Claimed, gathered and sent

  This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, 10/6, at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text is Mark 10:2-16 .  Above is one of the many pictures entitled “The Peaceable Kingdom” by Edward Hicks. He painted 62 such pictures, each one different from the other. Some only include animals, some animals and humans, while others are all humans (Victoria Emily Jones, artandtheology.org).  God’s plan for humanity was incredible. Throughout scripture, we hear of God’s love and God’s desire for that to be mirrored in human relationships. Everywhere in scripture, including Mark’s gospel, we see Jesus making people whole—healing them, delivering them from demons, feeding them, and teaching them. Every single thing Jesus said and did was that people may be healed and full of life.  Scripture speaks of the kingdom as: one that will never be destroyed (Dan. 2:44), one of righteousness and abundance (Matt. 6:33), that invites outsiders in, that came near in Christ and was embodied b...

This is the sermon I preached last Sunday, 10/7/18 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The gospel text is Mark 10:2-16 . Several weeks before my 23rd anniversary of marriage to my first husband, he told me he didn’t want to be married anymore. He is gay. We had two children, Christian who was finishing high school and Sarah who was working.  All of us were devastated by the news. Gone were the dreams of what we would do for our 25th anniversary, which never arrived. Our family was broken and this impacted us on many levels. Christian was angry with his father for several years, but in time there was forgiveness. His father was his best man when he got married. Sarah was not thrilled about the situation, but over time, she too was able to forgive her father. In all of this, I felt like my heart was broken into a million pieces. I know the pain of broken promises, a broken marriage and divorce.  The Pharisees approached Jesus and Mark tells us it’s to test him. The...

These are some thoughts on this Sunday's gospel that I shared electronically with the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church.  Gospel: Mark 10:2-16 2 Some Pharisees came, and to test [ Jesus ] they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” 5 But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”   10 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12 and if she divorces her ...

This is the message I shared on Sunday, 10/4 with St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran c hurches. The text is Mark 10:2-16. Many of us, find it difficult to hear Jesus' words on marriage and divorce. Either we have personally experienced the pain of divorce or we know people who have. It is so much a part of life in our day, that we dare not ignore this section of Mark's gospel. Through the tears and dashed hopes, God embraces us and by his grace puts our broken lives back together. Relationships are difficult. It is not always easy for us to love the way God wants us to, by letting him love through us. All of today's scripture readings focus on primary relationships by affirming God's purpose in creation. Jesus was still teaching about discipleship. In today's reading, Jesus shows us how discipleship is lived out in the family--in marriage and divorce and in our relationship with children. Earlier in Mark (3:31-35), Jesus had announced the formatio...