RoboPreacher

for dancing in the street A sermon on Paul's sermon on the great, ancient Christ Hymn : Summer is just around the corner. Memorial Day is tomorrow , and with it, vacation -season.   Ah, the summer . That lovely little season of long , lazy days. Warm summer days that break with the cool of the night into free and easy evenings. Yes, the summer , that reprieve from the regular grind . The summer with its excursions for no other purpose than fun and relaxation .   I don’t know about you , but I can’t wait. Now I know that talking about vacation after the violent and senseless past couple of weeks we’ve had can seem obnoxiously trivial . But trust me, nothing could be further from the case. In fact, nothing could be more pertinent . More imperative to our survival .   Our own survival from ourselves . Ourselves and that old compulsion of ours for self- destruction .   And just to be clear, I don’t mean that we all need a break . Although we desperatel...

we don't have to think twice, baby (we can drive each other crazy) A sermon on the introduction to Paul's Epistle to the Philippians : Paul’s not writing this epistle to the folks at First Lutheran in Philippi for any ol’ reason. No , Paul’s writing this letter because this church he’s founded is facing a crisis . And as their founder , Paul knows he’s the only one who can address this mess . What’s happened, as Paul relates right at the top of this correspondence, is that the founder of their church has been incarcerated ! Incarcerated. Am I being too subtle ?!?   Paul’s writing this letter, that’s become a part of the holy writ by the way, because he’s in the hoosegow ! Paul’s in jail! And, unsurprisingly , this incident has caused a bit of a stir back at the church Paul himself helped get off the ground! It’s really not that surprising this turn of events has precipitated a bit of a quandary for the folks back in Philippi, either. After all, how would you like t...

doin' real well A sermon on Paul's sermon in Athens , of all places Paul’s missionary endeavors landed him in Athens . Athens, that birthplace of democracy . And hometown of Socrates , to boot. So, with a little time to kill, Paul took a walk around while he waited for his companions to join him. However , all Paul found in that seat of culture and scholarship was a bunch of religion !   And the worst kind of religion, too! The idolatrous kind. The kind of religion with a lot of talk . A lot of talk that has nothing to say when you’re down and out . The kind of religion that has no teeth ! The kind of religion that’s the worst kind of substitute . Has that ever happened to you? Have you ever got some cheap substitute when you were expecting the real deal? I know when I was out East, I was never pleased when the crab cakes I ordered were made from imitation crab meat instead of the real McCoy. And, of course, the converse is true, too. Getting the goods when all you were exp...