Claimed, gathered and sent

Here is my reflection on this coming Sunday's gospel. This was shared with the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church via our weekly e-ministry.  Gospel: Luke 24:36b-48 36b Jesus himself stood among [ the disciples ] and said to them, “Peace be with you.” 37 They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. 38 He said to them, “ Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts ? 39 Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. 41 While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” 42 They gave him a piece of broiled fish, 43 and he took it and ate in their presence. 44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses...

This is the sermon I preached on 4/8 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church and St. Mark Lutheran Church. The gospel text is John 20:19-31 . I learned a lot in seminary. One thing, however, that always sticks with me is about how we are to understand and interpret scripture. We need to remember that God is always the One doing the acting in the Bible. When we hear today’s gospel lesson, don’t we end up concentrating on “doubting Thomas?” I know that’s what happens to me and so we think that’s what the lesson is all about, but it isn’t. We need to return to the maxim that God is always the One who is doing the action. That being the case, we will look at today’s gospel through the lens of what God is doing and what kind of response that should elicit from us. First of all, we need to realize that there are many, many things God is up to, while we’ll only focus on a few. You have to admit that Jesus makes quite an entrance. Here is this group of his followers huddled toget...

This is the sermon I preached on 3/25 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Philippians 2:5-11 . Paul quotes a hymn or song in Philippians 2. This reminds me of another song, “Love Has Come,” which is the gist of what the Philippians' song is about. We can think of it as before Love came, Love has come, Love has lived, Love has been rewarded and Love has shown us how to live. Before Love came, Jesus was living with the Father and Spirit in the love of the Trinity. The theological term for this is Jesus’ preexistence. Paul writes, “Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself” (v. 5). The New English Bible renders these words as, “Let your bearing towards one another arise out of your life in Christ.” Everything flows from our relationship and connectedness to Christ. God is the God who always comes down—and look what Jesus gave up! Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit were in perpetual love and fellowship. Leaving all that behind, was lik...

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, 3/18 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text is John 12:20-33 . The twelfth chapter of John is the conclusion of what is called the gospel ’ s  “ book of signs. ”  Signs are prevalent throughout the first section of John ’ s gospel. Now we come to the bridge, as we transition to the second part, called the  “ book of glory. ” This portion of John ’ s gospel provides us with a sensual feast. The senses of sight and hearing are employed by John as we are encouraged to follow Jesus.  First of all, the Greeks want to see Jesus. Seeing means more than getting a simple glimpse of him from afar. They want to meet Jesus and to speak with him. This begs the question, just who are these Greeks? They may either be people who had converted to Judaism from another religion and so came to Jerusalem to worship or they may have been Jews that lived in gentile areas like the Apostle Paul did. We don ’ t know for sure. At any r...

This is the sermon I preached on 3/11/18 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was John 3:16-21. How many times have you seen signs in sports stadiums that say John 3:16? Does the average person even know what that means? It simply becomes a backdrop and is most often overlooked. John 3:16 takes on the character of background noise. We hear it so often, we don ’ t listen to it at all.   At the beginning of today ’ s gospel, we listen in on part of the conversation Jesus had with Nicodemus. Jesus references the story from the Hebrew Scriptures about the serpent in the wilderness. As the serpent was lifted up, so would  “ the Son of Man be lifted up ”  (v. 14). In John ’ s gospel, the verb  “ lifted up ”  has multiple layers of meaning. First of all, Jesus would be lifted up on the cross, then up from the tomb in his resurrection and finally up to the Father as he ascended.  “ Being lifted up ”  on the cross reveals God ’ s glory — because it is...