RoboPreacher

with the dawn of redeeming grace A sermon on the Christmas gospel : A word before our Christmas Scripture. For years now, Luke has out - peached me! Each year, we hear his lovely Christmas gospel. And then, each year, it’s this poor pastor’s lot to try and follow that up! And each year, the best I’ve managed is to flail about in the wake of Luke’s masterful Christmas sermon. This year, though , I’m not going to let that happen. But not because I’ve come up with a better sermon than Luke. No , no one can do that on Christmas Eve! No, Luke’s not going to show me up tonight because I’m not going to let him preach before me! I’m going to exercise a little of my Christian freedom and preach before Luke! And only then will we let Luke preach. That way, he can’t outshine me! Joking aside, this is as it should be. No one can preach like Scripture itself. And tonight, Luke’s the master . He should get the last word. So we’re going to let him have it! For my part, it’s my pray...

the babe, the son of mary A sermon on Christmas according to St. John : As this familiar passage gets underway, it sounds as if we’re about to hear some abstract theological concepts . “In the Beginning was the Word . And the Word was with God. And the Word was God.”   In fact, as you might know, the Greek word used here is “ logos .” In the Beginning was the logos . And logos is where we get words like logic . But not logic as a process of reasoning , more like logic as the principles by which the world operates.   However , right when you start to settle in for a flight of theological fancy, the evangelist takes a left turn! Suddenly , seemingly out of nowhere , the Gospel zeros in on this specific , historical person, John . John, not called the Baptist here. But yes, that John; John, the Jewish man who lived in occupied Palestine nearly two-thousand years ago. …A quick lesson in philosophy here: this is entirely backward ! When it comes to reasoning, you don’t st...

the weary world rejoices A sermon on Isaiah 55 : About now , the airwaves are crammed past to their point of bursting . Everywhere you turn, some vendor is hawking their goods. All vowing their wares are that missing ingredient to finally make your life definitely happy, healthy, and handsome.   We’ve all been let down by these empty promises enough times to hear them with suspicion . However , neither are we immune from their claims either. Our longing for something more than what’s peddled in the ads is so deep that we can’t help but give those tired old sales pitches a hearing . And often, even our hard -earned money. Today , though, of all days, God adds a voice to that already crowded marketplace. Numb though we may be becoming to all those propositions out there, God adds one more to the litany. This offer, though , has a different ring to it. This offer, so says God , promises to truly satisfy! This offer is the one to which all our earthly merchandise is ...

where the people come apart A sermon from Ezekiel's meta-sermon to dry bones :  The calendar bears down on us with particular intensity during this time of the year. There’s so much to do : There are the cards to mail. The meals to prepare. The gatherings to host and attend. The ensembles to don. The gifts to purchase and wrap. The relationships to tend. And , I shouldn’t forget to mention the services to make it to, too. The Advent calendar becomes downright sinister with all those tasks on our to-do lists. Another day is over ; did you accomplish everything?   Luckily , I suppose , there are still enough unopened doors on our Advent calendars to tell ourselves we’ll manage to pull everything off this year. Despite our mixed track record when it comes to managing all those Advent activities in years past. And despite all those deadlines we’ve already missed. The time for that tomfoolery had come and gone for the people the prophet Ezekiel spoke to, though. They...