Claimed, gathered and sent

  This is the short homily I shared Christmas Day with the people of St Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran Churches. The scripture text was Luke 2:8-20 . In this passage from Luke, we see the angels appearing not to the elite and rich. They appeared to shepherds, who were one of the lowest on the societal totem pole. Shepherds were looked down upon even to the point where their testimony was not allowed in a court of law. Once again, God turned the world upside down by appearing to nobodies and giving them news of earth shaking possibilities. Don't we see that happen in today's world--where God moves outside of our perfect little boxes and does something totally unexpected or appears to the most unacceptable? We can be sure that if we are open to possibilities, God will appear to us in any number of ways. After all, Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us He brings “good news of great joy [to] all the people.” I'm sure some of our gifts have already been...

  This  is the message I preached last night at our Christmas Eve service. The gospel text is Luke 2:1-20. Have a blessed Christmas and New Year. Finally, we’re here. Our Advent journey is completed and now we have gotten to the part of the story we love so much—baby Jesus has been born. Now we can answer the question that we’ve been hearing for so long, it’s Christmas!!!! At the time of Jesus’ birth, society was very class-oriented. There were distinct stratum of society and shepherding was among the lowliest of occupations. Shepherding in Jesus’ time was far different than it is today.   It was a 24 hour a day job outside despite wind and weather.   These shepherds in Luke’s gospel slept outside with their sheep! They couldn’t go into the house, take a break and go back to the sheep when they felt like it. Because of their working and living conditions, they were probably very smelly. After all, these were not well-to-do men who lived in the lap...