Seeing with Zacchaeus

This sermon can be listened to here
Gate Pa – All Saints/All Souls/ 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time- Year C - 2019
Readings:
Psalm -                        Psalm: 149 
First Reading -           Hab 1:1-4,2:1-4 
Second Reading-        Ephesians 1:11-23 
Gospel -                       Luke 19: 1-10

What I want to say: 
To retell the story of Jesus and Zacchaeus putting it in context. What does Jesus see? How does Zacchaeus respond? What do we see? How do we respond?
Today we gather around Christ’s table with all the saints who have gone before, and our departed loved ones, and we give thanks for God’s faithfulness to them and us
What I want to happen: 
- reflect on what we have been invited to see in the person or people we are remembering?   
- in all this how has God been faithful 

The Sermon

       1.      Introduction:

Jesus set his face to go to Jerusalem (Luke 9:51)
On the way he healed people
-          Invisible people made visible
He told stories in answer to questions
Like a lawyer who wondered what he had to do to inherit eternal life?
-          He used an accursed Samaritan to teach him what loving God by loving your neighbour looks like
Stories of lost coins, sheep and sons
-           showed God’s immense love
He saw invisible lepers and healed them
-          And used the accursed Samaritan to teach how to love and give praise to God
He saw little children
He flummoxed a rich ruler who also wanted to know what he had to do to inherit eternal life
-          Go sell everything you have and give to the poor
-          And in answer to “who then can be saved if not the rich?”
-          It is easier for a camel to go though the eye of a needle that for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven
As he came near the end of this journey
And entered Jericho
he healed a desperate blind man

       2.      Zacchaeus

There was another there in Jericho
Wealthy chief tax collector
-          To be so rich he had to be corrupt
-          A collaborator with imperial Rome
-          Stealing taxes to pay for their army
-          Unclean
-          Loathed
-          Belittled
He was keen to see this Jesus
But he was short
And no-one was willing to make room for him
They shunted him away
This dirty little thief
So he ran down the road and
Throwing all his non-existent dignity to one side
Climbed a tree like a boy
They would not stop him seeing this phenomenon
And he waited patiently.
Sitting in a tree
Invisible to the crowd below
Until Jesus arrives
“Zacchaeus my friend
I see you in that tree
Come down at once
Today you and I will share food in your house!”
But as he scrambles down he hears the muttering and grumbling
“How come this wretched loathsome crook gets the honour
why is he blessed?
He is so underserving!”
-          And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded any one of anything, I restore it fourfold.”  (RSV)
-          Zacchaeus 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.” (NRSV)
And Jesus responds, “Today is salvation day in this home! Here he is: Zacchaeus, son of Abraham! For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost.”

        3.      What do we see? ppt

Jesus sees the invisible
The despised
The lost
-          What do we see in this story?
That day was salvation day in that home ppt
-          What is salvation in this story?
-          Given that which translation speaks to you and why?

Discuss

“The story of Jesus and Zacchaeus suggests that salvation is reciprocal. Yes, salvation shows up in the very presence of Jesus. Salvation happens when Jesus sees the unseeable. When Jesus finds those who may try to hide so as not to have their sin exposed. When Jesus regards those who think salvation is most certainly not for them. But, salvation also shows up when we do what Jesus himself does -- welcome the other, be with the other, be known by the other. Salvation as solidarity. Salvation as hospitality. Salvation as ministry.” Karoline Lewis [i]

       4.      All Saints

Today is our All Saints – All Souls
Where we remember all who have gone before us
The great saints
The unknown saints
All whom
Like us
invited share table fellowship with crucified and risen Christ
we remember their faithfulness
more importantly
we remember God’s faithfulness to them
-          that at all times they were seen
like Zacchaeus
-          knew salvation day in their lives
and we remember that every time we gather around this table
-          Christ’s table
We join all saints
All those like Zacchaeus who Jesus saw
-          Invisible
-          Hated
è All whom were made visible again
Today we also remember our departed loved ones
Who for better and for worse have shaped us in some way
-          Recall the pain of our loss
-          Invited remember how God has been faithful throughout

      5.      Reflective questions ppt


-          What are you invited to see in the person or people you are remembering?
-          How has God been faithful?
[i] https://www.workingpreacher.org/craft.aspx?post=4745

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