St. Johns Lutheran Church
Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
Know Christ. Love Christ. Serve Christ.
GOSPEL MESSAGE
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June 1, 2025
SEVENTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
To Know God
After her very first day of Sunday school, a little girl went up to her father, looked him directly in the eyes, and said, “I love you, Daddy, because God loved me first.” She then declared boldly, “First Jesus, four nineteen!” It took only a few seconds for her father to realize that her Sunday school lesson for the day was based on 1 John 4:19, which says, “We love because he first loved us.” Amazing, that already on her first day of Sunday school this child of God had learned that love comes first from Jesus and then is to be shared.
Once we understand the principle that we love because God loves us first, it is not difficult to reach other related conclusions. We forgive because God has already forgiven us. We bless because God has already blessed us. We walk with others because God walks with us. These are bold statements of union with God.
Jesus, in today’s gospel reading, is not afraid to say that he and God are one. And more than this, God’s intent is that each of us is to be one with God as well. To know God is to know love. To know God is to know forgiveness. To know God is to know blessing.
What happens when we approach the altar on Sunday and receive the sacrament? When we receive the bread and wine, we take in Jesus. In taking in Jesus, we become everything that Jesus is. This is truly, albeit mysteriously, an embodied reality of union with God. What a gift!
It has always been God’s desire to be reconciled with us—for us to be in a relationship of peace and wholeness through Jesus and to live the life of the Spirit by clearly sharing with others everything we have come to know about the One who created us. In sharing love with others, we then live a life that says “thank you” to God
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June 8, 2025
DAY OF PENTECOST
Let’s Dance!
What on earth actually happened on this day of Pentecost? What was the miracle that revealed the presence of God? What was the Holy Spirit up to?
In the Acts of the Apostles we hear that the disciples spoke in various languages (2:4). Are we hearing about a miracle of the tongue, an ability to speak so that others might understand? The scripture also says each person in the crowd heard the disciples “speaking in the native language of each” (v. 6). Did we just hear that it was in fact a miracle of the ear? Is this story about people being able to comprehend the power of God’s presence?
In a broken world, in a world of “me, me, me first,” our impulse is often to choose one interpretation or the other—and to make sure we end up on the “correct,” winning side of the discussion. But when we return to the death of Jesus on the cross, observed some fifty days ago, we see that he offers us a third and holy option. Rather than taking sides in our walk with Jesus, we align with his heart, capable of embracing all.
To consider that the Pentecost story is a miracle of both the tongue and the ear is to accept a beautiful invitation—an invitation, at the birth of the church, to enter into a sacred dance of both speaking and listening. To consider it a dance would be to acknowledge a natural flow of the Spirit drawing us to not one or the other but to both in loving turn.
In John’s gospel reading for the day, Jesus says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (14:15). The commandment Jesus speaks of is “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (13:34).
Speak, listen, and love: this is how we dance together.
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June 15, 2025
THE HOLY TRINITY
Beyond the Known Limit
Telescopes provide a whole new way to see the cosmos, and over the centuries since their invention, we have expanded our understanding of the known universe. For example, we keep increasing our estimate of just how many galaxies are out there. In another hundred years, that number will no doubt be even greater. Will we ever find a fixed boundary?
We might view love as we do the universe. We might experience a limit to love today, but as we embrace the truth that God is love, we continually discover another truth: there is no limit to love. Jesus says all is contained in the two great commandments—love God, and love neighbor as self.
On Pentecost, the church was given the profound gift of love by the Holy Spirit, flowing and very much alive. The church is encouraged to dive deep into that love, to experiment with and experience the reality of love, as shown to us by the God who created us.
One practical way to know God’s love is to acknowledge there is so much more to learn about it. We allow for the possibility of infinity in how God expresses love, whether for the person we see in the mirror or for the person who angers us the most.
The Trinity is often shown in ancient art as the Holy Triune gathered around a table in deep and honest conversation. This conversation began way before the beginning, continues in the present, and lives forevermore. The ancient art often offers the viewer a space in the holy circle for one more person. That “one more” is each one of us.
