RoboPreacher

now there is naught but death's gray shell The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke ! For Easter Sunday; it sure is gloomy. Not only that, either. The Gospel practically reads like a misprint this day. Here you are. Dressed in your Sunday finest. On your best behavior, no doubt. The Easter feast is waiting at home. Or the brunch reservation made weeks ago.  You’re here . Ready for some good news. All decked out and just waiting to sing Alleluias to the rafters. Only the Gospel is sure full of false-starts .  I nstead of “alleluias;” the Gospel report is keeps inserting that qualifier, “ but .” Hardly a joyous word. And that isn’t all that’s wrong! The cast isn’t filled with joy or wonder this day. The women arrive early to prepare the body, only to have two men dressed in dazzling clothes, reprimand them. They should know better than to be looking for Jesus in a tomb , they sternly say. Once they finally remember everything Jesu...

our spirits by thine own advent here A sermon on 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13 Passages like this one can be a little hard to bear… In this excerpt from Paul’s letter to the church he founded in Thessalonica we hear him absolutely gush over these followers. And when you hear that, it’s hard not to reckon with our own shortcoming, the rough edges of our own history as a Christian community… In these five sentences, we hear Paul just rave over these followers. We hear of Paul’s own longing to be reunited with them; we hear how he can’t stop praying for them, thanking God for them.  You hear all this, and it serves to magnify our own failings. You hear Paul write to these followers and it’s hard not to think that if Paul were going to write to us , it wouldn’t be so glowing. More than likely Paul would have more admonitions for us than praise… The occasion for Paul’s effusive letter is his companion, Timothy, has just returned with a report from his visit t...