RoboPreacher

you're the one to change my mind A sermon from chapter two of the books of Acts : Today’s scripture begins where a lot shows, books and movies start to wrap-up, after a setback . …The prefix in Pentecost is “pente,” as in five . In this case, fifty . Pentecost happens 50 days after Passover. That means the first christian Pentecost happened 50 days after the crucifixion … …50 days after Judas’ betrayal . 50 days after Peter’s denial . 50 days after they all cut and ran . Yes, since then, the resurrected Jesus has shown up. But truthfully, the stench of failures STILL clings to the disciples…   In fact, it’s what they've been preoccupied with since that morning Jesus wasn’t found in the tomb. They haven’t been celebrating Easter, they’ve been dealing with the fallout from their failure; regrouping and replacing… Which isn’t unusual. That’s how a lot of third-acts begin . Often what happens, though, is the characters dust themselves ...

i got a soul A sermon on the first   Pentecost  and what every subsequent one has in common with it In our communion liturgy we say an old Aramaic word, “ Maranatha .”   …Anyone remembers what that word means? Maranatha ?   …YES! “Come, Lord .” We're going to have that for our call and response throughout the sermon today. When I say, “ Maranatha ,” you respond with, “Come, Holy Spirit!”   *Let’s try: “ Maranatha !” (COME, HOLY SPIRIT!) Perfect! You’re like old, pros! Okay. Now I know, I said Maranatha (COME, HOLY SPIRIT!) means “Come, Lord.” And literally it does. But , when the likes of us say, “ Maranatha ,” (COME, HOLY SPIRIT!) we mean something specific … Many of us here today are something called “ Methodist .” Aren’t we? But, there are also many of us here today who are something called “ Lutheran .” BUT, here we all are, worshipping together ! This's because, regardless of whether you are called Lutheran or Me...

yes this time it'll be different  In our reading from Acts we find Paul combining everything that makes him so lovable and taking it to the streets in the name of the Gospel. In fact, today’s story from Acts is just perfect for us as we consider what it means to be church now , at this moment in history. Here’s the cool thing about today’s reading from Acts; the folks Paul is taking the message to, the athenians, these folks aren’t churchgoers who simply haven’t been in to church for a while, they aren’t even former catholics looking for a new church. No, these athenians Paul is preaching to are people who have never been to church at all.  Paul is preaching to “unchurched” people, the same sort of people we’ve been scratching our head over, trying to figure out how to reach… Since, as we all know, Paul does such an excellent job at reaching these people and since this sermon series is all about what Church is, let’s take a few moments to reflect on how Pa...

how it aches to meet the day I can remember one of the first moments I thought, ‘Y eah, I want to be a pastor .’  It was during the summer, after I had decided to minor in religion to discern whether I was being called to the ministry. I spent that summer working at a Lutheran newspaper in the Twin Cities, the Metro-Lutheran . As an intern, I had the distinct privilege of being assigned the stories no one else wanted to write. As it turned out, most of the stories were about congregations that were either growing or closing.  I learned a lot. The particular moment I am thinking of, happened during an interview with a council that was starting a feeding ministry.  The curious thing about this decision, however, was that this congregation’s budget had been cut to the bone as their attendance had shrunk to an unsustainable core.  Closing was a real possibility for this congregation. In fact, it was at the very-same meeting the treasurer re...