Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran Churches on Sunday, Oct. 23. The text was Luke 18:9-14. At first glance, this is one of the shortest, most straightforward and easy to understand parables of Jesus. It's about two men and prayer. One man is the good guy and the other anything but. The gist of this parable is about how to pray, isn't it?-----or is it?   We don't understand this parable as those of the first century did. Because we know how the parable ends, we assume that the Pharisee must represent the one who put his trust in himself, that he was righteous and the one who despised others. The first century listeners would have had opposite impressions of these two men. Pharisees often prayed, went to the temple and did all the right religious things--so it would seem they must be trusting God, not themselves.    Tax collectors were traitors to their fellow Jews--so it stands to reason that they must be th

This is the sermon I preached on Sun., 10/16 at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran churche s. The scripture text is 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 .  When you were listening to the second reading today, did you think that it started out in an odd place? It starts out with "but don't let it faze you." What is not supposed to faze us? To find this out, we have to go back one verse   which the lectionary oddly left out. "Verses 13 reads this way, "Unscrupulous con men will continue to exploit the faith. [They are] as deceived as the people they lead astray. As long as they are out there, things can only get worse." This is what Paul is warning us about--that there will come a time when there will be con men who will deceive the believers and that times could get worse. Then Paul tells Timothy and us not to let it faze us and to stick to what we have been taught. Paul is stressing the importance and power of scripture and in spite of those who want the ch

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, 10/9 at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran Churches. The text was Luke 17:11-19 . Today's gospel reading seems to be a simple healing account. However, it is not like most miracle stories. The healing is not emphasized as much as the reaction to it. The miracle is less important than its results. Lepers of ancient society were rejected. They were treated as outcasts and outsiders and were required to live outside the city in leper colonies. Whenever they walked the streets, they were to cry out to warn others to keep away from them. Like sinners crying out for mercy, the lepers approached Jesus crying out, "Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!" Jesus had compassion on them and proceeded to grant their request. What is different about this healing is that Jesus sends the lepers away to see the priests. Jesus' directions call for faith, since the men must turn and go to the priests without any evi

This is the sermon I preached Sunday, 9/25 at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran Churches. The text is 1 Timothy 6:6-19 .   Have you ever had a conversation with someone that started out like this, “Jim, how are you doing? I haven’t seen you in so long.” Jim replies, “I’m living the dream!” Sometimes it seems to mean the respondent is doing great. Other times I’ve heard people say this in a sarcastic way because they’re in a very hard place. I would like to make one small change to that statement so that it says, "I'm living the life." At first glance, we think it's obvious that this passage is about stewardship; and it is. But it is about so much more. There is a little phrase at the very end of the passage that I cannot shake. Every time I read this passage it hits me again and again: “…take hold of the life that really is life,”(v. 19b). What does that mean? Does it mean that those who are going their own way, not following Jesus, a

This is the sermon I preached at S t. Timothy Lutheran Church on Sunday, 9/18. The scripture text is Luke 16:1-13 . What in the world is Jesus talking about in today’s parable? There is nothing easy to understand about it.                                                Is this an early example of a debt settlement offer? How ideal for our culture of consumers who are overspent, overextended, and stretched beyond reason. We ’ve probably all heard the ads on the radio or TV. “Call 1-800-BYE-DEBT and let us deal with your creditors.” They make it sound so easy. However, we all know there are no easy fixes and that if it sounds too good to be true, then it is. Money issues are complicated. Why does Jesus tell this story? Is Jesus praising dishonesty and rewarding the “self-serving shenanigans of a [sleazy] employee?” (Sharron Blezard) The manager doesn’t do folks in, but he is determined to secure his future by means of his master’s wealth. This guy really has nerve.