RoboPreacher

i wanna go to heaven but i'm afraid to fly A sermon on that time Peter healed the man crippled from birth Today’s Scripture seems more like something out of a summer blockbuster , full of special effects , than it does anything out of real life. Doesn’t it? …Part of the training for every pastor in the ELCA is a “unit of CPE.” If you can’t make sense of that, don’t worry. You’re not alone. CPE is an acronym for “Clinical Pastoral Education.”   During your “unit” of CPE, roughly 400 hours, you’re ostensibly trained in the method of pastoral counseling. But , as the very use of such wonk-ish jargon suggests, the assumption behind much of this training is that pastoring is a profession —something that can be observed and measured —something that can be acknowledged by the rest of the world out there.   …The truth is, our discomfort with this passage runs deeper than just a general uncertainty about instantaneous miracles. No , we’re not even sure God intervenes ...

there's no one left to ask if i'm alright A sermon on Job's prayers :  Last week we made the somewhat  provocative statement that Job was losing his religion. Well, this week, Job doesn’t walk that back an inch. In fact, if anything, he doubles down.   Just to be clear, though , the religion Job is losing isn’t much of a religion at all. It’s a religion that assumes a mostly absent God. A God who is just there to occasionally check in and see if you’re behaving. And then , and only then, to try and help make life turn our accordingly . Now I know when I say it like that , it sounds ridiculously crude . The truth is, though , for the most part, this is the religious assumption we all carry around with us. We all have this working formula that presumes the degree to which life is going our way is fundamentally contingent upon our behavior. Like Job and his friends, we are all susceptible to falling into this faux religion.   Job, however, has been shake...

you might as well pray Its Trinity Sunday - Our name -sake day! Today we meditate on the doctrine we profess: one God; Father, Son and Holy Spirit… For as satisfying as it is to talk in circles about the Trinity, though; truthfully, this day is “red herring.” The temptation of this day is to explain away the Trinity; which is a sermon no one wants to hear and no one can give. In fact, if you want to really learn about the Trinity read the words from the hymn we just sang (Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty), look at the man who watched his wife pass away a few days ago and is here today and singing “glory to God,” look at the parents with enough to do and yet got their children ready and are here. The truth is, I’m up here for a reason and the problem with Trinity Sunday is the simple fact is, the doctrine of the Trinity doesn’t preach worth a darn.  There’s primarily two related reasons why the doctrine of the Trinity doesn’t preach. And as it turns ...