RoboPreacher

for auld lang syne "Another New Year, and the one who makes all things new " Happy New Year’s! And for us, it is a happy occasion. It exemplifies all we hold most dear; Cherishing our past and hopefully looking ahead to what’s next . New Year’s; the celebration of last year and the promise of all the next one. It’s a holiday that embodies are highest aspirations… And sure, there may be room for improvement , but that’s what New Year’s resolutions are for. A new year, a new you. Time to turn over a new leaf… Although by now I’ve turned over enough new leaves to fill a forrest … And if we had to admit it, that’d be the rub of New Year’s. Wouldn’t it? Our past is just a little more sordid than the glitter that falls as the ball drops. Our future is not as full of the promise as innocent “baby new year.” …In 1985, after years of declining sales, Coke-Cola decided to catch up and catch on. Pepsi, loaded with sugar and artificial sweeteners,

but she could not keep from trembling  A sermon on the Mary & her hymn : In the Church we have an odd way of doing things. Of speaking. And of keeping time, too… For instance, it is now the fourth week, in-a-row we’ve begun worship with the hymn, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel .” …Are you sick of it yet? …Has Emmanuel come ? …Has anything changed, for that matter??? …Social scientists call it “ cognitive dissonance .”  “Cognitive dissonance,” that terrible gap between what we say and reality . The gap between what we say and reality…  Nowhere is that gap more dramatically on display today than in our Gospel, the so-called, “Magnificat.” The hymn Mary sings as she visits her auntie, Elizabeth. Mary’s song, celebrating God’s mighty act of deliverance . Mary’s song celebrating God’s mighty act as if it has already happened!  While all the while, Mary is still pregnant and unwed. Still a refugee. Still a peasant , in an occupied country. She’s not

well mister they vanish right into the air Final sermon from the Old Testament :  Before we hear our reading, I would like to set it up: It begins, of course, with old Sarah and Abraham. The two of them, trying to make a go of it in the wilderness. Without a child. When out of nowhere, God sends a messenger to those two with a promise. A promises that sounds too good to be true. God will send them offspring.  But not just a child. God promises to multiply their descendants. Even providing their descendants land to inhabit. God, the messenger says, is going to make these two ancestors of a great people! Old and childless though they may have been, God stayed faithful. In time sending them a child. And then, two grandchildren! And then, a gaggle of great-grandchildren! …Right when it began to look as if the promise made to Sarah and Abraham was about to be fulfilled, the grandchildren were at each other’s throats. Jacob’s brother sell him in to slavery, t

imma stand & deliver it Advent 2 sermon from Joel: What a hodgepodge passage of scripture! The timeline isn’t clear. Prophecies of judgement are crammed next to prophecies of hope… And I’d be tempted to complain about it; but I know you all have bigger grievances during these busy, busy days. It’s a chaotic time of the year, isn’t it? So, I’ve got to ask, it is my pastor-y duty. It is now , after all, the second week of Advent. The Long, Dark Night  gets ever closer .  How about it? Are you any more ready, any more prepared than you were a week ago? Are you ready for Jesus’ arrival??? …Okay. Perhaps we should set our sights a little lower . Are you prepared for all the stress that’s part and parcel to this time of year? Are you ready for yet another meal with the in-laws? Is the house prepared? What about the gifts, have they all been purchased and wrapped? Or how about the sorrows of this season? Are you ready for your first, or fiftieth, Chri