Rev. Zach

First Presbyterian of Lafayette, Louisiana March 27, 2011 – Lent: 3A Exodus 17:1-7 Romans 5:1-11 John 4:5-42 How many of you played the game, Four Square, as a child?  Four Square has been around for a long time and is a favorite on many campgrounds and schoolyards.  The basic idea is a box divided into four squares.  The fourth square is for the King or Queen of the game, and this is the person who starts the game by serving a playground ball into someone else's square.  In some circles, the King or Queen can even make new rules at the beginning of a round of play.  As the ball comes to you, you have to hit it – flat handed – into someone else's square without letting it bounce more than once in your own.  If you mess up, you go to square one while other players advance. There is a new kind of Four Square that the kids are playing today from their phones.  It involves a social networking tool where people can let others know where they are, mak...

First Presbyterian of Lafayette, Louisiana March 20, 2011 – Lent (A2) Genesis 12:1-4a Psalm 121 (Cantor – Bruce Turner) Romans 4:1-5, 13-17 John 3:1-17 I wonder how many of you have ever been in a house of mirrors? It can be a lot of fun wandering through halls – even running into walls you did not know were there. The curved fun house mirrors can be fun, too. I enjoy exaggerating the shape of my body, though I must confess that sometimes the flaws I deny become too real in those mirrors. In the reality show "What Not To Wear" contestants are ambushed by friends to confront their unflattering and outdated clothing choices. One of the first steps in the journey of transformation for the contestants is to step into a booth with mirrors all around them to get a 360˚ view of themselves. No flaws are hidden from the 360˚ mirror. That is what we have in the scriptures today, a mirror of our lives that offers no retreat from our past, present, or future. It is overl...

First Presbyterian of Lafayette, Louisiana March 13, 2011 – Lent 1A Genesis 2:15-17; 3:1-7 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11 When I was a boy I remember being fascinated by the way my big brother could shuffle a deck of cards by making a bridge and letting it fall. I could not wait until I was old enough – until my hands were big enough, strong enough – to shuffle cards like that. That memory makes it even more fun to watch my own children in their fascination when we play a game, and I shuffle cards. When I think about the way the stories we have heard today are often interpreted it reminds me of a neatly shuffled deck of cards. Not just a shuffled deck of cards, but a stacked deck of cards - a stacked deck of cards that God has neatly ordered and placed before us. I am not a gambler. My brain just doesn't work the way others do when it comes to gambling. I get the impression that there are systems and strategies that go along with a fair amount of boldness and initiati...

First Presbyterian of Lafayette, Louisiana March 6, 2011: Transfiguration – Year A Exodus 24:12-18 2 Peter 1:16-21 Matthew 17:1-9 What an exciting time we are having in the life of this community! What pageantry! What fun! What excess and wastefulness! In fact, I dare say that seven years of good parenting and teaching my kids to say "please" and "thank you" have been undone by watching their parents scream, "Throw me somethin', Mister!" while we step on toys and strings of beads to claim them for our children who climb from our backs to put their spoils in over stuffed bags. One thing we do well here, though, is build up a sense of expectation. We've been waiting for Mardi Gras all year. The barricades were set out a week ago, and now time seems to be moving slower as the parades come and go and we savor each moment. Even in the midst of a parade there is anticipation for the beginning and celebration as they come. There is a sense...

First Presbyterian Church in Lafayette, Louisiana February 27, 2011 – Ordinary A 8 Isaiah 49:8-16a 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 Matthew 6:24-34   As we begin to explore God's word to us today I'm going to take a risk and ask you to play a little game called Word Association with me.   This is a game that can go horribly awry or can be terribly insightful.   With any luck – or maybe I should say, with God's providence – you may get more out of the game than anything else I might have to say.   If nothing else, think of the game as a spiritual exercise.   God is in our midst, and if we open our hearts and minds we might just get a deeper understanding of God's presence.   So, here is how to play: I will say a word, and you will say the first word or phrase that comes to your mind.   Your word does not have to make an obvious logical connection, although it very well might. [The following words were given one at a time with time in between for verbal responses: ...

First Presbyterian Church of Lafayette, Louisiana February 20, 2011: Ordinary 7 - Year A Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23 Matthew 5:38-48   In just about every parental relationship there are some phrases that parents and children use to dig into one another's soft spots.   It's part of "leaving and cleaving" or, to put it in more modern terms, differentiation.   Sometimes I will bait my mother with the compliment, "That's perfect!"   She always says, "Well, you know how I do love being perfect!"   Then I, true to form, will say, "I don't think John Calvin would agree with that, given his feelings about inherent sinfulness." To which I receive the appropriate eye rolling and/or immediate change of subject.   My mother has no delusions of being perfect, of course.   The idea of embracing perfection is, however, a great comfort in her life for there is much chaos in caring for an aging parent with Parkins...

First Presbyterian of Lafayette, Louisiana February 13, 2001 – Year A, Ordinary 6 Deuteronomy 30:15-20 Psalm 119:1-8 (Cantor) 1 Corinthians 3:1-9 Matthew 5:21-37   Some of you may have noticed a sign from a local high school about a play they are running called "Into the Woods."   It's a wonderful story that blends classic European fables into one narrative, finding common ground in the mythic quality of the woods.   The wilderness offers opportunity, conflict, and transformation.   What is even better is that they get to the normal happy ending by the intermission and are forced back into the woods for continued reform during the second half.   Life is like that.   We are always arriving and yet beginning at the same time.   One of those points in my life happened during a brief career as a restaurant manager.   I was assigned as part of a management team to a store that had been struggling.   The new General Manager called the staff together to addres...