Rev. Zach

Psalm 23 Mark 12:28-34 Last Sunday we began with praise from a member for the courage that it took to continue meeting, and he reminded us to put our trust in the Lord without fear. Our scriptures affirmed that claim, but they also reminded us that true worship is not in a place but rather it is a spiritual reality that we embrace and move into together. That’s the space that we are in today as we worship together online, in spirit and truth. In that space, we are confronted with all we have done and with all that we are. In that space, we are confronted with Jesus, the one who has just cleansed the temple! After clearing out the money changers and absolutely breaking down the normal pattern of worship he sat down to teach them what it meant to live worshipful lives. It was a custom in those days for those present to ask a question after the reading of the Tora or in reference to it. There would often be a discussion. Sometimes it was a little more like a Bible study than what w

Today’s bulletin art and the artist’s statement come from Hannah Garrity of A Sanctified Art , and they are a reflection on our Old Testament passage, as the people of Israel near the end of their wilderness journey. In her statement, Hannah uses some feminine pronouns for God, and that may be a little off-putting to you if you aren’t used to it. She uses masculine ones as well and she does so in order to keep with Biblical witness of God as the one in whose image both men and women were created. Scripture also refers to God at times as a mother hen, a mother bear, and even as a woman in labor, and she is writing out of that tradition. As you hear these words, I invite you to look at the cover of the bulletin and consider how God might be speaking to you through Hannah’s work and Biblical witness. “It is in the wilderness that we question God. Is God among us? Is God here? Are you there, God? It’s me, calling out to you. In this text, God proves her presence by telling Moses to str

One of my core beliefs is that the youth of the church are not the future of the church any more than the elderly are the past. We are the church together, as it is, here and now. This past Sunday was a clear and present example. Worship was designed and led by youth reflecting on scripture, supported by adults, and creating intergenerational opportunities to grow in faith together. The young women who preached sat in chairs around the communion table and began with a sip from a coffee mug. Their sermon begins below. See the whole thing on Facebook Live . Zoe...Hi guys. There’s a lot of things in today’s day and age that makes life really hard. Being younger, we have a lot of stuff to figure out for ourselves while also trying to get wisdom from our elders, without becoming an exact copy of them. These challenges make it easy to give up. Make it easy to walk away. As Christians, we have lots of questions. What is God, really? What is faith? Why were we spared from sin? Kate...1st

Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7 Romans 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11 Jesus was baptized and led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit of God. That’s how the story of his temptation begins. He was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to fast and pray and be tempted by the very presence of evil. Have you ever thought about that? I’ve heard this story a thousand times, but I’ve never thought about the way it overlaps with the Lord’s prayer. That prayer comes from the disciples asking Jesus how to pray, and he told them to start with glory, move to basic needs, repent for sin between us and between God, and beg that we do not have to face the same kind of trial that he did. Of course, it ends giving glory to God, too. I’ve always wondered why God would lead us into temptation in the first place, but I guess the real issue is that temptation always seems to come along in the wilderness. That’s not to say that there is some weird demonic force living in the woods. The woods are not the s