On the occasion of All Saints’ Sunday, and the dedication of our new hymnals
In between our All Saint’s day liturgy and dedicating our new hymnals and celebrating communion and everything else we do this day, lies the Gospel story of a man named Zaccheus.
Now, Zaccheus is described as a tax collector--and in those days one might just as well have added, a corrupt tax collector. It was understood that they all were. In fact the Gospel says he was the chief tax collector, and he was rich, which meant that he was really corrupt--because they didn’t pay tax collectors all that great; they earned their money by extorting extra off the peasants of the land.
Zaccheus was hardly righteous, a most unlikely saint.
And yet somehow he is a beloved little villain in the Bible--maybe because he was so short, or maybe because he was up in that tree, or perhaps because of that famous children’s song. Sing with me if you know it:
Zaccheus 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 Savior passed that way He looked up in the tree, and said:
Zaccheus, come down, for I’m going to your house today.
I’m going to your house today.
(That’s probably the second song I learned in Sunday School when I was about three years old, right after ‘Jesus Loves Me.’)
So you might even say he’s the character not that you love to hate, but that you almost hate to love.
Ah, but there’s the problem. The crowd gathered there knows all about Zaccheus, and they don’t love him. He’s done them wrong. They’ve got his number, and he’s making Jesus look either naive or incredulous, hanging out with him. Maybe they’re even trying to warn him: Look out Jesus, you’re about to get scammed here. He’s no good.
Then, in front of the crowd, Zaccheus says he’ll give half his possessions to the poor and pay back four times as much of whatever he’s defrauded anyone. This means Zaccheus in on the hook for a lot of dough, and he’s about to become a very poor man.
And that is perhaps a better definition of the saints, those all-too-human and fallible, maybe even rascally, folks we know and love. People that aren’t perfect, but have known love and shown love. People who have not matched every footstep as Jesus’ disciple, but who still try to follow as best they can, knowing that it is not their perfection that is counted, but God’s grace.
On this All Saints’ Day, we remember those whom we have loved who have died and gone to their heavenly home before us. Sometimes we might wonder, particularly if our loved one had his or her troubles, will we see them in heaven? Yet I believe God’s grace is sufficient, and finds even the most rascally ones to transform. By that day, we will all see with new eyes, and all that blurs our vision now will fall away, and all we will see is love for one another. That task has been completed, because we are reconciled to God in the resurrection. And knowing God’s grace for us, grace while we were still sinners and hadn’t done one thing to deserve it, can transform our lives right now, causing us to do the most generous and amazing things for others, even if nobody else thinks we ever would.
Jesus says, the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost. Not the perfect, not the self-righteous, but the lost. Zaccheus had it all, but he was so very, very, lost. Whether we are half as lost, or even if we’re twice as lost, there is hope in this life. In the most unlikely times and to the most unlikely people, Jesus shows up. Jesus might even say, “I simply must stay at your home today.” And in the hosting, we will find joy. It may not make us rich, at least not as the world counts it, but we will find joy. Thanks be to God!
Prayers this week:
Those struggling this week with a reduction of food stamps
For those transitioning to long-term care facilities, or to Hospice
For those providing care for a loved one with a long-term or terminal illness
No comments:
Post a Comment