RoboPreacher

the more you're slip slidin' away A sermon on Matthew's conclusion that's only the beginning : The Gospel ends AS it began , with breathtaking assurances of Christ’s enduring presence. Only now, the child born Emmanuel, God WITH us , stands on the other side of the grave . And he makes a promise only someone standing there can make; he promises to be with us no matter what, come what may, even unto the end of the ages.   This, by the way, is what makes Christ’s promises unconditional . We don’t often think about it, but all of our promises are provisional , or conditional . We all regularly contend with forces beyond our control. And should any one of those powers get the upper hand, all our assurances will be sidelined . For instance, this is why we say “until death do us part” at weddings. It’s not that this a romantic phrase. No , it’s an admission of reality ! It’s making a promise you can keep! It’s promising to be faithful until DEATH does you part. Because ...

i was lifted again A sermon on the Great Commission *SLIDE: Faith and Doubt in the Book of Faith Here at the end of Matthew the resurrected Jesus, the exalted Christ, meets his first disciples . Now, the temptation is to paint this scene as a victory lap…   But , if the resurrection is just the cherry on top of the story of faith, it rings pretty hollow to those of us who worship this Christ nearly two-thousand years later. Doesn’t it? After all, many days victory seems far off, and if all we’re left with is a victory, then we have nothing for our hardest days… Thankfully, Holy Scripture is honest about the way faith actually goes… How Jesus meets disciples amidst the warp and woof of life . Amidst the same kind of trials and tribulations we wrestle… Just notice the details in today’s resurrection account: *SLIDE: ELEVEN Disciples “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee,” reports Matthew. It’s not twelve anymore. Tha...