Rev. Zach

Joel 2:23-32     1 Corinthians 12:12-31     Luke 5:1-11 Today begins a three-part series based on scriptures that reflect on topics from the book, I Am A Church Member by Thom S. Rainer. I learned of this book from another Pastor in a group of Pastors that I meet with regularly to pray and study and help one another to faithfully approach the task of preaching. Given that we just had a class of new members join, I thought it might be a good time to think about what it means to be the Body of Christ that is the church and individually members of the same body. So, pop quiz! Last week we had an insert for the baptism that included all kinds of stuff from the Book of Order that talked about the things that members do. Can anyone tell me anything that they remember from that list? It doesn’t have to be a direct quote, but what are some of the things that members of the church do? [Members gave various answers.] Those are some great answers! They all su...

Jeremiah 31:27-34 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 Luke 18:1-8 What a great day it is to be alive in the kin(g)dom of God! Today we baptized a child and celebrated God’s calling upon 10 adults – and their children with them – to be counted in the family and household of God. Today is one of those beautiful days when all my fears and anxieties about the church as a limited human project are proven wrong! Now, if that sounds a little odd to have the Pastor say that he worries about the church as a limited enterprise, welcome to Reformed Protestant theology, where we are pretty certain that the church is more of a hospital for forgiven sinners than it is a hotel for saints. By that I mean that we are keenly aware of our sinful nature, our need for forgiveness, and the fact that all we say and do is in response to the grace and mercy of God! That does not mean that we are inherently bad people. It just means that we are more wired for self-preservation than we sometimes realize, and without...

L amentations 1:1-6, 3:19-26 2 Timothy 1:1-14 Luke 17:5-10 Today we read of mercy and the promise of life. So, you bunch of “ worthless slaves ,” tell me what mercy is, anyway? It’s not a word that we tend to use very often. In fact, a search in Google Books reveals that it was highly used in the 1800s and hit an all-time low in the 1980s. It seems to be coming back a little bit, at least in published literature, but what does Mercy actually mean? [Answers given from members include helping, compassion, stopping a punishment.] Those are good answers. It probably meant all of those things in the past, but I imagine the concept of mercy is applied a little differently in today’s court system than in the 1800s. I think the simplest form of mercy that we can all appreciate is when someone makes the bad stuff stop. When we suffer a loss, or when we just plain suffer, our souls cry out, “Mercy!” A few years ago I was in a place of deep suffering. My father-in-law had die...