RoboPreacher

make it part of you to be a part of me A sermon from First Corinthians It’s that high holy day! …The Annual Meeting!  For weeks children having gone to sleep while visions of the 2016 budget and nominations danced in their heads. Parents have been scrambling to get their Committee Reports wrapped before the big day. And today, the great day, everyone is here; in their Sunday best. We’ll sing those Beloved Hymns, “Good Christian Friends, React.” Then, after the big service, we’ll all go home to our traditional Annual Meeting Feast… No ? That’s not the case? That’s not how the Annual Meeting goes here?  Bummer… Truthfully , though, if a person were thinking about joining a congregation, they’d do well to come on Annual Meeting Sunday; rather than Christmas or Easter. On Christmas and Easter the congregation will pull out all the stops and a treat a visitor like royalty. On the Annual Meeting, though. Look out! At the Annual Meeting a person can per...

it's getting kind of tired A sermon from 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 “I do not want you to be uninformed,” wrote the apostle Paul.  “ You know that when you were pagans you were enticed and led astray …” Bernard Shaw described hell as being doomed to be unable to do anything other than what you want. Being your own personal tyrant, he called it… The Sunday before last, Amanda and I went to church at First Lutheran in Galesburg. It was nice; we got to worship together, the sanctuary was beautiful and everyone was welcoming and kind. Of course their worship wasn’t exactly like our’s. And their bulletin was laid out completely differently. At times in worship, I found myself a little confused… There I was, a church professional for heaven’s sake, totally lost ! On the way home. I couldn’t help but worry that liturgical worship was doomed to always be a maze for visitors, for seekers. That worship is too confusing , too odd … After all, the only reason I am ...

the sky, the trees, houses, building, even my own body The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke the 3rd chapter ! Out there in the wilderness. The crowds who’ve gone to hear John. To be baptized by him. They want to know who he is. They’re not certain, but they’re filled with expectation… And why wouldn’t they be? After all, John is a great preacher. Even better than his preaching, however, is his message . He’s preaching deliverance : Liberation. Salvation. The crowds out there, they’re thinking. Perhaps John is the one . The long awaited messiah . The one to grant deliverance from imperial Rome’s occupation. They wonder who , exactly, is John. Could he be the messiah? Before anyone can ask; John looks around…  “You haven’t seen anything yet,” he bellows. “I baptize you with water, but there’s one who’s coming . He . Well he, will baptize you with Holy Spirit and fire. You may have never seen anything like me,” he blusters. “But the one who’s coming . ...