Episodes
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Why, Then, The Law?: Gal 3:19-4:7
"Why, then, the law?" The question has vexed Christians through the centuries. Zack asks whether anyone was ever saved through the law. The answer to the question points us back to Jesus.
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Keep Your Eyes on Jesus: Gal 3
What is faith? For all of the nuances, complications, and contradictions, Gal 3:1 provides us the best answer: faith is keeping our eyes on Jesus.
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Remembering the Poor: Gal 2:1-10
Why is remembering the poor the "one thing" that Paul and the Jerusalem leaders agree on in their meeting in Gal 2? Zack examines the centrality of remembering the poor to our faith.
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An Expansive Gospel, a Rich Scripture: Gal 2:11-21
Gal 2:15-21 is incredibly difficult - and it is precisely such difficulty, Zack argues, that makes it life-giving to different people in different situations.
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Gal 2:1-14: The Messiness of Faith, the Messiness of Love
Gal 2:1-14 describes a very messy situation in the early Church. Zack examines what such messiness might teach us about our lives of faith and about the God who loves us.
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Testimony and Apocalypse: Gal 1:10-2:2a
Zack teaches how Gal 1:10-2:2 highlights the centrality of testimony and the importance of God's revelation.
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No Other Gospel: Gal 1:1-9
In this first sermon on the book of Galatian, Zack focuses on the painful necessity of speaking out against false gospels -- by speaking out against a false gospel.
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Telling Stories: Deut 6:20-25
Zack proposes seven biblical reasons why it is critical we share our stories of God's work in our lives.
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Jonah 4, Part 2
In this final sermon on the book of Jonah, Zack talks about seeing with God's eyes -- how everyone is the object of God's mercy, how deep sin runs, how all Creation will be set free from bondage.
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Jonah 4, Part 1
In Jonah 4, Jonah prays a very dark prayer to God. Is this OK? Zack surveys Scripture and concludes that God can and wants to handle our darkest cries.
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Jonah 3, Part 3
At the end of Jonah chapter 3, God changes His mind. But does He really? Zack discusses the debate between the "classical view" and the open theist view and proposes a third alternative.
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Jonah 3, Part 2
Does repentance require emotion? Zack reflects on this question and discusses how critical it is that we pursue a relationship with a Personal God.
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Jonah 3, Part 1
Jonah's entire rhetorically-savvy, apologetically-rich sermon that causes the repentance of 120,000 Ninevites is "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" How was this possible effective? Zack discusses Spirit-inspired speaking and Spirit-inspired listening.
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Jonah 2, Part 2
Is Jonah a factual historical account or an edifying parable? Zack discusses what is at stake with different answers to this question.
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Jonah 2, Part 1
Jonah prays a profound prayer from the belly of the fish: Zack reflects on his deep knowledge of the Psalms and the importance of testifying to our saving God's many acts of salvation.
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Jonah 1, Part 2
In this second sermon on Jonah 1, Zack explains how Jonah shows us much, much more than than God loves foreigners; it shows us that God loves those who seem outside the story, those whom we don't think God can, does, or should love.
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Jonah 1, Part 1
After setting the historical scene (Ninevah, Tarshish, etc.) Zack explains how Jonah 1 teaches us that God loves the ninety-nine as well as the one -- and, through Jonah, shows us the lengths to which He will go to reach the one.
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A God Who Entrusts, Humans Who Follow: Mark 16:1-20
How, exactly, does the Gospel of Mark end (at verse 8 or at verse 20)? What is the significance of the fact that we can ask this question? If this gospel ends at v. 8, how do we understand an ending of seeming failure? This sermon concludes our 2+ year journey through the Gospel of Mark.
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Palm Sunday: Luke 19:28-40
The stones would cry out: Zack meditates on this detail from Luke's telling of Palm Sunday to reflect on the cosmic scope of that day.
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The Women: Mark 15:40-47
Zack traces a trajectory in the Bible's teachings about women -- as an example of how to read the Bible dynamically and faithfully.
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Loving Your Enemies—or, the Cross of Christ: Rom 5:6-11
Zack tells the story of St. Patrick -- and how St. Patrick's life mission to the Irish exemplifies Jesus' teaching to love your enemies. Like Jesus on the cross, like our own calling, Patrick loved with God's love.
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“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”: Mark 15:25-39
Zack wrestles with how to understand the so-called cry of dereliction and, more broadly, the cross.
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Carrying A Cross: Mark 15:16-24
Simon of Cyrene helped carry Jesus' cross: Zack reflects on our also carrying crosses.
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History and Mobs: Mark 15:1-15
What turns a crowd into a mob and how does this affect our daily life? Why is Pontius Pilate mentioned in the Apostles' Creed? Zack explores both questions.
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Injustice: Mark 14:53–65
When a biblical story is not your story but the story of your people.
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Nonviolence: Mark 14:43-53
Reflecting on the slave whose ear was cut off, Zack makes a case for Christian pacifism.
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Gethsemane: Mark 14:32-42
Jesus in Gethsemane: Musing on four strange features of the story leads Zack to four observations.
