Rev. Zach

Micah 6:1-8 ; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 ; Matthew 5:1-12 Do you want some good news? Jesus. Jesus is the good news. That’s my favorite preacher/dad joke, and I’m not sorry about it at all – because it’s not a joke, but it is funny that no one ever expects it. Want some more good news? Here’s some good news from 2022 that you might have missed: An aquarium in Boston has saved over 150 sea turtles from the cold, including 120 endangered Kemp’s Ridley turtles; an aircraft engine prototype has been proven to run on hydrogen; Abu Dahbi has reduced the number of single-use plastic bags it uses by half a million per day; inventors and investors are now mining our oceans for trash and using its current to generate electricity; Scotland is approaching 100% reliance on renewable energy; Turkey has developed a solar farm supporting 15,000 farmers and their families with free electricity; the US has for the first time produced more energy through renewable sources than coal production; a married coupl...

Isaiah 9:1-4 ; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18 ; Matthew 4:12-23 Last week we talked about the invitation of Jesus to abide with us. We looked at the call of discipleship from the lens of John’s gospel and we talked about the way that we, as the body of Christ, may become the lens through which someone else may see the Kingdom of Heaven as though it were right here in our midst. As beautiful as that sounds, that’s some heavy stuff. As we try to reconcile life and faith and all the institutional stuff that goes with being a congregation with a building and a staff – and members who each have their own deep spiritual longing – the call of discipleship can be a little overwhelming. Most of us just want to go to church, hear the good news, and be encouraged so that we can get through all the other stuff that we have to deal with from day to day. I wonder how many of us feel like that – like you have too much on your plate? Sometimes life can be like this pile of rocks (picking them up one at a time...

Isaiah 49:1-7 ; 1 Corinthians 1:1-9 ; John 1:29-42 Let’s play word association. I’ll say a word and you shout out the first word or phrase that comes to mind. I’ll start with an easy one – Peanut Butter. [I repeat their responses: jelly, bread, honey…] Great! What about faith? [hope, love, belief] How about Discipline? [hard, rules, study] Last one – Discipleship. [follow, student] That was great, thanks! I was wondering if we would make it back to peanut butter on that last one, because of the practice of collecting peanut butter for the UCO, but I wasn’t necessarily expecting it. Maybe that’ll come later. Discipleship is the theme for the day, and it will be again next Sunday according to our readings, so I’d like to come back to that word for a minute and see how it makes you feel. By the word “feel” I am referring to core emotions. According to the late Robert Plutchick, Psychologist and researcher, there are 8 core emotions – each with its opposite – including joy and sadness, tr...

Isaiah 42:1-9 , Acts 10:34-43 , Matthew 3:13-17 It seems odd that just last week we were kneeling at the manger and now we are wading in the waters of the river Jordan with John and Jesus. The author of Matthew’s Gospel has their own reasons for that, which we’ll get into in a minute, but first I want to touch back on Kris Newman’s message from last week. If you were not here, she spoke of the experience of the Magi who were redirected by their divine purpose and how attending to God’s activity in the world will do the same for us. As a prompt for how God might do this, we handed out “Star Words” last week, and there are more in the back in case you need one for yourself or a friend. Some of them may seem a little obscure, but our hope is that they will make you think and challenge you to open your heart to God’s activity. My word is “Freedom.” That may sound like a good one – and it is – but I’ll also say that we’ve been doing this for a few years now and I think this is the most ch...