RoboPreacher

they don't make 'em like this anymore A sermon on Elijah & the Widow at Zeraphath ( 1 Kings 17:1-16 ): On any given Sunday, you leave the bills on the counter, the to-do list undone , and get the family together for church. You come with more prayer requests than you'd care for, all the predictions of doomsday ringing in your ears, and the pastor climbs up in the pulpit to say something like, ‘Do not be afraid.’ Here you are, doing everything you can just to tread water, and the pastor dares to tell you , don’t be afraid?!? On those days, it’s hard not to think, “how can (s)he say that to me ?” As scripture says, though, there’s nothing new under the sun. In our passage for today, the prophet Elijah finds himself in the same spot.   The Bible doesn't say much about Elijah. Just that the word of the Lord came to him instead of anyone else. His first assignment was to go and pick a fight with a king that was as wicked as he was powerful, Ahab. Of course Elijah ...

tell me, lord, which road to follow A sermon on  Hannah's ordeal & subsequent song : Poor Hannah. She can’t have a child. So one day, she makes a vow … And, poof! Just like that , she conceives. To cap it off, she runs a victory lap with this little song of hers. …When you read it like that, it all sound so simple . Doesn’t it? Like a math equation. A prayer plus a promise equals an answer. Only it wasn’t as simple as all that. It never is. Faith is not a math equation. Today’s scripture picks up in the middle of Hannah’s long unanswered question. Why she can’t have a child. She’s been barren for years ! And if that weren’t enough, she has a frenemy who takes every chance she can to remind Hannah of her dashed hopes. Hannah’s vow isn’t a bold pledge. It’s a plea made from the end of her rope. As we like to say, God’s office is at the end of your rope. God has no problem meeting you in the thick of yours . Just check out the adjectives used to describe Hannah. “She...

ask for something more A sermon on the Golden Calf debacle : The truth is, we’re not so far removed from today’s scripture… The people in today’s scripture are waiting for Moses’ return . Eventually, their anxiety gets the better of them. In an attempt to settle their nerves , they concoct a little token God.   Which goes about as well as you’d expect. Despite knowing better, though, we still see the contours of our own lives in this story. Although , not in the way we expect. Like the people in today’s scripture, we are waiting , too . Aren’t we? We’re waiting for the return of that old abnormal . And like the people, we’ve grown weary and agitated . While we may not have made any literal golden calves, we have had the same impulse. In fact, if you read today’s passage closely , you can’t help but notice just how conflicted the people are, too . They really do seem sincere in their desire for worship. And Aaron’s efforts to keep the debacle on the up and up are genu...

i am the future A sermon on the Passover meal as prescribed in Exodus 12 : In this very first Passover we get a full helping of salvation .   Before we strap on our bibs, though, we do well to heed the finer points of this recipe . Because, like any other meal worth having, attention to the particulars will only enrich the dining experience. Which is the first thing about redemption , it’s real. Your salvation is not a concept, doctrine, or abstract idea. It’s the Lamb ! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, Jesus Christ himself ! Your salvation is not a some- thing OUT there somewhere . Your salvation is a some- one . Jesus Christ, the word of God, very near to you, in your mouth and in your heart . (Deut. 30:14) …Seeing as that’s the case, let’s get to the specifics . The What , How , and When of salvation. Now we’ve been trained to think the What is most important. And it is significant. But since salvation is real , the How and When are just as impo...