Rev. Zach

John 1:1-18   This past Wednesday a small group of us met for prayer as we often do on Wednesdays at 11:30. You can join us by zoom if you would like. We often have a few that join that way. You can call the church and we’ll send you the link if you don’t have it already. Anyway, last week Susan Cormier, who is a church member and also our Administrative Assistant, realized that lately, we have not been starting off our prayer meetings by sharing our joys! Shame on us. Joy and thanksgiving should be the root of prayer! When we begin anything with joy and gratitude, then everything becomes a response to God’s grace, whether we know it or not, and even if we reject or deny it. That’s why – in the words of my old theology professor from seminary, Doug Ottati –  we begin worship with confession of sin and the proclamation of salvation, or rather, as he said in class one day, “The good news of salvation is baked into our liturgy.” Sometimes we need a reminder that salvation is not ...

Jeremiah 18:1-11 This week has been a trying week on the souls of many in our nation. Indeed, many people around the world have found it difficult to watch and to understand the election process in these United States, and yet they are watching and they want to understand. They want to understand because they know something that we don’t. They know what it’s like to have a foreign power with influence over their lives. There are certainly foreign powers that attempt to influence our lives all the time, but there is so much more of the world that turns on the value of the U.S. Dollar than we have any notion of understanding. Even in our weakest moments, we have more power than most do in their strongest moments. That’s not to say that the economic power we hold on the world stage is shared equally – and we could argue all day about whether that is fair and just – but it does lead me to share one of my favorite election year memes. “Do not let your allegiance to the donkey or the elephan...

Acts 4:32-35     Psalm 133:1-3     1 John 1:1-2:2     John 20:19-31 Today we have some of the most romantic passages in the lectionary.  I don’t mean that they are all lovey dovey.  I mean they are the stuff of dreams.  They are the kind of passages that draw many of us to think of ideal images of the church in harmony and Jesus returning to calm fears, answer doubts, and give power to those who follow him.  These are certainly good images to hold onto, but there may be more to it than that. For me, theses readings conjure up memories of singing around a campfire.  It usually began with a two-part harmony chorus.  The boys would often start – some faking a low voice until they could make one, or at least hide their awkward squeaks in the group. Walkin’, walkin’, walkin’ in the light  Walkin’, walkin’, walkin’ in the light  Then the girls would come in a little too high before settling into somethin...

2 Kings 2:1-12     2 Corinthians 4:3-6     Mark 9:2-9 I was recently looking through some old photos and thinking about the changes that come with life’s events.  Most particularly I was looking through photos of my wife’s early life in ballet.  Of course that was just one part her life, but it was a fairly substantial part.  From the outside looking in, it is amazing to see the changes that have resulted in the astonishing woman that I now call my wife.  As she and I look back over our own children’s lives it gives us great joy to see how they have grown and changed.  Of course it is easiest to see the changes we all go through in our younger years.  You might even argue that entire economic systems revolve around masking physical changes as life goes on.  No matter what we do, change is a constant, metabolic reality that we experience every day. We may not like it, but for the most part we live with it.  We take ...

Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4       Ephesians 1:11-23        Luke 6:20-31 Although the landscape of North American literature is not quite as littered by self-help materials as it may have been in recent years, the “How To” and the “Idiot’s Guide To” Just About Anything You Never Wanted to Know, are still out there. In fact I would say that our general orientation has been slightly skewed to include looking for a step by step guide instead of thinking critically and problem solving. Perhaps that is nothing new. The words of Habakkuk were written in a time when people wanted to know how and why they were experiencing misfortune. They wanted to know how God could be involved in it, or to at least be given a reason why God wasn’t. And God tells Habakkuk to write the vision. “Write the vision? You don’t know what the vision is? All right. Wait for it…it’ll come.” That’s what the Lord tells Habakkuk. In the verses that follow, there is a bit more de...

Joshua 5:9‐12 Psalm 32 2 Corinthians 5:16‐21 Luke 15:1‐3, 11b‐32 Sermon audio is available here for up to one month. In the congregaIon I served before coming here the officers and staff all received an assessment of gifts through a company that specialized in organizaIonal dynamics. Many of you have probably done something similar if you work in a management capacity with a large firm or corporaIon. It was very insightful, and I think it helped us all understand each other’s motives and perspecIves. Without boring you with the details of it, one thing that I learned about myself (that everyone who has had a five minute conversaIon with me already knows) is that I am a change maker. What I did not realize at the time is that most people are more interested in consistency than change. Not only that, but change without purpose is really very self serving. So, there you have it. That is my Achilles' heal exposed. That is the disgrace that God rolls away from me again and again. Fi...

Exodus 34:29-35 Psalm 99 2 Corinthians 3:12-4:2 Luke 9:28-44 Sermon audio is available here for up to one month. Veils are strange things to us culturally. They’ve been around for centuries, but have rarely been associated with men. I think that is one of the reasons that this story about Moses is so strange. But here we have it – this story about the impact on Moses of talking directly to God. His face was said to shine so brightly that it was unnerving to others. So he hid his face from them – unless he needed to share something with them that he had received from God. As weird as this story is, I think it inspires some wishful thinking in all of us. Wouldn’t it be nice to hear more directly from God? I mean, chances are that I know what God would say when it comes to the small stuff. Yes, I need to floss. No, it is not right to tell other drivers they are number one when they cut me off in traffic. But what about the big stuff like figuring out why we have enough ...

Sermon Delivered 10/21/12 Job 38:1-7, (34-41) Psalm 34:17-22 2 Corinthians 4:5-12 Mark 10:46-52 “Help!” The old man yelled as he ran through a cartoon facade of the drab streets of London until he came upon four lads in a yellow submarine. Then he said, “H is for Hurry. E is for Urgent. L is for Love Me, and P is for P-P-Please! Help!” And so begins The Yellow Submarine, one of the first music videos ever created. It was the story of a refugee from a magical land called Pepperland seeking help from another land because his had been taken over by those terrible, despicable Blue Meanies. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt so deeply in need that you were even willing to bend the English language into a phonetic that matched your purpose? “E is for Urgent?” That is the sound of an animal in a corner. That is the sound Job made prior to today’s reading when he said, “I would lay my case before God, and fill my mouth with arguments.” God’s response of, “Where were you w...

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 ...