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 ...

Job 1:1, 2:1-10      Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12 As I think on the scriptures we have read today, I am reminded of the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoddard.   The two lead characters stumble upon a traveling band of actors that call themselves “ Tragedians, ” because they only perform tragedies.   When asked if these were works of antiquity, their leader replies: “ We're more of the love, blood, and rhetoric school.   Well, we can do you blood and love without the rhetoric, and we can do you blood and rhetoric without the love, and we can do you all three concurrent or consecutive.   But we can't give you love and rhetoric without the blood.   Blood is compulsory.   They're all blood, you see. ” Blood is compulsory in the story of human history.   Even as we continue to search for our evolutionary roots we can ’ t help but ask questions about blood.   We spill it.   We keep it.   We honor i...

Isaiah 9:2-7     Ephesians 2:11-22     Matthew 1:18-23 Have you ever wished that there was a way to keep the Christmas Spirit all year long? I don’t mean all of the rushing around, eating too much, and feeling like something is missing. That stuff you can keep. I mean the sense of wonder, the hope that we truly can be at peace, and the moments of stillness when there is no time left to do the things that have been left undone.  Oh how I wish we could bottle up the way people treat each other with just a little more love and charity during the weeks that lead to the celebration of the birth of Jesus! What would it smell like – fresh baked cookies, pine trees, or maybe just cinnamon? What would it sound like – favorite carols, Handle’s Messiah, or maybe just the story of the nativity of Jesus? Of course there is a reason that we only celebrate Christmas once a year. It is because we need the anticipation of Advent and the revelation of Christmas Eve to ...

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 ...