Claimed, gathered and sent

This is what I preached Sunday at St Timothy , Bemus Point and St. Mark , Mayville. The gospel text is Mark 8:31-38 . What is your first impression of the exchange between Peter and Jesus? Peter rebukes Jesus and then Jesus rebukes Peter. This is a very puzzling text, a real head scratcher. One might say that Jesus was having a bad day and was really mean and cranky with Peter. After all, Jesus did have a lot on his plate, especially with everyone's expectations of him as their messiah. What was so wrong about Peter's response to Jesus' news about suffering, being killed and rising?After all, Peter loved Jesus and cared about what would happen to him. Put yourself in Peter's shoes. Peter could not imagine his messiah and friend being subjected to such horror.  Wasn't  Peter responding in a way any loving friend would? Let's be honest with each other. Do any of you wonder why Jesus is talking like this?  Let's see what we can discover tog

This is the message I shared with the people of God at St. Timothy and St. Mark's.  It is based on the gospel reading from Mark 1:9-15 . In the Gospel of Mark, the desert is a lonely and frightening place. It is the place where evil spirits were thought to dwell. The desert can be described by what it is not. It is not a place of flourishing plant life. It is not a place where we find an abundance of water. The wilderness is desolate and uninviting. There is little in the desert that draws us to itself and yet it is just where we need to be from time to time. As the day passes and the sun is low on the horizon, the bland beiges of the dessert become rich hues of pink. At the right time, it has its own beauty. During the rainy season, the desert blooms with color and foliage. At times Jesus sought the desert because of its simplicity and isolation. The throngs would not find him there. Jesus could commune in peace with his Father. In today's gospel, the desert was a pl

This is the message I shared with St. Timothy and St. Mark's Lutheran churches. The scripture was 2 Corinthians 4:3-6.      Do any of you ever have bad dreams? Sometimes they seem so real, especially when you wake up in a pitch-dark bedroom. The darkness just exacerbates your fear. You begin to imagine all kinds of things. Maybe someone has broken into the house. Maybe there’s a monster hiding under the bed or there’s a ghost hiding in the bedroom closet. Neutral images take on malevolent qualities in the dark. It is difficult to relax until we have turned on a light. Then we can see clearly—no one with evil intent is standing next to our bed. That large scary image you saw—that was just your dresser and there are no monsters under the bed. And that scary monster under the bed was only the cat.   The presence of light informs our perception of the reality of the nightmare threat. Light makes all the difference. That is what our readings are all about. In the reading f