Claimed, gathered and sent

  It was so difficult to know how to preach this passage from Luke. So many horrible things have happened in the last few weeks. God did give me the words for God's people at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran churches . Much thanks is owed to David Lose and his insights. The text was Luke 10:38-42. I preached this on Sun., 7/17.  Does Jesus seem a little mean to Martha? After all, Martha was taking on the role that was expected of her in first century Palestine. She was being a good hostess. When we are hosting an important guest, don’t we want everything to be just so? After all, we want to make a good impression, don’t we? We want people to have such a wonderful meal and visit that they will want to come back. Martha had become less concerned with Jesus, her guest, and more concerned with her tasks. It was not a matter of what she was doing, but how she was doing it. She became task focused rather than Christ focused. Listen to Martha’s complain...

This is the message I preached on Sunday, 7/3 at St.Timothy Lutheran Church and St. Mark Lutheran Church. The text is Galatians 6:7-16.. I'm not a big fan of a lot of jewelry, but I love the variety of crosses that people wear. The Jerusalem Cross is near the top of the list. What's unique about the Jerusalem Cross is the four smaller crosses that are part of it. The smaller crosses stand for Jesus' wounds in his head, hands, feet and side. And of course, being Irish, I feel a special affinity for the Celtic cross with all its interconnected knots. And in the middle is the symbol of the Holy Trinity, which is a triangle of inter-connected rings. These crosses are not only beautiful, but tell the salvation story. Then we have the cross our Lord Jesus Christ died upon. There is nothing attractive about it. It isn't pretty like our jewelry. The wood was not smooth and clean. At times, so many were crucified by the Romans, thatthere wasn't time to cu...

This is the message I preached Sunday, June 26 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church , where we had a wonderful baptism service. A tweaked version was preached at St. Mark. The scripture was Luke 9:51-62. In today’s gospel, Jesus has reached a turning point. Jesus being “taken up” refers to Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension. In Luke’s gospel, everything is now directed toward that end. Jesus’ path to be the Savior and Redeemer of the world is set.   Jesus had a single-minded orientation. He knew that the way to Jerusalem meant the way of the cross and his death. Luke uses the expression, Jesus “set his face” to describe his determination. This expression is so important, that it appears three times in the first three verses of today’s gospel: Jesus “set his face” (51), Jesus sent messengers to Samaria ahead of him, which literally means “before his face” (52) and Jesus face was set toward Jerusalem” (v. 53). This expression is an idiom that speaks of a firm, unshakable r...

It's been a while. I was off on the 12th. Now I will be posting the sermon from the 19th today and from the 26th tomorrow. This is the sermon I preached on Sun., June 19 at S t. Timothy Lutheran Church and St. Mark Lutheran Church . The scripture text was Luke 8:26-39. Look at this gospel passage. It's full of all kinds of images that are hard to understand, let alone believe: a man with demons, living naked in a cemetery, demons going into pigs and pigs jumping off a cliff into the Sea of Galilee, which is a little bigger than our Lake Chautauqua. As we should all know by now, our Lord Jesus is always going into odd, forbidden places so that outsiders of the faith become his followers. In this lesson, Jesus, is breaking down boundaries that keep people from faith and healing. Jesus' very presence in the area of the Gerasenes was just one of the boundaries broken. The residents were people that the Jewish people had little, if anything to...

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran Churches on Sunday, 6/5. How many of us enjoy going to a parade? Did you go the Memorial Day parade? Doesn't being at a parade make us feel like children again? Today's gospel describes a meeting of two parades —one of life (Jesus, and the crowd of followers) and a parade of death—(the dead man, his mother and the grieving crowd). Just what happens when these two parades meet? The parade of life   was on the move from Capernaum to the small town of Nain. Before they made their way into the town, they could hear the commotion before seeing the parade of grievers. Middle Eastern people do not mourn as we do. Their mourning is loud and passionate and may well be healthier than the way we try to be strong and not let our emotions get the best of us. One would think that in the parade of mourners, which is a funeral procession, the focus would be on the loved one who died. Of cour...