Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the message I shared on Sunday, 12/6 with St. Timothy Lutheran Church and St. Mark Lutheran Church. At St. Timothy, two young men had their first communion. They are referenced in the message. The gospel is Luke 3:1-6. Is it just me, or do you hear music in your head when you hear these words, "Prepare the way of the Lord?" For some of us, it's from Handel's Messiah. Others may think of Godspell or some other music. After hearing this list of names that are foreign, it's nice to land on a phrase that resonates with us. We know some of these names--like Pontius Pilate and Herod. It seems Luke floods us with a list of the high and mighty of that day. There are a couple of reasons for that. Luke is careful to place John in secular history as well as religious history. Luke supplies these names to set the time of Jesus' life and death in a historical framework. We know when John began his ministry and from that, when Jesus' ministry began. I

 On Sunday, 11/29, we had something very different as part of our service at St. Timothy , there was a wedding. It fit in beautifully with worship. This is the sermon I preached on 11/29, the first Sunday of Advent. The text is 1Thessalonians 3:9-13 . The turkey was carved and eaten on Thanksgiving and we are still eating leftovers. Before we even ended that day of thanks, the world started nudging or should I say shoving us into Christmas shopping. But today is the first Sunday of Advent, a time that we pray along with Paul that all our waiting for God be characterized by lives of gratitude, love and blamelessness. What a sharp contrast to what our culture expects of us at this time of year: we came, we saw, we bought. The Thessalonian church, was living a life that sharply contrasted to the society around them. They were a young church and they found themselves in the midst of persecution for their faith. The believers had begun to follow a new King and were seekin