RoboPreacher

how these memories haunt my mind A sermon from Nicodemus' encounter with Jesus They say time heals all wounds . But I’m not so sure. Yes, a little time can lend you some courage and perspective. But time can also hinder healing. Can’t it? Time can fester old wounds. Petrify them.   If we’re being honest, it’s our past sins that have the most bite . It’s not those recent things I’ve done and left undone that give me the most pause . No , it’s the unkind word spoken long ago that’s echoes loudest . It’s the former act of petty retribution that no longer seems so insignificant. It’s nursed grudges that prove hardest to forgive.   William Faulkner, a man who knew a thing or two about checkered histories, once said, “The past is never dead. It's not even past.” He understood what sins are most difficult to get over. On internship, my supervisory pastor opined that when she says “God loves you,” everyone thinks she talking about someone else . “When I say that,” she sa...

oh / got a little lesson A sermon on Jesus overturning the tables   The crowd industriously bustled this way and that. But while the business of the day consumed everyone else , Jesus threw himself upon the wheels and cogs of the entire apparatus! Fashioning something like a whip, Jesus drove out all the livestock! With a thundering voice, he ordered those selling doves for sacrifices to get out of the temple. And with holy zeal , unlike anything the disciples had yet seen, Jesus flipped over the tables and poured out all the coins of those exchanging pagan money for religiously sanctioned tender . Before the ordeal was over, Jesus had brought the entire proceedings of the day to a grinding halt . Watching the scene play out, the disciples couldn’t help but remember a stanza from the beloved 69th Psalm, “ Zeal for your house will consume me.” It’s an alluring thought. Isn’t it? To be consumed by something. Our great artists, athletes, and inventors often speak of a burn...

with the same old blues / but then... A sermon from Jesus' first miracle at the wedding in Cana :  A bit of a post -holiday hangover usually sets in about now . Doesn’t it? The joy and expectation of that wintertide trinity of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s are all now behind us. And all that lies ahead of us is a long and barren stretch of a frigid January. Now, if that’s not you at the moment , go ahead and disregard the rest of this sermon! Let those visions of sugarplums dance in your head! Savor the succor of obliviousness . Just remember this ; eventually, that high will run low . And when it does , reach out to me. Call, text, or email. Say, “Pastor Ryan, what was that sermon about at the beginning of January? I wasn’t paying attention then, and now I’m in this funk I can’t get myself out of. You said this might happen.” For the rest of us, though, that time for that blissful ignorance has come and gone . Hasn’t it? We’re staring down a desolate stret...