Lost

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Ordinary 31C

Jerusalem Baptist Church (Emmerton), Warsaw VA

Luke 19:1-10

He entered Jericho and was passing through it. ²A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. ³He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. ⁴So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. ⁵When 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.” ⁶So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. ⁷All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” ⁸Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” ⁹Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

This is on of those stories that I can’t remember NOT knowing.  It’s mixed right in there with Adam & Eve, Noah’s Ark, Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, and the Nativity … yes, of course there are other stories from the New Testament that are also on the list, but not all of them come with their own song – with motions – you know, “Zacchaeus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he” … , or as I first learned it: “Zaqueo era un hombre muy chico, muy chico era el, subió por un sicomoro para ver a Jesús, para ver a Jesús, y cuando Jesús lo vio…” well … you get the picture … I love … I treasure the fact that I have that heritage … that history that I carry inside … in some ways, I feel like it connects me to the oral tradition of the Hebrew people that we mention when we study the scriptures.

There is a feeling that carries through from things like this that we learn in childhood, things are comforting, familiar, welcoming.  The thing is, it’s different approaching this passage as an adult, with a critical mind, a questioning spirit, and a slightly skeptical attitude.  It’s not that I truly doubt the events, but I approach it from a different perspective – I want to find out what Luke wants us to pick up from his telling of the story.  After all, he is the only one that included this particular story in his rendering of the Gospel. 

I read an interesting observation on the story that I’d like to share with you, especially with the events coming up this week: 

Some translations of the text do not have Zacchaeus saying "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything I will pay back four times as much." But instead "Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I give to the poor; and if I have found that I have defrauded anyone of anything, I pay back four times as much."

The Greek could be translated as “will continue to”, so it does make a difference in the tenor of the story, doesn’t it?

The difference is a crucial one.  In the first, Zacchaeus is promising to do something he has never done before.  In the second he is describing something he already does. The first he is a man who has been changed by the acceptance that Jesus has shown him.  The second shows Zacchaeus not so much as a contrite agent of extortion, but rather that he was someone who was living as best he could in a very complex situation.  In fact, it may be that he held this position so that someone less scrupulous could not. 

The difficulty I find with this story is that I honestly don’t know which version to believe.   Both sound equally plausible. I can well imagine Zacchaeus as a rich and selfish bully who has allowed his greed to harden his heart and reap the rewards of his position.  Equally I can see him as a moral and generous man aware of the economic effects of military occupation; aware he is detested but prepared to do a dirty job to ensure the best deal for those from whom taxes were collected.

Jesus may have known of this wealthy man, as someone who was a greedy extorter or as someone who redistributed his wealth.  Or he may have known nothing of him.

This confusion over Zacchaeus feels similar to the confusion that many people feel about our political leaders.  Which ones genuinely care for the plight of the poor as Zacchaeus says he does?  Which ones are corrupt and taking everything they can get as the crowd accuse Zacchaeus of?  In what ways are each of them a more inconvenient mixture of both?

The temptation to vilify or idealise any one person because of their occupation is very real but ultimately oversimplifies and dehumanises. We should examine what they do, principally with money, but the example of Jesus is to continue to pursue a relationship that see past the rumours and the stigma to the person.

Regardless, risk is at the heart of this meeting.  Risk for Jesus – as he approaches Jerusalem, he risks losing some of his supporters.  This champion of the poor and liberator of the Jews has just taken up with someone who they believe exploits the poor and is a traitor to his people. Risk for Zacchaeus as he comes down to the same level as everyone else and aligns himself with Jesus as the most dangerous part of the story is about to begin.

In the company of Jesus, zealots walk with tax collectors, Jew with Gentile, men with woman.  Who do we wish to be separate from? Who do we draw circles round and call “out” of the club?  Who do we not want to be ranked with? Perhaps in one of his final moments pre-Jerusalem, Jesus is demonstrating how wide his circle is.     

How uncomfortable does that make us; the thought that Jesus would associate with folks that we would normally consider to be outside the ‘in’ crowd?  Or is that a factor in our thinking?  Are we troubled by the idea that Jesus would welcome someone with no preconditions?

What is most arresting about Jesus’ meeting with Zacchaeus and its’ outcome is the lack of preconditions that Jesus puts on the meeting.

