Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I'm preaching on Sunday, 5/31/20, Pentecost Sunday at St. Timothy Lutheran Church's Drive-In Service. The text was John 20:19-23.   Looking back, is this how we thought we would commemorate Pentecost this year? It’s normally such a celebratory time. After all, it is the Christian church’s birthday! We have a party! But not this year. Rather than a party, don’t we feel a bit like the captives in Babylon who cried out,  “…we cried and cried, remembering the good old days in Zion…That’s where our captors demanded songs, sarcastic and mocking: Sing us a happy Zion song!’  Oh, how could we ever sing God’s song in this wasteland?” (Psalm 135: 3-4). Have you felt sometimes like this time of not being able to gather inside our church building being in a wasteland? A quiet Pentecost; not that of Acts 2, a riotous Pentecost party, given the time we are living in, given the deaths of so many in this year of Coronavirus, given the death of George Floyd and ...

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church for Christ the King Sunday, 11/24/19. The text was Colossians 1:11-20.  Being part of our household can be quite an adventure, especially lately. You just never know where it may lead. With two wagging puppy tails, a cat and then of course, the humans: a woman who is not particularly coordinated or graceful and a blind guy. Inanimate objects suffer the consequences of getting bumped, knocked over, dropped and sometimes broken. We keep a good supply of duct tape, glue and other adhesives in stock. Things can be repaired or replaced. Super Glue is a wonderful invention! But what about our hearts, our emotions, our families, our church? These are not as easy to fix. Super Glue is fine for things, but what about OUR brokenness? Who can rescue us? The second part of our reading from Colossians is an ancient hymn. Here we learn about our rescuer, Jesus—who he is and what he does. The focus is on the supremacy of Ch...