RoboPreacher

betrays the heart's deceit and lies The holy Gospel according to St. Mark the 14th chapter ! Ain’t that always the way? A woman goes to worship Jesus , and no sooner does she get started, then some guy (and it’s always a guy), reprimands her for doing it wrong . For breaking the rules of good order. …And, if I’ve ever done that to you, because heaven knows I’m capable; I apologize . …But, let me lay my cards on the table here; I’m not interested in womanhood, per se. Because, just as being a male doesn’t make you especially holy or anything like that, neither does being female.   ;-)   * Although , let’s be honest ; it can’t hurt … As St. Paul said, "there is no longer male AND female; for all are ONE in Christ .” (Gal. 3:28) That means for us who are in Christ the real issue is the relationship between women and men, the equality and respect we extend to one another. Regardless of our gender.   So, given the all too long history

make something else yer mission The farewell from Paul's letter to the church in Rome It’s a strange thing to gather here on a perfectly good Saturday evening or Sunday morning, you know…   Because we live in a world obsessed with getting things done . Don’t we? And, if you haven’t already noticed, nothing much ever really happens here . This is not the most exciting place to be.   We’re continuing our way though heroes of the Bible. And you may have noticed our last two heroes, Ruth and Esther, never seemed to spend an awful lot of time in the church. They were too busy , out there, getting things done . And we feel that same pressure, too. Don’t we? We all have to-do lists miles long. And the temptation to use the 90 minutes or so church occupies on any given week, is no joke. Isn’t it?   Today our hero is Phoebe .   While, there are plenty of other women listed in Paul’s conclusion to his letter to First Lutheran in Rome: Like Prisc

all the work of my hands Three basic story shapes: Vertical Axis, Good/Bad (G/B). And horizontal Axis, Start/End (S/E) 1) Rags to riches (Princess and the pea) Climbs G/B Axis 2) Just Desserts (Icarus) Descends G/B Axis 3) Most Common ( action , romcoms , sports , hero ) First descends G/B Axis, then climbs back up The problem with these shapes, though, is assumes we know more than we really do… Because often what looks Good, turns out to be BAD; and what looks Bad, turns out to be GOOD! Doesn’t it? Real life confirms this. Something of a comfort to see this played out throughout the Bible! We’re in the third chapter of Ruth today, but this whole book is great . And , at a nice, tidy four chapters, it’s manageable. So, let’s take a look at its shape : First ; Ruth begins noting this story takes place in the time of the Judges .   In fact, Ruth comes after the book of Judges! (Nice, huh?) And Judges end