RoboPreacher

i wanna go to heaven but i'm afraid to fly A sermon on that time Peter healed the man crippled from birth Today’s Scripture seems more like something out of a summer blockbuster , full of special effects , than it does anything out of real life. Doesn’t it? …Part of the training for every pastor in the ELCA is a “unit of CPE.” If you can’t make sense of that, don’t worry. You’re not alone. CPE is an acronym for “Clinical Pastoral Education.”   During your “unit” of CPE, roughly 400 hours, you’re ostensibly trained in the method of pastoral counseling. But , as the very use of such wonk-ish jargon suggests, the assumption behind much of this training is that pastoring is a profession —something that can be observed and measured —something that can be acknowledged by the rest of the world out there.   …The truth is, our discomfort with this passage runs deeper than just a general uncertainty about instantaneous miracles. No , we’re not even sure God intervenes ...

& you know what? i hate it? A sermon on a girl whose name we don't even know I’d be willing to wager the biggest reason you’re hesitant to sign up for Stephen Ministry isn’t the application . And it’s not the time commitment, either. Why it’s not even the training work itself. Is it? No , the biggest source of your unease is the suspicion that you’re not qualified!   I’m right on this, too. Aren’t I? Well, let’s just go ahead and get this out of the way right now ; it’s not true! You couldn’t be more wrong , you knuckleheads ! But don’t feel bad. Naaman made the same mistake, too.   And Naaman was a man of few mistakes! In fact, the only reason you and I are here is that we have more blunders under our belt than good ol’ Naaman . Naaman never had any reason to turn up in a place like this because he never needed to! Naaman assiduously kept his life on the up and up . Perhaps you’ve had the misfortune of working with someone like that . You know the type, the ...

you'll see one with open gates A sermon on a crowded doorway and four unlikely ministers   This is a great story. Isn’t it? As Al read this passage, it practically came to life of its own volition! This episode crackles with liveliness. Why this Scripture barely needs a sermon. It speaks for itself . Doesn’t it? One of the things this passage says, though, is, “would you ?”   Would you haul your pal to a house you heard Jesus was at? Would you , if the doorway was blocked, scale the roof and dig through the thatching to get your friend before Christ? Well, would you? Speaking for myself , I want to say “ yes .” I hear this story and long for something like that. Deep down, I want to grab that stretcher of life and march it into the presence of the Lord. Even the trouble of hauling it all and climbing the obstacles sounds better than how life can so often feel, like an endless slog of one trivial thing after another.   And since you’re here , too, when you cou...

will sometimes make a rich man weep / & knock him off his feet A Pentecost sermon on Philippians' conclusion I like the Narrative Lectionary because there’s just one passage of Scripture instead of a series of loosely connected ones. Focusing on one passage is much less confusing in a world that’s less and less familiar with the Bible .   I also appreciate the straight progression through the Bible. I believe this strategy helps broaden our familiarity with the entire gamut of the Bible. Hopefully, working our way from Genesis to Pentecost helps us see that the Bible is a unified story culminating in Christ . Today , though, we have two passages. And this is because, although we’re working our way through Paul’s Epistle to the Church in Philippi, you can’t not have the reading of that first Pentecost on Pentecost Sunday! Can you?! At first, this bothered me. Frankly, I wanted to preach on Philippians . And having another long passage before the one we were focus...