Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the message I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Sunday, Oct. 29. The gospel text is John 8:31-36.   Today we celebrate the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Reformation, a movement that not only impacted the church of that age, but all ages. What one word would you use to describe the distinctiveness of the Lutheran movement? Is it grace, justification, the good works we do through Lutheran Disaster Relief, ELCA World Hunger, or something else? These are all good answers, but they are not unique to us as Lutherans. The word freedom is the one most celebrated by Martin Luther. He was in bondage to a view of God as judge and went to great lengths to try to appease God by bringing his body into submission by extreme deprivation such as intensive fasting and beating himself with a whip. It was not until reading in the book of Romans of salvation by grace through faith that the burden of working to be saved was lifted from Luther’s shoulder...

This is the message I preached on Sunday, Oct. 22 at St.Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran Churches. The text is Matthew 22:15-22. I had to laugh when I first read today’s gospel reading. You see, this year we got sticker shock when we received our tax return back from the accountant. Previously we owed a little, but this year it was a LOT. On top of that, because we had to file for an extension while I was in the hospital and rehab, we found this out just about a week ago. Now the taxes spoken of in this lesson are nothing like any of our taxes. Instead it was a flat-rate personal tax on all men from age 14 and up and women from ages 12-65. It was levied at around at least a day’s annual wage. Later it was combined with a percentage tax on property as well ( The Oxford Companion ). The tax was a painful reminder that the land of the Jewish people was occupied by foreign powers who worshipped false gods. There was only one way to pay the tax; with Roman coins which served...

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, Oct. 15 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church and St. Mark Lutheran Church . The scripture text is Philippians 4:1-9 . “Celebrate God all day, every day…revel in him” (v. 4). Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice! How can an attitude like that make any sense in today’s world of violence, fires and storms that devastate people’s lives and property? Additionally, it seems like we are on the threshold of war. Does such an attitude seem callous or fanatical? What was Paul thinking as he wrote this to the Philippian church? For one thing, Paul had been through the school of hard knocks. He wrote this letter from prison and had experienced beatings and all kinds of problems for the faith. Remember that before becoming a follower of Jesus, Paul was a well-respected Jewish leader. He was zealous for his faith to the point of persecuting believers in Jesus. The Philippians themselves were experiencing persecution, so you c...