Rev. Zach

Isaiah 9:2-7 I’m so glad you are here! Through whatever difficulties it took to get here tonight, you made it! Through whatever trials you’ve been through this year, you’ve made it to this night. We have come together. We have made it through another year to come together and celebrate the journey of two peasants who traveled across territories and borders in order to protect the most valuable gift ever given – the child who would grow to become the one we call Jesus. This was God in God’s most vulnerable state. It seems funny to say that they protected God in God’s most vulnerable state, but in a way that is exactly what they did. It seems odd to think that we might be given that same opportunity – right here, right now – but in a way we are. That may not be what you came for – the opportunity to care for God in God’s most vulnerable state – but it is the reason you are here. The gift of Christmas – the reason for the season – is that we are confronted with the fact that God loves u...

First Presbyterian Church - Lafayette, Louisiana Christmas Eve - December 25, 2011 Isaiah 9:2-7 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-20 A few days ago I was listening to some Christmas music and folding some clothes after the kids went to bed. Something vaguely Celtic was playing, and I happened to pick up a long sleeved shirt. For some reason that combination of culture and worn fabric made something in my soul lurch toward another climate - not just another climate, but also toward places with people that I have shared some particular experiences with. There is something about this time of year that makes even the least sentimental of us consider our basic need for connection, and it makes us long for the familiar, for the proven, and for the people and places we love or long to be loved by. The littlest things can set us off. An ornament, a song, a smell, maybe even a cookie - these are a few of my favorite things. These are the things we are told to remember when the dog bites ...