RoboPreacher

but you know a little more than they were sure was in the golden rule The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke ! The big festival was over … One of the days the temple was filled again. Only now the high holy day had passed. Everyone had enjoyed the moving worship, but now it was time to go back home. Back to business as usual. The work-week loomed ahead. The house work needed to be done… I’m not talking about Christmas Eve. I am talking about the Passover festival Mary and Joseph went to.  There are a lot of parallels though, aren’t there?  And they are more than how big festivals seem to draw people here in a way regular worship just doesn’t . There’s other parallels, like Mary and Joseph, and everyone at temple for Passover; love the special services. The hymns we only sing during that night. The story you can tell is holy by the way everyone quiets down as it’s read. The way candles seem to soften all our features and give us a glimpse of h...

and close the path to misery The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke, the 1st Chapter! Today is the last Saturday/Sunday of Advent… In just a few, all-too short days , we will celebrate Christmas. Soon our vigil will be completed. Over. In Advent we wait. We prepare.  What did you wait for?  A new you? More patience? An end to conflict? Peace at home? An era of goodwill among humanity? Concord in the family? Christ’s coming? His return? How has it been? Have the things you waited for come to fruition? Are they at least nearly fulfilled?  Perhaps it was just too hard for you. You couldn’t bring yourself to hope this year. You gave up looking forward. There wasn’t anything to look forward to. Your last hope was dashed long ago. You didn’t wait this advent. Not for anyone. For anything. For you, this season was just another trip through the motions. Christmas always seem to promise more than it delivers, doesn’t it? A person can only ...

wasn't looking when the clouds rolled in A sermon from Philippians : “Rejoice in the Lord always .”  Do not worry about anything. “Let your gentleness be known to everyone.” “…The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds.” …Sounds good, doesn’t it? We’d all love to have what Paul is talking about.  Especially in days like these. These days, when just a little of the peace Paul speaks of, would be more than welcome. Peace is all too scarce these days. It doesn’t come easily. Not with everything we have to get done before Christmas. Not with everything that’s been in the headlines lately.  There’s no question. What Paul talks about, sounds good. The only real question is, “how can we get some of that?” Here we are. Trying our level best. We try to keep up our spirits, but the bad news won’t stop coming. We do everything we can; and still , the peace just won’t come… And of course, you can’t shake t...

...these shackles i've made in an attempt to be free A sermon from Philippians There are days when faith comes as easy as a spring sunrise. Things go the way they ought to. Everything just falls into place… The trouble, though, is those days are fewer and further apart than the other days. The days when faith does not come easy. Whatsoever…  Too often, right when we wake up, what faith we’ve managed to cobble together is already threatening to break apart. We have to gather our faith up. We try to hold it together. We do what we can to get through our days with our faith in one piece. Intact.  As my favorite musician quips, “ We need faith for the same reason it’s so hard to find. ” That’s the trouble. It isn’t easy to keep up the faith, is it? We hear the pastor drone on, how God is a God of love. After a short hour we have to leave . We have to live most of our lives out there, in the real-world.  The headlines of terror and trag...

our spirits by thine own advent here A sermon on 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 Passages like this one can be a little hard to bear… In this excerpt from Paul’s letter to the church he founded in Thessalonica we hear him absolutely gush over these followers. And when you hear that, it’s hard not to reckon with our own shortcoming, the rough edges of our own history as a Christian community… In these five sentences, we hear Paul just rave over these followers. We hear of Paul’s own longing to be reunited with them; we hear how he can’t stop praying for them, thanking God for them.  You hear all this, and it serves to magnify our own failings. You hear Paul write to these followers and it’s hard not to think that if Paul were going to write to us , it wouldn’t be so glowing. More than likely Paul would have more admonitions for us than praise… The occasion for Paul’s effusive letter is his companion, Timothy, has just returned with a report from his visit t...

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew ! A happy Thanksgiving to you all.  We’re awfully close to the tipping point, right before the holiday-season falls completely into the clutches of the advertising world. After tomorrow, from Black Friday until December 24, each day will be just one more excuse to get you to buy more stuff, accumulate more goods. So how about it? On these last minutes before the season of packed parking lots, another meal with the in-laws and overpriced gadgets; let us pause and just give thanks. That’s what it seems our lessons tonight are all about, right?  Stop your worrying, and give thanks. The prophet Joel tells us not to fear, and instead to be glad and rejoice.  Jesus in the Gospel, invites us to the consider the lilies of the field, how they neither sow nor reap, and yet God provides for them…  So, go on then, stop worrying and be thankful.  That’s the temptation tonight; to take this wonderful ev...