Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, 2/18/18 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The gospel text was Mark 1:9-15 .  This has been a hard week. Once again our hearts have broken as we heard the news of violence and death at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. We wonder how long will this insanity go on? Why doesn’t someone do something? What can be done? Some would say that gun control is the answer. Others suggest arming teachers and other authority figures in the schools. There are so many issues that surround the continuing horror with no simple explanation or solution. On some level, we have all been touched by this. And in the midst of it all, we may wonder where God is and why did God allow this to happen? God does not force people to do the right thing. We have our own wills, as do those who commit such horrendous acts. Don’t even suggest that “everything happens for a reason,” because that just isn’t so. However, one thing I can assure you...

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, 2/11/18 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text is Mark 9:2-9 . The other night, Ray and I were watching the old tv show, “The Twilight Zone” on Netflix. The story was about a man from the 1800s, Wild West, who was suddenly transported to 20th century, downtown Manhattan. At night, he was surrounded by cars with horns blaring, buses, bright neon lights flashing and so on. It was more than he could stand and he nearly went out of his mind. What if the scene were reversed? What if someone from our time found him or herself as a witness of Jesus’ transfiguration? We can explain so much in our world—from volcanoes to northern lights to germs and disease transmission. What do we do when we are confronted with something so amazing, otherworldly and unexplainable? Three of the disciples went with Jesus to a high mountain. This tips us off that something big is going to happen. Throughout scripture important revelations happen on mountains...

This is the message I preached on Mark 10:35-45  at Bethel Lutheran Church in Portville, NY, where I have the prprivilege of being the pastor.      A few years ago, Monster.com had an advertising campaign featuring children saying: When I grow up, I want to file all day. I want to claw my way up to middle management…be replaced on a whim. I wanna be a yes man…yes woman…anything for a raise sir. When I grow up I want to be underappreciated…paid less for doing the same job.   (Monster.com, You Tube, 1999) From the world’s perspective, who would want to strive to be or do any of these things? It is not the American dream. How often do we hear people tell children, “You can be anything you want to be! You may even be President one day!” Our human nature causes us to want to get ahead, be successful, and have the biggest, the brightest and the best. We desire upward mobility and we want recognition! -- So did Jesus’ disciples—at least the two of them that...

One of the joys of this past Spring Semester has been the number of professors and courses that have invited us to reflect upon past and anticipated experiences in light of the cross. Below is what I wrote regarding Palestinian liberation theology and the cross, especially from Bishop Munib Younan's book, Witnessing in Jerusalem , as well as in the light of my own experiences in the Holy Land. Introduction The situation in the Holy Land seems bleak at best these days. For the residents on all sides, life is a daily roller coaster ride. Hopes for peace rise at the prospect of each negotiation and are then crushed by violence. The people want to have hope. It is a land that should be a place of hope considering the biblical events that unfolded there. Luther’s words in the Heidelberg Disputation still speak today to those who are willing to hear in that volatile place: 20. He deserves to be called a theologian… who comprehends the visible and manifest things of God seen through suffe...