Claimed, gathered and sent

These are some of my thoughts on Sunday's epistle sent to the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church. First Reading: Acts 2:1-21 1 When the day of Pentecost had come, [the apostles] were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.   5 Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. 6 And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. 7 Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? 9 Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea...

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Sunday, 6/2. The text was Luke 24:44-53.  Marty and Sandy were with me at Synod Assembly and together we heard Bishop Jim Hazelwood preach on Friday evening. I will need their help for parts of today's message. Tag--you're it!  Luke's closing section of the gospel is like a holy game of tag in which Jesus tags followers, saying, "You're it. Now you're me in the world."  These are words we gather in worship to wait for, and we don't have long to wait. We're a part of Christ's family. When we meet at the table, we taste promises. We become Christ's body.   Today we are celebrating Jesus' Ascension. Jesus leaves his disciples with instruction, a commission, and a promise of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus' time of instruction with his disciples serves to bring closure by recapping major themes of the gospel and to set the stage for the coming of the Sprit and the ...

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