Thoughts Along the Journey

  Romans 3:19-28 A positive COVID-19 test prevented this from being preached on Reformation Sunday      October 30, 2022 at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation, Washington, DC                 Are you ever hard on yourself?   Do you ever beat yourself up when you don’t do as well as you should have done?             Today, on this the first day of a new week that God has given us, we gather here to offer up to God what has been happening in our lives over the past week: our joys and sorrows, our successes and failures.   Here we return to our baptisms.   We confess our brokenness and the ways we have, indeed, fallen short.   We hear again those words of forgiveness for that sin; words of grace that are so radical that it’s hard, even, to believe them!          ...

  Luke 12:32-40 Time After Pentecost      Lectionary 19      August 7, 2022 St. Mark Lutheran Church, Yorktown, VA             “Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”   Those words of Jesus are the good news in this morning’s reading from the gospel of Luke!   And – what joy! – when we were baptized, you and I were incorporated into that kingdom, the kingdom which has been brought into our world in the flesh and blood of Jesus the Christ.   It is the kingdom of Jesus followers who are serving those who are impoverished, and feeding those who are hungry, and loving others (even our enemies!) and who are not judging or condemning or excluding others.   (Do you want a more detailed description of the kingdom?   Check out chapter six of this gospel of Luke, where Jesus offers that.)    ...

    Luke 10:25-37 Time After Pentecost      Lectionary 15      July 10, 2022 St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, Hampton, VA               “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.”   “Well, what does that look like?” a man asks Jesus.   “How do we do that?”   To answer, Jesus tells a story.             Who’s heard this story before, the parable of the Good Samaritan?   Well, of course you have!   It’s one of the most familiar stories, not only in the Bible, but in all of human history.   It’s a story that expresses, in shocking terms, what God desires – that all life will flourish!   All of life that God has created – all species of insects, all species of plants an...

    Luke 10:1-11, 16-20 Time After Pentecost      Lectionary 14      July 3, 2022 St. Paul Lutheran Church    Hampton, Virginia   We’re reading through the gospel of Luke on Sunday mornings this year.     When we read just a piece of the story each Sunday, it’s hard to appreciate the gospel as a literary work that the editor-author created.   He collected and fashioned the many stories being told about what Jesus said and did, into a single dramatic story, designed to persuade readers that Jesus is the Christ!   (May I suggest a faith practice for you?   Read the entire gospel of Luke, noticing how it moves and builds towards its conclusion!   I guarantee you will appreciate the Sunday morning readings to a greater degree!) Last week we reached a significant turning point in the story, as the author of   the gospel of Luke tells it.   It began the section in Luke that ...

     Galatians 5:1, 13-25     Lectionary 13       Third Sunday after Pentecost       June 26, 2022      St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, Yorktown, Virginia               You don’t hear many “Thou shalt nots” in a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.   That’s because we are so Biblical!     (All churches say they’re “Biblical!”   What that means, for us in the ELCA, is that we interpret all that’s in the Bible according to Jesus.   We give weight to those passages in the Bible that witness to Jesus and Jesus’ model and Jesus’ teachings, and we don’t pay much attention to passages in the Bible that contradict Jesus’ inclusive love, his compassion.   We give great weight to this morning’s reading from Galatians.)             B...