RoboPreacher

of your wasted time The holy Gospel according to St. Luke (13:1-9, 31-35) ! The only thing worse than having a tough time, is knowing you’re having a tough time. Worst of all, though, is having a tough time, knowing it, BUT not knowing how to get out of it.   Productivity-gurus call this a “ vicious cycle.” The way trouble feeds on itself to create more trouble.   It’s a nifty little phrase, “ vicious cycle.” And it’s nice to have words to describe what you’re going through when you find yourself caught in one. But , it’s a bit of cold comfort. Isn’t it? After all, it doesn’t do much good to know how deep of a hole you’re in and how powerless you are to get out of it.   If, heaven forbid, should you ever find yourself in such a cycle, you would want more than someone saying, “Golly, it sounds like you’re in a vicious cycle.” Wouldn’t you? No, you’d want to identify the source of your trouble and cut it out of your life—a lot like the owner of the vineyard in today...

in the shadow of the cross A sermon from the 13th chapter of Luke : In the Gospel we hear as some folks with an obsessions with morbid headlines come up to Jesus. “Did you hear about that story, ‘18 struck down in when madman Pilate sent soldiers into the temple?’” In reply Jesus doesn’t offer any explanations, or even words of comfort. Instead, he talks about something we don’t expect given the question hanging in the air. Repentance . Repent. And let’s be honest, these days, the word repent has a decidedly negative connotation… Well, this Lent I haven’t had the heart to lay it on too thick…  Because I don’t have to be the one to tell you how broken things are. Do I? We all know that already …  Which is why I’ve been thinking a lot of about how this life Jesus calls us to isn’t a another thing to do, a way to be more religious. How Jesus calls us to a lite that’s fully human . How, at it’s heart, that’s what Lent is all about. Reclaiming the ...

if i could i would no longer be barren The Holy Gospel according to St. Luke ! When Jesus wants to light a fuse and then leave the room; he tells a parable… We hear this parable of the barren fig tree, and even before Jesus has abruptly finished, we assume we’ve gotten the moral of his little life-lesson. The landowner is God, of course . Jesus is the gardener, trying to convince an angry God to wait a little longer before he callously has the tree cut down and tossed on the heap. Like most assumptions, this one only holds so long as we don’t give it too much though… Is the landowner’s character really so similar to God’s? Is the behavior of the landowner faithful to the witness of God we have in Jesus? What if God isn’t the landowner at all? What if we are?  What if you are? After all, aren’t we the ones who get impatient ? Aren’t we the one’s who demand to see the tree bear fruit right now , darn it! Aren’t we the one’s who think we’re t...

by the river   The Holy Gospel according toSt. Luke the 13th Chapter! I've got a confession... I was the fellow who asked Jesus about those Galileans. You know, the Galileans that Pilate slayed while they were offering sacrifices in the temple. I wasn't trying to trap Jesus or anything, honestly. I asked him because a lot of people had been talking about those 'poor Galileans.' I had gotten tired of everyone feeling bad for those folks. Sure dying while offering sacrifices is a terrible way to go, but everyone was acting like those folks were saints, or something. I just couldn't stand it.   I mean had everyone forgotten our book of laws, Deuteronomy. If something bad happens, you've got it coming. That is the way of the world, God punishes the unjust.   So I couldn't stand everyone going on about those poor Galileans. I mean, if they died in that way, they must have brought it on themselves...   I guess there is anot...