Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached Sunday at St. Timothy Lutheran Church , Bemus Point, NY. The gospel was John 10:22-30 .  Many of you know that I lived in Bethlehem, the Holy Land in the 1980s with my then-husband and children. One of the delights of Bethlehem life was the view we had from our upstairs aa. We often saw a herd of sheep filling the street below; led by a young boy. He would occasionally say something to them in Arabic. Did you know that sheep understand Arabic? He rarely looked back to check to see if they were all following him. He didn’t need to. He knew his sheep.  Today’s gospel demonstrates such a relationship. Jesus’ followers are likened to sheep, highlighting their relationship to the Father and the Son. Additionally, there are benefits because of that relationship: protection and eternal life. Life is a major theme of John’s gospel. Relationship punctuates the conclusion of today’s gospel—that between the Father and the Son that we have the privilege of en...

This is the sermon that was for the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The gospel text is John 10:1-10. If you'd like to see the video of the sermon, you can find it here . Today’s gospel is not a parable, but rather metaphor-laden teaching. Jesus is using figures of speech. Here we find Jesus as the gate and shepherd offering the promise of pasture and protection. How does this happen? First, the shepherd knows his own sheep. This does not happen immediately but over time. It takes an investment of time for and attention for a shepherd to know the sheep. Over such time the sheep get to know their shepherd’s voice from the voices of other shepherds that they should not follow. We can take comfort the in the fact that God has taken that time and attention to know us by name (Mike Baughman, Edgy Exegesis, patheos.com). The shepherd leads his sheep and the sheep follow. Sheep need to be led. They follow each other and unless someone is making sure the sheep in the front ar...

This Sunday I supply preached at Faith Lutheran Church in Franklin, WV. The text was 2 Peter 1:16-21.             Have you ever walked into a restaurant or a room and opened the door only to be blown away by the noise? That happened to my husband and me when we were on vacation a few weeks ago. We had made plans to have dinner with our children and their spouses. Our daughter picked out the restaurant. When we got inside the foyer the earsplitting music was so loud that we could not even hear each other talking. Because of my husband’s hearing problem, we knew that if we ate at this restaurant, he would not hear the conversation at the table. We decided to go elsewhere. The second restaurant had a much quieter atmosphere and we were able to enjoy our time together.             I may be stating the obvious here, but have you noticed that it’s easier to hear a conversation w...