Claimed, gathered and sent

These are a few thoughts on this coming's gospel, John 21:1-19. In verse 15, who/what are the “these?” Is Jesus talking about fish? Since Jesus was no longer with the disciples in person, was Peter cashing in his chips by returning to fishing? Or, was it just a way for him to go to the familiar and clear his head? What do you think?   Are the “these” the other disciples? Here we have Jesus commissioning Peter as leader of the disciples. Did Peter’s love of Jesus need to excel that of the other disciples?   Are the “these” all of the above? Was Simon Peter willing to give up all the familiar to follow Jesus and lead the disciples?   Jesus’ call to each one of us is to love him more than “these;” the “these” of work, family, home, friends. That doesn’t mean we have to live an isolated life like some desert hermits—quite the contrary, since our call is to be Christ’s presence in the world.   Simon Peter, like Jesus, was crucified for the faith. It is sai...

  This is the sermon I preached Sunday at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The scripture text is John 20:19-31 . Each of the Sundays during the Easter season focuses on the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus. This week, he appears to Thomas and the others. Rather than focusing on Thomas, let’s focus on Jesus and his promises for his followers. This reminds me of a song written by Burt Bacharach, recorded in the ‘60s by Dionne Warwick entitled “Promises, Promises.” The chorus contrasts two different kinds of promises: Oh, promises, their kind of promises, can just destroy a life Oh, promises, those kind of promises, take all the joy from life Oh, promises, promises, my kind of promises Can lead to joy and hope and love Yes, love!!  The disciples behind closed, locked doors are scared to death and mourning the loss of their friend, leader and master, Jesus. Those that follow God had gotten killed by the authorities—first John the Baptist and now ...

This is the message I preached on Easter at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The gospel text was Luke 24:1-12 .  The women in today’s gospel were doing what women did in that time; they were going to prepare Jesus’ body with spices to help cover the stink of death. But there was a problem—no body. Let’s follow these women to see how they became the first evangelists and testifiers of the resurrection; going beyond their confusion with the absence of a body to boldly witnessing to the other disciples.   They saw the empty tomb and two angels. This is certainly not what they expected. They had come with spices to anoint a dead body, but there was none to be found. The angels set them straight about the mystery of the missing body of Jesus.   They heard, the angels’ words, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” What do these angelic messengers mean? The living? “He is not here, but has risen.” How were they to get their minds around that? L...

   This Sunday I'll be preaching on Luke 3:7-18 . O nce again, we encounter John the Baptist in Sunday's gospel, Luke 3:7-18. I have a couple of questions of this text. First, how do we get from John calling his audience a brood of vipers to " So, with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people" (v. 18). Huh? Where do you see the good news in this passage? John is certainly an interesting character and example for us all to point to Christ and not ourselves. What do you all think? picture

This is the message I preached Sunday, Dec. 5, 2021 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Luke 3:1-6 . Who is this John and what is his message and what does it have to do with me? Every second Sunday of Advent we meet up again with John. He is prominent in all four gospels. What   more is there that we can possibly learn from him? What does God want to say to us this week, in this place, through this gospel passage?   Let us pray. Lord, when we encounter the same characters at the same time each year, we may groan, “Not John the Baptist again!” Open our eyes, our hearts and minds to all you have to reveal to us today through your word. Amen.   Luke begins his story of John by anchoring it in time and space, in history. We have a proverbial gallery of luminaries, first the secular, political rulers, then the religious leadership.   However, after our list of luminaries, we find these words, "…the word of God came to John son of Ze...

This is the message I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church , Nov. 14, 2021. The gospel text was Mark 13:1-8. Ray and I like language, especially alliteration. I couldn’t help but see this gospel text that way, consisting of 1. Wow, vv. 1-2, When and What, vv. 3-3-4 and Warning and Worry, vv. 5-8.     Ray is from RI and we lived there for 5 years before moving to Gettysburg for seminary. In R. I., I encountered something new, the gawk factor. This happens when you are driving along a highway and for no apparent reason, the traffic stops. Nothing is happening on your side of the highway, but on the side going in the opposite direction, a car has stopped. There is an accident.   Everyone stops to see what has happened and if it involves a friend or family member. Like a big, small town, everybody knows everybody and if you don’t know the person involved, someone you know will know them! On the radio, this stopping to see what is going on is called t...

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church for All Saints' Sunday, 11/7/21. The text was John 11:32-44 .  Today we remember the faithful who have died in the last year. We also think back to the saints of old in scripture and others whom the church has honored throughout history. In today’s gospel, we have Mary and Martha and Lazarus—all recognized as saints by various churches. And of course, there are the disciples, but there is also the crowd and best of all, our Lord Jesus, who shortly after this miracle would himself experience death.   Jesus and his disciples are in Bethany and Jesus is met by Lazarus’ sister, Mary, but earlier in chapter 11, Jesus learns of Lazarus’ illness, but purposely waits to go see Mary and Martha. He could have gone there as soon as he heard, but he waited so that they people would believe that the Father had sent him.   The first chapter of John’s gospel tells us, “… in him was life, and the life was the light of a...