Preached by Rev. Melissa at her congregation by Zoom, on Aug. 9, 2020. Listen here. (Transcript below.)
Luke 19 Jesus was going through Jericho, 2 where a man named Zacchaeus lived. He was in charge of collecting taxes[a] and was very rich. 3-4 Jesus was heading his way, and Zacchaeus wanted to see what he was like. But Zacchaeus was a short man and could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree.
5 When Jesus got there, he looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, hurry down! I want to stay with you today.” 6 Zacchaeus hurried down and gladly welcomed Jesus.
7 Everyone who saw this started grumbling, “This man Zacchaeus is a sinner! And Jesus is going home to eat with him.”
8 Later that day Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “I will give half of my property to the poor. And I will now pay back four times as much[b] to everyone I have ever cheated.”
9 Jesus said to Zacchaeus, “Today you and your family have been saved,[c] because you are a true son of Abraham.[d] 10 The Son of Man came to look for and to save people who are lost.”
[Transcript here]
Good Morning everyone,
It’s so nice to see all of your (teeny-tiny) faces
this morning
as we come together –
as a community to worship.
I have missed seeing you in-person.
In this time of social distancing.
During the pandemic,
I’ve gotten to meet
With a few of you
here and there
For long evening walks
in the Descanso gardens
(For those of you who would like to join me
just let me know.)
Being in nature,
Particularly among the trees
Has really helped me cope
in this Pandemic kind of Advent
that we’re living through
I’m no botanist,
…No great arbolist -or studier of trees-
But I’ve taken some solace
in the grandeur of creation.
Sundays now also
Have a renewed specialness
for me.
I’ve been so filled by our time together,
As we’ve gone through the series
Of “why I’m a Mennonite?”
…And last week as we began reflecting together
on Reconciliation.
Last week Tim reminded us
Of something that Palmer Becker said
In describing the Anabaptist Christian –
That:
“Jesus is the Center of our Faith
Community is the Center of our Lives
& Reconciliation is the Center of our Work.”
And in understanding ourselves
in this light,
We address
Not only
Our Believing
But also
Our Belonging
And
Our Behaving.
So, Today
we carry on
in our series
of Reconciliation
By reflecting on
Reconciling with Ourselves.
On being restored to the identity
That God intends for each one of us –
Individually and collectively.
In our passage for this morning,
We have a story that is familiar to many of us;
It’s the story of Zacchaeus
As a very little girl,
I would visit my grandparents
in Ohio over the summers
And spend lazy-days
filled with long walks in forest-reveries
And every year, We also had to attend
(And I say HAD TO attend)
vacation bible school,
It always fell in the first week of July.
And that’s where I first learned
About Zacchaeus
That Zacchaeus,
was a wee little man,
“…And a wee little man was he”
[Do you remember that song?]
“He climbed up in a sycamore tree,
For the Lord he wanted to see…”
Ok, I’ll stop singing now,
But the song goes on to sing
How happy Zacchaeus was
when Jesus called him down
so that Jesus could
Come over to Zacky’s house in Jericho.
As a child,
This was all I needed to know.
…All I needed to understand.
I knew what it was to be little,
How frustrating it could be
to not be able to see things
over the heads of big people.
And for as long as there have been
children and trees
There’s been tree-climbing.
Every kid understands this.
There’s something so innocent
About Swinging from a tree.
To be honest,
I don’t think fully I outgrew of it.
On Most Sunday mornings during the Pandemic,
Stephanie, Trenton, and I
have been meeting in the backyard here
For socially distanced church.
Stephanie and Trenton can tell you
that we have a tree swing back here,
It hangs on the huge pacific oak,
That stands about 80 to 100 feet tall.
I’m not sure
Who put up that tree swing…
That was SO CLEARLY meant for children.
But that doesn’t stop me.
I’ve got to tell you
That the kid in me
loves that tree swing.
And with all this free time in the pandemic,
Being at home non-stop,
With all sorts of time for reflecting
I’ve noticed that I’ll come outside,
And swing on the tree…
…Whenever I try to solve the world’s problems,
Or work out a puzzle in my mind,
Or even to write a sermon on Zacchaeus.
