RoboPreacher

you're the one to change my mind The holy gospel according to St. Mark 7:24-37 ! This is one of the most scandalous encounters in the Bible! Aside from the fact that the woman is the wrong gender, the wrong race, and the wrong religion to be approaching Jesus like that; the really offensive part of this tête-à-tête is how gruff , and frankly disrespectful , Jesus comes across! A desperate mother falls at Jesus’ feet, begging him to cast a demon from her daughter. Full of “compassion,” Jesus replies, “it isn’t fair to take the children’s food, and throw it to the dogs .”   …Ouch! But then, in a move almost everyone hates just as much, the woman doesn’t take Jesus to task for being so insensitive! Instead , she just agrees ! “ Sure ,” she shrugs , “But, even the dogs snatch up a loose crumb or two.” …With that, Jesus tells the woman to go back home; the demon has left her daughter.   And, indeed , upon returning home, the woma...

won't you come and knock me down The Gospel according to St. Matthew: Today’s parable is right in our “wheelhouse,” grace . It’s all grace.  That’s what we’re all about here too, grace. We hear Jesus tell this parable of the landowner who treats all the laborers the same, and we applaud.  After all, we’re the “ nice ” Lutherans. We don’t make folks jump through hoops, we don’t exclude - we, just like the landowner, we’re gracious.  Yes, this parable seems to have been recorded just for us . We hear today’s Gospel, and we settle in and get ready to pat ourselves on the back. We hear today’s Gospel, and before the preacher can open his mouth, we already know the punchline, “let’s keep acting like that magnanimous landowner.”  In fact, I know you; you blue collar union-workers; why you even commend the landowner for paying all the workers the same. When Jesus tells that the landowner is just as generous to those 11th hour workers as she...