Covenant Church

While we are tempted to focus on hell, salvation, or disability in this passage, doing so would cause us to miss its fundamental -- and critical -- message. With hyperbole, Jesus makes painfully clear how serious sin is and offers us a strategy for cutting it out of our lives.

“Easter is about more than we realize”: In this Easter sermon, Zack attempts to expand our imagination as Scripture expands our imagination. Jesus not only forgives our sins—but also liberates us, defeats death, and redeems all things. No system captures the fullness of Easter—which is precisely why Scripture has so many different ways of talking about Jesus' death and resurrection.

The donkey, clothes, palms, and Hosanna all point to the crowd's hope for political salvation -- a hope all too common in our world today. Zack offers seven suggestions drawn from reflecting on the Palm Sunday story to help us live more faithful political lives in this moment.

"Whoever is not against us is for us" is a very hard saying: it seems to conflict with another, similar statement in the Gospels (Luke 11:2); it is hard to reconcile with the sons of Sceva in Acts 19; it is complicated by Jesus' teachings about judging by fruits in Matthew 7; it is hard to know what "being against" even means. Zack reads these difficulties as an invitation away from systematic theology and towards increasing dependence on God's Holy Spirit. Moreover, he draws out important principles here with which we should reckon. Works, while not the basis of our salvation, reveal Christ-in-us. Our moment of hyper-Protestantism and church decline demands increasing ecumenism. Finally, perhaps most importantly, we must remain open to the new -- to God's surprising, scandalous work outside our own walls.

"I believe; help my unbelief!" Drawing deeply from Scripture, Zack connects this cry with other honest, vulnerable, pained cries to God. True faith, then, is not without confusion, pain, and failure, and its opposite is not doubt but apathy. God can handle *anything* that humans offer. In addition, that Jesus commands the demon rather than prays for its removal --despite his statement about the necessity of prayer -- displays his power. And so we do well to affirm it alongside our struggles.

Why does Jesus identify John the Baptist as Elijah but John does not think that he is Elijah? To answer this question, Zack tells the story of two unknown men, as well as stories from his own life, to make the point that God's Kingdom grows through the work mustard seeds who, like John, never understanding their own significance.

In this Ash Wednesday service, Zack begins by explaining that Christians have had two emphases on this day -- repentance and mortality (our being dust). But, he argues, these are two sides of the same coin: without God's Spirit enabling us to turn (repent), we remain mired in earthly desires, behaviors, and frameworks. Yet repentance is not simply turning *from* sin; more importantly, it is turning *to* God.

The story of Jesus' transfiguration on the mount before Peter, James, and John prompts three reflections. Zack first reflects on holiness -- that quality that makes God God, that cannot be attained but only caught contagiously from Him, that takes the form of shining face. Second, Zack examines fear. While fear can function to motivate people in Scripture, here, as often elsewhere, it more properly means something like "intense awe" -- the sort that God sometimes grants us as encouragement at the exact point we need that. Finally, Zack argues for the importance of Jesus being a (capital P) Person (to use classic Trinitarian language) and not a mere abstraction.

How do we understand this strange story of Jesus only partially -- and then, ultimately -- healing a blind man? After making the case that the text invites us to interpret symbolically, Zack discusses our (and the original apostles') partial sight -- Jesus is Messiah, but we don't really know what that means. He then expounds Messiahship in terms of humility, in terms of servant-of-all. Do we really appreciate what Jesus' Messiahship means?

In this sermon, Zack offers another, more tentative, reason why Mark might include the story of the Feeding of the 4,000 shortly after telling the story of the Feeding of the 5,000. In the story of the 5,000, Jesus feeds primarily Jews; in the story of the 4,000, Jesus feeds primarily Gentiles. After making a literary case -- and teaching about how to interpret the details/form of a text from Scripture -- Zack mines the implications. While categories are sometimes necessary, they should often be resisted.

Why does Mark tell us about the feeding of the 4,000 shortly after telling us about the feeding of the 5,000? Zack offers some suggestions. We learn about the role of understanding (catching up with faith); about hardened hearts (endemic to humans, even saints); about memory (a critical spiritual reality to re-examine).

What is Epiphany? One way of understanding it is that it is God's bringing all of creation -- including "the nations" (represented by the Magi) -- into His Kingdom. At a moment when, if we are honest, we worry that that is not happening, Zack reminds us that God works through mustard seeds. These faithful people's actions grow, usually unknown to us, into the great tree of God's Kingdom.

