Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached Sunday, June 19th, Juneteenth at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text was Luke 8:26-39. In the 1980s, going to live overseas as missionaries with small children, people worried about us, especially those that didn’t understand what it meant to follow God’s call. We were crossing several boundaries, including that of religion. Those Muslim terrorists—aren’t you afraid for your lives and those of your children? The call to prayer five times a day was something we really had to adjust to, since the mosque was close to our apartment. I came to love it. But these were some of the most meaningful, marvelous years of my life. Arab culture is one of total and complete welcome. No matter how busy one may be, if you came to their home expected or unexpected, they would drop whatever they were doing to spend time with you. That is what was supremely important, to make a guest feel welcome. Jesus, too, crossed boundaries: going places and doing things he shouldn’t ...

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church  for Trinity Sunday, June 12. The text was  John 16:12-15. Our gospel sounds more like Pentecost than for Holy Trinity Sunday. The gist is Jesus tells his disciples who the Holy Spirit is and what the Spirit does in relationship to the Father, himself and the church. We have all three members of the trinity involved in this passage. Jesus speaks of the Father, he is the Son, and we see the Holy Spirit’s work. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (v. 13) is the key to this text. This is not general truth, like the puffy clouds are cumulus clouds. He assumes the role of revealer of God, the Truth, as Jesus has made him known. As the Spirit of truth, the Holy Spirit is the Great Guide. The word for “guide” is a compound word from “way or road” and “to lead.” Literally, it means “lead in the way.” He guides God’s people, the church, into all truth. The Father speaks to Jesus, who sp...

This is the sermon I preached on Pentecost Sunday, June 5 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text is John 14:8-17 . Today’s gospel is a really different approach to Pentecost. We’re so used to the  excitement of tongues of fire and power and all the activity of thousands of people becoming believers in Jesus. Then we come to this quiet Pentecostal passage. And it all begins with a question, much like the one Thomas asked a few verses earlier. Thomas asked to be shown “the way,” while Philip takes it up a notch, asking to see the Father. The exchange between Philip and Jesus illustrates their relationship, the heart of this gospel. To answer Philip, Jesus talks about his interrelational relationship with the Father. Typical of Jesus, his answer seems like a non-answer. Jesus is in the Father and the Father in Jesus. This is a major part of what defines us as Christians—the relationship between Jesus and the Father. Disciples believe either through Jesus’ words, which come from the...

Here are some thoughts on this Sunday's gospel.  Gospel: John 14:8-17 8 Philip said to [ Jesus, ] “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12 Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.   15 “If you love me, you will keep my c...

This is the message I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Sunday, May 29. The text was Acts 16:16-34.    We live in violent, scary times. Don’t we sometimes want to throw up our hands and give up when we hear about yet another mass casualty event? Last week it was the Buffalo shooting and now another school shooting, this time in Uvalde, TX. Doesn’t it seem like week after week we hear of another disaster affecting so many people—a shooting rampage, fires, floods and let’s not forget COVID, which is not finished wreaking its havoc. Our hearts break within us as we cry out with the psalmist, “How long, O Lord?” Life is hard today, but it was a difficult world that Paul and Silas found themselves in in the Book of Acts.   Today’s text consists of four scenes: Paul and Silas’ exchange with a girl controlled by a spirit, the disciples get thrown into prison, their miraculous release from prison and the conversion of the jailer and family.   We take up the...

Gospel: John 14:23-29 23 Jesus answered [Judas (not Iscariot),] “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.   24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.   25 “I have said these things to you while I am still with you.   26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.   27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.   28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I.   29 And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.”   ...

This is the sermon I preached this Sunday at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The gospel text is John 13:31-35.  We hear these words every Maundy Thursday in Holy Week. Jesus has just washed his disciples’ feet, including Judas’. Judas has departed from the others so he could betray Jesus. On the heels of this, Jesus says NOW he’s been glorified. We have again one of those circuitous, seemingly convoluted statements about Jesus being glorified, the Father being glorified in him and so on. Now to the crux of today’s message. What does Jesus mean by “a new commandment?” Elsewhere, we hear about the need to love one another and others in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. What’s new about that? There’s an additional piece Jesus brings into this commandment; a further lens through which to view love. “…as I have loved you…love one another” (v. 34). The newness is a “new” understanding. What does Jesus’ love toward his disciples look like? We see a small piece of it in the way Jesus addresses h...