Traditionally, yes, what I grew up with and what I suspect those of us who DID grow up in church with was the idea that Zacchaeus was greedy and hard-hearted, and his meeting with Jesus changed him.  In our minds we fill in the events … we hear Jesus GIVING him those conditions over supper: stop cheating, stop stealing, stop this and that … yada yada … when in fact, there is no indication in the text that any of that conversation took place before Zacchaeus made his statement about repayment and restitution.  The question of whether he was continuing to do what he had already been doing or was going to begin to do something he’d never done before are set aside, because the idea that an encounter with Jesus would be so transformative as to cause someone to completely redirect their lives to that degree would seem to come naturally if we were used to hearing those dramatic transformation and conversion stories. 

It becomes a little more nuanced, a little harder to caricature, if we consider the possibility that Zacchaeus was already doing something good in the middle of a bad and complicated situation.  That would force us to look elsewhere, to the crowd, specifically, for the point that Jesus was making in his statement about having come to save the “lost”.  If Zacchaeus was doing good in the middle of a bad and complicated situation, then that means that the crowd, the entire population of Jericho, was at fault for having judged him so harshly. 

And that, by extension, makes us, as observers in the scenario, accomplices in that judgment.  That makes US the targets of Jesus’ comments about coming to save the lost. 

But we knew that already, didn’t we? 

It bears noting that, in the preceding passages, Luke has Jesus encountering the rich young ruler who asks him what he must do to have eternal life, to which Jesus’ replies, keep the commandments; don’t commit adultery, don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t bear false witness, honor your father and mother … interesting that he should include lying right in there with the ‘biggies’: adultery, murder and stealing … and the very next passage has Jesus entering Jericho and being assailed by the blind beggar, who asks Jesus to have mercy on him and give him his sight.  In that instance, Jesus heals him with the words,  “receive your sight, your faith has saved you.”

Then we come to the Zacchaeus story.  And there’s this issue with the wording… it is easier, isn’t it, to simply know that Zacchaeus was the bad guy, crooked and hard-hearted, and that purely by the act of inviting himself into Zacchaeus’ home, Jesus began the transformation of his life. 

Except that it might not have been so clear-cut.  Of all the Gospels, Luke seems to be the one that pays most attention to the way words are used and placed and composed.  Luke is the one that does more to show that Jesus was a master at showing the “established righteous” just how unrighteous they truly were.

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

So with whom do we identify in this story?  Are we the greedy, hard-hearted chief tax collector of Jericho, or are we the one struggling to make a good in a bad situation, or are we part of the crowd keeping our distance and pointing the finger and shouting ‘sinner’?

Who among us has not felt lost at one time or another, as we wrestle with making sense of the call that Jesus places on our lives?  Makes me wonder if we can ever truly relinquish that title? 

As followers of Christ, it is incumbent on us to never forget where we stand in our relationship to God – we stand not on our merits, but on grace, on love, resting fully in the arms that sustain us.  And those arms take on a physicality that is real – they are the arms of our brothers and sisters in this family.  They are the ones that share the meals, that pick up the phone and call, that open the car door, start the engine, and come and visit, that drive us to appointments, they weave themselves into our lives and into our hearts.

They are Christ’s presence in our life, calling us to him, calling us to go and do likewise.

Let’s pray.

      

As For You

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Ordinary 29C

Jerusalem Baptist Church (Emmerton), Warsaw VA

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

¹⁴But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that everyone who belongs to God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

4 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you: ²proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. ³For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, ⁴and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. ⁵As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

This last month has been a time of reflection on both those who have gone before us as well as those who will follow us in the faith, as we have listened in on Paul’s words to Timothy about his heritage – from his grandmother Lois and mother Eunice.  Paul’s fatherly relationship to Timothy shines through, especially in these last few verses in his second letter. 

In this morning’s passage he speaks, as we read, of the usefulness of all scripture – in teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. 

To be honest, that verse –16 – always bothered me just a little bit, because it seems to validate the way I saw the Bible used sometimes as a child and young teenager – even into my young adult years – the … ‘bonk on the head’, or in more severe cases, the ‘two by four’ approach to scripture.

It’s the one where you are going along on your merry way, and suddenly some well-meaning self-styled Bible Scholar quotes a verse at you, that seems to be telling you that what you are doing is wrong and you are on your way to a very hot place for doing it, and basically, verbally slams you on the head with the entire Old and New Testaments. 

The problem with that is that, cherry-picking texts to fit a given situation distorts the witness of scripture and takes it out of it’s place within a community of faith. 

Now, I know I just read and then summarized verse sixteen of chapter 3 to you – and it says pretty clearly: “all scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness.”  That seems to be crystal clear.   But I want us to step back a little from the second part of that sentence and look at the first part, just the first two words, to begin with. 

All scripture. 

