RoboPreacher

because i am living just to breathe   Today the readings, from Abraham haggling with God , to the disciples' question toJesus and Jesus' reply and encouragement, are all about prayer. So today, obviously, the sermon will be all about prayer. The nine simples steps to an effective prayer life with God. Or we could go through Martin Luther's small catechism. Should we have a quiz? Or the ACT - 'Ask, Confess, Thank' model of prayer. The truth is, though, none of that stuff works; it doesn't. I mean, heaven forbid that we have a quiz about Luther's Small Catechism, because outside a few folks; most of us wouldn't remember a thing. So since none of that stuff works, I'm not going to preach about it... This summer I have had the privilege to attend a few conferences. First, for continuing Education I went to a conference about the church that is emerging, what the church will look, act & be like in the future. The

decide your fate       The Holy Gospel According to St. Luke the10th Chapter! This is one of those stories that it serves us well to just really slow down, and listen to as if we've never heard it before.   The truth is, this is probably one of the Bible stories that has made its way into popular culture. All too often we hear things like; 'are you a Mary or a Martha;' or 'without Martha, Mary would not have been able to sit there at Jesus' feet.' You know, things like that.   The problem with reading the Gospel through such formulas, though, is that aside from being boringly formulaic, it falsely pits Mary against Martha, it mistakenly pits time of rest against action. In other words, this simplistic reading misses the real power of this story in some sorry attempt to boil this rich instant down to some lesson on how best to and not to behave.   Whenever the Gospel becomes a list of dos and don'ts, we should get s

like the faintest scent in june   The Holy Gospel according to St. Lukethe 10th Chapter! Let's have a story... I remember the first time I saw him, there on that grassy plane, teaching all of us. I remember him there, talking about who is blessed in God's kingdom. I remember how when it came time to eat, Jesus said a blessing and fed each and every one of us gathered there, over 5,000 of us! He really cared for all of us. Some even said he fed us all with only seven loaves and fishes... Now that's hard to believe.   I remember that day perfectly... And ever since that day, I wanted to be one of his followers... He had this cohort, twelve of them, his disciples. I figure these were his all-stars, I really looked up to them. I wanted to be one of them... So whenever I had the chance, I'd try to get close to this Jesus, to his disciples. When he taught, I'd try to push my way forward, to get noticed, to get invited to j

i don't need 'em now   The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 9th chapter! I have a confession... I've put my hand to the plow; and after my hands gripped the machinery, I looked back. It's true. In Jesus' estimation, I am not fit for God's empire... We'll see... We will see because just as I don't believe God is done working; done working in the world, done working in Trinity, done working in you; I believe Jesus isn't done working in me, either. So for now, I'll just confess it; I've put my hand to the plow and looked back... Let me tell you about it: I was called here, called to Trinity. Trinity, this great congregations, this congregation with a great history. The first area Lutheran congregation to have services in English, have communion every week, to call a woman pastor, to welcome any and all - regardless of race or sexual orientation, a congregation where people who voted for republi