(Sometimes I wonder what the neighbors think, |seeing a grown woman swing from the tree.)
It’s not just a kid thing.
And I’m not the only one,
I’ve caught Stephanie on here a few times,
Swinging on it too!
We’ve also been having fun with the other trees.
There’s a little fig tree back here,
Trenton,
because he is so tall
doesn’t even have to climb the fig tree
to get to the very tippity top,
reaching the most sun-ripened figs
One Sunday there was just one fig
– the first fig of the season –
At the very top
Ready to be eaten
So we cut it into thirds,
Still warm,
Sharing it like a little church communion.
There’s something of a child-like
innocence about that to me.
We don’t forget what it’s like to be a kid.
And as I kid,
I understood
that Jesus wanted to befriend the little person,
who climbed in the tree.
But as I got bigger,
I learned that,
while all of this is still true,
There is more to the story
Than what meets our ears…
Even our adult ears…
(At least for
Those of us who are English-speakers…)
Because The original hearers
and witnesses to this story
Instantly heard and saw
something more nuanced,
That gets lost in our translation.
It’s even
In Zacchaeus’ name.
For a Hebrew listener or witness,
The story would’ve started
something like this.
“There once was a man named Innocent,
Who wasn’t very…”
For Zacchi
In Hebrew means “Innocent”
We get Zacchaeus, only because
The Hebrew comes to us Helenized (or “Grec-ified”)
“…So there once was a man named Innocent,
Who wasn’t…”
And how do we know
That he wasn’t?
Well, one thing that we learn about Zacchaeus
Right off the bat
is that he was rich-
And maybe that in itself
wouldn’t be incriminating
Or condemning in any way,
But How rich was he?
It turns out, he was
Filthy rich.
Filthy
because of the way he got his wealth
It wasn’t so innocent
He was a chief tax collector.
This means
that he was a sycophantic
kiss-up to the Roman Occupation
He received his wealth
By lining his pockets
With the oppression of
His sisters and his brothers.
“A wee little man” – Indeed!
And so he was understandably
hated
His standing within the community
Cut short.
A rift in the relationship
within himself, and with God,
-and between himself & his neighbors-
Of his own creation,
And by his own doing.
For He had sold his own innocence
to the Roman Empire
Thereby losing everything
That he couldn’t count in currency
Now, a few tidbits of backstory
Seem to come through in the biblical language
of the Evangelist
In Greek
The word “sycophant”
Shows up.
(In English,
You may know that “sycophant”
is polite way to call someone a “kiss-up”)
But In Greek,
the word “sychophant”
Isn’t a noun,
It’s a verb.
And that verb means, “To defraud”
Zacchaeus
knew that,
In the face of Jesus and the others,
He was living as a fraud
That he would come up short.
because he had defrauded
His community
Living as half the man he should be.
He lost his standing.
He lost himself-
A Hebrew,
a son of Abraham
Had he forgotten who he was?
By now, Had everyone else?
…Such that even his name, “Innocent,”
Had become something of an irony to laugh at?
But, as the good song goes : [By Bono & BB King]
“That was the day
Before love came to town.”
Because Luke tells us that Zacchaeus,
…Knowing that Jesus was coming to Jericho…
He ran out in front of the crowd,
To climb the tree
Luke tells us specifically
It was a sycamore tree.
Luke spells
“Sycomore” the same way you would spell
“sycophant”
He’s playing on words:
There’s a “sycophant”
sitting
In the sycamore tree.
-A fraud in the fruit tree.
Now I mentioned that I’m no arbolist,
No great studier of trees,
So
I did not know
That the sycamore grows figs!
…Literally “sycophant” means
to defraud
By way of “showing off one’s figs”
Sycomore
On the other hand,
means
“fig-bearing mulberry tree”
(I had no idea).
You know a tree by its fruit, I guess.
I guess I don’t know my sycomores
or my figs,
But they are delicious.
Last week, when Stephanie and I
were sampling the most recently
Ripened figs,
I commented,
“Now I understand why Jesus got so mad
When that fig tree wouldn’t give up the goods.”
A passage that has always confused me.
You know that story in the Bible where
Jesus cursed a fig tree
Because it didn’t show him any fruit?
