Rev. Zach

Sermon Delivered May 20, 2012 – Easter (7B)  Psalm 1 1 John 5:9-13 John 17:6-19 As we begin to wrestle with these texts today - with their claims of exclusivity and condemnation - I’d like you to consider the idea of belonging. What does it mean to you to belong? Who, or what, do you belong to? Most of us have so many allegiances in our lives that we sometimes feel that we are in the midst of a competition, or perhaps we are being competed over. We live somewhere in the midst of family considerations, Doctor’s orders, financial obligations, the needs of our friends, and - heaven forbid - even the opportunity for relaxation and enjoyment. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between the people, places, and things that belong to us and the people, places, and things that we belong to. Belonging certainly implies ownership, indeed “to be the property of a person or thing” is one of the definitions of belonging prescribed by www.merriam-webster.com . There is a lot more to ...

Don't  you just love a good scandal? I mean - as long as it is not wrecking my life it has a certain entertainment value, no? I would love to earmark this as a sign of the downfall of modern civilization, or perhaps trash the feaux reality dramas like Desperate Housewives and GCB . Don't get me started on either of these or the way in which they do more to re-enforce negative images of women - and Christianity - than they do to empower real people who might actually be lacking in their options in life. Anyway, the reality they point to is that both Ecclesiastes and Carl Jung are right. There is nothing new under the sun and our collective conscience does love repetition - both for good and for ill. Scandals are just plain yummy - whether they are real or imagined. Still, I'm not entirely sure where the need for the narrative of scandal comes from, but I would guess it is something close to schadenfreude - the sick pleasure of watching someone else get busted when you k...

Psalm 22:25-31 1 John 4:7-21 John 15:1-8 I have a love/hate relationship with exercise. I always have. God has blessed me with a high metabolism and with the lack of ability to sit still, so I have always been relatively fit. The only time I have ever attempted to lose weight intentionally was when the weight classes dropped half way through wrestling season in high school. I ended up staying the same, which bumped me into a higher weight class with larger, stronger boys that found me to be about as competitive as a mop. Unfortunately I have never had much of a need to become more fit, other than general health and a nagging desire to fit into societal expectations of physical prowess. I’ve never had a real goal. I’ve never had any real motivation. As I get a little older - and I am well aware that I am far from aged - there are some new motivations creeping that are not apparent from the surface. Of course, the reality is that all of us, regardless of age and stage, need to care for...