Rev. Zach

John 1:1-18   This past Wednesday a small group of us met for prayer as we often do on Wednesdays at 11:30. You can join us by zoom if you would like. We often have a few that join that way. You can call the church and we’ll send you the link if you don’t have it already. Anyway, last week Susan Cormier, who is a church member and also our Administrative Assistant, realized that lately, we have not been starting off our prayer meetings by sharing our joys! Shame on us. Joy and thanksgiving should be the root of prayer! When we begin anything with joy and gratitude, then everything becomes a response to God’s grace, whether we know it or not, and even if we reject or deny it. That’s why – in the words of my old theology professor from seminary, Doug Ottati –  we begin worship with confession of sin and the proclamation of salvation, or rather, as he said in class one day, “The good news of salvation is baked into our liturgy.” Sometimes we need a reminder that salvation is not ...

Isaiah 13:1-13 Hebrews 12:18-29 John 3:22-30 As I began to write these words I became overwhelmed with a feeling of inadequacy. I was reminded of a recent comic strip that had a story inside a story. The first three pains were of a hero falling off a cliff saying to himself, “How do I get out of this? Think, think!” Then, just before impact he resigns to say, “Nope. I got nothin’.” The last frame shows someone looking over the shoulder of the author of the story and saying, “Wow. So that’s what writer’s block looks like?” Tragedy makes us feel powerless, and we do not like feeling powerless (note comment by Angele McCord following this article ). In the wake of reports from the senseless shooting of 20 innocent children and 6 courageous women, nothing seems to make sense. Social media sites exploded with reactions on every side of the issues this opened up. (Interestingly – I could not think of a non-violent term to describe the spontaneous spike in activity. Violence is s...

First Presbyterian Church - Lafayette, Louisiana December 11, 2011 - Advent (3B) Isaiah 35:1-10 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24 Luke 1:26-31 Expectations for events related to Christmas have reached a fever pitch in our country. Of course it was hard to get any worse than the day after Thanksgiving - a day when someone somewhere is usually trampled for the love of a TV or toaster or toy. This year a woman pepper sprayed a group of people in order to protect her children while trying to buy an Xbox. Between the madness of our culture and the busy pace of family and friends, it all becomes somewhat of a caricature. Sometimes I’m not sure if I feel like Bugs Bunny trying to ask fleeing creatures for direction while the Tasmanian Devil approaches or Charlie Brown asking Linus if anyone knows the true meaning of Christmas. Tonight we will celebrate a Christmas dinner as a congregation, and one thing we will do is answer Charlie Brown’s question. In the Friendship Pads you will notice some c...