Rev. Zach

2 Samuel 7:1-14a      Ephesians 2:11-22      Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 You are not alone. Those are the words on the hands on the front of your bulletin. I don’t know whose hands they are, but I know who knows. Of course, God knows, but there is another. A friend and mentor of mine, Michelle Thomas Bush, is the Associate Pastor for Youth and Families at Myers Park Presbyterian in Charlotte, NC. Some time back she was the keynote presenter at a Montreal Youth Conference. Before the conference, she had gotten her youth to put together some videos. One of them featured high school students with “You Are…” on one arm and different labels that we give each other on the other arm. Some were not so bad. Others were downright mean. Finally, one student grabbed the hand of another, and on the other side of that outstretched arm it said, “not alone.” Slowly, more and more students connected until everyone shared the same message of connectedness an...

– The Rev. Zach Sasser 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19      Ephesians 1:3-14      Mark 6:14-29 “There are only two types of people. Those who dance, and those who do not.” At least that is according to Drax, a character in the illustrious movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, vol 1 . This does not stop Peter Quill – a man abducted from earth at age 10 whose only cultural references are from the 1980’s – from attempting to get his beloved to dance with him by telling her about one of Earth’s greatest heroes, Kevin Bacon. He was, of course referring to the movie Footloose , in which Bacon’s character challenged a town council to repeal a local ordinance prohibiting dancing with the following argument: “From the oldest of times, people danced for a number of reasons. They danced in prayer or so that their crops would be plentiful or so their hunt would be good. And they danced to stay physically fit and show their community spirit. And they danced...

           “I’ve always survived on the kindness of strangers.” These are the famous last words of Blanche Dubois in Tennessee William’s play, A Streetcar Named Desire. They are the words of a woman driven mad by loss and abuse, a woman whose self-constructed, the ideal world has finally caught up to her. They are the words of a woman whom we want to blame for her choices, and yet at the same time we cannot help but see her as a victim. For her, the kindness of strangers is not about relationships and well-being. It is about escapism from the constant ache of a love that she lost through her own cruelty. Yet that idea, the kindness of strangers, seems to be the hope that Jesus sends his disciples toward in our passage today. He sends them out with the clothes on their backs to neighboring towns to tell people about him and his love for them. I have to say, that sounds like the worst gig ever. Can you imagine it? Of course, there are those that ...

    2 Corinthians 8:7-15      Mark 5:21-43 There are two memories of my first Sunday from eight years ago that I want to share with you today. The first is from the line that forms after worship. A stately gentleman named Joe Clark shook my hand and said, “I can see you standing in that pulpit 10 years from now.” The second is from the reception after church, in which I was surprised to be greeted by a framed picture of my children at the Louisiana welcome center on I-10. The first memory is bittersweet, as many of you know that Joe died a little over a year ago. It was a greater compliment than I realized at the time, and I lament that he will not be here to see that in person. The memory also stands to remind me that we must always have a vision that is beyond our own capacity, and it reminds me of the fear I experienced in hearing his vision for me. I was afraid because the thought of standing in this pulpit for ten years sounded like an expec...

– The Rev. Zach Sasser 1 Samuel 3:1-11; 19-20       1 Corinthians 12:14-27      John 3:16-17 Before reading the Old Testament lesson, Jeff asked you to think about the roles of Eli and Samuel in listening for and receiving God’s calling. For those who may not know the backstory, this took place in a town called Shiloh, and it happened before the time of Kings in Israel. Shiloh was a central meeting place for the 12 tribes as they divided the promised land and began to expand their territories. It also became a source of power to compete against in the internal struggles between tribes. In the midst of that a barren woman named Hannah, Samuel’s mother, made an oath to God – which was blessed by Eli – that if given a child she would dedicate her child to God. Samuel was eventually brought to the temple, and Eli became kind of a father figure to him. Samuel was still young enough that he would listen to Eli – which was important given t...

Psalm  139:1-6, 13-18       2 Corinthians 4:5-12       Mark 2:23-3:6 A few years back I was on my way to work and I heard this brilliantly raw and simple voice on the radio telling me to “hold on.” Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes sang: Bless my heart, bless my soul Didn't think I'd make it to 22 years old There must be someone up above Sayin', "Come on, Brittany, you got to come on up!” You got to hold on! I don’t know what was going on at the time, but it struck me. It played me like I was a string on a guitar. It rang in and out of my soul, and it suddenly became my song. Does that ever happen to you? Do you ever have those moments where something you see or hear reflects where you are in the world? In these media rich, frenzied days we get image after image, meme after meme, and vine after vine that we drink like junkies and never get enough. And yet we keep looking. We keep looking for some refle...

Isaiah 6:1-8       Romans 8:12-17      John 3:1-17 Well, friends, today is finally here – it’s Trinity Sunday ! Yay. Ok, maybe it’s not a day that we get all excited about. It’s not like we get to light anything on fire like on Pentecost. Truly, I am certain that most of you are not really all that excited about delving deeply into doctrinal concepts this morning. At least, I doubt that was on your mind when you got up this morning. And yet, the struggle is real for those of us charged to lead the flock in living into this core belief that we demonstrate in liturgy and language – in faith and practice. In fact, in the words of Christian author and missionary, Sarah Miles, “Everything about us expresses our belief from [the arrangement of seating] in our sanctuary, to the songs we sing, to who does what in worship, to how we spend our money, to how we decorate. It all says something about what we believe.” And to that end I...