RoboPreacher

lead me to water Lord I sure am thirsty The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew the 5th chapter! All we have left is the final coda, otherwise we’ve made it!  For seven weeks we’ve been following along, as Jesus was baptized , began his mission, called his disciples, ascended that mountain and gave his first sermon laying out what it will mean to be his disciples.  As we’ve followed Jesus, as we’ve wrestled with his words, we’ve also pondered what it in the world it could mean that this man is also God in bones and flesh, that Jesus is God’s incarnation as a human… To help us really wrestle with the radical Christian claim we’ve also challenged ourselves to say daily, “I am a child of God.” Saying this simple six-word sentence has helped us experience the shock that occurs when divinity collides with humanity. And now here we are. Today we hear the culmination of what this Jesus, this God dwelling in and alongside humanity, has b...

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew the 5th chapter! We’re almost there, today we just begin to glimpse the finish-line as we move toward the end of our incarnation sermon series! There’s only two more weeks left. Can you believe it?!? As you may have been able to surmise from today’s Gospel, though, this last stretch is something of the final grind of our journey.  Today is not so much the final anthems of completion, as they are the moment when we begin to question whether we have the fortitude to complete this journey… Today is a bit of a “make or break” moment. Are we going to finish this series, or are we going to throw in the towel??? Now as we wish we could just coast along, Jesus continues to up the ante, he keeps increasing the pressure. As we contemplate continuing or not, it is worth recalling that Jesus’ call has always been for our own good. The plain truth is, any exertion of ours will be worth the effort to complete this journe...

we don't need permission The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew the 5th Chapter! Today’s Gospel continues our trek through the Sermon on the Mount. In fact today’s reading comes right after what we heard last week, the beatitudes, Jesus unlikely decoration of the unexpectedly-blessed.  That’s not all though, today’s Gospel really puts the screws to our “Incarnation Sermon Series,” it really pushes up against why all this matters. In fact, today is a bit of a pay-off in the middle of our journey through contemplating the incarnation. Today is a moment when all the pieces fit, oh so nicely, together. As much as I hate to say it, though, I must admit that all the pay-off of today only delivers itself precariously; the pay-off doesn’t come easily… You know, our homework for this sermon series, saying “I am a Child of God” daily wasn’t chosen arbitrarily.  I haven’t been asking us all to say this because it’s just some nice sentiment, it’s m...

you’d be frightened by the hokum and be frightened by the night "Without a vision the people perish" ~Proverbs 29:18 (KJV) As I sit to write this month's Teller letter, I'm at a bit of a loss...  After all, we just got through Christmas and Annual Meeting, now the real action won't start until Lent (beginning on March 5, with Ash Wednesday). February, it seems, will be something of a quiet month.  With this break in the calendar, I found myself wondering what I should write about. Apparently, if there isn't something occupying all our time, there isn't anything to write about... Stuck with this dilemma over what to write, I realized what I need to write about this month is the assumption behind my conundrum; that we always need to be doing something. I worry we're addicted to being busy, that we always need to be doing something (even if what we're doing isn't really all that productive). There are probably many reasons why w...