Claimed, gathered and sent

  This is the sermon I preached August 6 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The passage is Matthew 14:22-33. The Sea of Galilee is not a sea. It is a lake, often called Kinneret. It is larger than Chautauqua Lake, but not a lot. The word, translated ”sea,” could also be translated “Lake.” Given the storm we find the disciples in, it’s no wonder translators opted for “sea.”   The sea was understood to be a living, chaotic, potentially deadly spirit (David Ewart, holytextures.com). And it was between 3 and 6 am when Jesus was walking toward the disciples. How would you feel? Don’t things always seem worse in the middle of the night? And in a storm? The disciples were frightened. Scripture says they were “terrified” when they saw Jesus walking in the storm on the sea. The word used here for “terrified” can also be used to describe a sea that has been agitated and stirred up. In other words, the disciples' inner state is now a perfect reflection of their outer circumstances (Ew...

  This is the message I preached on Sunday July 30 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52 . So… I have to admit that when I first read this gospel passage, I thought, what in the world am I supposed to do with this? I did a bit in the e-ministry, yet found that I could not morph that into a sermon. We’re not going to do a flyover of all five of these parables, but are taking two that are similar, yet have differences as well, the treasure in a field and the precious pearl. The purpose of parables is to shake people up with the unexpected. They are to afflict the comfortable; being thorny and disturbing. We are not to walk away from parables saying, “Oh, what a nice story.”  How are these two parables similar, how are they different and what does that mean for us? Professor Amy-Jill Levine writes: The parables share common ideas, characterizations, and results. Both depict a person who sells all that he has to purchase something desired. Both also...

  This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on 7/23/23. The text was Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43.  Today you will hear another seedy sermon. Last week, the seeds fell on different types of ground. In today’s gospel, the ground is not the issue, but the seeds that are planted.  In the beginning of our parable, all is well. Good seed is planted and starts to grow. The problem is that greedy weeds, also known as darnel, also started growing. These weeds have a root system that spreads deeply and widely, intermixing its roots with the roots of the surrounding plants and greedily sucking up the water and nutrients of the soil (Rev. Nanette Sawyer, Greedy Weeds).  How could this be? The master deduces that an enemy had sown the weeds’ seeds! Is Jesus teaching people how to farm? No. Remember the beginning of the parable, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to…” Jesus is teaching how life should be lived.  Malina and Rohrbaugh’s Social Science Commen...

  This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church this Sunday. The text is Matthew 10:40-42 .  A tale of two churches. I got acquainted with Church One during my first year of seminary. It was my teaching parish. That’s where I spent most Sundays, engaging in a variety of roles--student, assisting minister, and sometimes preacher and teacher. I will never forget my very first Sunday there. The pastor asked me to visit “incognito.” He told me not to wear a clerical collar to identify me as a seminarian, so I could experience this church as a visitor would. It was a tiny congregation, so anyone different would stand out. No one seemed to notice my presence, however. No one greeted me other than the pastor’s wife. Many of you know that I was not raised Lutheran. My stock answer for why I became a Lutheran is that the Lutherans were friendly, so this experience was puzzling. I was disturbed by the coldness of the congregation. This was unlike any experience I had ever...

  This is the sermon I preached Sunday at St. Timothy Lutheran Church , Bemus Point, NY. The gospel text is Matthew 10:24-39.   When perusing portions of the Bible, it is a natural tendency for us to simply focus on the particular passage we have read. If we do that in Matthew's gospel, it looks like Jesus talks to the disciples many times about many things. However, we are still in the section where he is preparing his disciples for their work of spreading the gospel in his absence. Jesus here connects love of God, which results in following Christ, giving us life abundant. Every family has secrets, don’t they? There is the long-perpetuated family narrative of a situation. Then, much later, you find out what really happened. I’ve found this in my own family. The teenage children tell you they are doing such and such with their friends that evening. It’s late. It’s past their curfew. Where are they? Then there’s a phone call. Everything is fine. No need to worry, you’re told. ...

  This is the sermon I preached Sunday at St. Timothy Lutheran Church. The text is Matthew 9:35-10:8.   Jesus was a great, accomplished, sought after teacher, to which the gospels attest. But Jesus didn’t just talk. Healing followed teaching. They went hand in hand. Jesus “healed their diseased bodies, healed their bruised and hurt lives” (Matthew 9:35). I don’t know about you, but there was a time in my life when I felt like there was not one single thing under control in my life: my marriage, my health, finances. I felt like everything was swirling around me.  Things happen in life over which we have no sway. We may or may not have degrees of control over what’s happening. All we can manage is our response to it. Will we be victims? Will we place the blame on others? Will we go to our friends and talk about the people who are doing us wrong? About this, Chuck Swindoll wrote: …we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot chang...

This is the sermon I preached Sunday at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26.   Isn’t Jesus always getting into trouble? He hangs out with the wrong people, the inappropriate people, the people he was told to stay away from, the great unwashed. Why can’t he just learn to fly under the radar? Life is so much more comfortable that way. He could still do good, heal a few people, but the right kind of people—the good religious people who don’t stir up trouble.  In today’s gospel, we find an array of characters: good religious ones, on the inside of society and those on the outside of society by virtue of their birth or their diseases.  We have three distinct movements in this passage, which is why three different people read this passage:  The call of Matthew (v. 9). The account of Jesus’ table fellowship with tax collectors and sinners (vv. 10-13). Sandwiched stories of restoration of synagogue leader’s daughter (vv. 18-19, 23-26) and woman w...