Claimed, gathered and sent

Due to the weather, we did not worship together at St. Timothy Lutheran Church t his past Sunday, 1/20. However, my sermon was done and if we had met, this would have been what God's people would have heard. The text was John 2:1-11 .  As I said in my e-ministry reflection this week, Middle Eastern people know how to party. Customs today among the Arab population of Palestine are much as they were among the Jewish people in Jesus’ day. Today a feast should last around three days. In first century Palestine, however, wedding feasts lasted around seven days. That meant a lot of food and drink was needed. One can’t very well have a party with nothing to drink! There was certainly no clean water to be drunk. Wine was the common drink at the table for everyone at that time. Right out of the gate, John lets his readers know that something special will be happening. It’s a time for miracles. This wedding happened on the third day. There is only one other time in John’s gospel t...

Here are some thoughts on this coming Sunday's gospel text for the Second Sunday after Epiphany. This was sent electronically to friends and members of St. Timothy Lutheran Church .  Gospel: John 2:1-11 1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  2 Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.  3 When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.”  4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.”  5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”  6 Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.  7 Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.  8 He said to them, “Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.” So they took it.  9 When the steward tasted the water ...

This is the sermon I preached on Christmas Eve at St.Timothy Lutheran Church and at the combined worship service of St. Paul's Episcopal Church and St. Mark Lutheran Church . The text was Luke 2:1-14 . During Advent and Christmas, we are presented with the idea that Christmas is a magical time and anything is possible because after all, it is Christmas. We see this in television shows and the movies, especially the schmaltzy Hallmark movies that many of us love. But our personal reality is often quite different. This is a time when people suffer from depression, from their first Christmas without a loved one, from illness, you name it. For many, it isn’t all magic and happiness. After all the shopping, cleaning, cooking and preparing and after trying to make ends meet; keeping a distraught family together, struggling to get a job and worrying about a loved one serving overseas—after all the stuff that makes our lives crazy—the short, simple, peaceful word that we are of...

This is the sermon I shared with God's people at Bethel Lutheran Church, Portville, NY. It is based on Matthew 1:18-25. Is it Christmas yet? If you are around small children this time of year, you know what a burning question this is for them. We have two more days to go until Christmas Eve, when we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Perhaps today’s gospel seems a bit misplaced. It is the fourth and final Sunday of Advent, not Christmas Eve. Yet we’re talking about the birth of Jesus---or are we? Only the first and last verses of today’s gospel reading are about the actual birth of Jesus. There is a larger story being played out driven by Mary’s unexpected pregnancy. These birth verses act as bookends to that drama. Divine works and signs permeate Matthew’s account of the events surrounding Jesus’ birth. But for God’s Son to become incarnate with us, a lot depended upon people cooperating with God. Human beings are not automatons without wills where everything happens...