Claimed, gathered and sent

  This is the sermon I preached on Sunday, January 19 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text was John 2:1- 11. A wedding is a wonderful celebration in the Middle East, as it is here. Even in small villages, everyone rejoices, sings, and dances. I remember being in a village for just such an event. It was truly exhilarating—the sounds, the aromas, the music, the rhythm as the men danced the debka, a traditional folk dance of the region.  But this was a Muslim couple, family, village, and there would not be any alcohol. It would be considered sinful, a huge problem if it was served.  Jesus faced another kind of issue at this wedding in today’s gospel reading. This was a Jewish wedding gathering, likely relatives of Jesus and his family. A terrible thing happened. They ran out of wine to serve the guests. It’s not like someone could just run to the liquor store to buy some more. But was that really the problem? “To run out of wine and to fail to provide adequately for gue...

  This is the message I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on 1/12/25. The text was Luke 3:15-17, 21-22 .   Today we celebrate the baptism of Our Lord Jesus. In Luke's gospel, greater emphasis is placed on the events that took place surrounding Jesus' baptism. The purpose of this passage is to introduce and begin to answer the question of Jesus' identity and mission as well as to highlight the work of the Holy Spirit in anointing people for ministry.  Here, we have a revelatory drama of Jesus' post baptismal experience. It consists of three parts: the heavens are opened, the Holy Spirit comes upon Jesus and there is a voice from heaven. In part one of our drama-the heavens are opened. Luke’s writing here recalls Isaiah's prayer, "O that you would tear open the heavens and come down... to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mounta...

 This is the sermon I preached on 1/5/15 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text is John 1:10-18.  Now, much of the excitement of Christmas is over. For some people, it was over as they picked up the wrapping paper from opened gifts and threw it out. For others, vacations are finished and grandkids are back to school. Today is the second Sunday after Christmas. The bell ringers for the Salvation Army are gone, and the special efforts to help the poor may not be mentioned as much as they were throughout Christmas.  So, now everything is over for another year or is it? Is Christmas over? The church calendar says it is still Christmas until tomorrow, January 6, Epiphany, when we celebrate the coming of the wise men to Jesus.  What happened at that first Christmas? What is still happening? “The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood” as our gospel declares. How does Jesus make God known? He came as one of us, among us. “It is God the only Son, Thi...

  This is the sermon I preached on Dec. 22, 2024 at St. Timothy Lutheran Church . The text is Luke 1:39-45. Think about how you would respond if a relative showed up at your door unannounced? Besides that, she was going to be staying with you for a while. Not only would she be staying with you, but she is young, maybe 14 years old, unmarried and she is pregnant! Would you welcome her in with open arms or would you grit your teeth, while you welcome her, thinking to yourself, "Don't go away mad. Just go away." Imagine how Elizabeth felt when Mary stood at her door. There Mary was--alone, young and pregnant.  In addition to that, Elizabeth's husband is a priest. How would Mary's situation affect his reputation?  Today's gospel is imbued with divine revelation. Elizabeth and Mary demonstrate to us how to respond faithfully to God's guiding our way and revelation, even when it is way beyond our realm of understanding. This passage consists primarily of Elizabe...

  This is the sermon I preached at St. Timothy Lutheran Church on Dec. 8. The text is Luke 3:1-6 .   Do you ever wonder who is who as you hear a list of strange names like the one in today’s gospel? What a cast of characters! All the important people are represented, the largest group being the political leaders, followed by religious leaders.  Last of all is John the Baptist. He was the son of a priest named Zechariah. Reading about John, we discover that he too was miraculously conceived and God made great promises about his life through prophets in the temple.  Luke did not set the births of John the Baptist and Jesus in some mythological never-never land, but took care to place them in a specific historical period (during the reigns of Augustus Caesar and Herod the Great). Here, thirty years later, as their ministries begin, he describes the historical situation at length. Perhaps he is not only making sure that the Word of God comes into particular places and t...