RoboPreacher

then you must unturn your back The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark ! Let's have a story, shall we? This life isn’t easy, you know? I do what I can, though; I follow the rules. I do my best to get along. That’s why I didn’t put much stock in that fellow from Nazareth, Jesus.  I had heard the rumors, who people were saying he was; that prophet Elijah, or John the Baptist raised from the dead. Some were even saying he was the next great king like David, the messiah . I didn't put much stock in all that, though. What I heard about that Jesus was too much .  He was too reckless, too heedless. In fact, the one time I did see him, see him for myself; he was coming across the sea. He had been in foreign territory! What business did he have being over there, with those pagans ? Those were the only kind of stories you could hear about him, though. He was always eating with the wrong people. Showing up at the wrong places.  As far as ...

to tell you the truth, i ain't been sleeping too well The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark ! The plan was to talk about faith for Martin Luther; but on a week like this it’s better to attend to the distinguishing mark of Luther’s career, his Theology of the Cross; because it’s all cross this sabbath. And for us today, for those who claim the tradition of Luther, it hits close to home. Two of the people murdered, studied at one of the ELCA seminaries; and the murderer, Dylann Roof, was a member of an ELCA congregation… We cannot sit back and pretend this doesn’t affect us. On a week like this, it isn’t hard to imagine how the disciples must have felt, is it? Nine people killed during a Bible study in their church this week, because, as the terrorist said, “I have to do it. You’re raping our women and taking over our country. You have to go.” In other words, he hated these people because on their race… Apparently he wanted survivors left too, so so...

but i can't recall how i was those days anymore The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark ! Jesus comes back home, but after everything he’s been up to, the hometown crowd isn’t so sure about him. In fact, there are even some who are accusing him of being out of his mind; or more literally, outside of himself … That’s the way the life of faith always looks from the outside, though. Just ask Paul; as he says, the life of faith is a life spent looking toward what cannot be seen; to the world that kind of life looks crazy. Or, for that matter, just ask Martin Luther. Luther lived with the acute awareness that he could not get himself to do the will of God; that deep down his and God’s will were at odds … Faithful fellow that he was, though, he did everything the church had to offer in the way of doing God’s will. The problem, as Luther came to find, was that nothing from the blasted religious-project actually worked , nothing could reconcile his will to God...

but as the three, in love & hope, made room within the dance A sermon for Holy Trinity Sunday Isaiah, plucked up from obscurity and placed in the Holy of Holies, and there, found himself face to face with the glory of the Lord. Poor Isaiah, there in the presence of God, unable to do anything but mourn; after all, he was a man of unclean lips, living amongst an unclean people… Then there was Paul. Paul, that bounty-hunter of the fledging Jesus-movement. Humiliated Paul, knocked from his high-horse by a wall of light, who, when he tried to get up, found that he couldn’t see a thing anymore… And Nicodemus. Nicodemus, that Pharisee of some prominence, who was fascinated by this one some people called “messiah.” Bewildered Nicodemus, who went to the rabbi by night to question him, and left, even more in the dark, by what he heard that wandering Galilean preach… They all, and perhaps you too, encountered “ God .” Capital “g,” God. God, scriptures aptly describe...