Rev. Zach

Isaiah 6:1-8, Mark 12:28-31 Love the Lord your God with all that you have and all that you are, and love your neighbor as yourself – easier said than done sometimes, isn’t it? Still, that is the summary of the law offered by Jesus, and it is also, in a sense, his invitation into the Kingdom of God. At least, when the scribe agreed with Jesus, he then said to the scribe, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” Today I want to talk about God’s invitation to us to love and to be loved as we try to tell people how close they are to the Kingdom of God. I think the first thing we have to do is hear that for ourselves. Do you know how close you are to the Kingdom of God? It is as close as your next interaction, maybe even with yourself when you look in the mirror. In the end, that’s who you have to be true to, right? Isn’t that what Polonius told his son, Laertes, in the play, Hamlet? “To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any ...

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...