RoboPreacher

with common grace A sermon from conclusion to Galatians : “May I never boast of anything … Except the cross…” You’ve got to watch out for those exceptions. The proverbial catch , as it were. There’s always at least one… “May I never boast of anything ,” declares Paul. “ Except the cross,” he adds. Almost as an afterthought…. It’s quite the thing to say.  Not because boasting in something like the cross, a legal tool to inflict punishment, humiliation and torture would have been outrageous to the ears of any self respecting Galatian. That would have been like putting a guillotine on a family crest! No, what’s truly remarkable about Paul’s refusal to boast in anything except the cross, is the exception he’s making form himself. The exception… And you’ve got to watch out for them, those exception clauses… This letter we’ve spent the last five weeks in, Paul has been telling the folks at First Lutheran in Galatia that now they must learn to look...

but you idiot kid, you don't have a clue A sermon from Paul's epistle to the Philippians: “For [Jesus’] sake I have suffered the loss of all things,” sighs Paul. Talk about a tough sell… Paul was never much of a salesman, though. And it wasn’t just that he didn’t have such instincts. No, Paul had too much trust in his Lord, and he had too much respect for his hearers to do something like, try and peddle worshipping the Risen Christ… “For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things,” admits Paul.  That’s a hard God to talk about. A God who would demand everything . A God who would even let it all be lost.  No, this kind of talk about God, isn’t our favorite… Paul has that evangelistic fervor, though. You can’t help but have the sense he would gladly polish his pitch; if only he could.  The trouble, however, is the kind of God we have. A God who doesn’t share. A jealous God… If you’re going to try and get someone to join yo...

it's getting kind of tired A sermon from 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 “I do not want you to be uninformed,” wrote the apostle Paul.  “ You know that when you were pagans you were enticed and led astray …” Bernard Shaw described hell as being doomed to be unable to do anything other than what you want. Being your own personal tyrant, he called it… The Sunday before last, Amanda and I went to church at First Lutheran in Galesburg. It was nice; we got to worship together, the sanctuary was beautiful and everyone was welcoming and kind. Of course their worship wasn’t exactly like our’s. And their bulletin was laid out completely differently. At times in worship, I found myself a little confused… There I was, a church professional for heaven’s sake, totally lost ! On the way home. I couldn’t help but worry that liturgical worship was doomed to always be a maze for visitors, for seekers. That worship is too confusing , too odd … After all, the only reason I am ...

i can't take it anymore I don’t know about you, but Spring can’t come soon enough; it’s been a long winter… Being stuck under piles of snow, as the bad news kept tumbling in has started to get the better of me.  The week I was glad the gray days only brought rain and not that “S-word.” At the risk of sounding ungrateful, though, I would have preferred some sunny days. I’m ready for a break from all this… That’s why when the news about the Fort Hood shooting came on yet another wet, drab day; I began worry that perhaps the final straw that would break the camel’s back had been dropped on the pile… There still aren’t many details, it seems the poor soul who took those innocent lives and finally his own, was wounded in his own right. Apparently he had been seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Regardless of what other details will emerge, though, all it took was one split second and Ivan’s life was forever changed . And only moments after that...