There’s that pesky word again:  ALL.  Keeping in mind that the scripture that Paul was referring to at the time consisted primarily of what we refer to now as the Old Testament, or the Hebrew Scriptures – and in some quarters, not even ALL of what we think of as the Old Testament – remember, the Sadducees only accepted the Pentateuch – the first 5 books of the Bible – as scripture – he was telling Timothy that it was ALL good for that list – teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. 

That means that we take the parts that are beautiful to our ears – “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want” along with those parts that are harsh to our ears and sensibilities, where the Israelites are instructed to go into a town or a city and destroy it and kill everyone there – all the men, of course, but also all the women and the children … even all the animals.  Those are the passages we gloss over.  We dwell on those that are easy on the ear much more readily. 

What about all the laws?  What about the tedious instructions on what is and is not allowed on the Sabbath?  What about the dietary laws?  How do we apply those, or do we? 

Then on the other end of the spectrum we have the New Testament – which, while it definitely contains passages that are reminiscent of the Old Testament approach and understanding, also contains passages that speak of a freedom and a universality in God’s love and grace that it seems to be completely contradictory to what we know of parts of the Hebrew Scriptures.  How do we reconcile the two, or do we?  How do we incorporate both witnesses of scripture into our worship and our living? 

First, we remember the next phrase after “all scripture”, and that is this: “is inspired by God.”  And we start from there. 

Studying the Bible is not easy.  You’ve heard me talk about the obstacles we face often enough:  the distance not only in years but in culture that separate us from those who first put down these words and who heard these passages, these letters.  The distance in experience – what their lives were like and what our lives are like.  Their concepts of the world and the universe and God’s action in them and our concepts of those things … the more we think about it and study it, the further apart they seem to grow…

And yet here we are, reading the same words that were passed down from generation to generation hundreds and even thousands of years ago, and the words still speak to us.  How does that happen? 

As Baptists, we believe it happens through the work and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives, but we also understand it to happen within a context of community.  We bounce thoughts and ideas off each other; a comment made here today may spark a thought a month from now during a conversation hundreds of miles away from here.  But how does that “bouncing” happen? 

In many ways, it still happens like it did with Timothy – Paul understood that Timothy was first exposed to faith through the faith of his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice.  It is the same way in most if not all of our cases:  we were first exposed to faith – and faithful living – through our parents, or grandparents … a friend, or a co-worker … there may be, here and there an experience where someone’s first exposure was a cold-call Sunday morning spur-of-the-moment decision to walk into a church – and that has made all the difference, as Robert Frost once wrote. 

Paul’s point to Timothy was one that we would do well to take to heart.  Yes, do not neglect the study of scripture, but do not consider yourself infallible in the pursuit of that knowledge.  Remember where you came from.  Remember who taught you, and ask yourself if their lives reflected a grasp of … not simply scripture, but a grasp of the one who inspired ALL scripture? 

Apart from a relationship with God, the Bible is a dead book. It is so much ink on so many sheets of paper.  If we do not know the one who breathed life into us as well as into these words, then these words will always confound us. 

That’s not to say that it’ll be a breeze for us if we DO have that relationship, but that relationship is the starting point.  Whether we come to an understanding of how to reconcile these two images of God that seem to be in such incredible tension in this life or not, when we wrestle with the living word of God we cannot help but come away changed.

What does this mean for Jerusalem Baptist Church at Emmerton?

“As for you”, Paul bookends this particular passage, and writes at the beginning, “continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, ¹⁵and how from childhood you have known the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”

Those who were here for the opening assembly last week and this morning heard a phrase that you will begin to hear and see more and more as the weeks go on:  “Opening Doors”.  It is the theme that we are working on for our Sunday morning Bible studies – our Sunday School – I would invite you in the coming weeks to explore for yourself what doors that theme is talking about. 

Doors have a function – you are either on one side or the other of them.  There are doors that we are behind, and there are doors that we are in front of. 

There are figurative doors – to our hearts, in our minds, in our … inner selves, and there are actual physical doors – doors that belong to our neighbors, friends, relative, fellow members who have long since stopped coming to worship or Sunday School or any given church activity, doors that can all be opened, but for which we need to figure out which side we are on.   Some doors are in plain sight; others are hidden behind wall after wall after wall.  

Paul told Timothy, “always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.”

Carrying out our ministry fully as a body of Christ-followers is going to require that we step out in faith on a regular basis.  And that is something that we are hard-pressed to do, sometimes.  We know what to expect when we keep the doors where they are, AS they are – whether open or closed – we can deal with predictability so much better than we can with change. 

