RoboPreacher

pretend the dove from above is a dragon & your feet are on fire A reading from the Book of Acts . Struggling over money and divisive arguments, worrying whether the children will have any faith or if the faith will have any children for that matter, handwringing over the fact that there are fewer and fewer gathered, and at whits end about the neighbors who are just so different anymore; they had dug themselves into a grave there was no getting out of… …Oh! Wait. Did you think I was describing Trinity? No, I’m telling an older story. The story Ezekiel prophecies, the story of the Spirit’s intercession, the story of disciples as they huddled together in that room, waiting for the other shoe to drop, so deep was the grave they had dug for themselves. That’s only half the story, though, because instead of driving the final nail in their coffin, God sent a violent wind, seemingly from out of nowhere, to tear everything apart, and do something unexpected .  ...

my only love, give out to give in The Gospel according to St. John ! Here we have the disciples freaking out because that dirty-dog, Judas, betrayed Jesus. Only, it isn’t Judas’ betrayal that has the disciple’s all in a twitter. No, the disciples are riled up because after Judas defected, there were only eleven disciples. Apparently they feel they need to have twelve to fill all the chairs for their council meetings, or something like that. So they are all out of sorts about the fact that there are eleven of them instead of twelve…  In fact, you get the sense that if someone had asked them why they felt they needed to have twelve; the disciples would just stare back blankly and reply, “this one goes to twelve…” So to solve their “conundrum,” the disciples get the best candidate to fill that vacant spot. Only it turns out there are two potential nominees, Justus and Matthias. Rather than being elated by the fact that there are more than enough capable peop...

alright all my chips will be thrown in The Holy Gospel according to St. John Well, it’s not the return any of us would hope for… The search for a permanent musician continues, we’re back to square one in our search for an office administrator, and that isn’t to say anything about our financial situation that has become too serious to just sit back and hope for a good month for one more month… No, it isn’t the return any of us would hope for; but it is the one we have . So there you have it.  We’re in a tight spot. We’re going to have to make some tough choices in the days ahead. In fact, as many of you know, soon there will be discussions with our sisters and brothers at Faith and Bethany. In the days ahead we will have hard choices to make; choices where there is no clear cut, right answer; choices everyone will not agree with; choices that will have consequences, either way. Will we decide it’s time to close shop, find a partner, fold our commun...