Rev. Zach

One of my core beliefs is that the youth of the church are not the future of the church any more than the elderly are the past. We are the church together, as it is, here and now. This past Sunday was a clear and present example. Worship was designed and led by youth reflecting on scripture, supported by adults, and creating intergenerational opportunities to grow in faith together. The young women who preached sat in chairs around the communion table and began with a sip from a coffee mug. Their sermon begins below. See the whole thing on Facebook Live . Zoe...Hi guys. There’s a lot of things in today’s day and age that makes life really hard. Being younger, we have a lot of stuff to figure out for ourselves while also trying to get wisdom from our elders, without becoming an exact copy of them. These challenges make it easy to give up. Make it easy to walk away. As Christians, we have lots of questions. What is God, really? What is faith? Why were we spared from sin? Kate...1st ...

– The Rev. Zach Sasser 1 Samuel 3:1-11; 19-20       1 Corinthians 12:14-27      John 3:16-17 Before reading the Old Testament lesson, Jeff asked you to think about the roles of Eli and Samuel in listening for and receiving God’s calling. For those who may not know the backstory, this took place in a town called Shiloh, and it happened before the time of Kings in Israel. Shiloh was a central meeting place for the 12 tribes as they divided the promised land and began to expand their territories. It also became a source of power to compete against in the internal struggles between tribes. In the midst of that a barren woman named Hannah, Samuel’s mother, made an oath to God – which was blessed by Eli – that if given a child she would dedicate her child to God. Samuel was eventually brought to the temple, and Eli became kind of a father figure to him. Samuel was still young enough that he would listen to Eli – which was important given t...

Nehemiah 8:1-10       1 Corinthians 12:12-31a       Luke 4:14-21 Have you ever had one of those moments when it was confirmed deep within your soul that what you were doing was wrong? I don’t mean simple mistakes. I’m talking about realizing that some of your actions – or even patterns of behavior – are entirely disconnected from your values. All of us have some moment like that – some dark night of the soul – if we live long enough, or at least I hope that we do. Otherwise we may never see ways to correct our imperfections and truly become what we have been created to become. Otherwise we might live our lives like a spare part and never know it. Most of us have drawers full of those little parts that we hold on to because they might be useful someday – an extra screw or one of those weird little rubber things that went to a shelf, or a desk, or something. The Israelites in today’s passage were certainly confronted with the idea that they had been less th...

Sermon Delivered on September 2, 2012 Psalm 146 James 2:1-10, 14-17 Mark 7:24-37 I met a guy the other day who is a computer programmer. He’s one of the parents on my son’s soccer team. When small talk led to the inevitable, “So, what do you do?”, he stated his occupation and followed it with a shrug, a smirk, and the moniker of pride and shame, “Geek.” What a transformation that term has gone through, thanks to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs – the patron Saints of technology. [Owen Rachal interrupts, “Excuse me, Zach? Technically speaking – St. Isidore of Seville is the patron saint of the Internet, computers, computer users and computer technicians. He is the patron saint of technology.”] Thanks, Owen. As I was saying, Geek used to be a term of derision and shame. Children’s songs were composed about the weak and pitiful creature known as the pencil-necked geek. But not anymore! Now they are our heroes and members of squadrons of deployable helpers for our technical needs. I must say...

Speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. ( Ephesians 4:15 ). Communication is an essential aspect of any society. In everything we do, we communicate something of ourselves with someone else. Even during times when we feel isolated - or when we choose to be - we are still interacting with goods and services that have the imprint of someone else's soul upon them. So, whether we are intentionally communicating or not, we are always interacting with others through the expression of our character. Some time ago I can recall psychologists making a big deal about nonverbal communication, or body language. Recent studies have shown there to be over ten thousand visibly differing facial expressions! Very few of us are aware of the subtle cues we give off that belie our true feelings. Gamblers call this a tell. A tell gives you away when you are bluffing. A tell is an expression of anxiety - a twitch of the ...