Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy's and St. Mark's . The gospel text is John 2:13-22.              Last week we talked about grumpy Jesus and his exchange with Peter. Today in John's gospel, we see Jesus and he is beyond grumpy, he's downright angry and aggressive. Last week it seemed like he needed an attitude adjustment. This week, Jesus needs an intervention in anger management. Did Jesus let his emotions get the best of him? Is Jesus overreacting? Is John's purpose of including this story to emphasize Jesus' humanity? There are lots of questions we should be asking about this passage of scripture.           One very important question is, why would Jesus do this? What is Jesus really up to?"...in the temple he found people selling" (v. 14). No wonder Jesus reacted in the way he did. Can you imagine what it would be like if we found our sanctuary full of...

We celebrated the Easter Vigil tonight at Grace Lutheran Church in Petersburg, WV.   I have participated in a number of Vigil services, but this is the first time I have been on the planning side. Many months ago, Pr. Larry asked Ray to do the Easter Proclamation or Exsultet part of the service, which is a lengthy chanted section. He has been rehearsing daily since that time and did a fine job tonight.  It is also the first time in several years that Grace has celebrated the Vigil. To some, it was the first time ever. Many participated in various ways to make this a rich reminder of all that God has done throughout salvation history. One of the members built the fire that began our time together. Others were lectors declaring the Word (we did only 4 Old Testament readings), others were ushers, and we had a wonderful organist as well.  It was a joyful excursion from the tomb to the celebration of resurrection. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! ...