Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Sunday, Jan. 26. The text is Matthew 4:12-23.   Today’s gospel starts out with bad news. Jesus’ cousin, John the Baptist, has been arrested. Hearing this, Jesus “withdrew to Galilee” (v. 12). This opening verse is not simply a way to mark time, but it signals that John’s arrest is a dangerous situation for Jesus, and he must choose how to respond. For now, Jesus pulls away to carry out his ministry of proclamation in and around Galilee (Audrey West, workingpreacher.org). Throughout Matthew, we see this or similar statements, “…so that what had been spoken through the prophet…might be fulfilled” (v. 14). Normally these words refer to a time when such and such will happen. However, rather than the time being fulfilled in today’s gospel, the place is being fulfilled—Galilee of the Gentiles. God means to embrace everyone, Jew or Gentile. How shocking! God did what God said he would do. God’s Messiah had been promis...

This is the sermon I preached Sunday, 1/22 at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran Churches. The gospel text was Matthew 4:12-23. Today we are inundated with pleas to “follow” different companies or public figures on social media. The more followers they have, the more easily and cheaply they can disseminate their message or advertise their product. Books and blogs have been written on “how to rapidly build and boost your social media following.” How does a culture of consumerism that emphasizes “following” affect the way we understand today’s gospel as Christians? How, as a community, do we help each other differentiate and listen to the call from Jesus over the temptation of so many others? When Jesus began his public ministry, he knew the time was right. The imprisonment of John the Baptist was Jesus' signal. With John the Baptist in prison and out of commission, who would preach the good news of the kingdom and call people to repentance? It's time, Jesus. Yo...