RoboPreacher

questions are the answers you might need A sermon on the preacher's hymn to time's timelessness : In high school, my favorite band was Oasis . I’m sure you’ve heard them. In the 90s, they were basically inescapable . iTunes tells me their most popular songs are Wonderwall , Don’t Look Back in Anger , and Champaign Supernova . And that seems about right. Unless you were living under a rock , you must have heard at least one of those songs a time or two.   As for me , I’ve listened to those songs many a time! Like many people of a certain age, I have an overestimation of the music of my youth. And there’s a version of this sermon where I tell you all about Oasis, too! But suffice it to say, the thing that made Oasis so compelling is the very same thing that also made them so unstable !   Oasis was fronted by two working -class brothers . When they hit it big , they burnt through their money like a couple of teenagers who discovered a fortune —which is more or less exac...

not a lot, just forever A sermon on some initial conclusions of Qoheleth : I know what the Quester is talking about in today’s passage. I have dyslexia . Now, dyslexia is relatively common , so you may already know a thing or two about it. But once, when I was talking to friends, I said numbers, letters, and words don’t sit still in my head. They move around. I can’t just mentally keep track of them. Anyway, I’ve been told that’s not a bad description. Blessedly , though, I was diagnosed with dyslexia early . Of course, this was before IEPs. But my teachers were made to understand my situation. And many of them took time to help me learn the material, too. Nevertheless , school was mostly a humbling experience. There was no way standardized tests were going to go well for me. Most of the time, it just takes me longer to get my head around something. Given that, it was almost inevitable I would fall behind .   …But here’s the thing about dyslexia: once you learn someth...

& i get more than i deserve A sermon on St. Stephen and ministry : There’s a question we sometimes ask students in confirmation . And the reason we ask is to check if the students are paying attention . Obviously, of course, not this year’s students. They always pay attention. They’re perfect . As they are every year.   Nevertheless, it’s a nice little exercise. So, I thought we might try it. And here’s the question: What just happened? This isn’t a trick question, either. I just want to engage you. What just happened in today’s passage? That said, although this isn’t a trick question, it is the sort of question that has right and wrong answers. For instance, if you were to say that Stephen was just hired as the head pastor at First Lutheran in Jerusalem, that would be wrong . However, there were a few details in that example that would be considered correct . But I don’t want to do your work for you. So, I’m not going to tell you what they were.   Instead , let’s ...