Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the reflection I sent to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church.  Gospel: Luke 24:44-53 44[Jesus said to the eleven and those with 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, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”   50Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven. 52And they worshiped him, an...

This is the message I preached on Sunday, 5/26/19 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5.   When I lived in Rochester, I had a part-time job at Harris Interactive, which had a call center. It was from there that we conducted the Harris Poll and other surveys. I liked the people I worked with and enjoyed working there far more than at my full-time job. One of my co-workers, Jerry, always had a joke or something funny to say. One of his sayings reflected the way we often feel, “Change is bad!” Change is not easy, even when the change is one which we have been looking forward to. The liturgical season of Easter begins and ends with the change of absence: in the beginning, there is the absence of Jesus’ body from the tomb. At the end, we mark the absence of Jesus’ body from the earth after his ascension. These are two bookends to the Easter season. It is not a matter of a missing object, but rather the kind of absence, that missing element that cau...

Here are some thoughts about this Sunday's second lesson that I shared with the St. Timothy Lutheran Church family. Second Reading: Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5 10 And in the spirit [one of the angels] carried me away to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.   22 I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 People will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who practices abomination or falsehood, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.   22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright a...

This is the message I preached last Sunday, May 19 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text is Revelation 21:1-6 . We know we have problems in our county. Perhaps the most debilitating one is addiction, whether it’s to opioids, alcohol or any other substance. The affects of addiction traumatize not only the addict, but their families and communities. The Addiction Response Ministry is one organization working to fight this epidemic. Our focus is on uniting God’s church together in response to this issue. To help us better understand the issue, the work of the Addiction Response Ministry and what God is doing in our community is what One Voice, One County, One Hope Sunday is about. In apocalyptic literature, like Revelation, the present situation is so indomitable that God will have to intervene to destroy evil and establish a new and just world order. Here at the end of Revelation, when God has destroyed all evil and the final judgment is complete, God recreates. The God ...

Just finished watching the movie "Christopher Robin" on Netflix. It was fun and sad and wonderful--and it got me thinking. Profound Pooh says, "Doing nothing often leads to the very best of something." Contemplative prayer and silence do not come easily for an extrovert like myself. Thanks to my spiritual director, I have been challenged to incrementally embrace silence before I begin other devotions. At first, 3 minutes seemed impossible. After a while, 3 minutes flew by. Now even 5 minutes is doable. It seems easier to hear God's voice.  Ultimately, how can we expect to grow in our relationship with God if we don't ever stop to listen?  Doing nothing is hard, but Pooh, I do agree that, " Doing nothing often leads to the very best of something" just as it did for Christopher Robin.  Picture

This is the reflection that was sent out to the members and friends of St. Timothy Lutheran Church. It is on the second lesson. Second Reading: Revelation 21:1-6 1 I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,  “See, the home of God is among mortals.  He will dwell with them;  they will be his peoples,  and God himself will be with them;   4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes.  Death will be no more;  mourning and crying and pain will be no more,  for the first things have passed away.”   5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Om...

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, May 12 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was Rev. 7:9-17.  The book of Revelation is one that is easy to shy away from. We get side-tracked with beasts and horsemen on different color horses, an apocalyptic end of the world as we know it and on bad theology we pick up in movies and books. The thing is, the title of the book is not the Revelation of JOHN, but rather as its first few words say, “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” This book is all about Jesus, so rather than avoiding it, say a pray before reading and embrace it. John wrote this book much later than other New Testament books were written. It was a time of great persecution for Christians under the Roman emperor Domitian. Many were martyred; thereby being added to the heavenly court. Revelation is a book of symbols, filled with hope to encourage these beleaguered Christians. Who are these gathered for worship in Revelation? They are an assortment of people from...