When Jesus says, “I have many things to say to you” (John 16:12), we give thanks that at the holy table, the triune God invites us to sit together and then gifts us with all the time in the universe for each one of us to listen to the loving words God has to say.
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June 22, 2025
LECTIONARY 12
Real Healing
Today we resume our journey through the Gospel of Luke. Luke has a clear agenda: to share the gospel to the ends of the earth—to whomever, however, and whenever the opportunity presents itself! Luke boldly declares that the gospel is the gift of healing offered for all creation.
It is with this evangelical and healing bias that we approach this scripture passage. The nakedness, the tombs, and the swine speak to a reality of a lack of ritual purity. The world is not perfect. Demons in turn remind us of the various pressures and temptations that surround and distract us from God’s presence and holiness. The swineherds are confused. On one hand, a man is healed; on the other, they lose their livelihood when the swine throw themselves over a cliff. And all of this happens in Gentile land: Jesus shares the good news in non-Jewish lands and to non-Jewish people. Jesus is willing to enter the reality of life. Jesus is willing to enter the reality of our lives.
What better message for Luke to share than that Jesus meets this broken human being right where he is. No need to clean up beforehand. No need to be someone he is not. No need to play any games or wear different hats. He simply gets to be himself. Jesus meets him and shows him that he is seen, not only in his truth of the moment, but also in the fullness of his humanity.
Demons, be gone. Confusion, be gone. Peace enters. Love enters. God enters and envelops each of us in true healing. To know we are enough with God is the heart of healing. Then comes an invitation to share news of the healing Jesus does each day.
What has Jesus done for you today?
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June 29, 2025
LECTIONARY 13
Moving in Love
Participating in divisive discourse has become pervasive in this culture, particularly on social media platforms. Conversations regarding religion and politics can swiftly escalate into full-blown battles, and it can be challenging to remain cordial and reflective when confronted with false dichotomies and personal attacks around social issues.
In today’s gospel reading, the siblings James and John quickly want to retaliate with violence and aggression against the village that rejects Jesus. However, he rebukes them for their fury. The brothers appear to have disregarded the fact that when Jesus commissioned them earlier with the other disciples to spread the good news, he instructed them that if they encountered rejection, they should merely “shake the dust off [their] feet as a testimony against [the rejectors]” and move on (Luke 9:5). Dusting off their feet was not only for the sake of nonengagement but also for their safety. What good would the news be if every rejection led to violence and war?
It’s not easy to dust off our feet and move on when we are engaged in passionate debates. But how do we translate this action into a life-giving practice of discipleship? We practice this spirit of reconciliation during worship when extending peace to our neighbor. We engage in loving discourse when we pray and share a meal around Jesus’ table.
Our engagement as disciples is steeped in the reminder that Jesus came to bring abundant life and love into the world. Finding ways to stay connected to one another while balancing the moments that call for dusting off one’s feet and moving on is not simple or easy. Gatherings and connections within and outside of worship allow us to practice God’s abundant grace and mercy, whether by stepping away or by moving in close for the sake of care and love for neighbor and self.
The Readings in the Bible
In the final discourse in the gospel of John, Jesus speaks a chapter-long prayer for his followers. In the concluding section, Jesus prays for unity among his followers: indeed, already at the close of the first century the Johannine community was dealing with divisions that existed among Christians. The excerpt includes all the major Johannine categories: Father, name, word, belief, glory, love, world. “World” is kosmos, both the place and the time in which God’s will is enacted. The unity sought for believers is modeled on Johannine Christology: the Son is one with the Father.
