Rev. Zach

Sermon Delivered August 26, 2012  Psalm 34:15-22 Ephesians 6:10-20 John 6:56-69 Some things in life are simply unacceptable. People all have their thresholds, though. For example, there are some people who will send back an overcooked steak in a restaurant and some who will not. Everyone has his own reason. Maybe you feel that you should get what you are paying for. Maybe you don’t want to cause trouble. Maybe you want to be helpful by making sure the management and kitchen know the quality of their product. Maybe you’re with a group and you don’t want to hold anyone up. As for me, I used to be a lot more picky about it than I am now. Part of me hopes that I am not jinxing myself or the lunch bunch [group that meets monthly in local restaurants]  today, but I do believe that in this context coincidence is easier to justify theologically than instant karma. God’s love and activity is both bigger and more particular than my sandwich. I am certain that God’s influence is in...

Sermon Delivered on August 19, 2012  1 Kings 3:3-14 Ephesians 5:15-20 John 6:51-58 Have you ever been so engrossed in a book or a project that you did not notice that the lights were still off until someone else turned them on? Or how about looking for your glasses when they are on your head or your keys when they are in your hand along with five other things? These are moments that make you say, “Duh.” These are moments that confirm our humanity by our obvious limitations. These are moments that remind me of comments of elders from my youth. Comments like, “Don’t you have enough sense to come in out of the rain?” Or, “If your head wasn’t attached, I bet you’d leave it somewhere.” Of course whenever I would tell my mother that I was trying she would simply sigh and say, “Yes. Yes, you are.” Then again, one of my favorite of her euphemisms was, “Boy, you talk like someone a tree fell on.” I’m not sure what the current phrase might have been for that type of thing in Jesus’ day ...

Sermon Delivered on August 12, 2012  Psalm 34:1-8 Ephesians 4:25 - 5:2 John 6:35, 41-51 In 1991 a brilliant and troubled artist let out a cry for help that became a short lived anthem for a generation of apparently apathetic teenagers who were raised in excess. Smells like Teen Spirit was both a pun and a rallying cry. It was a canary screaming garbled speech about those who were united through feelings of meaningless. The canary screamed before 9/11, before the term “school shooting” existed, and during a time of relative peace when I naively believed that our nation might have an entire generation live and die without partaking in the game of kings known as war. What a different world it is today, and how I wish that we had the things to complain about now that we did then. I guess everyone who lives long enough says that at some point. Perhaps that longing for something more perfect is why we enjoy the Olympics so much. Competition is pure – or at least it can be. Perhaps ...

I hear a woman's chatter, deep and low . Storms have uprooted cities While she and her cats grimaced With pearl and onyx. Bangles on her wrist chatter as she rises Whispering secrets of survival And communion to her friend, While I exist as a gnat on fruit Sucking life from their conversation. Still my joints ache from battles less sacred. Still the clouds and their gray dresses Appear as indicators of my distress. And the women warriors to my left, Having been drawn together by the same demon, Speak of tenacity and expectation As the path of salvation. More so it seems that in the sharing of their pain They have seen it's end; Not to say that pain is over, More so that it's purpose is made clear. I wrote this poem as a pleasant distraction while studying the lectionary at a coffee shop. One of the women who inspired it noticed my copy of Feasting On The Word, and asked about it. Her name is Karen. Turns out she is living on Social Security and taking a course on Medical ...

Sermon Delivered August 5, 2012 Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15 Ephesians 4:1-16 John 6:24-35 The bread of life, the bread of heaven – these are phrases that are typically only spoken in Christian worship. Here’s one that is a lot like it that I bet you’ve heard in a lot of different situations – the stuff of life. Now that’s one you could hear or say  just about anywhere!  Sometimes “the stuff” is a really satisfying meal. Sometimes it is something less tangible like a memory or an observation of someone else’s experience. Children playing, a young couple struggling, a husband or friend sitting by a bedside in a hospital – that’s the stuff of life. We make it through life experiencing both joy and sadness, both hope and fear.  Kahlil Gibran once wrote , “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” Of course it does not feel that way when we are in the bottom of that cup. When you are in the bottom of that cup you just want to get ...

Notes from a sermon delivered on July 29, 2012 by Dr. Tom Tucker, PhD., Cuba mission partnership team member and Treasurer for the Presbytery of South Louisiana. Job 14: 1-12 John 4: 7-12 Mark 12: 48 – 13:2 Job reminds us man is mortal.  He also reminds us that some of God’s creations have the capacity to regenerate.  More importantly Job tells us there is hope – hope that humankind might find eternity. Jesus in his ministry traveled back and forth between Galilee and Judea, passing through Samaria.  On one trip he spoke with the Samaritan woman.  Jesus being fully human and fully Devine was thirsty.  The scripture goes on beyond quenching human thirst.  Jesus used the occasion to build the analogy of living water, that whosoever drinks of His living water shall not be thirsty for spiritual water ever again and those who believe shall have eternal life. In Mark 12 Jesus is at the height of his ministry.  He has returned to Jeru...