Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, 7/31 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text is Luke 12:13-21 Our society encourages us to succeed. From the time we are children, we are taught that if we work hard and do our very best we will be rewarded. Having plenty of money, a nice house, lots of vacations and a good retirement is what we are told to strive for. Some would consider such success a sign of God’s blessing of our efforts.    That theology was even more prominent in Jesus’ time. From that perspective, the rich landowner was a success. In fact, he was so successful that his current storage facilities were too small. Today's gospel passage is bracketed by two equally powerful, yet opposite drives--greed and being rich toward God. When Ray and I moved from Rhode Island to Gettysburg for seminary, we left many things in storage in Rhode Island. We felt we could do without them for four years and we did. Whenever we visited Rhode Island and drove by ...

Does it ever stop? No matter how much we pray for an end to the violence, again this week there has been more. We weep and pray with the families and friends of the officers killed in Baton Rouge, LA and of the victims of such horror in Munich, Germany. Where is God In all of this and what can we do? Remember last week’s gospel about Mary and Martha? Each represents 2 different, but equal characteristics of the Christian life. Mary faithfully listens to Jesus and Martha faithfully exercises hospitality. Mary exhibits being while Martha exhibits doing.  The being and doing are evident in today's gospel. The first part concerns the Lord's Prayer. Because this is so familiar to us, as we pray, it is often by rote without even thinking about what we are saying. One thing I learned during my Clinical Pastoral Education in seminary, is what sticks with people, even when they are suffering from dementia. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper and the Lord's Prayer are su...

  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...