RoboPreacher

it's still a surprise A sermon on the time Jesus turned a tough night into a new day Well, I hate to say it, but while all of you were freezing your tuchuses off in the polar vortex, I was sporting short sleeves in sunny California. But I don’t bring this up to brag . I mention it because I wasn’t just in sunny California. No, I was in the land of affluence .   Southern California is a place of conspicuous consumption. Before I even made it to the hotel room, I saw a Porsche . And you know what? Sports cars like that were a regular sight out there.   Now, I was in there for work . I was there as a facilitator for the Iowa Preachers Project. And one of my jobs was to shuttle the participants from location to location. But the car we rented was a large SUV.   I have to admit, when I found myself idling behind one of those sports cars, I was sorely tempted . As a good boy from the Midwest , I felt it was my job to poke my finger in that kind of opulence. And I knew al...

that i will see the light       Jesus'words in the Gospel this week are certainly demanding...   When the rich landowner asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life, Jesus tells this man to give everything away to the poor (who, presumably, he defrauded to build his wealth). Interpretations upon this pericope abound... (I paraphrase) Maybe when Jesus says it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a wealthy person to enter G-d's reign alludes to a gate in Jerusalem called "eye of the needle." Supposedly this gate (which has absolutely no archeological evidence) required that the camel unload everything to get through the gate. Or Perhaps this call to sell everything and give it to the poor only applies to this man. Jesus' categorical demand is that people leave whatever it is that keeps them from following.   And so on.   While neither of the two examples are particularly true to Je...