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Peter: Mark 14:26-31, 66-72
How deep is God's forgiveness? Drawing upon a real historical situation from the third century A.D. and on the story of Peter's threefold denial, Zack attempts an answer.
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Judas: Mark 14:10-21
Why did Judas betray Jesus? The question is surprisingly difficult to answer -- but some informed speculation can help illuminate some very important dynamics for Christian faith.
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Epiphany: Matt 2:1-12
In this Epiphany sermon, Zack contrast two ways of Christ "illuminating" the world -- and argues that God often works in mustard-seed ways.
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The Slaughter of the Innocents: Matt 2:13-20
Why does the Christmas story include this horrible story of infants being slaughtered? Zack attempts to answer that question and, in doing so, explores the implications of our need for systematizing our faith.
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Christmas: Phil 2:5-7
In this short sermon, Zack tells the story of Damien of Molokai as an analogy for understanding the mystery of the incarnation.
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Advent 3: Rest: Heb 4:1-11
What is our ultimate Christian hope? This Advent, as in Advents past, Zack sketches some of the answers to this question. This week, he focuses on what our hope for Sabbath Rest means.
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Advent 2: Beyond Restoration: Acts 3:19-21
What is our ultimate Christian hope? This Advent, as in Advents past, Zack sketches some of the answers to this question. This week, he focuses on how God intends to go beyond even restoring to fullness all that He had created.
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Losing Yourself to Participate in the Kingdom of God: Mark 14:1-12
What, exactly, is "the Gospel"? Zack argues that it depends on who you are talking to. And this story -- of the woman who gives everything to anoint Jesus -- is a great way to understand the Gospel for many today.
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End Times: Mark 13:1-37, Part 2
Zack confesses that he has no idea what to do with Jesus' statement in Mark 13:30. This confession launches reflection on trust, knowing, and living out a fully human faith.
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End Times: Mark 13:1-37, Part 1
What, exactly, should we do with Jesus' end-times prophecy in Mark 13? Zack suggests that the text pressures us in three important ways.
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On Not Imitating Jesus? Mark 12:38-40
Should we imitate Jesus' angry and polemical speech? Zack struggles with faithfulness in our context.
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Son of David, Son of God: Mark 12:35-37
Zack muses about Jesus' strange way of speaking -- and suggests that, in this passage, it helps make a profound point about his both-and, expansive identity.
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Give to Caesar's What is Caesar's, to God What is God's: Mark 12:13-17, Part 2
Continuing last week's reflection on Christian politics, Zack offers five suggestions.
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Give to Caesar's What is Caesar's, to God What is God's: Mark 12:13-17
In this first sermon of a two-part series, Zack explores what Jesus teaches us about politics -- and argues that the vision of Scripture has rarely been adopted and may shock us today.
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The Greatest Commandment: Mark 12:28-34
Teresa of Avila; the problem with "love languages"; learning to cook: Zack mediates a passage which brings us to the heart of our faith.
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Resurrection: Mark 12:18-27
"Radical altruists"; expanding our love; expanding our worship: in this more interactive "sermon," Zack examines Jesus' teachings on resurrection and marriage in this passage.
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The Parable of the Wicked Tenants: Mark 12:1-12
Called back to a war-torn country; seeing your wife assault a stranger; a fable or an allegory: Zack uses the Parable of the Wicked Tenants as a way to understand reading Scripture more broadly.
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Authority: Mark 11:27-33
Our moral taste receptors; Milgram's electric shock experiments; a friend's willingness to suffer: Discussing Mark 11:27-33, Zack explains why we should embrace God's authority.
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Prayer and Forgiveness: Mark 11:20-26
The one thing we do in the Lord's Prayer; moving millions of miles away from others; forgiveness as for-getting and as for-giving: reading Mark 11:20-26, Zack tackles prayer and forgiveness. Why are some prayers seemingly not answered? Why is forgiveness a non-negotiable aspect of the Christian...
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God’s Persistence: Mark 11:12-25
Jesus’ cursing the fig tree has always been hard to understand. What is going on with Jesus’ one destructive miracle that seems so out of character for our Lord? Zack argues that, like the other Prophets, Jesus is here engaging in a symbolic “sign-act”—a weird, attention-grabbing action that...
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Persistence: Mark 10:46-52
In a second sermon on Bartimaeus, Zack discusses his persistence -- crying out (praying?) for mercy despite the crowds' trying to silence him. Persistent prayer recurs in Scripture. It changes us. Zack offers not only biblical examples but also the profound witness of Romanian pastor Richard...
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Pentecost: Acts 2:1-13
Zack mines Scripture and offers two modern examples to help us appreciate the point that the Spirit's spectacular acts on that first-century Pentecost, like so many of the Spirit's acts, creates a people where there was not a people.
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Seeing: Mark 10:46-52
In Mark 10:4-52, a blind man sees better than most with sight: Zack explores the significance of the Bartimaeus story and its important application to our lives.
About this show
Sermons by Pastor Zack Phillips and testimonies from members of Covenant Church in Arlington, MA. Visit us at covmin.org.
Hosted by
Zack Phillips
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