Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached this morning at Bender's Lutheran Church in Biglerville, PA. The gospel text is John 13:31-35. “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” This little song is probably familiar to us all. Is there anyone that hasn’t heard this before? Or how about “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow black and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.” That sounds right. In today’s gospel, Jesus even refers to his disciples as “little children.” Sometimes it’s so wonderful to relax in the warmth of Jesus’ love, isn’t it? Today’s text takes place during the last Passover Jesus had with his disciples. The “he” of “When he had gone out” is Judas. He had just left dinner to betray Jesus. Jesus has previous told his disciples that he would be betrayed and go to the cross, but they never quite got it. Just like we don’t always get it. So, here we are with th...

For Epistles class, I had to come up with an interpretive element for the passage Philippians 4:2-9. It is the last piece of the project which consisted of exegeting the text and writing a sermon. I used Wordle, which shows the most frequent words in larger print. Here are some results: It has been an especially difficult month on many levels: physically,emotionally,academically. I will be glad when the semester is over,as much as I love my studies,and particularly glad once internship begins in August. One frustration has been where we'll live in July. Initially, we were going to be able to stay in our apartment on campus until the end of July and then we'd leave for internship. Now we have a month to be proverbial vagabonds, moving from place to place--either on campus or among family and friends. This has been a time of high anxiety for many of us. I found the above Wordles particularly helpful to bring out the themes of the passage. What it all comes down to is giving it...

"Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints" (Eph 6:18 NRS). As a second year student, I am among those who have been blessed by the prayers of the faithful people of Zion Lutheran Church.  Shortly after my classmates and I began our seminary journey we heard that these folks would like to pray for us. We each have a specific person who has been praying for each of us over the nearly two years we've been here. Last year they came to visit us here at the seminary and today we had the opportunity to visit and worship with them. It was such a blessing. My prayer partner was unable to join the group that visited us last year. Today I had the privilege of meeting her and thanking her for her prayers. It makes such a difference to know their support and faithfulness as they carry our needs to God. Today, as we gathered together we were refreshed and nourished in...

RI has experienced the worst flooding in over 100 years. We have friends and family there and would appreciate your prayers. Yesterday, the governor declared a state of emergency. The situation is very desperate. Thank you.

For quite a while, the site where I will be doing my internship has been in the works. Today, I heard officially that it's a definite GO. This is the beautiful area where I will be spending my internship year, beginning this summer. It is the town of Petersburg, WV. There are no major cities near there at all. Due west is the Grant County Airport and beyond that is the Monongahela National Forest. Wait till you see the picture with the article. It' absolutely breathtaking. I will be working with Pr. Larry Cantu, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Petersburg. I am very excited about the site and about Pr. Cantu being my supervisor. Every other site and pastor I saw and interviewed with had one or maybe two things about them that interested me. This site and pastor have multiple things that excite and energize me in ministry. When I read the profile to Ray he could hardly believe it and kept saying it had my name written all over it. It was like this was custom designed for me....

Some of you may or may not be familiar with Taize and its music. In the ELW there are a number of Taize hymns. They are simple, repetitive, and powerful. The other night we were watching a show on ABC called "Flash Forward." The story line is that there was a worldwide blackout for around 2 minutes. In that time, people saw glimpses of their future. Now everyone is trying to put together the pieces and figure things out. As we were watching, in the background the hymn, "Stay with Me, Abide with Me" from Taize was being played and sung. That just blew us away. A character has emerged in the show whose life has been changed in such a way that he is telling people about God and Jesus. It was quite a powerful episode. The part with the hymn is toward the very beginning after they recap what happened previously. Here's the link: http://abc.go.com/watch/flashforward/235637/254571/revelation-zero-part-1 I'd be interested in seeing what you think.

This is where my meanderings took me in the sermon I preached yesterday: Lent calls us to reflect—to reflect upon our lives, on Christ, on our relationships with God and neighbor. We may be satisfied with our lives as they are…or we may find that something is missing, that we are thirsty, hungry, and needy. This was the case for the people of Israel. They had been in exile in Babylon, far from home, feeling far from God—thirsty, hungry, and needy. That is the setting of this morning’s passage from Isaiah. God calls out, “ … everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isa 55:1 NRS). This theme introduces our first lesson. Is God talking about physical or spiritual food here? The answer is a resounding, “Yes!” That is for everyone— for God’s ancient people and for us. As I was finishing this sermon yesterday, a ...