RoboPreacher

still i will love your shadow Third sermon in our Revelation sermon-series, from Revelation 5 : Today’s scripture from Revelation begins during one of those times.  And you know them. We’ve all had them… Those times after the joy of worship. When you go home, and suddenly the comfort you felt in the sanctuary is gone . Or those times after Bible study. How all the answers that came together during the discussion, start to unravel afterward. And that, that’s what happened to John of Patmos here in the fifth chapter of Revelation.  The joyful worship at the throne of God has simmered. The service is over. As John is catching his breath, taking it all in, he notices something. A scroll . The scroll that God holds. A scroll containing God’s will. As the praise at the foot of God’s throne winds down, John sees that scroll. The scroll that will make sense of why . Why John, after working so hard among the seven churches had his call revoked with ...

i wanna get better Second Sermon in our Revelation Sermon-series: John’s revelation means to wake us up to all that’s going on.  Today, as the Revelator takes us before the Throne of God, we’re shown what’s really going on when the pastor, some anxious parents and a squirming baby come up to this font . Today, as we see God on the Throne, the Throne at the center of all things , baptism is shown for what it really is, what it actually does .  And in case the setting of God’s Throne in the center of creation wasn’t enough of a clue; baptism is so much more than an initiation ritual or fire insurance… In baptism we are brought into the very heart of faith.  What it means to be claimed by the God who raised Jesus from the dead. What it means to be marked by the one who after three days in the grave, was raised to new, eternal life.  We always talk about something being a matter of life and death; but today we see that it’s actuall...

he will chase you because he is the lord First sermon in the series on Revelation Last summer or the one before, I’m not sure anymore; during one of those hot, dog days of summer, I was making a visit at the Burlington Care Center. The member and I chatted for a bit, but it was stuffy in her room, and I could tell she was getting sleepy. So after a few minutes, we had communion.  As I was saying the words of institution, I noticed she was nodding off…  …Truthfully, it was a little discouraging. I couldn’t help but think that it certainly wasn’t what I imagined when I took the vows… But then I noticed two things; an employee, a woman in the hallway vacuuming; and the sound of the birds chirping, coming in through the window.  And then I was suddenly filled with this knowledge that there was more happening that I had known. Then, it was as if the light falling in through the doorway came alive . And everything around me had it’s own energy. The air s...

when you give me the whole damn zoo A Pentecost sermon on the fruit of the Spirit : Remember that week before Lent began when I went to Des Moines to talk with other pastors about leadership? Well, one of my extracurriculars was to join Dr. Jones in his “Life and Thought of Martin Luther” class.  That’s where it all began for me … Well, they were working through “Freedom of a Christian.”  Dr. Jones asked about the famous claim; ‘although a Christian may be perfectly free and subject to none , a Christian is also a perfectly dutiful servant, subject to all .’ He asked the students how could that be. One earnest, young man offered the theory that, when you do something good for someone else you feel good about it.  Conventional wisdom at its finest, but not what Luther was after.  As I’ve thought about that, I’ve come to realize the profound challenge Luther and his ilk put to us.  Paul once put it like this, “I could not speak ...