RoboPreacher

~Buzz Lightyear A sermon about baptism & Toy Story 4 from Acts 2:37-42 To better grasp baptism, that  momentous , life- altering  initiation rite of the Christian Church, I would have you look no further than Toy Story 4 . Yes, Toy Story 4… When the movie first came out, I grumbled. Why can't Disney just let a money-making franchise  rest  in peace? Eventually, though, I saw the movie. And I have to admit, Toy Story 4 is a  good   movie.   In fact, Toy Story 4 is to the rest of the franchise, what Acts is to the rest of the gospels; the story of what happens  after  the last foe has been rendered   toothless . In Acts, it's because Jesus has destroyed the power of Death on the  cross . In Toy Story 4 it's because "their" child, Andy, has given all his  old  toys to a  new  child, Bonnie. Toy Story 4 opens on the toys'  new  life with Bonnie. Just like in the  firs...

to go down to the river, and come up all three times A reading from Acts 2 It’s one of those questions that cuts through it all. One that lays our humanity, our brokenness bare . “Brothers,” the crowd asked after Peter’s sermon, “ what should we do ?” …What should we do? And who among us here hasn’t wondered that? When you’re cut to the heart. When you’re overwhelmed by it all and the words just come tumbling out, “What should I do.” We’ve all been there.  Life has a way of doing that. Of pressing us up against it. Of making it all too plain, we don’t know what to do. We’re lost . The circumstances of life have left us helpless… “What should we do?” And, who hasn’t been on the other side of it, either? Sitting across the table from a friend, a child, a brother or sister who’s in trouble. Listening as they lay it all out. What they’re up against. What’s happened to them. The news they got from an unexpected call.  They lay it all out to y...