Claimed, gathered and sent

This is the sermon I'm preaching on Sunday, 5/31/20, Pentecost Sunday at St. Timothy Lutheran Church's Drive-In Service. The text was John 20:19-23.   Looking back, is this how we thought we would commemorate Pentecost this year? It’s normally such a celebratory time. After all, it is the Christian church’s birthday! We have a party! But not this year. Rather than a party, don’t we feel a bit like the captives in Babylon who cried out,  “…we cried and cried, remembering the good old days in Zion…That’s where our captors demanded songs, sarcastic and mocking: Sing us a happy Zion song!’  Oh, how could we ever sing God’s song in this wasteland?” (Psalm 135: 3-4). Have you felt sometimes like this time of not being able to gather inside our church building being in a wasteland? A quiet Pentecost; not that of Acts 2, a riotous Pentecost party, given the time we are living in, given the deaths of so many in this year of Coronavirus, given the death of George Floyd and the re

This is the message I shared with the people of St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The gospel reading is Matthew 3:13-17 . It has often been said, “You only get one chance to make a first impression.” How often do our initial opinions of a person come from our first encounter with them? Here in today’s gospel, we hear of Jesus’ first impression, which he made with a splash with all kinds of great things to follow. Jesus’ first miracle may have occurred at his baptism. The miracle is not so much that he won the argument with John, but that Jesus humbled himself by allowing, or should we say demanding that John baptize him. In this way, Jesus was obedient to God and was in solidarity with all humankind. This is how Jesus’ life was lived as well—he comes down with us all, on our level, identifying with our needs. His baptism foreshadows how his life will end—on a cross. In Matthew’s gospel, we have Jesus’ first words in the New Testament. In his argument about John baptizing hi

This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, Feb. 7 at St. Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran Churches. The text is Luke 9:28-36.  Some of you may be familiar with the Sound and Light Theater in Lancaster, PA. Through sound and light, biblical stories are dramatized bringing them to life. More of you are likely familiar with the Grain Elevator Light Display which can be seen from the inner and outer harbors in Buffalo. The grain elevators are ugly structures, that are transformed into something  beautiful by the dazzling, colorful light shows. As amazing and inspiring as these two examples are, God puts on the greatest sound and light show imaginable in today's gospel reading. The transfiguration occurs immediately after Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah and the the passion is introduced into Jesus’ teaching (vv. 18-27). Luke is the only gospel that names prayer as the reason for going to the mountain. Once on the mountaintop, Jesus seems to be the one doing all the pra

Who am I? What is my purpose in life? Why was I born? These are age-old questions that most of us have entertained at one time or another. Identity is something many of us may have struggled with. We may look for it in our work, in our position in our family, in how well we’ve done financially, how well others accept us. Who am I? Identity is an issue that comes out in today’s gospel reading as well.             John knew who Jesus was, didn’t he? Earlier in this chapter of Matthew’s gospel, John proclaimed the difference between his baptism and the one which was to come, which the messiah would bring. Then Jesus arrives on the scene to be baptized. In baptism, normally it was the greater who baptized the lesser. This is why John tried to prevent Jesus from being baptized by him stating that rather Jesus should baptize him! John knew who he was and thought he knew who Jesus was, so why should John baptize Jesus?             Our English translation that John “would have prevented h