Rev. Zach

Luke 2:1-20 Tonight is a night of proclamation and hope! Tonight is truly a night of expectation and wonder! Tonight is the night that we experience the pure and unadulterated joy of celebrating the birth of Jesus. And all of us have received the same profound gift. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This phrase took on new meaning for me a few years ago when I saw the play, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.” I heard these words in a new way when the young girl playing the angel – who had a star shaved into the side of her head – pointed a fairy wand into the crowd and said repeatedly, “Unto you!” She did it with such urgency and sincerity that I realized that this message was for me as much as it was for her. It mattered for me to receive it, and it mattered for her to say it. She said it for the whole audience, as much as she said it to each of us. I’d like to unpack the gift of those words a little tonight. I know it’s early f...

2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16 • Luke 1:46b-55 If you are struggling with the idea of whether to say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, especially during Advent, I’ve got a new one for you. What about Merry Almost Christmas? That is the title and the chorus of a song written by a friend of mine. It’s a song about the blessing of the time before Christmas, the time that we in the church call Advent (which doesn’t quite have the same ring to it), and it’s a song about celebrations, reunions, and homecomings. Of course, the classic of that genre is “No Place Like Home for the Holidays.” Admittedly that one has been a little tender for me this year with my household divided as it is geographically. Having my family here today reminds me that home truly is where the heart is. It does make me wonder though, what makes a house a home? With a quick search of the question, I found a survey of homeowners in the UK from 2018 which showed that about a third of those that responded think of the place they...

Isaiah 40:1-11   •  2 Peter 3:8-15a   •  Mark 1:1-8 Last Sunday we lit a candle for hope, and we talked about the hope we have in Jesus that is expressed through our “God-sized dream.” This dream is an expression of our identity and an expectation about what it means to live in the kin-dom – the household and family of God – which is both present and yet to be. Today, our hope bears the fruit of peace. Amid busyness and conflict – amid wars and rumors of wars – we proclaim peace. I might even take it a step further to say that we wage peace. We are actively engaging in things that make for peace!  While that might mean creating safe spaces without conflict, I like the way Todd Parr defines it. He wrote a book for children called, The Peace Book , and it says things like, “Peace is everyone having socks to wear” and “Peace is everyone having a home” and “Peace is being who you are!”  I think we can all agree that these are things we are working on. Now, befo...

Isaiah 64:1-9 ; Mark 13:24-37 As we begin to reflect on God’s word, as we have received it from the prophet Isaiah and the Gospel of Mark, I am reminded of the old adage of beginning with the end in mind. At the same time, I want to challenge the notion that Jesus is exclusively – or even explicitly – talking about what many call the eschaton: the end of days. For starters, we should talk about the context of these passages that the Revised Common Lectionary has given us today. Isaiah 64 is part of a block of chapters that most scholars believe were written around the time that Jewish people, who were scattered through Mesopotamian conquests, were returning to Jerusalem and the surrounding area. It’s important to note that this was very different than the modern state of Israel, which really did not exist before 1947. The biggest difference is that our reading from Isaiah was not intended to be about ancestral lands or nation-states. It was a celebration their of identity as God’...

"When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my lambs.” A second time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” And he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep." – John 21:15-17 [Sermon preached at FPC in Abbeville, Louisiana  on the occasion of the commissioning of Leigh Petersen–Rachal as their Pastor.] In preparing for this sermon I did what I have done in other times of need. I called Leigh. Truth be told, I was calling in response to her expression of care for my needs with my upcoming move, and it dawned on me that I was at ...

Revelation 7:9-17 , 1 John 3:1-3 , Matthew 5:1-12 I bring you greetings from the 155th meeting of the Presbytery of South Louisiana, and I want to remind you that we are a part of the Presbytery. There is no us and them. There is just us, and we meet three times a year with commissioned Elders – not representatives but Elders who are in mission together – to discern the will of God for the church. The meeting of commissioners of the Presbytery of South Louisiana (PSL) is February 6 at University Presbyterian Church in Baton Rouge, and our governing council, the Session, will need to commission two Ruling Elders – which means two people who have served (or are serving) on our Session – to attend that meeting. I also mentioned the Rev. Lemuel García-Arroyo in the announcements. Rev. Lemuel serves as a ministry engagement advisor for the South region of the PC(USA) Office of Ministry Engagement and Support. In that role, he assists congregations and mid-councils (like the Presbytery) to ...

Deuteronomy 34:1-12 ; 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8 ; Matthew 22:34-46 I don’t know about you, but I feel like there are times when the lectionary readings are a little too “on the nose” for what’s going on in our lives and in the world. In the Reformed tradition, we might attribute that to the providence of God. Others might just call it the work of the Spirit, and last Sunday we talked about it as the active presence of God. You may recall that Moses asked God, “How are they – or anyone else – to know that we are your people if you do not go with us?” The same is true of us today, whether there is a pillar of fire or a cloud or a rainbow or just your neighbor in the pew to remind you that God is active and present and in our midst. A word of caution, though, I think we can get a little carried away if we try to infer God’s motivations apart from what we find in scripture – and even then we can go too far. That same caution is what moved the early Protestant Reformers to criticize the church ...