Rev. Zach

Exodus 19:1-6; 20:1-2 ; Mark 12:28-34 Today’s Old Testament passage brings all sorts of images to mind. First, we are presented with a new moon. It is the third one the Israelites have seen on their journey, which means that they have been traveling together for at least three months. Next, we are reminded of Egypt in all its splendor and hardship. Then we hear of the route they have taken, and we see people trudging through the wilderness and emerging at the base of Mount Sinai, living in camps as they go. Finally, we see (and hear) Moses being called out by God to ascend the mountain. We aren’t told whether it is a booming voice for all to hear, or if it is a still, small voice raised in the conscience of Moses, but this voice – and the images it offers – are all that we hear. The voice of God, however, we imagine it, instructs Moses to tell the people that they are to think of their flight from Israel as though it were as swift and strong as a bird of prey. The final image we are gi...

Psalm 8:1-9 , Romans 5:1-5 , John 16:7-15 You may or may not have noticed, but today is the day set apart in our calendar to celebrate the divine mystery of the Trinity! Now, I realize that I have to be careful about a statement like that because half of y’all are already thinking about cooking something nice with that trinity of flavors that makes Cajun cooking so good. If you aren’t from around here, I’m talking about onion, bell pepper, and celery. Of course, it’s a little hot for gumbo, but there are plenty of other things that start out that way. While it’s a little tongue in cheek to call them the “Holy Trinity of Cajun Cooking,” its actually not a bad way to talk about the divine mystery that is the Godhead – which is a fancy church word to talk about the One who is the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of all that is, was and shall be. We can also say, “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” as Jesus did in Matthew 28, but I also like to recognize who God is by what God does. However you...

Genesis 11:1-9 ; Acts 2:1-21 As many of you know, Pentecost is one of my favorite church holy days. Those who may not be familiar with liturgical traditions that include special Sundays may not have a clue what this day is about or why it matters, and there is nothing wrong with that. In fact, I would suggest that our Old Testament lesson stands to remind us that anything that we set up as important might not be important to God. Having said that, it may also have struck you as odd that God acted in the way God did in this passage from Genesis. Am I not always preaching unity? Why would God want to keep us from working together? We’ll get to that in a minute, but first I want to acknowledge the movement of the Spirit of God in these two passages. Taken together, along with the contexts they are pulled from, what we see today is a movement from the problem of exclusion to the problem of inclusion. At first glance, it seems that God, in Genesis 11, is the one who created the problem of e...

Acts 9:1-19a ; John 21:1-19 Picture, if you will, a tale of 2 conversions: Peter converting after rejecting the Way of Jesus and Saul converting after persecuting the followers of the Way. Consider, for a moment, what it might be like to be confronted by Jesus as these two were, and what kind of conversion might be expected of you. OK, I realize that was a little more Twilight Zone (and a little more confrontational) than the questions you normally hear from this pulpit but stay with me because the passages we have received today are actually pretty confrontational. In John’s Gospel, we have Peter, whom we are probably more likely to identify with, and in Acts, we have Saul, the bad guy version of Paul, but also Ananias. Before we jump into these stories like Peter did when he swam to Jesus in John 7, let’s talk a little about the idea of conversion. Generally speaking, most of you are probably here (on some level) because we don’t normally talk about “converting” others or “saving sou...

Psalm 145:14-21 ; John 20:19-31 Last week we spent a lot of time talking about the resurrection of Jesus and making the claim that we are a people of the resurrection! This week we are going to spend a little time figuring out just what that means, and we’re going to find that we are not alone in our doubts and fears – nor are we alone in our deep faith in the active presence of God. Having said, “doubts,” you might assume that I am talking about Thomas, the darling disciple of everyone who ever wanted some hard evidence of the active presence of God. Well, this is certainly his time to shine. It does feel good to say that even the disciples had a tough time understanding what God was doing through Jesus – and they were there with him – but I think a closer examination will show that this story is not as much about Thomas as we might want it to be. Ultimately, this story is about Jesus. Thomas gets a bad wrap because Jesus shames him for needing to see and blesses those who do not see ...

Psalm 118:21-29 ; John 20:1-18 I said it before, but how good and wonderful is it to be together as God’s people on this Easter Sunday?! Who would have ever thought that we would be out of our sanctuary for Easter, much less the past three! It does feel like a great victory to be together again, but it is still important to remember why we were apart. More than that it is important to remember the way in which we were together, and the way in which we are still together today. It is important to remember that we were apart in order to demonstrate a collective response of care and concern and sacrificial love for those who were – and still are – the most vulnerable in the face of a disease like none we have ever known. There are those whom we lost to this disease – in this congregation and in our community – who remain in the embrace of God. There are those who became estranged over the way our communities and families and even our very nation responded to this disease, and the pain of ...

Psalm 24 ; John 12:12-27 Before the reading, I asked you to put yourself in the scene of the triumphal entry of Jesus and consider what core emotion you believe the characters in the story might have felt and I gave the example of joy, sadness, anger, fear, and amazement). So let’s hear what you felt like as a character in the story. [Prior to the reading I assigned them to groups of different characters. Here are their responses: Temple Priests and Leaders – concern and disgust; People in the crowd – amazement and wonder; Disciples – joy and amazement (Judas was mentioned as plotting against Jessus); Greeks – curiosity; Pilot or any of the Roman Cohorts – anxiety, concern for rebellion; which would be felt differently depending on their rank]. I want you to hold onto that emotional perspective as we continue to reflect on this story. It may help you understand what John had in mind when telling this story. Remember that the context of the audience also matters, because John was writin...