RoboPreacher

'tis only the splendor of light hideth thee a sermon on Isaiah's sermon about fruitless vineyards : This passage sounds so, well, primitive ! Doesn’t it? All this talk of GOD letting the people have it strikes our ears as problematic . It sounds needlessly retributive and wrathful .   No, we know better. Don’t we? We know God would never do anything like that. Or, if God ever did, that was the God of the Old Testament, as we like to say. Since then, God has turned over a new leaf. These days, God is as treacherous as a leaf . Now, God is hopelessly merciful .   A couple of things. First of all, that’s a heresy. And it’s an old one, too. The heresy is known as Marcionism, and the name comes from the founder, Marcion.   Marcion was a theologian (of course) who lived in what’s now Turkey during the second century. And like us , he found the violence in the Old Testament distasteful . Like us, Marcion couldn’t reconcile the Old Testament’s depiction of God with the one...

if we meant it, if we tried A sermon on Hosea's prophecy of God's roiling love : You don’t have to be a Bible scholar to understand this passage. Do you? No, this passage is all too clear. In fact, unfortunately , it depicts the kind of troubled waters we all know all too well. Don’t we? In today’s Scripture, God and God’s people are at an impasse . And it’s been a long time coming, too. God has been loving on the people their entire lives. But the more God has cared for them, the more they’ve turned from God. And now, at long last, God has decided enough’s enough .   We all can relate to this. Can’t we? What’s more , we all can relate to both sides of this strained relationship, too. Can’t we? We have all been the jilted party. And we have all also done the jilting , too. …Ok. Try this. Think about three relationships in your life. And for the purposes of this exercise, think of three relationships that are going well . And just to be clear, let’s keep it to human ...

nothing seems so simple anymore A sermon on the so-called  battle between Elijah and the prophets of Baal : I want credit for predicting this; it’s about to get busy . Yes, you heard me right, it’s about to get busy. Before this month is over, remember, it’s November now, but anyway, before this month is over, you’ll be caught in a dead sprint that will last all the way through December and into a good part of January , too. It’s about to get hectic . And I want credit for calling it! In the coming days, when, not if, when you find yourself at sixes and sevens , I want you to remember this moment. And when that happens, I hope the depth of intuition of yours truly strikes you with a newfound profundity… Ok. You don’t have to be a prophet to make that prediction. Do you? No, that’s the way it always goes. Doesn’t it? Come a week before Thanksgiving, our already crowded calendars will be filled past brimming. And is it any wonder so many people are so apprehensive about th...