little man, big change

from my sermon on 10/31/10 from Luke 19:1-10

Happy Halloween! I would love to know what you are going as tonight. I know we have gotten away from acknowleging saints as we used to do, and we have tended toward scary costumes. Always popular are witches and ghosts. I think trending upward this year are vampires and zombies. If you haven't chosen a scary outfit this year, I have one for you. Are you ready? Go as an IRS agent!

Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector. It is the only time in all of the Greek literature that this term is used. We have examples of tax collectors, but only this example of a chief tax collector. If a tax collector is scary, then a chief tax collector is scary squared!

Jesus encounters Zacchaeus in Jericho. In Luke's Gospel, Jesus has been on a long journey toward Jerusalem. We have been going along trying to learn what it means to be a disciple, a follower of Jesus. Jesus is almost to Jerusalem. This is one of his last encounters before entering.

I have been to Jericho. The first time I went to the Holy Land, we landed in Amman, Jordan. We spent the night before crossing the Jordan River at the Allenby Bridge and enterine Israel. Just inside was Jericho, one of the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world. I remember there be fruit orchards and a spring of water. I bought a grapefruit which I ate by the springs. Jericho is today as it was then on major trade routes. It was a great place for a chief tax collector to squeeze as much out of travelers as he could.

Zacchaeus was rich, but that didn't seem to satisfy him. He wanted to see Jesus, not just His physical appearance, but as the text says, "to see who Jesus was." He wanted to see His character. Was it true what people were saying about Him? Zacchaeus was a seeker.

He couldn't get to see Jesus because of the crowd. Was it because he was short? Be kind here, because I resemble this remark. He runs ahead and climbs a tree. Maybe he is being clever and creative? But grown men don't run and climb trees; it is undignified. Do you know why I think he is in the tree? Because he is desperate. He could have bought a front row seat on the parade route and had his body guards secure it. He is in a tree, because we put him there. We hate him and fear him. He is up a tree, out on a limb, because we put him there, and he doesn't know what else to do to see who Jesus is.

We forget sometimes what it is like to be a seeker. We put up all kinds of barriers and inside language. At another church I served, we did a building project. At its conclusion we sent out mailers and put up door hangers inviting our neighbors to an open house. The amazing thing is some people actually responded and came. You know me; I am out there greeting people, saying my classic line, "Help me with your name." She said, "I am Jo" (not her real name). She gave her first name. She started coming to worship. When the registration pad was passed, she just wrote her first name, Jo. Finally, she wrote her family name as well. Weeks later, her address and telephone number. Do you get a sense of her caution? She was a seeker, but careful. There was some story there, but I didn't know it. Can we pause with Jo for a moment, as she is out on a limb?

Jesus was passing by, and he looked up at Zacchaeus. This may be the only time that anyone had looked up at him in his life, in all the meanings of that phrase. And he has been called a lot of names in Jericho you can be sure, but Jesus calls him by his given name, "Zacchaeus." You remember your Hebrew. Jesus calls him, "righteous one", "pure one." How long had it been since anyone had ever called him that?

Jesus said, 'hurry, come down, for I must stay at your house today." Here, we need to pause and sing that song, some of us learned as children: Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he, he climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see, and as the Lord was walking by, he looked up in the tree, and he said, Zacchaeus, you come down, for I am going to your house today, for I am going to your house today.

What does it mean for Jesus to come home with you? We had company last weekend, my mom and youngest brother and children. Did they just pop in? No, we had clean sheets and towels' we had dusted and vacuumed; we had bought food. Can you imagine Zacchaeus walking in the backdoor and saying, "Honey, guess who's coming for dinner? It's Jesus." And how about invited Jesus home to our insides today. "Jesus, you may not want to go there in the basement. It awful ugly. Don't go in that closet of shame and guilt." And here's the thing: Jesus accepts Zacchaeus and us just as we are.

Back to Jo, she grew to trust us. She revealed that her husband was abusive toward her, physically, emotionally, and verbally. Her way of dealing with that was to put on a lot of weight and to work long hours to avoid going home. She was belittled. One ican be small on the inside, not just short in height. She had believed what her husband had said about her. But at church she heard good news, that Jesus loved, that she was a person of worth. She began to believe that. She got a counselor. She lost weight. I don't recommend this in every case, but she got a divorce. She joined the church. She had her children baptized. What was wonderful was that she became our best greeter. She didn't wear a greeter badge. No, at the passing of the peace, it was much more than a mere formality. She would look around for the stranger, the newcomer, the guest, the seeker. She had recently been there and been changed. She knew what it was like to be out on a limb and then be welcomed in.

Zacchaeus welcomed Jesus to his home. The crowd grumbled. Only 3 times in Luke's Gospel do the people grumble. All 3 times it is when Jesus welcomes someone they can't stand. "HE eats with tax collectors and sinners!" Who is it that we grumble about? Who have we put up a tree. Surely Jesus can't love these, we say. Election day is Tuesday: is it Republicans, or Democrats. It is those who live in E. Austin, or W. Austin? Is it muslims? or persons of different sexual orientation? Who do we think is beyond Christ's love? Our vision statement is really challenging us: Following One, Serving All. All means all.

I have a confession to make at this point. I am addicted to "Glee." Thank goodness of Netflix. Cathy got all of season one which we missed last year on DVD. It is simply a soap opera in a high school with great music and dancing. I know this doesn't in real life, but there are strata of persons who are accepted or not. Top of the pecking order are the jocks, the football players, etc. Right up there are the pep squad members, who are called, I am not making this up, the "Cheerios." But at the bottom are the members of the glee club, the misfits, the ones who get slushies thrown in their face. We do this. We put people up in a tree. Jesus can't possibly love them.

Zacchaeus stood there. Sometimes it is good to make a stand. He says, "Half of my goods I give to the poor." How much is a tithe? Ten percent. Here he is giving 50%. Let's make it real. How many TV's do you have? Two? Then one is gone. How many cars? Two, then one is gone. He says, if I have defrauded anyone, I will repay 400%."

I think he had a change of heart. It is a miracle story. Jesus said earlier, "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven." Zacchaeus this little man has a big change. He gives. People don't give to budgets. They give because their lives have been touched by Jesus. They give so others can know that too.

Jesus says, "Today, salvation has come to this house." When is a good time for salvation? Right now! You don't wait until you die. Salvation begins today.

Jesus says that Zacchaeus is also a son of Abraham. He always had been, he just didn't realize it until he saw who Jesus was, and until Jesus saw who he was.

And here's the good news, the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. Amen.