have watched innumerable races all over our state. Together, let’s look at Paul’s running strategy as he competes in the race of living a life in and for Christ and others. The entire section is directed at those who thought they were already perfect and could not expect anything new from the future. First of all, Paul writes that he has not yet made it to the finish line. The beginning of the first two verses of this section express this in parallelism: he hasn’t ...

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church and St. Mark Lutheran Church on Sunday, 10/8/17. The text is Philippians 3:4b-14 . This passage begins with a recitation of Paul’s pedigree. He came from the best stock. Paul goes into great detail about his heritage. He not only speaks of his lineage by birth, but that which made him tower head and shoulders above other men by virtue of his accomplishments. Today, DNA testing kits and family lineage sites like Ancestry.com are becoming more and more popular and accessible. We like knowing where we come from. It helps to give us perspective on where we came from and who we are now. Paul’s point in reflecting on his own personal history is that his personal history and even his historical religious identity did not define him in the same way as his relationship with Christ. (Sundaysandseasons.com). In the second paragraph, the great exchange Paul is referring to is exchanging good for the best. Paul’s pedig...