RoboPreacher

how'd you do it A sermon on the rivalry between Jacob and Esau, and Jacob's dream of the ladder: Genesis 27 & 28 After a day he'd just a well forget; Jacob considers all the consequences. For everything, all he has left is a rock for his pillow. He’s so tired of it all, it doesn’t take long for him to fall dead asleep. Ever had a day like that? …I know I have… You know the saying, “there are two kinds of people; those who have it made , and the rest of us who have to make it .” Well, Jacob spent his entire life planted firmly in the latter camp.   Jacob just missed being first out of the gate, being the first born with all the rights and privileges that come with it, by seconds. And from that moment on, Esau, not Jacob, was the one who lived the charmed life.   Esau was the brother everyone couldn't help but notice . He was a natural. A hard worker. The kind of guy who played, and started , in three sports. The kind of guy who was on t...

i bring them to the light for you  (it's only right) A sermon on the "binding of Isaac," Genesis 22:1-14 : It isn’t until Abraham and the child promised to him in his old age, Isaac, begin making their way up the mountain, that the tension in today’s scripture really starts… But, wouldn’t you agree that we never make it to the altar of the Lord until after a considerable journey?   Maybe it’s the journey up mountain of everything you have to do at work. Or, the mountain of navigating family life. The mountain of newspaper headlines. The mountain of yet another unexpected call and everything that comes with it.   The mountain of laying a loved one to rest, and the life we must now forge… It's true whether we admit it or not; we only come to this altar after a journey… That was certainly the case for Abraham that day.   That day he found himself on a wild and windy mountain. That day the trail led to a terrible fork in the road. Where...

any other, any other way Sermon on the Creation Story in Genesis 1 This is so nerdy, but it’s a true story… During my senior year of college I did an independent study on justification and the way other theologians deal with this surprising thing God has done in Jesus Christ. I was trying to get my mind around Reinhold Niebuhr. But to keep justification front and center, I was also reading Gerhard Forde’s book, “Justification by Faith; a Matter of Death and Life.”   The semester was getting on, and I was in the library late, reading Forde’s section dealing with the battle of the wills between human freedom and God’s election.   And he made the point; if we’re so darn free, how come no matter what our knee jerk reaction is that we’re the free ones.   And he went on, adding; for our so called freedom, we always windup doing what we can to maintain our own control rather than the real freedom God has given us in Jesus Christ.   And reading t...