Claimed, gathered and sent

  This is the message I sent to the people of St. Timothy regarding this coming Sunday's gospel. Gospel: Mark 1:21-28 21 [ Jesus and his disciples ] went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. 22 They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. 23 Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, 24 and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” 25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” 26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. 27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 28 At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee. Jesus was teaching in the synagogue....

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, August 5 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was John 1:1-14 . This is the first Sunday of our celebration of God the Creator and our focus is on earth. If we look at the first reading from Genesis, it begins, “In the beginning…God…” When we look at the first verse of John’s gospel, it begins, “In the beginning was the Word…” It’s kind of like Yogi Berra’ s statement,  “It’s deja vu all over again.” Today we are engaging the Prologue of John’s gospel, which reads like the poetry of a song, and so it likely is. Many scholars believe it is one which was sung in the churches of John’s time. Music helps us remember and it was and is a great way to learn scripture and theology. Like an overture to an opera or oratorio, John’s writing strikes the major themes that will occupy the entire gospel of John. In this song we see The Word at Creation, The Word in History and The Word Incarnate. Let us hear God’s love song. First of all, ...