Rev. Zach

Acts 2:14a, 36-41 1 Peter 1:17-23 Luke 24:13-35 One of my favorite, so called “reality TV,” shows is the one with the beefy Englishman who comes in and reconstructs a restaurant from the ground up. Maybe you’ve seen it? He takes a failing restaurant and lifts up the barriers to their success. It’s usually the same: uncleanliness (they get used to their own mess), overburdened menus (trying to be everything to everyone and losing a unique character), complacent staff (loss of vision equals loss of passion), and worst of all – bad food. Some customers are brought in; sometimes neighborhood residents are even interviewed, to demonstrate the way in which people from the outside perceive the restaurant and its food and service. Usually the perception of those from outside of the restaurant (customers and neighbors) is quite different from those inside the restaurant (owners and staff). I have to admit that I have a love/hate relationship with the show, because the part where the ...

Sermon Delivered April 22, 2012 – Easter (3B) Psalm 4 Acts 3:12-19 1 John 3:1-7 Luke 24:36-49 Some of you may have noticed that I like to sign my emails with the word, Peace. I often wonder how that is received. Sometimes I will add the word, Grace, because I believe those are two concepts that require one another. We need grace - the unmerited and undeserved favor of God - in order to truly experience peace. Still, I will confess that I sometimes add Grace to Peace because I think that makes the salutation sound a bit more ecclesiastical and a bit less hip. It’s my own little way of reclaiming something our culture has stolen from the church - or maybe we have given it away. The result is the same either way. Some time ago I was venting about some injustice to a group of colleagues. I signed the email with “disturbance” instead of peace. It was, again, my own little way of saying that I do not wish for equilibrium in the presence of injustice. My hope was not for the sublime tra...