Claimed, gathered and sent

Mark 3:20 – 35 Jesus' nuclear family 20 and the crowd came together again, so that they could not even eat. 21When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind." scribal opposition 22   And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebul, and by the ruler of the demons he casts out demons." 23And he called them to him, and spoke to them in parables, "How can Satan cast out Satan? 24If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand. 26And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but his end has come. 27But no one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man; then indeed the house can be plundered. 28Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and whatever blasphemies ...

This is the message I shared with God's people at St. Mark Lutheran Church and St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Sun., 5/31. The scripture text was Romans 8:12-17 . How many of you are familiar with the series of books and pictures called, Where's Waldo? For those of you unfamiliar with this series, the pictures consist of a sea of people and you have to locate the character, Waldo in the midst of the busy pictures. It is quite a challenge to do so. Today is Holy Trinity Sunday. When looking at today's readings, we may wonder, "Where is the Trinity?" Although the word trinity is not used in the Bible, our God in three persons is woven into the very fabric of our reading from Romans. Did you notice the names for God in the Romans reading? Just shout them out when you see them. This passage starts out in an odd way, " So then..." This tells us that Paul is drawing conclusions from the previous verses in which he made it clear that the ...

  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....