Here is a central truth about the life of faith:  it is anything but static (still) – it does not remain in one form or in one place for very long.  It is a growing thing, a LIVING thing, a dynamic thing.  The Spirit of God, while giving rest, is restless.  There is much to do.  There are many doors to open, to knock on, in some cases, perhaps, to tear down. 

Doors to

Friendship

Learning

Forgiveness

Neighbors

Old friends

To growth,

To thanksgiving,

To a life unbound by the chains of what society would consider proper.

Let us be gloriously improper, shall we?

Would you pray with me?

     

The Good Treasure

Sunday October 3, 2010

Ordinary 27C

Jerusalem Baptist Church (Emmerton), Warsaw VA

The Ordination of Jane Bell Harcum to the Deacon Ministry

Text: 2 Timothy 1:1-14

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, for the sake of the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus, ²To Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. ³I am grateful to God—whom I worship with a clear conscience, as my ancestors did—when I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. ⁴Recalling your tears, I long to see you so that I may be filled with joy. ⁵I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.

⁶For this reason I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; ⁷for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. ⁸Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of God, ⁹who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace. This grace was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, ¹⁰but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. ¹¹For this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher, ¹²and for this reason I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him. ¹³Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. ¹⁴Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.

The most valuable advice I’ve ever received was advice that was not directed to me, at least that I can remember.  It doesn’t come directly from scripture, though I’m sure we could, if we searched, find a proverb or two that could be interpreted to mean the same thing.  It’s not specific to the life of faith, but it is invaluable to life in community, whether that is a nuclear family or a faith family.  The advice was this:  “Respond, don’t react.”   In other words, think before you act.  It is so appropriate for so many situations, and whenever I DON’T follow it, I do so at my own peril. 

Originally, it was advice given by my sister Karen to Leslie, when Hannah and Caleb were still toddlers, and Judson was just a baby.  I believe the context had to do with disciplining them.  K-K’s words have served us well over the years.  I know I have probably shared them with you on more than one occasion.

Paul’s second letter to Timothy is something like that – in this case, Paul has been re-imprisoned in Rome, and is conscious of the fact that he is most likely near the end of his life, and he is writing to Timothy to pour out the last of his thoughts and insights into what it means to be a servant of Christ and the Gospel, in a very personal way.  Paul is making a conscious effort to pass on to Timothy the task that he has been carrying out until now – that of taking the Gospel to the Gentiles.   While Timothy’s grandmother, Lois, and mother, Eunice, were Jewish     Christ follower, his father was a Greek, so his life straddled the two worlds he was trying to bring together.  

Paul and Timothy were as close to being father and son as they could be, without actually being blood relatives.  Paul has known Timothy since his youth, and Timothy accompanied Paul on many of his missionary journeys. 

There is an element of connectedness between them that speaks to the importance of relationships within the body of Christ.  There is always going to be the teacher/pupil relationship, but those relationships that mark us more profoundly go beyond that.  They may BEGIN as that – think of who the most influential teacher in your life was, whether in elementary, middle, or high school, or college, or in Sunday School, or as a youth, and then ask yourself, does the term ‘teacher’ describe what that relationship meant to you?  Usually the answer is no, or if it is ‘yes’, you have to qualify and expand it to encompass more than simply the subject matter they taught you.

Paul’s lessons to Timothy had to do with scripture of course, but more than that, they had to do with the indwelling Spirit of God, mediated through Jesus Christ, and how THAT relationship transformed lives – beginning with Paul’s own, and how it continues to transform lives is why we are here.

This past Wednesday evening, I asked folks to think about the person in their lives whom they could say had a profound effect on their faith pilgrimage.  One person named a childhood pastor, another a Sunday School teacher who taught for decades … I named my preteen Sunday School teacher and my father, who’s passing introduction to a study of Paul’s letters to Timothy during a Sunday School opening assembly sparked in my mind the understanding that what we hold to be Holy Scripture ALSO, in the beginning, were REAL letters FROM real people TO real people.  It was a simple turn of phrase, something about ‘to a young pastor named Timothy’… you wouldn’t think something like that would make that much difference, would you?  And yet, here we are, over 30 years later, and it still stands out in my mind.

Deacons serve in that same way – in mentoring, in modeling, in teaching, often – how many of our Sunday School teachers also serve as deacons?  But it is in that willingness to serve – to make oneself available for the work of the Kingdom – that marks those who would be our servant leaders, and that is why we have set aside this time to acknowledge both what we see and what we know to be true in Jane’s life:  that she does what she does because of her relationship with Jesus Christ.    

So it is in that spirit that we say “Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from the person who was YOUR Paul, Jane, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. Guard the good treasure entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.”

   

 (Ordination Service of Jane Bell Harcum)