Rev. Zach

Colossians 3:8-9 James 1:19 Colossians 3:12-13, 15b Last Sunday we talked about the power of words to build up, and we specifically struggled with the idea of speaking up for the needs of others without losing our identity as God’s people and without forgetting that everyone is created in the image of God. We also talked a little about the need for a witness that we can all agree on and share that grows out of our love for God and gets expressed through our love for those who are vulnerable. We did not talk as much about our own vulnerability as we did about those who are considered more at risk these days: the elderly, those who are in nursing homes or homebound, those with disabilities, supply chain workers and those in crowded and unsafe working conditions, our police and healthcare workers, and the African American community. If this list describes you as you are watching, know that we are worshiping online as a public witness of God’s love for you! This is a public witness t...

Scripture:  James 3:7b-10, Proverbs 31:8, Ephesians 4:29 Worship Online: youtube.com/c/fpclafayette From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My siblings in Christ, this ought not to be so. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. These words seem like simple truths, and, on the surface, they are. It is true that with the same mouth we praise God and curse those made in God’s image, and that ought not be so. Yet Proverbs 31:18 also tells us that we must, “Speak out for those who cannot speak, for the rights of all the destitute.” How is it that we can follow the rule of “not saying anything unless we have something nice to say” when there are some pretty bad things going on that need to be spoken about? Over the next two weeks, we are going to be wrestling with the difficulty of speaking out against injustice, while always working toward a greater unders...

Scripture:  1 Peter 1:24-2:10 Worship online: youtube.com/c/fpclafayette “Let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” Peter’s letters were written to followers of Jesus who were both Jews and Greeks who were trying to figure out how to be faithful to God. They needed a way to escape the influence of the Empire and the trappings it brought, and so these letters focused on ways to follow and glorify God by living in response to the promise of forgiveness of sin and freedom from death. These early Christians were also trying to sort out what it meant to be God’s people, having included those who were not used to the rituals and customs that had set them apart as God’s people for generations. Most scholars also believe that these letters were written after the temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed. They were meeting in homes and synagogues, and there was simply no way to fulfill...

Readings:  Acts 2:42-47 1 Peter 2:19-25 John 10:1-10 Worship with us! youtube.com/c/fpclafatte It seems that we have become a nation of those who Zoom and those who do not. Obviously, there are other options, but the point is that while we are connecting in new and different ways there are also members of our society who feel more and more isolated as our time of separation goes on. Times like these make people say things like, “Imagine the look on the faces of our founding fathers and mothers if they could see us now”. Of course, the “founding mothers” are rarely mentioned, but I would wager they had more to do with things than any of us can imagine. Statements such as these about our past and present do more to divide than they do to unite, but they are, unfortunately, true to some extent. Long before all of this COVID 19 mess, we had already begun a slow, steady march toward greater division in our society and our world. I remember the first time it was made clear to me as I ma...

Scripture Readings: 1 Peter 1:17-23 Luke 24:13-35 Worship Online: youtube.com/c/fpclafayette I wonder how many of you are as tired of talking about COVID 19 as I am. I suppose we could just ignore it all and talk about Jesus, but the problem is that Jesus doesn’t live in denial of our troubles. He’s right there, walking with us, even when we walk away. That’s what the two disciples were doing. They had heard the testimony of the women. Peter had gone to check it out, and to his horror, the body of Jesus was gone. Only strips of cloth remained where his body had been. It didn’t matter that there were multiple women sharing the same truth. The disciples still rejected their story as a delusional fantasy of someone overwhelmed by grief. They did not know who had taken the body or where he was, but they weren’t going to stick around and find out either. It was over. Jesus was dead and the dream of the restoration of Israel was over. That was their reality, and they could not s...

 Scripture Readings:  1 Peter 1:3-9 , John 20:19-31 Join us for worship: youtube.com/c/fpclafayette I love the way John 20:19-31 ends! It ends with so much mystery and yet so much assurance. “these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” I imagine that you know at least a few people of faith who embody the phrase, “you may have life in his name.” One of those persons in my life is the Rev Terry Jo Crego. She was the Camp Director of our Presbytery’s camp when I was in seminary, and an early mentor of mine. Terry Jo recently put together a little video I want to share with you that may embody the feeling of disciples hunkering down in fear, and it might even connect with how some of us are feeling during this time of social distancing. [A clip of Terry Jo’s video is incorporated into the worship service posted below video. Click here for the original.] I hope you ...

Worship With Us: YouTube (please subscribe) Scripture Readings: Isaiah 25:6-9 Matthew 28:1-10 This Easter Sunday is a totally unprecedented event! Who would have ever imagined that people across the world would be united in the experience of worshiping online and in homes, having been chased out of our congregations by our love for the vulnerable? I suppose that if you take the long view of things, there have been plagues and pandemics before – there just weren’t so many people to move. In the middle ages, and across Europe, people were certainly moved out of their normal patterns of worship, and the church moved with them, and the plague followed them. Fortunately, for the most part, the Christian church is taking a more responsible approach this time, but not without significant loss. Certainly, there are congregations big and small feeling the same economic pinch as our members who have lost jobs and businesses that have closed. Yet there is something else that we lament, ...