Claimed, gathered and sent

Here are some thoughts about this Sunday's first lesson. What do you think? This was sent out to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church. First Reading: Isaiah 11:1-10 1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.   2 The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord .   3 His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord . He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;   4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.   5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.   6 The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fat...

Here are some thoughts I shared with the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church on the gospel for All Saints Sunday. John 11:32-44 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”  33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.  34 He said, “Where have you laid him?”   They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”  35 Jesus began to weep.  36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”  37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”   38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.  39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”  40 Jes...

Jesus is Lord over sickness, the elements and death. I have really enjoyed the past few weeks we've spent in Mark's gospel. This past Sunday, 6/28, the text was Mark 5:21-43 . This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy's and St. Mark's. Are you hungry? Is your stomach rumbling and you can hardly wait for coffee hour with all its goodies to begin? In today's gospel, Mark serves up another of his Markan sandwiches. The two stories which compose the bread and meat of this sandwich have a number of similarities and a few differences; complementing each other and providing commentary for each other. The first slice of bread is Jesus being approached by an important man named Jairus. He wants Jesus to come and heal his daughter. Jairus was a religious leader who could have been at odds with Jesus. Instead, he turns to Jesus, risking the health of his daughter and his own relationship with other religious leaders. Jairus was likely a man of wealth as well as being ...