Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I'm preaching at St. Timothy Lutheran Church for our first Drive-In Service. We will be celebrating Ascension Sunday. The gospel text is Luke 24:44-53 . If you like, here is a video of the sermon.  There are three movements in today’s gospel: the past, (vv. 44-47), the promise, (vv. 48-49) and the “while you wait,” the meantime. Each has its role. In the past we find the foundation that connected Jesus’ followers with their history. For us, that is BC—before Coronavirus. We also have the promise of Jesus: the call to be his witnesses (vv. 48-49), which is the disciples’ future. That is when things will be “back to normal,” a future that we long for. The final section is “While you wait” or what to do in the meantime (vv. 50-53) (Troy Troftgruben, workingpreacher.org). This is where we find ourselves today. In this in-between time, don’t we long for the days of being able to come and go freely? Oh, if only we could just gather together like we used to! But w

Here are some thoughts on the gospel for Ascension, which we'll be using at St.Timothy Lutheran Church this Sunday. Gospel: Luke 24:44-53 44[Jesus said to the eleven and those with them,] “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.”45Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, 46and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48You are witnesses of these things. 49And see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised; so stay here in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.”   50Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and, lifting up his hands, he blessed them. 51While he was blessing them, he withdrew from them and was carried up int