RoboPreacher

& somehow, i see / it's free A sermon for the confirmation of Chase & Jack: Chase , Jack, dear brothers in Christ, welcome to the faith ! Did that sound odd ? I bet it did. I bet it did, but I want you to know I meant it. And, what’s more , the peculiarity of that sentence is no accident, either. Herein lies your first lesson today: Faith is not intuitive. On the contrary , faith is counterintuitive . The more strange , the closer you are to that blessed and mysterious beating heart of faith. With any luck, you’ll find yourself saying, “How odd of God” many times.   With that, we’ve come upon our second lesson for today: Faith is not a program. And faith is not a formula, either. Faith is not a way to hide from life. And neither is faith a guide to make the confusing twists and turns of reality fit into a predetermined mold.   No, faith doesn’t tell you what lies ahead . Truth be told, real faith really wants nothing to do with that kind of chicanery . No, fa...

you're my last hope A sermon on St. Paul's perfect sermon on the resurrection : Remember that old sermon introduction? “Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.” I’m sure there are some of you here this morning who remember that. In fact, I’m sure there are some of you who wish I’d start using that greeting. I have no problem with that greeting. However, it feels a little awkward . As far as I see it, I already greeted everyone at the beginning of the service. So, it feels a little odd to greet you all over again at the sermon.   But hey, if you’ve got a bee in your bonnet and want to harass your pastor— and I know there are some of you out there who sit up at night just thinking how you can make my life harder ! And for all you , by all means, gripe about the sermon introduction ! I can’t imagine I’ll change. But it’s a pretty tolerable complaint, all in all. So I’ll take it. I didn’t bring up that old introduction so we could tak...