…Yes, fresh figs are delicious…
But I have to confess
that I’ve never understood that story
And it seems like
it caught the disciples off-guard too.
Why would you zap a fig tree
when its not even the season for figs?
What’s not to like about fig trees?
Well…
If we go wayyyyy
into the backstory of human sin…
The fig’s first mention in the bible
Is in its association with shame.
Of all the fruit in the Garden of Eden
The only fruit that is actually named
that I can think of
Are figs
There’s no apple mentioned
Sure, “forbidden fruit”
And “knowledge of good and evil,”
But Adam and Eve
Tried to hide themselves
-They tried to hide their shame
Under the cover of fig leaves.
The fig is the only mention of a fruit I recognize
In the Garden,
Here, it became a symbol of shame.
Jesus was not about to have a child of Abraham
Live in Shame
And Under the cover of fig leaves.
“Hurry up and Come down”
From among the fig leaves.
“For I must come to your house.”
Note,
how for the first time,
As Zacchaeus speaks,
Luke says that he stands tall.
In the face of Love,
He no longer hides in shame,
But he is ready to repent – to make a 180
about-face from his sins
And he is willing to make restitution;
To offer Reparations
for the ways that he has defrauded people
“Half of what I have
I will give to the poor & the oppressed”
“To whomever I have defrauded,
I’ll give 4-fold.”
See,
Grace is free
But it ain’t cheap.
When we feel guilty
for our wrongs,
And know in our spirit
that we are in need of being restored,
not just to our former innocence,
But to a Renewal
through the power of reconciling Love
We should take comfort
That in Christ
There is no condemnation,
But only conviction.
(There is no redemption in condemnation.)
The Holy Spirit does not condemn,
but convicts us
To do and to be better
And God’s Spirit of Love always shows us a way.
That’s how we can distinguish our feelings of guilt:
Is it holy conviction?
You can know conviction by the way the Holy Spirit
helps you to make restitution and repair,
wherever possible.
If the guilty feeling is more like “worthlessness”
Then it’s more like condemnation,
And we can dismiss condemnation
Because there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus.
Remember how
The crowd murmured
and tried to spread Zacchaeus’ shame
To Jesus,
(“See how he to be the guest of a sinner?”)
But Jesus’ Love overcomes all sense of shame.
There is nothing to hide from here.
Jesus pronounces Zacchi’s salvation,
And his restoration as a son of Abraham.
We within the Anabaptist Christian tradition
Rightly pay close attention to behavior.
In some ways, it could be said
That we pay more attention
To Orthopraxy than Orthodoxy.
I suppose it’s baked into
our first confession of faith –
The Schleitheim Confession.
Written literally under siege,
and under fire,
There was too little time to pen
“correct beliefs”
And so the confession focused by necessity
on right behaviors
in living within a community of believers.
And I have deepest appreciation for
Acting out our faith in our behaviors-
By its fruit,
You shall know the tree.
And yet, as much as I am an Anabaptist Christian,
I’m an admirer of other forms of Christian discipleship.
There are many kinds of trees in the Garden!
As much as I love our emphasis on right deeds –
I also share a fondness for a Wesleyan sense
Of a “Prevenient Grace”
A Grace that comes before us,
That’s already gone ahead,
Waiting for us,
A Love that comes to town
long before we even get there,
Convicting us, in this case,
by Love alone,
to come out of the fig tree.
To step out
toward making things right
So the question for us today is,
Where are we hiding in our fig leaves?
Are there things that we have done that make us feel small?
-Unable to fully engage
in our place in the community?
Where are the places where you have sinned?
Missed the mark?
-Not living up to the identity that God meant for you to have?
Take just a few seconds and think about this.
I will too.
Are you feeling conviction, or is it condemnation?
If it’s condemnation, you can dismiss it.
Condemnation has no place here.
Christ came to save the lost.
If it’s conviction-
What needs to be made right?
Are there things that the Holy Spirit is asking you to do?
What would repentance look like?
Is there still a possibility to make things right?
The Love–
the Grace is free,
But it’s not cheap.
It asks for our whole selves
to step into the light
and to step up
to right relationship
…To be who and what we were made to be.