Mary's song in Luke 1:46-55, known as the Magnificat, is a powerful declaration of God's favor toward the humble and lowly. Zack reflects on the revolutionary nature of this song—and its exemplifying one of the major notes found throughout almost every page of Scripture. But this note—God's deep love for the marginalized—is not (just) a claim about God or an ethical imperative for us. Instead, it is one of many ways to articulate the Gospel itself. We have been Freed-From the world's givens of accumulation, self-securing, and resulting inequalities and Freed-For sharing God's own heart of putting others ahead of oneself.

Continuing with this Advent's focus on Jesus' second coming and our future hope, Zack explores the idea of a "Sabbath Rest" found in Heb 4:1-11. Admitting that he doesn't really look forward to "rest," he makes the point that that is because he is comfortable in this life: to those who are suffering, rest is one of the most important promises. Going beyond this, however, he identifies a type of rest for which he does very much hope -- the sort of restfulness of mind that contrasts sharply with our all-too-often restlessness. God promises to heal our decadent, slothful, "fracked" minds and give us pure, quiet, awestruck worship.

What difference does thinking about the end of history make for our faith? Probably little--but it should make quite a bit of difference. After arguing that only the comfortable don't long for God's future--that the oppressed do--Zack spends the bulk of this sermon mining Scripture to help expand our imagination of what God's good future entails. Not just restoring what we lost in the Fall, God will give us even more than we lost. Indeed, at least some human works will themselves endure as the Heavenly Father "frames the pictures" of the children in whom He delights. And whom He dearly loves: the sermon ends by observing that Jesus was always the lamb who was slain (even before he was slain!).

In the spirit of a traditional "fourfold" reading of Scripture, Zack offers both a literal and a spiritual reading of the story of the man who is deaf and has difficulty speaking. At the literal level, this is not one of the set of "miracles" to which we might grow (too) accustomed, but is, instead, an unique healing of an unique individual. At the spiritual level, it is always a miracle when God allows us to "hear" -- and Jesus does this with his very own touch.

In part 2 of 2 reflecting on the story of the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7:24-30, Zack turns from (audacious) human faith to (audacious) divine love. In light of repeated woes to the rich and blessings for the poor, does God love the rich? What about those who gain their riches from oppression? Zack examines the biblical and historical background of Tyre, the biographies of John Newton and Saint Patrick, and Scripture more broadly to answer with a resounding and scandalous Yes.

Why does Jesus seemingly reject (at first) this Gentile woman's request for healing simply because she is a Gentile? Why does Jesus call her a "dog"? After wrestling with these problems, Zack spends the bulk of the sermon discussing this Syrophoenician woman's audacious faith. Like Abraham and King Hezekiah before her, this woman argues with God. Believing that God is greater than even He lets on or will do even what He claims He will not is laudable "audacious faith" for which we should strive. The sermons ends with two applications.

In Mark 7:1-23, we find Jesus arguing with opponents over how to interpret Scripture. Zack finds three phenomena here and argues that all of them are important for us.

Jesus' walking on the water reveals that He is God. Zack reflects on why this fact -- and the sort of God that He is -- makes all the difference for us.

The most dangerous thing a pastor does; spiders held over a fire; a child's drawing of the Hong Kong skyline: Zack marvels at what God's calling us to participate in His ways tells us about God's love for us.

White plastic fans; overwhelming trees; every meal a miracle: Zack reads the feeding of the 5,000 in Mark 6 as an instance of the crowd not knowing that a miracle is occurring -- much like us in every meal we enjoy. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons

Katharine Drexel, Isabelle of France, tetrarch Herod: Zack considers why this story of John the Baptist being beheaded is included in the gospel and concludes that we learn something important about when to listen and when not to listen.

Walking around Canadian towns and asking strangers to stay with them; donkey carts tipping over; singing U2 songs in public with college students: In this third of three sermons on Mark 6:6b-13, Zack talks about why we evangelize and, based on Mark 6:6-13, what faithful evangelism might look like. For a handout, please visit covmin.org/sermons

The heart of early Christian faith; entertaining angels unaware; a man sewn up with a shoelace: In this second of three sermons on the sending of the Twelve in Mark 6:6b-13, Zack discusses the centrality of hospitality to our faith and why, exactly, hospitality is so important.

Riding along for errands; church diapers; quitting a lucrative job: In this second on three sermons on Mark 6:6-13, Zack plumbs Scripture and experience to explain why Christian teamwork is so important. For a handout, please visit covmin.org/sermons.

