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...

Micah 6:1-8 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 Matthew 5:1-12 Before reading Matthew 5:1-12, I encourage you to consider substituting “honored” or “envied” instead of “blessed,” as some scholars have suggested. This truly changes the weight of the passage from “those who have it rough now will get a prize in the end” to “those who suffer offer us a deeper understanding of God’s active presence.” At the risk of sounding dismissive to suffering, I must confess that it’s hard for me to read this passage without the influence and theological questioning of the recently deceased, Terry Jones, a founding member of the Monty Python comedy troupe and the director of the film, The Life of Brian. For those who are unaware, The Life of Brian was a satirical and sacrilegious parody of the life of Jesus of Nazareth. There is a scene in the film in which Jesus is delivering his “sermon on the mount” which includes the Beatitudes of Jesus. The camera pans wide from the masses, and the further out it g...