Claimed, gathered and sent

  Pentecost, 5/24, was wonderful. After the service at St. Mark's , we had a delightful time at a very special birthday party for a 90 year old member from St. Timothy's that included Swedish dancers and barber shoppers. In the morning, I preached from Acts 2:1-21. On the day of Pentecost, the apostles in the upper room experienced the filling of the Holy Spirit. This filling equipped the apostles with inspired speech for ministry. It is the first fruits because the Holy Spirit's filling of believers did not end with the original followers of Jesus. The focus is a celebration of the Spirit of the risen Christ in the church. Do you remember how last week's gospel described what the disciples did after Jesus' ascension? Luke recorded that they were praying and worshipping and waiting for Jesus' promise  "and [the disciples] were continually in the temple blessing God" (Luke 24:53).. But then, God shows up and the Holy Spirit breaks in and sha...

This is the emessage that was sent to God's people at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The scripture text is Acts 2:1-21 . I used only part of the passage. I know I am not alone in thinking this way, but have you ever been awestruck by the manifestation of the works of God in the book of Acts? Miracles were happening all over the place. It's no wonder the church grew exponentially! There are well meaning Christians of other denominations who would tell us that the age of miracles was completed when the canon of scripture was put together, but is really? Neal D. Presa takes on this scripture text from Acts in the blog, The Hardest Question, http://thq.wearesparkhouse.org/yearb/pentecostnt-2/. Here are but a few things he mentioned. 1. This is Pentecost in God's world. The Holy Spirit is on the move. Everything is shaken. We should not be surprised that the "tectonic plates of our fixed expectations and calcified thoughts need to be shaken up and stirred....

This is the message I shared on 5/17 with God's people at St. Timothy, Bemus Point and St. Mark, Mayville. The gospel text is Luke 24:44-53 . What is Ascension and why are we celebrating it? Jesus' ascension to the Father is basically the conclusion of Easter. The ascension both closes the period of Jesus' ministry on earth and opens the period of the church's mission. It is like God is saying, "Tag--you're it! Now you're me in the world." This important feast is often overlooked in the American Protestant church. The irony is, this is the third pillar of the Christian faith. Christ became incarnate, Christ died and rose from the dead and Christ ascended into heaven. We confess these every week in the Creed. The Feast of the Ascension is always on a Thursday, right before the last Sunday of Easter. If it is not observed on Thursday, we can observe it on the following Sunday, as we are doing today. Many times it is skipped altoget...

Worship was just amazing in Bemus Point and Mayville. Every once in a while I get inspired to try something. Well...Sunday it worked! I did a couple of things that were different. The emphasis of the readings and my sermon was on Jesus loving us. It was such an important point to make, that during the passing of the peace, I had the worshippers exchange God's peace, but had them add "Jesus loves you!" People were smiling and seemed to be genuinely touched by this reminder. God is good. This is the gospel text from Sunday, May 10, John 15:9-17.  Immediately after I declared, "The gospel of the Lord and the people responded, "Thanks be to God," this is what they heard. You should have seen the response. Heads were bobbing side to side as everyone sang out, "All you need is love..." Below is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy's and St. Mark's. I don't know if we have any Beatles fans in the congregation, but I couldn't...

This is the message I preached at St. Timothy's and St. Mark's (with one change). The text is from The Message Bible, John 15: 1-8. Have you ever been so hungry that you felt like you were about to faint? You are at a friend's house and you see that on the table in front of you is an inviting, delectable-looking bowl of fruit. It must be there to be eaten, so you grab one of your very favorite fruit--your mouth is watering, you can almost taste it-----and then, much to your disappointment, you discover that it is a piece of wax fruit, the fruit is fake. It may look good, but it is phony.            We are a church that loves to eat, aren't we? We love our  fellowship time with coffee, tea and all kinds of goodies. Food is something we know a lot about. This passage from John's gospel is not some hard to figure out parable. Vines and grapes and branches were very familiar to the disciples, just as they are to us. It was and ...