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Continuing Luke’s narratives of the inclusion of Gentiles into the faith is another “we” passage. The apostles are Paul and his chosen companion Silas, a leader in the Jerusalem church (15:40). The site of this evangelization is Philippi, a prominent Roman city. Part of Roman pagan practice was the ministration of sibyls, women who, sometimes with the aid of drug-induced trances, delivered messages from the gods. The “Most High God” is a divine title associated in the New Testament with demon possession. Roman law tolerated Judaism, but not Christianity until the fourth century. However, Romans could not convert to Judaism without legal penalty: thus the basis of the slave-owners’ complaint. The story assumes that God has sent the earthquake that sunders the prisoners’ chains. The obedience to Roman law—a theme that undergirds much of Luke’s writings—that keeps Paul and Silas from escaping helps to convert the jailer.
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Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
In these verses selected from the epilogue of the book of Revelation, the angel of verse 1:1 reappears. This passage is a reprise of several of the book’s themes—God reigns throughout time, the eschaton is coming soon—and poetic images: the tree of life, the water of life, the city gates, the marriage of Christ to the church. Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. Jesus, who will come in the apocalypse to end the injustice under which the Christians are being persecuted, is both descendent from King David and is the root of the royal tree of life. The morning star, Venus, signals the approach of day. “Saint” here has its New Testament meaning: those who have been set apart by baptism into Christ and who thus live a godly life. Because of the horror of present and promised persecutions, the seer begs God for the eschaton to arrive soon.
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June 8th:
In this excerpt from the farewell discourses (chap. 14–17), the fourth evangelist proclaims early trinitarian theology: God Father, experienced in the life of Jesus, is now operative through the Spirit of truth. Referring to God as Father was rare among Jews but commonplace in Roman paganism, in which Jupiter was “Father of fathers.” “In my name” means under the authority of. “Advocate” is the NRSV translation of parakletos, a Greek term for one’s advocate in court, a legal mediator. Advocate is a divine title found in the New Testament only in the Johannine literature. The passage conveys to the late first-century community that although Jesus is no longer present with them, God’s power through the Spirit is.
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Once again Luke presents a narrative to convey theological meaning. The fire and wind, associated with God’s presence on Mount Sinai, are now experienced in the assembly of believers, and miraculous events, seen in the ministry of Jesus, occur now in the church. Acts is moving the church into all the ends of the earth, and Acts 2 begins this multilingual proclamation. Luke cites the apocalyptic vision of the prophet Joel to authenticate the power of God among the leaders of the church. By “tongues” Luke refers to actual languages that were spoken in the Greco-Roman world.
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One of the seminal letters written by Paul, addressed to the church in Rome in about 57, Romans contains one of the earliest theological expositions of the Christian faith and lays out the relationship between Jews and those who are baptized into Christ. In the Old Testament, “spirit of God” is one way to speak of God’s continuing activity. Paul’s version of trinitarian theology is decades earlier than John’s. For Paul, the Spirit is described as separate from Christ, the on-going power of the risen Christ made known in the community of believers. Most scholars concur that “Abba” was a child’s address, literally not “father” but “papa, daddy.”
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June 15th:
John’s gospel, written in the late first century, alternates narratives that are usually referred to as “signs” (see 2:11) with “discourses,” long speeches that declare the christological intent of the sign. Today’s gospel comes from the longest discourse, chapters 14–17, which precedes the greatest sign, Christ’s death and resurrection. Jesus promises that the Father will disclose the truth, which comes in the Spirit of the Son. In this early Johannine proclamation of the Trinity, the Father and the Spirit both attest to the truth of Christ. The evangelist is assuring the Christian communities that they have received the truth, despite the controversies that were dividing the unity of early believers.
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Coming to its present form in about the fourth century bce, the book of Proverbs belongs to the Old Testament wisdom tradition. The collection of sayings, compiled over several centuries, makes no reference to Israelite history or to the theology of election. Originally used in boys’ schools, Proverbs includes passages in which wisdom is described as a good woman who offers knowledge, and evil is pictured as a foolish woman who tempts people away from the correct path. In this poem, Wisdom is God’s first creation who then assists in the creation of the world. It may be that this poetic imagery developed in reaction to the myths of Israel’s neighbors in which a goddess assists a god in creation. For Israelites, the Lord is the only god.
