RoboPreacher

is you take cover or abandon it A Pentecost Sermon: Come , Holy Spirit! Come ! And deep down, that’s what we all want. Isn’t it? We want something like Pentecost. And we want it to happen today . And we want it to happen here . And we want it to happen to us . Or, at the very least, we want to believe . We want to believe that something like Pentecost could happen here . We want to believe that our life and our little corner of the world could be the staging ground for the outpouring of God almighty’s Holy Spirit. Don’t we? But . But we might as well admit it: it takes faith to believe. Doesn’t it? We can’t just bottle up our innocence. And we can’t pretend there isn’t a part of us that expects , or at least worries , that we’ll be disappointed if we believe.   Listen, I don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble. And if you’re riding high today, by all means, enjoy it! Such moments are hard to come by. Take them when they come!   However ! However, I’ve also come to le...

you're my last hope A sermon on St. Paul's perfect sermon on the resurrection : Remember that old sermon introduction? “Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.” I’m sure there are some of you here this morning who remember that. In fact, I’m sure there are some of you who wish I’d start using that greeting. I have no problem with that greeting. However, it feels a little awkward . As far as I see it, I already greeted everyone at the beginning of the service. So, it feels a little odd to greet you all over again at the sermon.   But hey, if you’ve got a bee in your bonnet and want to harass your pastor— and I know there are some of you out there who sit up at night just thinking how you can make my life harder ! And for all you , by all means, gripe about the sermon introduction ! I can’t imagine I’ll change. But it’s a pretty tolerable complaint, all in all. So I’ll take it. I didn’t bring up that old introduction so we could tak...

beneath this bold and brilliant sun A sermon on Paul's more excellent sermon on love We take it for granted that the goal of life is to MAKE something of ourselves . A person ought to GROW into their full potential. And one should develop all their capabilities , too. Shouldn’t they? You know the drill , be all you can be and all that.   But then again, the folks in Corinthian thought the same thing. And you know what? That belief was the source of a lot of problems . In fact, as far as St. Paul was concerned, it amounted to nothing more than a whole bunch of misguided religious folderol . Somewhere along the line, probably the world at large, the folks at First Lutheran in Corinthian got it into their heads that they needed to make something out of their newfound faith . All they really did, though , was undo everything the Holy Spirit had already done amongst them! And that’s our first point, brothers and sisters in Christ . Trying to make something out of yourself ma...