Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I wrote for St. Timothy Lutheran Church for Easter Sunday, 4/12/20. The text was Acts 10:34-43 . Easter turns the world upside down. It defies our expectations. We see radical reversals—prophesied in scripture, revealed in Christ’s life and ministry, culminating in the good news we proclaim today. Christ has triumphed over death! We see the resurrection at work in Peter and ultimately in us. First, there’s a back story to today’s lesson from Acts. Peter just had a vision that abolished the Jewish food laws, which God interpreted for Peter. Then he understood that “What God has made clean, you cannot call unclean.” This is the basis of God’s impartiality. Cornelius had a vision to call for Peter. Peter goes and preaches to and among Gentiles. This sermon takes place at Gentile Cornelius’ house with his family and friends (Eric Fistler & Robb McCoy, pulpitfiction.com). Peter was sure, as were most Jewish people of his day, that God had an exclusiv...

Here are a few thoughts about this coming Sunday's gospel, which frankly, can be confusing. What thoughts do you have? This was shared with the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church . Gospel: Luke 20:27-38 27 Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to [Jesus] 28 and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. 29 Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; 30 then the second 31 and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. 32 Finally the woman also died. 33 In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”   34 Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; 35 but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in...

This is the sermon I preached on Easter Sunday, April 21 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Luke 24:1-12.   The women in today’s gospel, were going to Jesus’ tomb to prepare his body with spices. They fully expected to find a physical, dead body. The women did not connect the dots, despite the numerous times Jesus taught his followers that he would rise from the dead. After all, it was commonly believed then and now that the dead are supposed to stay dead, aren’t they? The gospels contain no account of a resurrection per se. What we have is a story of an empty tomb and of remembering what we have already been told would happen. We do not find Jesus; we only find evidence of the resurrection. After all, we cannot find Jesus, but the living Jesus does find us. Just what did the women see at the tomb? First of all, Jesus’ tomb was open and empty. The stone it had been sealed with was rolled away and these are humongous bolder-like stones. There was no body to be se...

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, 2/10/19 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was 1 Corinthians 15:1-11.  Today we are continuing the venture of learning to share our faith by looking at a writing of the Apostle Paul, perhaps the most prolific New Testament author who founded many of the churches of the first century. What Paul is about to say is at the center of Christian faith and life—not at the margins. And it was from Paul that the Corinthians heard the message in the first place. Further in the reading, we find the content of the good news. Here is the earliest existing description of Christ’s resurrection. It sounds like part of an early creed formulated long before the Apostles’ Creed. Paul’s version dates from 54 AD and the Apostles’ Creed from around 390 AD.  “Of first importance” stresses the centrality of the doctrines Paul mentions to the gospel message. In a nutshell, they are Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. His burial shows th...

This is the sermon I preached on Easter Sunday, March 27 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church and St. Mark Lutheran Church. The gospel text is Luke 24:1-12.  I read recently that a seminary professor wrote, “If it's not hard to believe, you're probably not paying attention!” (David Lose). He was talking about the resurrection. Does that shock us? After all, let’s think about this. For someone to rise from the dead is not an everyday occurrence. We’re not talking about having a near death experience. Nor are we talking about a mere resuscitation of Jesus’ body. The account of Jesus’ crucifixion makes it clear that those wanting the crucifixion made sure Jesus was good and dead. Jesus was so dead that no one really believed that he would rise--in spite of the numerous times Jesus told this to his followers. How did the women who were the first to go the empty tomb respond? Did you hear them say, “Praise God! He is risen! I knew this would happen just the way he told us!”...

This past Sunday, as well as it being the Third Sunday of Easter, we celebrated Earth Day Sunday. At St. Timothy's , one of our lay people with a passion for stewardship of the earth, brought the message for the day. At St. Mark's , I preached. Below is what I shared with God's people at St. Mark's . The gospel was Luke 24:36b-48 . Have any of you ever read the book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten by Robert Fulghum? Granted, the title is a bit of an exaggeration, however it goes right to the core ways of how to behave with others in our world. 1. Share with others if you can. 2. Refrain from hitting. 3. Clean up after yourself. 4. Apologize when you hurt someone and so on. If you do these things you'll be well on your way to becoming a good citizen. What would you say if I told you that everything we need to know about Jesus Christ is found in this passage of Luke's gospel? In these verses, we find a concise summary of Je...

We are at the end of our Lenten and Holy Week journey of faith. Easter has arrived and the alleluias have returned. This is the Easter Sunday sermon that I shared with the people of Bethel Lutheran Church in Portville, NY. The scripture text is Acts 10:34-43 . Christ is risen, alleluia! Many of us have probably experienced significant losses in our lives—whether we have lost a job, a home or someone we love. We wonder how we will be able to go on and to function. After the 3 years the disciples had spent traveling with Jesus their teacher, friend and Lord, how do we think they felt after the crucifixion. It must have been the end of all their dreams. How were they to live their lives without Jesus? The Book of Acts tells us that the crucifixion was not the end or that all there was for followers of Jesus. Jesus did not stay in the grave because God raised him from the dead. In the book of Acts, we read the continuing adventures of those early Christians in the post-crucifixi...