RoboPreacher

with the same old blues oh, then you touched my life A sermon on Jesus' unique therapy With these words, Jesus lays out the course of the Christian life . And with these words, he couldn’t be more clear . Jesus doesn’t equivocate in this sermon. And neither is he subtle.   In fact, that’s one of the things I like about this translation we’re using. The word choices shock us into actually hearing what Jesus is preaching. This translation aims to peel away the religious sentiment these words have so often been wrapped in. Hopefully , this translation will make Jesus’ words zing with a newfound potency for you today. Ideally, it will even jolt you with what Jesus is doing in this upside - down sermon of his! Take, for instance, the first beatitude. You’re used to hearing this outrageous pronouncement as, “Blessed are the poor in spirit .” A very fine translation, all in all. The trouble , though, is how we hear these words.   When we hear “poor in spirit,” we tend t...

i will be good though my body be broken The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew the 5th chapter! Today’s Gospel is probably as popular as it is unbelievable … And that’s the problem isn’t it? We imagine we’re so familiar with these sayings that we skip right along. “Oh, I love this part,” we say, while putting on a smile and tuning out. Before we do that, though, let me ask us to do something:  Try and imagine we hadn’t heard these words before . Better yet, though, imagine that as we’re hearing these words for the first time, we’re one of those who Jesus called to follow him, or maybe someone from the crowd with a disease eavesdropping on this message Jesus gives… Let’s try hearing today’s Gospel this way, because when we do that, these familiar sayings become appropriately shocking. To help us really hear today’s gospel I am going to read it again, although I am going to read it from another translation; for those of you who go to the Bible S...

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew! Mary always made an impression on folks.  Now, to say Mary was special would be to state the obvious, though.  Of course Mary was special, but that wasn’t it.  No, Mary had this way about her. She always seemed to, in her own gentle and quiet way, make a big impact, a lasting impression… Why is that? Why was she able, as diminutive as she was, to make such a large impact.  Why was she, as quiet as she was, to say so much with few words? Certainly there are a few reasons;  the one that stands out the most, though, was Mary’s ability to draw folks together, how Mary always saw the best in everyone  and invited everyone to see the best in others, as well as in themselves. See, Mary seemed to embody what we hope to be. To say it another way, Mary managed to embody the Gospel in a profound and meaningful way. Mary lived out a witness that another way was possible, a way we a...