This selection from Paul’s letter of 57 ce to the Christians in Rome begins his explication of the meaning of Christ’s suffering and death. Paul declares that suffering, which he and others in Rome have experienced, is like the cross in that it leads to God’s love given us through the Spirit. Stereotypical advice about enduring suffering opens up to Trinitarian theology.
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June 22nd:
Luke’s gospel, written in the 80s, situated Jesus’ ministry first in Jerusalem and mainly in Galilee, from which the word then goes out (Book of Acts) to all the Roman Empire and beyond. This miracle story, edited from the earlier version in Mark 5:1-20, takes place near Galilee, across the Jordan, which was Gentile territory: thus the pig herding. The gospels identify demons with a wide range of physical or mental illness: this man acts mentally deranged and uncontrollable. As in Mark 1:21-28, this man’s demons recognize Jesus for who he is. Luke makes of the healed man an evangelist. Legion, a vast number, was also the name of a military unit of 6000 Roman soldiers. The abyss refers to the realm of the dead or of Satan. For Jewish readers of the gospels, the destruction of the unclean pigs would be welcome. The engaging narrative challenges Luke’s Gentile audience: will they beg Jesus to leave, or will they proclaim him the Son of the Most High God?
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Third Isaiah, compiled in perhaps the fifth century bce, speaks to Jews after their return from the exile, calling them to renewed faithfulness. In this poem, God—”here I am”—describes the wayward Jews who have been corrupted by life in a foreign land. Their heterodox religious practices are likened to those of the Canaanite nature cults. Visiting tombs and eating pig rendered a Jew unclean. Yet God continues to call the people and promise them their homeland.
In concluding his argument in chapter 3 validating Abraham’s faith, rather than his works, Paul contrasts the role of law, that is the Torah, with believers’ life in Christ. Verse 28 presents a contrast to the traditional Jewish male’s morning prayer, in which a man thanks God that he is a Jewish free male. Paul’s claims about Christ erasing the distinctions of ethnicity, economic status, and gender, would be heard as surprising, even outrageous, by most first-century Jews.
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June 29th:
With this passage Luke begins to narrate Jesus’ last journey to Jerusalem, where he will be “taken up,” that is, arrested, crucified, risen, and ascended. This travel narrative is unique to Luke and important to the gospel’s structure and meaning. Luke opens this second-third of his gospel with the rejections of some Samaritans. By Jesus’ time, Samaritans were primarily Gentile peoples descended from those who had not been deported, who had replaced the exiled Jews, and thus who had become alienated from full-blooded Jews. Luke’s Semitic phrase “set his face” connotes turning towards hostility. In Luke, Jesus refuses to punish the unbelievers with fire. Luke’s openness to people in poverty is enhanced by the depiction of Jesus as himself homeless. Indeed, the gospels say nothing about Jesus working for a living. A wide range of interpretations have been offered for Jesus’ stark comment “let the dead bury their dead”: Luke means spiritual death; “bury my father” meant to live at home until one’s father died; not even one’s parent’s funeral should interfere with the call to proclaim the kingdom.
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In the sixth-century religious history that we title 1 Kings, the Deuteronomic editor uses the Elijah cycle to illustrate the strict devotion of those who are faithful to the covenant. This passage begins the transfer of prophetic power from Elijah to Elisha. The hair-shirt mantle was part of the prophets’ official dress. Twelve oxen may suggest the twelve tribes of Israel or may indicate Elisha’s wealth. Their slaughter symbolizes the end of Elisha’s old life of farming.
Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia, written in the early 50s, is his manifesto concerning Christian freedom and its relationship to the Jewish Torah. After an extended allegory of Hagar and Sarah, Paul distinguishes Christian freedom from personal liberty. By “flesh,” sarx, Paul means the human as an earthly creature focused on the survival of the self. By “spirit” Paul means the power of God made available to the believer through the risen Christ. Paul’s catalog of vices (vv. 19-21), several of which upset or destroy the unity of the community, was probably derived from early Christian teaching. The catalog of virtues (vv.22-23) includes both deeds and attitudes.