Rev. Zach

Job 42:1-6, 10-17     1 Corinthians 3:1-10     Mark 10:46-52 Words are important. That may sound like a silly thing to say, but words matter. Words help us understand and interpret our world in ways that no other creature can interpret. When words are foreign or unfamiliar they trip our tongues and leave us feeling embarrassed or unsure if we have even communicated what we intended. This happens in restaurants across the land every day. I ’ ll never forget the night when I learned what steak tar-tar was, right in front of my date for prom. Sometimes we even remake words to fit our own objectives. Although there are plenty of examples of public gaffs in the news, my favorite is a personal experience. Several years ago my father (pronounced in southernese as “ fah-thah ” ) was writing down my itinerary for an international flight. I told him we would be flying into Accra. He asked me how to spell it. I told him. He repeated, “ You ’ ll be flyin...

Job 1:1, 2:1-10      Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12 As I think on the scriptures we have read today, I am reminded of the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoddard.   The two lead characters stumble upon a traveling band of actors that call themselves “ Tragedians, ” because they only perform tragedies.   When asked if these were works of antiquity, their leader replies: “ We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school.   Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive.   But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood.   Blood is compulsory.   They're all blood, you see. ” Blood is compulsory in the story of human history.   Even as we continue to search for our evolutionary roots we can ’ t help but ask questions about blood.   We spill it.   We keep it.   We honor i...