RoboPreacher

& the loser is the last to ask for help The holy scripture from the book of Acts ! Well, it doesn’t take too much to connect to this Bible story, either . Does it? Here’s a man whose ailment keeps him from entering the temple. Sound familiar? And yes, we’re trying to be preventative , but the situation isn’t all that different. Whether we have it or not, an ailment is keeping us all from entering the house of God these days. We know what it’s like to be the man in today’s scripture… But, we are a DIY people, a people who prefer to do it ourselves . We like to stand on our own two feet and pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. But all this novel coronavirus stuff is calling all that up short .   In fact, as our bishop put it, “viruses don’t move. People move.” In other words, what’s proliferating this disease is our own two feet!   Our compulsion to try and eke out our own existence, is the very thing that’s menacing it!   T...

the waiting is the hardest part The holy scripture according to the book of Acts (1:1-14) Way back in 1981 Tom Petty crooned, “The waiting is the hardest part.”   And he’s right , isn’t he? Waiting is the hardest part. Which is odd if you think about it.   After all, waiting shouldn’t be all that hard. I mean, you don’t have to do anything. In fact, that’s the only precondition of waiting, that you don’t DO anything! Yet , for some reason, that’s the hardest part; waiting, not doing anything. Tom Petty said he thought this song held up so well because it’s so adaptable to so many situations. And he’s right, isn’t he? It doesn’t matter what it is, waiting is the hardest part. … That’s what the disciples are facing down in today’s scripture, too. After his suffering , Jesus presented himself alive to them. And now that he’s done what no one else ever has, the disciples are ready to do anything, too!   In fact, they’re even ready...

to recreate us The holy gospel according to St. Mark the 16th chapter ! The Gospel that began with a trumpet blast , “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;” ends in a whisper . “And they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid .” …This is the infamous conclusion to Mark’s Gospel. Closing out the ‘good news of Jesus Christ,’ not with a glorious resurrection appearance that dispels all fear and doubt forever; but with an entirely absent messiah and three women running away, afraid with buttoned lips… This is not how you want the Gospel to end. So unsatisfactory is this conclusion that some scribes felt the need to add an ending onto this one years later!   And, most of our Bibles include their appendage, too!   Go ahead, check it out! Bust out your Bible! Mark 16, verse 8. If they’re anything like mine, the only clue you would have that there’s been some meddling , is a couple of headings and a lengthy ...