RoboPreacher

& we were wrong The scripture for Maundy Thursday is John 13 This has easily been one of, if not the most disastrous Lent. Hasn’t it? Truth be told, though, for me and Amanda it actually started way by in Advent . When her beloved grandmother, Jean, died.   I remember how Jeans death put our Advent into a tailspin … And at first, I fought against it. Even though our schedule was upside-down, I struggled to make sure we kept the house in order, got gifts, and even took time to read our Advent devotional… But as time went on, it got to be too much . By the time Christmas rolled around, we were doing everything we could just to keep up…   After Christmas, New Years and Annual Meetings, though , life seemed to have returned to a semblance of normalcy… …But then; well, you know what happened… If I had thought Advent was a mess, this Lent made Advent seem like something straight from Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas.” Take ...

time will never matter The Holy Gospel according to St. John the 13th chapter ! This sermon isn’t about our “ nevers ,” it’s about Jesus’ always … On the night as the pot started to boil over. The night before everything hit the fan. The night before the final reckoning. The night even the air was tense .   Jesus gathered his inner circle around a table.   Only, instead of laying out a plan to take down the enemy, Jesus took off his robe. Instead of putting on a military uniform, he puts on servant’s rags. And instead of taking up arms, he picks up a bowl. On the night when all the forces of evil will wage war with Jesus, Jesus doesn’t stand up to the wicked ruler, instead he kneels at the side of his disciples! He wages no righteous war, instead he washes their dirty feet.   * Even Judas’, who would betray him… And Peter, along with the rest of us, will have none of it. He tells Jesus “ never .” “You will never wash my feet,” P...

all we got it us Before the betrayal and the arrest. Before the horror of the cross. Before the emptiest sabbath. Before that morning no one anticipated.  Before any of it, Jesus gathered together the twelve who had stuck with him through thick and thin. Over a meal he had been longing to have with them for some time, Jesus gives the twelve one last Word. Thickheaded though they could be, they knew these words Jesus was leaving them with mattered .  Yes ; like you, they would be shocked by the sheer terror of the cross. And yes, like you, they would be utterly astounded by the tomb that morning. But make no mistake, even they could sense that night was the quiet before it all went down.  So they, like you are right now, payed attention to what Jesus said as if everything else depended on it… And it does…  Make no mistake, Jesus’ last word is no mere piece of advice . It is no warm sentiment , either. In fact, when you consid...

that are keeping us on our feet A Sermon for Maundy Thursday : Isn’t it just like Jesus, to make us do something we’d just as well avoid? All this business of taking off shoes, having someone wash our feet, for heaven’s sake. It’s all just too much!  Today is Maundy Thursday, though. On this evening, we hear of Jesus’ last night with his disciples. On this holy day, the church gathers her children and puts before them Jesus’ command to actually love one another, to risk vulnerability. To risk humility. Tonight we hear of Jesus’ last night with his disciples.  The command he gave them, as he said what had to have been so hard to hear. How soon, he would go where they could not . The way their life together, was going to rupture all too quickly. Admitting that in a matter of hours, nothing would be able to put it back together the days they had, had with Jesus… Of all the poignant moments in Jesus’ all too short life and ministry, this is the p...

by love are we thus bound The Holy Gospel according to St. John The intensity continued to build, hard as that may be to believe. So even those stone-hearted disciples couldn’t miss the significance of that night. As the Passover drew near, Jesus gathered these twelve for a meal.  Although they couldn’t have imagined it would be the last one they shared together with this Jesus; none of them could have missed the gravity of that evening, either… So they gathered with this Jesus they had been through so much with, and tried to make heads and tails of everything that was beginning to spin wildly out of control.  Suddenly though, in the middle of the meal, this Jesus stops, takes off his robe, gets a basin and water, and begins to do something embarrassing, embarrassing and inappropriate; he washes his disciples’ feet. As everything was coming to a crescendo, nothing was getting any more coherent for the disciples that night. Sure, at that time it ma...

I’ve been to enough Maundy Thursday services in my life (although, since I didn’t grow up in a liturgical tradition, I remember how odd the first service I attended seemed). This year was the second Maundy Thursday service I’ve done at Trinity. This year, though, was the first time the service was moving for me. As we stripped the altar, everything was orderly. Everyone knew where to be, when.  The gentleman reading Psalm 22 as we stripped the altar was someone who had been estranged from the congregation. As he read the psalm crying over a broken relationship, his words dripped.  That wasn’t the only reason this service was so meaningful this year, though… At this point I’ve been at Trinity for nearly two years. As I walked to the back of the sanctuary, once the stripping was complete I turned just as the gentleman reading Psalm 22 finished. As I turned I saw the altar where we’ve all shared the Eucharist stripped, I sensed the deep pathos woun...