Rev. Zach

Sermon delivered on June 24, 2012 – Season After Pentecost (4B)  1 Sam 20:12–17 Acts 4:32–35 Mark 4:35–41 A tired Jesus slumps into a commercial fisherman’s boat, says, “Get me out of here!” and falls asleep. I bet it was a good sleep, too. Just yesterday I had been working on projects in the yard all day. We had dinner in the back yard, and I fell asleep in my chair. It was a good sleep. My daughter had been at a friend’s house the night before and stayed up very late. She fell asleep on the couch – barely waking when the dog was encouraged to lick her face. It was a good sleep. This passage is one of those that affirms the humanity of Jesus for me. I know, he gets all metaphysical before it is over with, but the man was tired! And when he woke up he simply looked death in the face and said, “Peace. Be still.” This word, peace – shalom in Hebrew – is not as simple a word as we might like it to be. In the tradition of the Jews it was used as a greeting – still is by some – and...

Sermon Delivered on June 3, 2012 – Trinity (B) Isaiah 6:1-8 Romans 8:12-17  John 3:1-17 Today is Trinity Sunday, and it is an appropriate time to consider the fullness of the Godhead. It’s appropriate and good because we are coming down from the highs of celebrating the resurrection of Jesus on Easter and the unleashing of the Advocate - God’s Holy Spirit - at Pentecost. It’s important to remember the fullness of God during this point of the year because sometimes the limitations of language get in the way of experiencing God’s presence, God’s activity, and God’s intention for our lives. Last week I talked about hope and how good it is - in fact how vital it is - that we do not know how or when our hopes will be realized. A member of the PNC (Pastor Nominating Committee) who always gives me impeccable feedback said that he sees lots of things to be hopeful about - every day! I want you to know that I do, too. And I want you to know that I believe that the nature of God...

Sermon Delivered May 27, 2012 – Pentecost (Year B) John 15:26 - 27, 16:4b-15 Romans 8:22-27 Acts 2:1-21 Please join me in a moment of silent reflection on the scriptures we have read and the hope they proclaim... Amen. Have you ever hoped for something so strongly that it seemed like there were no options left if that hope remained unanswered? Have you ever wanted something so terribly that it felt like nothing else mattered? Have you ever had the experience of waiting, expecting, and longing for something that turned out so entirely different from your hopes that it changed the way you understood who you are, who God is, and what the relationship between you and your Creator is truly about?  If you have, then you have had a Pentecost moment. If you have not, then I would suggest that you either have not lived long enough, or it happened in a way that you either didn’t understand or aren’t willing to admit. I don’t say that to condemn anyone. I say that as a person whose hope ...

Sermon Delivered May 20, 2012 – Easter (7B)  Psalm 1 1 John 5:9-13 John 17:6-19 As we begin to wrestle with these texts today - with their claims of exclusivity and condemnation - I’d like you to consider the idea of belonging. What does it mean to you to belong? Who, or what, do you belong to? Most of us have so many allegiances in our lives that we sometimes feel that we are in the midst of a competition, or perhaps we are being competed over. We live somewhere in the midst of family considerations, Doctor’s orders, financial obligations, the needs of our friends, and - heaven forbid - even the opportunity for relaxation and enjoyment. Sometimes it is hard to tell the difference between the people, places, and things that belong to us and the people, places, and things that we belong to. Belonging certainly implies ownership, indeed “to be the property of a person or thing” is one of the definitions of belonging prescribed by www.merriam-webster.com . There is a lot more to ...

Don't  you just love a good scandal? I mean - as long as it is not wrecking my life it has a certain entertainment value, no? I would love to earmark this as a sign of the downfall of modern civilization, or perhaps trash the feaux reality dramas like Desperate Housewives and GCB . Don't get me started on either of these or the way in which they do more to re-enforce negative images of women - and Christianity - than they do to empower real people who might actually be lacking in their options in life. Anyway, the reality they point to is that both Ecclesiastes and Carl Jung are right. There is nothing new under the sun and our collective conscience does love repetition - both for good and for ill. Scandals are just plain yummy - whether they are real or imagined. Still, I'm not entirely sure where the need for the narrative of scandal comes from, but I would guess it is something close to schadenfreude - the sick pleasure of watching someone else get busted when you k...

Psalm 22:25-31 1 John 4:7-21 John 15:1-8 I have a love/hate relationship with exercise. I always have. God has blessed me with a high metabolism and with the lack of ability to sit still, so I have always been relatively fit. The only time I have ever attempted to lose weight intentionally was when the weight classes dropped half way through wrestling season in high school. I ended up staying the same, which bumped me into a higher weight class with larger, stronger boys that found me to be about as competitive as a mop. Unfortunately I have never had much of a need to become more fit, other than general health and a nagging desire to fit into societal expectations of physical prowess. I’ve never had a real goal. I’ve never had any real motivation. As I get a little older - and I am well aware that I am far from aged - there are some new motivations creeping that are not apparent from the surface. Of course, the reality is that all of us, regardless of age and stage, need to care for...

Psalm 23 1 John 3:16-24 John 10:11-18 Truth and action - there is a relationship between truth and action. You’ve heard this said a thousand times in just as many ways. People say things like, “The proof is in the pudding, actions speak louder than words, or practice what you preach.” There is another phrase that involves another phrase that my mother taught me not to say, and especially not from the pulpit (my kids will never let me hear the end of this). The phrase is, “Shut up and dance,” and it has shown up in pop culture repeatedly over the last decade as song titles, band names, and blatant challenges to act. It’s a challenge to act on opportunities, and it is a challenge to stand up and demonstrate what you believe in. In fact, Shut Up and Dance was even the title of a recent fundraiser in New Jersey held by the Pennsylvania Ballet netting $150,000 for a group called MANNA (Metropolitan Area Neighborhood Nutrition Alliance). MANNA is similar to our Meals on Wheels program,...