Was Jesus a carpenter? MLK, Jr's predecessor selling fish; olfactory nerves stop smelling roses: Zack talks about our problem with Jesus being undignified and familiar. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons

Blinded by sparrow droppings and mustard plasters; praying for a dead father; Perpetua and her brother: Zack talks about God's delight in our praying for the impossible. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons

My older son's epilepsy; Jim O'Connell and Healthcare for the Homeless; the myth of Sisyphus: Zack reflects on the fact that no one is beyond the reach of Jesus' saving touch (even if they are beyond the reach of ours). For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons

Charles Finney, John Wesley; Pandita Ramubai. Zack argues that the key for moving from the question of “What is this?” to the better question of “Who is this?” is encountering Jesus. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons

Talking to fifth graders; a chaplain's reflections: In the second of three sermons on the Stilling of the Storm (Mark 4:35-41), Zack argues that Jesus wants us to have a faith that is calm in the storm and trusts his outcomes and his timing—because God's love is greater than death. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons

Three big words of prayer; peanut allergies; a standing ovation for life: in the first of three sermons on the Stilling of the Storm (Mark 4:35-41), Zack discusses the importance of awe at Jesus' power (”Who is this?”) and the fact that Jesus allows us to go through storms that can change us. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons

Zack struggles with God's apparent unfairness in hardening some people -- and ends up with a vision of God's unfailing mercy. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons

Zack makes the point that parables necessarily require us to have ears to hear the Holy Spirit interpreting them for us — and then we pray together through this parable.

Wrestling with what unforgivable “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit” means, Zack tentatively affirms the “traditional” reading that it is a persistent state of rejecting the LORD unto death. Beyond this, Zack suggests that, when faced with the possibility of having committed this sin, we choose the way of Peter, not the way of Judas — throwing ourselves upon the limitless, impossible mercy of God. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons

Instead of making ethical decisions by deciding which of two valid principles is more important, Scripture encourages us to look to a paradigm, a Person, as the Truth: Zack draws out the heart of our moral life from Mark 2:13-28. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons

The story of a real man with leprosy and a real woman paralyzed from an accident -- and why it matters that we never lose sight of the literal (and the spiritual).

Falling off a horse on one side then the other; driving back from New Jersey with a friend; freedom-from and freedom-for: Zack reflects on the single day with Jesus narrated in Mark 1:14-34.

Did Jesus sin? Was Jesus a sinner? In wrestling with why Jesus was baptized, Zack's answer may surprise you. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons

Zack discusses the "way" of the Lord Jesus -- a way of peace, a way of offering what little we have, a way of following the Spirit. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons.

When things are too big to pray for; the mustard seed behind Alexander Men; the mustard seed behind Clarence Jordan: Zack discusses the deep meaning of Epiphany for us, and sketches the shape of Kingdom growth according to Jesus' parables.

Not celebrating a Christian Christmas; a friend hosting a family on Christmas; hosting Shabbat for the first time (on The Chosen): Zack makes a proposal for how we might celebrate Christmas. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons

Henri Nouwen; Damien of Molokai; Vincent Lebbe: Zack tries to make the incarnation unfamiliar again.

Downpayments on houses; "the impossible possibility" of New Creation; Isidore the Farmer and St. Margaret: Zack describes the Kingdom for which we hope. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons.

Practicing law by mailing mail; Peter Maurin; "time horizons" for living: Zack discusses the centrality of waiting to the Christian faith. For a handout, visit covmin.org.

Amy, Linda, and Peter Biehl, The Way of a Pilgrim, the wrath of God: Zack considers the final verses of 1 Thessalonians. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons.

Jesus weeps; John Nelson Darby; the Left Behind series: Zack teaches about grief and "the rapture." For a handout, visit covmin.org.

Ole Anthony, Karl Barth, Alasdair MacIntyre: To understand this passage from 1 Thessalonians, Zack explains the difference between "be who you are" and "you do you." For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons

Giving up on giving secondhand clothes; Marguerite Bourgeoys; the overwhelming, neverending, reckless love of God: Zack fumbles to articulate the love on display in 1 Thessalonians 3. For a handout, visit covmin.org/sermons

Screentime; running with a backpack; a law-school Bible study: Zack examines the most important passage in Scripture for raising our children today.

A phenomenon of light in the sea; Thomas Merton; a litmus test for pastors: Zack asks whether affection is a necessary part of Christian love.