Gospel Text for Sunday 28 August 2022

Luke 19.1-10          Now Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through it. There was a person named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector and was rich. Zacchaeus was seeking to see who Jesus was, but was not able to on account of the crowd, being short in stature. So Zacchaeus ran ahead and climbed a sycamore to see Jesus, who was going to pass that way. Now when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” So Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed Jesus, rejoicing. All who saw it began to grumble and said, “To a sinner has he gone to be a guest.” Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Messiah, “Look, half of my possession, Anointed One, to the poor will I give, and if have defrauded anyone, I will pay back four times as much.” Then Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a child of Abraham. For the Son of Woman came to seek out and to save the lost.”

Reflection        In light of recent legislation that increases resources for IRS audits of the wealthy, we may experience a particular resonance with Zacchaeus as well as the crowds who despise him in this teaching tale found only in the Gospel according to Luke. Zacchaeus is a Jew who got rich by taxing and defrauding his Jewish sisters and brothers on behalf of the Romans. As chief tax collector he is scorned and rejected by his countrymen. It is fair to say he is  a lost sheep of Israel. 

So is it curiosity? Fear? Boredom? Remorse? Desire that compels Zacchaeus to seek Jesus?  We can only imagine. At the same time Zacchaeus is seeking Jesus, Jesus is seeking folks who are lost. When the two seekers paths cross in Jericho, the holier-than-thou grumbling crowd rails a barrier between them. Zacchaeus cannot see beyond the self-righteous crowd. Whether to gain a bit of perspective or escape the hypocritical horde, Zacchaeus climbs a sycamore tree where he gleans a glimpse of Jesus. At about the same time Jesus notices Zacchaeus and calls him down from the tree.

I have heard some preachers interpret Jesus calling wealthy Zacchaeus down from the tree as a gesture to lower Zacchaeus’ rank from arrogance to humility . But I say, having climbed a tree to get above the crowd and see Jesus, Zacchaeus is already expressing humility. Jesus notices Zacchaeus and must have thought, “Surely this man is lost for why else would he be apart from the crowd and climb a tree to see me? Let me call him down and go to his home. There I will discover what he is seeking.” 

I believe one of the messages this teaching tale tells is about the necessary intersection of the seeker and the sought. Jesus’ heart and mind are set on seeking the lost and when Zaccheus tunes his heart and mind to seek Jesus, voilà, they intersect. When Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’ home, by promising to give half of his possessions to the poor and pay back those he defrauded four times over, Zacchaeus extends unsolicited generosity to his community. Jesus proclaims, “Salvation has come to this house,” in other words, “Your relationship with God and your Jewish neighbors is restored.”

Meanwhile, as far as we know the crowd is still grumbling because their hearts and minds are set on branding Zacchaeus a sinner and being outraged with Jesus’ benevolent behavior. The crowds behavior creates division, the very divisiveness that would have kept Zacchaeus apart from Jesus.  Which of course begs the question, “Who now is really lost?” Zacchaeus? Jesus? Or the self-righteous crowd?

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Gospel text for Sunday 23 October 2016

Luke 18:9-14        Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, `God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, `God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Reflection        Don’t we all try to be like the Pharisee… law abiding, spiritual people, who give at least our 10% tithe to God’s church, pay our share of taxes and do acts of charity? Aren’t we all a bit grateful that we are not like “those people” who do awful things we hear about in the news? How could it be that Jesus defends the tax-collector, absolving him for his sin without demanding some form of payment? How could Jesus contradict the generous, religious, law-abiding Pharisee, refusing to condone his behavior?  When we do wrong, don’t we have to pay? And when we do good, aren’t we being righteous? 

This Friday and Saturday was our annual Diocesan Convention The Very Rev. Jeffrey Johns, a Church of England priest, and dean of St. Alban’s Cathedral in England delivered the keynote address titled, “The Spirituality of Leadership.” Rev. Johns did not mince words. If we want to lead God’s people and bring about the Kingdom of God on earth, we must first pause and examine our own lives and hearts.

When we are honest with ourselves, we are all sinners. Day after day, week after week, we fail to give our first and our best to God. We check off the boxes of all the good things we do and fall to the same obsessions, compulsions, perfections, temptations, and addictions that we did yesterday. We try to be good Pharisees, but at the end of the day when we examine our hearts and our lives we see, just like the tax collector in Jesus’ story we cannot make it right.

Then Rev. Johns shared a poignant insight about the value of examining our lives  gleaned from the fourteenth century English mystic Julian of Norwich. We examine our hearts and lives in order to “turn our wounds into worship.” 

When we allow ourselves to admit and feel the depths of our violations, shortcomings and shame we are broken open to bow before God and humbly ask for mercy. And because our God is a merciful God our wounds turn into worship. In the words of our tax collector, `God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'

The question is not, am I righteous? Are you righteous? We are not. Our attempts at self improvement and getting it right fall short. But God is righteous, which is how we dare have the courage to admit our errors, shortcomings and violations and experience the attendant grief, shame and remorse Then, putting our faith in God’s righteousness rather than our own, our wounds turn into worship and, in Jesus’ words, we ‘will be exalted.”

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