RoboPreacher

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...

 that she gave you back when you didn't own a beautiful thing A sermon from John 14 on the 3rd Article of the Creed To talk about the Holy Spirit, I want to talk about that 90’s sitcom, Seinfeld . Specifically, the character George Costanza . George, that unlucky in life, lovable loser . NOT what you were expecting? Good ! That’s how it goes with the Holy Spirit and us; it defies expectations! What the writers of Seinfeld did that was so brilliant was to make the unusual move, at the time, to refuse to dress George up . Or any of the other characters, for that matter. The humor of Seinfeld was that no one ever got their act together ! Everyone was more or less stuck with whatever their inherent defects were.   The question of Seinfeld was never , would the characters learn . In fact, that was a rule in the writers’ room, “No learning. No hugging. In the world of Seinfeld the gag always was, how would the characters finagle their shortcomings. Whereas George was hapless ...

it's comin' over me now A sermon for Trinity Sunday on Galatians 5:13-26 Describing the Christian life, Paul says something pretty, well, provocative . He writes, “ Live by the Spirit , I say, and do not gratify the desires of the flesh . For what the flesh desires is opposed to the Spirit, and what the Spirit desires is opposed to the flesh.”   Nothing too surprising thus far. But then Paul goes on to say, “ for these are opposed to each other to PREVENT you from doing what you want .” To prevent you from doing what you want ?!? Can you imagine a tougher sell??? In contrast to those well-meaning sales pitches Christians like us toss around, Paul says Christianity will actually only prevent you from doing what you want! …This really isn’t too far-fetched, though. In fact, even everyday sinner/saints like you and me have experienced this. The truth is, our day-to-day existence is frustrated. The thing, though , is you and I have been baptized into this reality from ear...

to wake me up & come alive Reflecting on the Holy Spirit Paul says in  Galatians 4:1-17 : Today is Pentecost . Oftentimes, we call this day the Church’s birthday. Over the course of last year, though, I’ve come to realize that’s not very helpful. For one thing, the Emmaus encounter in Luke 24 is probably the first gathering of what we call the church. For another, calling Pentecost the birthday of the church tempts us to treat the miracle of this day as a thing of the past . Pentecost is not a bygone event we remember. Pentecost is a miracle we expect . Pentecost is not something that happened somewhere out there, a long time ago. Pentecost is an ever-present happening that is taking place right here and right now among us .   After all, isn’t that what’s going on at this very moment? Isn’t every worship service something of a miracle ? Think about it; with everything else going on, it’s astonishing anyone would bother making time to get to church. Yet, week afte...

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 ...