RoboPreacher

lead me to water Lord I sure am thirsty The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew the 5th chapter! All we have left is the final coda, otherwise we’ve made it!  For seven weeks we’ve been following along, as Jesus was baptized , began his mission, called his disciples, ascended that mountain and gave his first sermon laying out what it will mean to be his disciples.  As we’ve followed Jesus, as we’ve wrestled with his words, we’ve also pondered what it in the world it could mean that this man is also God in bones and flesh, that Jesus is God’s incarnation as a human… To help us really wrestle with the radical Christian claim we’ve also challenged ourselves to say daily, “I am a child of God.” Saying this simple six-word sentence has helped us experience the shock that occurs when divinity collides with humanity. And now here we are. Today we hear the culmination of what this Jesus, this God dwelling in and alongside humanity, has b...

The Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew the 5th chapter! We’re almost there, today we just begin to glimpse the finish-line as we move toward the end of our incarnation sermon series! There’s only two more weeks left. Can you believe it?!? As you may have been able to surmise from today’s Gospel, though, this last stretch is something of the final grind of our journey.  Today is not so much the final anthems of completion, as they are the moment when we begin to question whether we have the fortitude to complete this journey… Today is a bit of a “make or break” moment. Are we going to finish this series, or are we going to throw in the towel??? Now as we wish we could just coast along, Jesus continues to up the ante, he keeps increasing the pressure. As we contemplate continuing or not, it is worth recalling that Jesus’ call has always been for our own good. The plain truth is, any exertion of ours will be worth the effort to complete this journe...

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...