Rev. Zach

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23 Colossians 3:1-11 Luke 12:13-21 Recently my daughter confirmed something that I have been dreading. She read a few references from a meme that demonstrated the fact that the ’80s are for her as the ’50s were for me. That’s a little depressing, as I have an idealized view of the ’50s and a crassly cynical view of the ’80s. It was, however, a simpler time. In the summer of 1987, I was a junior in High School. We had no internet. I had a car and a job as a clerk in a video store (my generation’s version of a soda jerk). We had no air conditioning, and on warm Georgia nights I would listen to crickets and tree frogs and my hound dog, Penney. I would also listen to a college radio station – 88.5, Album 88 – that played the deft sounds of punk rock. The Ramones and the Clash would lull me to sleep. One night I heard the Godfathers play a song that would stay with me forever. They sang “I’ve been high and I’ve been low, but I don’t know which way t...

Genesis 9:8-17     Psalm 25:1-10     1 Peter 3:18-22     Mark 1:9-15 “Repent and believe in the Good News!”   Haven’t we heard this before?  Yes.  Over and over again throughout our lives together as Christians we hear Jesus telling us to repent and believe in the good news.  We hear it so much that the words become like wallpaper and background noise to a faith that seems increasingly divorced from the real world.  Even those outside the church seem so familiar with these words that “repent and believe the good news” has become like a sound loop repeating empty phrases as though the church were a bar that some people enjoyed at least once a week (or twice a year).  Added to this general disconnect are special seasons with funny names and practices like Advent and Lent that don’t even make sense to many of us who practice the faith together.  A friend of mine from seminary, the Rev. Jim Moss, recently raised the ...

First Presbyterian – Lafayette, Louisiana February 19, 2012 – Transfiguration (B) Baptism of Hayden Elizabeth Albarado 2 Kings 2:1-14 1 Peter 3:18-22 Mark 9:10-20 Today is an amazing day! It is a day of celebrating covenants - a day celebrating new beginnings and restoration. Today we have baptized one of God’s beloved daughters! Today we have blown the dust off of the baptismal font, poured sacred water, and spoken words of hope in a world of doubt. Today, we have made a bold statement that shines like light in a darkened room. Now some have asked why we baptize infants, and why we don’t immerse. I have actually done a baptism by immersion, so it is not as if we don’t allow it. We just don’t require it. Some time ago, I remember hearing a comedy routine from the Rev. Grady Nutt about an old country baptism in a stream. There was a young preacher who accidentally immersed someone downstream. That man got a chunk of moss up his nose and commenced to form a new church ...