Rev. Zach

Ecclesiastes 1:2, 12-14, 2:18-23 Colossians 3:1-11 Luke 12:13-21 Recently my daughter confirmed something that I have been dreading. She read a few references from a meme that demonstrated the fact that the ’80s are for her as the ’50s were for me. That’s a little depressing, as I have an idealized view of the ’50s and a crassly cynical view of the ’80s. It was, however, a simpler time. In the summer of 1987, I was a junior in High School. We had no internet. I had a car and a job as a clerk in a video store (my generation’s version of a soda jerk). We had no air conditioning, and on warm Georgia nights I would listen to crickets and tree frogs and my hound dog, Penney. I would also listen to a college radio station – 88.5, Album 88 – that played the deft sounds of punk rock. The Ramones and the Clash would lull me to sleep. One night I heard the Godfathers play a song that would stay with me forever. They sang “I’ve been high and I’ve been low, but I don’t know which way t...

Sermon Delivered on August 19, 2012  1 Kings 3:3-14 Ephesians 5:15-20 John 6:51-58 Have you ever been so engrossed in a book or a project that you did not notice that the lights were still off until someone else turned them on? Or how about looking for your glasses when they are on your head or your keys when they are in your hand along with five other things? These are moments that make you say, “Duh.” These are moments that confirm our humanity by our obvious limitations. These are moments that remind me of comments of elders from my youth. Comments like, “Don’t you have enough sense to come in out of the rain?” Or, “If your head wasn’t attached, I bet you’d leave it somewhere.” Of course whenever I would tell my mother that I was trying she would simply sigh and say, “Yes. Yes, you are.” Then again, one of my favorite of her euphemisms was, “Boy, you talk like someone a tree fell on.” I’m not sure what the current phrase might have been for that type of thing in Jesus’ day ...

I hear a woman's chatter, deep and low . Storms have uprooted cities While she and her cats grimaced With pearl and onyx. Bangles on her wrist chatter as she rises Whispering secrets of survival And communion to her friend, While I exist as a gnat on fruit Sucking life from their conversation. Still my joints ache from battles less sacred. Still the clouds and their gray dresses Appear as indicators of my distress. And the women warriors to my left, Having been drawn together by the same demon, Speak of tenacity and expectation As the path of salvation. More so it seems that in the sharing of their pain They have seen it's end; Not to say that pain is over, More so that it's purpose is made clear. I wrote this poem as a pleasant distraction while studying the lectionary at a coffee shop. One of the women who inspired it noticed my copy of Feasting On The Word, and asked about it. Her name is Karen. Turns out she is living on Social Security and taking a course on Medical ...

First Presbyterian – Lafayette, Louisiana November 20, 2011 – Christ the King (A) Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24 Ephesians 1:15-23 Matthew 25:31-46 The least – that’s a term that no one wants to be described as. Think of all the ways that word is used. “At least” usually precedes something worse that could have been. Comedian Chris Rock once had a routine about the phrase, “the least I could do.” He said that is like saying, “If I could do any less – I would!” There isn’t a one of us that does not want to be able to make the least effort for the most gain. Every plumber knows this – because every plumber knows that water will always run down hill in the most expedient course. It is not a bad thing or a sign of laziness to want the most gain for the least effort. It is simply the nature of things, even the created order of the universe, to move in ways that result in the greatest reward for the effort exerted. So, like it or not, we all seek to find out the answer to that question...