Claimed, gathered and sent

  This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church this Sunday. The text is Matthew 10:40-42 .  A tale of two churches. I got acquainted with Church One during my first year of seminary. It was my teaching parish. That’s where I spent most Sundays, engaging in a variety of roles--student, assisting minister, and sometimes preacher and teacher. I will never forget my very first Sunday there. The pastor asked me to visit “incognito.” He told me not to wear a clerical collar to identify me as a seminarian, so I could experience this church as a visitor would. It was a tiny congregation, so anyone different would stand out. No one seemed to notice my presence, however. No one greeted me other than the pastor’s wife. Many of you know that I was not raised Lutheran. My stock answer for why I became a Lutheran is that the Lutherans were friendly, so this experience was puzzling. I was disturbed by the coldness of the congregation. This was unlike any experience I had ever...

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was John 14:23-29 . Today's gospel lesson is rich in words of encouragement for the frightened disciples of Jesus. At this point, in spite of all of Jesus' teaching, the disciples still were unable to put together two and two. It was only later, after Pentecost that they experienced their "Aha" moment. Even then, they still had a lot of growing to do. They made their mistakes even though they were the God-appointed leaders of the church. These words of Jesus are words of encouragement for all of us as well. We too have trouble living the Christian life. Today's gospel is part of the farewell discourse of Jesus. I can imagine that the disciples were still unconvinced that Jesus' leaving them could be a good thing. There are three parts to today's gospel: the love relationship that results in keeping God's word, the promise of the Holy Spirit and God's gift of pe...