RoboPreacher

leave it hanging on a line The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke the 2nd chapter! Wednesday Evening was only a few days ago; yet the glory of Christmas already seems long past.  In fact, all we need to do, if we want to be reminded that Christmas has come and is long gone, is to look around us. Those 150 plus who came in through the doors on Christmas Eve, have not returned; they are not here today… Honestly, this semi-annual binge and then inevitable purge of attendance, prompts something of a crisis for us… For those of you who can remember when 150 attendance was relatively normal, I suspect Christmas Eve may evoke memories of yesteryear. The problem with all that though, is that once those memories have faded with the candlelight, all you’re left with is questions ; why has everyone seemed to move on; did I miss the memo? I want to note something before we move on; I never grew up in a church like that . More importantly, though, our younger member...

nor earth sustain The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke ! Come, come you who have been waiting, come and hear this message.  Come, come you who have only just arrived, come and hear this message. And come, come you who can wait no longer, come and hear this message. Come. Come and hear this message, all of you! Hear this; to you is born a savior! On this night when the light is only just beginning to prevail upon the darkness, we listen for this message. And although it may only be a little, still; still the days have begun to lengthen, and so we listen for this message. We listen because it must be true, the light has come - darkness is turned to light on this holy eve because of what God has done!  We listen, we listen to this Message all creation strains to hear.  Listen closely, though, because the truth is; this Message is so good , this history is so unexpected one can hardly even bring themselves to believe it. Listen to the...

and close the path to misery The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke the 1st Chapter! She was beginning to think it wasn’t a blessing at all that her drive was passing this quickly… She had hit the road by 6; and by 10 she was making too good of time.  She was only getting ready to be ready; but the open roads weren't putting anything between her and what awaited her.  So at a gas station, she actually pulled out her map a found a route that would take longer… So now she was driving East, on Highway 13; driving through little towns and the plains of North Dakota.  She had thought Minnesota was flat, but here she could see forever in any direction. The snow covered everything, so she tried to make out the cloudy, gray horizon from the snow covered fields; like she had with the sound, that day in Seattle. And just like that day in Seattle, she couldn’t do it here either. Not even this distraction, though, could keep her from getti...

will you let it pull you in again The Holy Gospel according to St. John the first chapter! She spent a few more days with Tammy. She didn’t do much. On Sunday she had gone to church. Other than that, though, she mostly petered around Tammy’s place. And it didn’t take very long for that to get old. By Saturday she was restless, and by the end of church on Sunday, she was positively ready to go… The problem, though, was that she still wasn’t ready to go home .  Only that wasn’t exactly right; she was beginning to come to grips with the idea of going home. She had begun to imagine that life she would have there in Minnesota. Beginning to come to grips with a thing and having a firm hold upon it, however, are very different. So there she was, caught in a sort of limbo… On Sunday, though, she had determined to leave; and Monday, over breakfast, she told Tammy she would be leaving the next morning. Monday, while Tammy was at the church, she began pr...

oh hear my voice when i cry to you The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark! No sooner did she exit onto I-84 East than she began having second thoughts. Not that, that was uncommon for her. Her whole life she had been plagued with second-thoughts, doubts and worries.  Fleeing to Seattle had been an attempt to escape all that; but Seattle hadn’t worked out, it hadn’t worked out at all. So now she was returning home. Home, with all that needed worrying about there. Home, with all its responsibilities. Home, with all its expectations of her. Home, with everything she had tried to flee from… So now, of course, she wasn’t so sure. Maybe things would work in California after all. Maybe she shouldn’t have started traveling home… She exhaled heavily and squeezed the steering wheel. Ugh . This was the worst. She spent her whole life guessing, and then second-guessing, every decision she ever made.  That’s probably why she was the responsible daughter. ...

don't let me explode The Holy Gospel According to St. Mark : The radio-evangelist couldn’t keep her awake anymore. For a while listening to him spout on and on about fire and brimstone, about being ready, about heaven and earth passing away and all that, had entertained her.  Now his voice was just a drone, and it was more likely to put her to sleep than to keep her awake.  So she changed the radio-station again. Nothing was on, though, except jazz and classical music. That wouldn’t do. She rolled down the window. The wind blew in, and the cold air shocked her awake. For at least a little longer. “Stay awake,” she said to herself — for probably the millionth time. She blinked, but then had to fight to pull her eyelids up after letting them shut. ‘This is crazy,’ she thought. It didn’t take long for her to find an exit with signs for gas-stations and hotels. She took the exit, pulled into a hotel parking lot and checked her purse. She didn’t have much m...