Rev. Zach

2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a     Ephesians 4:1-16     John 6:24-35 Whenever I read these passages that describe Jesus in conversation with a crowd, I must admit that I can’t help but think of it as a little bit like a Monty Python sketch.  I mean no disrespect to the Lord, or to the text.  It simply seems slightly comical to have a crowd speaking as one with Jesus.  I think that there is some implicit humor in the text, though. They had all gotten in boats to follow him across the Sea of Galilee.  When they catch up to him they say something like, “Hey, Rabi.  Fancy meeting you here!”   Of course Jesus calls them to account by telling them that they are working awfully hard for something that is not going to last.  That is the core of the Gospel teaching today – the tension between things that are temporary and things that are eternal.  All of us get caught up in that same struggle from time to time.  In fact, the str...

Hosea 1:2-10 Psalm 85:1-13 Colossians 2:6-15 Luke 11:1-13 Our Gospel Lesson today was recently the topic of debate in our Wednesday night book study, as it was featured in the book, Preaching The Hard Sayings Of Jesus by Dr. John T. and the Rev. James R. Carroll. The Carrolls – a father and son team – suggest an underlying current of tenacity in prayer as the essential teaching of this lesson. As I considered this passage and the related threads in the tapestry of God’s word for us today, I remembered the work of another theologian – the late, great Charles Schultz . Consider his perspective on the topic. “Stubbornness is a fault. Tenacity is a virtue.” But how do we know? How do we know when we are being “merely tenacious” or just being stubborn? I think there is a fine line and a slippery slope at the edge of tenacity and stubbornness. Hosea – who is just a bucket of sunshine, by the way – spoke in a time when things were going great for the Northern Kingdom of Israe...

Sermon Delivered August 5, 2012 Exodus 16:2-4, 9-15 Ephesians 4:1-16 John 6:24-35 The bread of life, the bread of heaven – these are phrases that are typically only spoken in Christian worship. Here’s one that is a lot like it that I bet you’ve heard in a lot of different situations – the stuff of life. Now that’s one you could hear or say  just about anywhere!  Sometimes “the stuff” is a really satisfying meal. Sometimes it is something less tangible like a memory or an observation of someone else’s experience. Children playing, a young couple struggling, a husband or friend sitting by a bedside in a hospital – that’s the stuff of life. We make it through life experiencing both joy and sadness, both hope and fear.  Kahlil Gibran once wrote , “The deeper that sorrow carves into your being, the more joy you can contain.” Of course it does not feel that way when we are in the bottom of that cup. When you are in the bottom of that cup you just want to get ...