Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached Sunday, 7/21/19 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Luke 10:38-42. We are presented today with a radical story. Jesus upends the cultural norms of the day, which is what usually happens when Jesus is on the scene. The first person Jesus encounters is Martha who welcomed Jesus into her house. This in itself is radical.   First of all, it was unusual that a woman owned the home. She’s in charge and the responsibilities of the household fell on her. If this is the Mary and Martha John wrote of in his gospel, where is their brother Lazarus? We may assume he had died if the house was Martha’s. Martha is distracted. Wouldn’t you be? For one thing, it wasn’t just Jesus who arrived, but his disciples as well. Now, was it just the 12 or did this include the 70? That makes a lot of difference. Her complaint to Jesus about Mary not helping is certainly reasonable. After all, how many of the disciples or even Jesus ever had to prepare a meal ...

This weekend, Sat. & Sun., we have the opportunity to visit Petersburg, WV, where I begin internship in August. The picture at the left is from Google Earth. Because of the way God brought this about, I have not yet met my supervisor. We have only spoken over the phone and I have heard wonderful things about him. So, this weekend, we will meet. These are a few pictures I got from online sources. I will take plenty while we're there. Ray, being a train geek, buff, or whatever you want to call a train aficionado, is very happy about the nearness of a rail line. Perhaps he and a couple other train friends can connect and take advantage of the setting. In the meantime, because of being sick, I had to get extensions for some coursework. Prayers are appreciated as I begin to feel better, get the work done, and check out what will be our home for a year.

Week after week the workload in seminary seems undo able. I haven't posted anything lately because I, like others, have hardly come up for air from the piles on our desks of books and papers. Week after week I am stressed about whether or not I will get everything done that must be done. I'm not always sure (well, yeah I am) how everything gets done, but it does. This time I even tried to work ahead to no avail in preparation for guests. My daughter and granddaughter visited this weekend from Rochester, NY. There was tons to be done, but I was determined to be as present and in the moment with them as possible. I did have to do some work for teaching parish, but most of my time was spent with them. And it's a good thing because they arrived sick and needing lots of TLC. Sunday they were totally out of it, so Ray stayed home and gave them lots of love while I went to Rural Lutheran. They had perked up a bit while I was gone, but were still pretty out of it. I am so gra...