Rev. Zach

Exodus 3:10, 4:13;  Joshua 1:1, 5, 9;  2 Timothy 1:7 Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.’ I once had a mentor tell me that most people are either afraid of failure or success, and if you can figure out which one you are afraid of then you can challenge that fear and overcome it. That may very well be true, but I think it’s a little messier than that. What I mean to say is that, at some point, everyone has the experience of being afraid of failure and, at some point, everyone has the experience of being afraid of success. Maybe you have not thought of it in these terms before, so let me say it another way. Fear of failure is mostly based on past experiences. This is why a child with no concept of what it means to swim will walk right into a pool when it sees others swimming. It has no reason to believe that it can’t swim – no concept of what it means to sink. Afterward, this child will know what it means...

  Matthew 6:25a, 27 Isaiah 41:10 Psalm 56:3-4 It was so good to hear and see the way that God’s word is being put into action through the testimonies of those that read our scriptures today! Whether it’s just dealing with the mundane stuff of life or actually living through the worst hurricane to hit land since 1856 – it’s good to know that God is good, we are not alone, and we can trust that whatever we are dealing with right now is not what we will be dealing with forever. There will always be disasters, and some of the burdens we bear are just part of the life we live, but today we are reminded that we have nothing to fear and no reason to worry. Now, before I go any further, I have to say that there are times when hearing someone say that “we have nothing to fear and no reason to worry” is about the last thing that I want to hear. It makes me think of the scene in Toy Story where Buzz Lightyear (the toy who thinks he’s an actual space ranger) tells Sheriff Woody (the toy who j...

Luke 14:12-24 Last Wednesday in our Agape Prayer group meeting, a member shared what a joy it was to see my wife at the grocery store. Now, my wife is a lovely person, in fact, we just celebrated 20 years of marriage together, but it is interesting that – in our current state of affairs – a chance meeting in the grocery store is cause for celebration. It makes me wonder who else is longing for the touch of another person’s hand – a friend, a stranger, anyone really. We are all longing for hugs and handshakes and the physical, tactile reminder that we are not alone in the universe. The mere suggestion of a sporting event sends some of us into shock, and our church buildings and public spaces seem to have an almost magnetic pull when we think about them. We long for Sunday dinners and BBQs and all of our rituals of community formation. It makes me think back to Sunday dinners at home as a child, church suppers here in our fellowship hall, and open grill nights in seminary. We would fire ...