Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the message I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Sunday, Oct. 29. The gospel text is John 8:31-36.   Today we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, a movement that not only impacted the church of that age, but all ages. What one word would you use to describe the distinctiveness of the Lutheran movement? Is it grace, justification, the good works we do through Lutheran Disaster Relief, ELCA World Hunger, or something else? These are all good answers, but they are not unique to us as Lutherans. The word freedom is the one most celebrated by Martin Luther. He was in bondage to a view of God as judge and went to great lengths to try to appease God by bringing his body into submission by extreme deprivation such as intensive fasting and beating himself with a whip. It was not until reading in the book of Romans of salvation by grace through faith that the burden of working to be saved was lifted from Luther’s shoulder...

  This is the sermon I preached on Reformation Sunday, 11/30 at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran Churches. The scripture text is Romans 3:19-28.   Doing seems to be an intrinsic part of who we are, especially as Americans. We are a nation of doers. In the church, we are a community of doers--it's part of our DNA. This sometimes carries over into to our faith life as well. There are even pious cliches that may sound good, but are dead wrong; such as "God helps those who help themselves."    In faith, we are not to be passive. We are to participate in our relationship with God, just as we would any other relationship. However, we cannot on our own, make ourselves right with God. That's what today's second reading is all about. These verses lifted the burden from Martin Luther's life and opened his spiritual eyes.   You see, at that time, Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk. He did everything he knew of to become a better...