Missing punchline

Preaching without notes (in my case) involves careful oral writing of a full, timed script which I 'internalize' so that I can preach from the heart. (This is not memorization but a holding of structure in mind with certain key phrases that stay with me when I first preached it to myself).  I always leave the ending open for you never know where the Holy Spirit will lead. However, I do prepare some possible endings as I have sensed God moving my preparation.

With Zacchaeus Richard's contemplation piece was delivered so effectively.  He used his smart phone in the conversation with his wife and the end result registered so powerfully that one visitor said he was nearly brought to tears by its portrayal of Zacchaeus' transformation. It was powerful. It led me to conclude with a brief challenge about the way Jesus views us all as lost when he first meets us. 

This meant that I failed to use one of the ways I might have ended!  Only one commentary I consulted mentioned how one of the early church leaders (and preachers) called Clement of Alexandria, referred to Zacchaeus in his homily 3:63.  And guess what? He writes that Zacchaeus became Bishop of Caesarea in the early church. I love that detail.  There's a factual follow-up to the Luke 19 story.  Zacchaeus' momentous declaration to Jesus, right there and then at the foot of the tree, that he would give away half his possessions and repay any he had cheated, is a prelude to such changed character that he becomes a leader in Jesus' church. I wish we knew more. You can only imagine how that the personality that once took him to chief tax collector position, with gifts of leadership, organization, and team work is turned on its head. As a generous, gracious bishop his caring, compassion and ability are refocused on the kingdom of God, living for Jesus, in his way with his people. Maybe he told his testimony. It would have made a great evangelistic story. This outcast up a tree, found by Jesus.

On reflection I believe I was right to finish the sermon as I did. but follow-up stories have their own gospel power too. And that leads me to another recent experience.....

Zacchai

 Zakkai phones home    Reading Luke 19: 1-10

Zacchaeus is the Greek form of a common Jewish name, Zakkai. I often wonder what happens after someone encounters Jesus in the gospel. Imagine the crowds have gone and Zakkai is left to ring his wife to tell her that a special guest is coming for dinner. (To date no archaeological excavation has dug up a mobile phone dating back to the first century!)

Hi there my dear, Zakkai here. Just wanted to let you know that we’ve got an important guest coming to dinner.........

Yes, I know tonight’s our night out but I think we’ll have to give it a .......

Who’s the guest? Oh, it’s that preacher everyone’s talking about, Jesus. (Pause). Well actually, it may not be just the meal, it may be a bed too. (Pause) And it may not just be one guest....... 

Well he has a few disciples who go with him everywhere and it would be rude to exclude......

Oh just a dozen, but they’re used to sleeping rough.........

 Yes, I know it’s very short notice, and it’s the servants day off, but he sort of invited himself! ....

What do I mean? Well he looked up at me .........What?  No, I haven’t found someone in Jericho shorter than me....... Yes that right, I’ve been climbing up trees again. Anyway, he looked up and said,’ Zakkai, I must stay at your house today’.  So I clambered down the tree and gave him a hug. And he hugged me back.....

Why me? Well I’m not really sure. With all the crowd surrounding him it was as if he was searching for just one person –me! He knew my name, and he didn’t condemn me for who I am and what I’ve done. And what’s more, he wants to meet you.... Yes, and the children.... and their pet rabbit. It was wonderful. Oh and my dear wife there’s one more thing. I’m sorry but we need to cancel our Mediterranean cruise......

 Yes, I was looking forward to it too, but I think we may be a bit short this month......

 No I haven’t been throwing my money around again to try to gain friends. But in a way perhaps I have. I told everyone that I’d give um, a generous donation to the poor!.... to be more precise, half our money...

That’s right, one half of everything we posses. Ridiculous I know, but perhaps a downsize would be good for us at our time of life.....

No, that’s not quite the lot. Tomorrow morning there will people knocking at the door looking for compensation for money I’ve overcharged them. ...

What?  How many?  Well, most of Jericho I would think.  And I told them I’d repay them everything -  plus a bit more....

 How much more?  Oh, um 400 per cent more....... Yes I know that’s four times more. It’s quite ridiculous. We will be penniless – but I don’t care!.......

 No I haven’t lost my marbles. You see Jesus looked at me, and for the first time I felt accepted, a real person again, not just a cheat, a fraudster, a sinner beyond redemption. For the first time I can hold my head high and know that when I go to the temple to pray I have a clear conscience, my wicked past forgiven by God. And do you know what Jesus said? ‘Today salvation has come to this household’ This household – that means me, you, the children....... Not sure about their pet rabbit , but yes pet rabbit as well. He said ‘For the Son of man came to seek and to save the lost’. And if he can save me – he can save everyone! See you soon, Bye.

Overwhelming spiritual encounter

My narrative sermon on Sunday followed the moves in the story. From a negative beginning to holy curiosity and then overwhelming spiritual encounter. Verse 5: When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him: Zacchaeus come down immediately. I must stay at your house today. So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly. I invited the congregation to imagine this moment. Jesus takes the initiative. Perhaps he knew Zacchaeus' name but he would have certainly heard it from the crowd around who couldn't believe it was odious feared Zacchaeus up a tree. For goodness sake. This wealthy man of status actually peering down through branches.

And what authority Jesus shows!  Has anyone ever spoken to Zacchaeus like this before? Come down immediately. But he had never met anyone like Jesus before! Jesus must stay in his house today. This unpopular man is suddenly the focus of attention and the crowd can't bear it.  Doesn't Jesus know what kind of man this is? Yes, of course Jesus knows.

When he looks up at Zacchaeus he's not seeing a wealthy, successful man, or an extortioner and betrayer of his own people. He sees a man who is LOST.  It's unlikely that Zacchaeus would have ever considered himself lost.  He mapped out his life like his finances. His personal GPS had a route of continuing success  But from God's point of view he has missed his way to true living.  His life so far is empty of God's purpose. Within  Zacchaeus God's loving Spirit is working to help him recognize the truth of this moment. He shins down the tree and greets Jesus gladly.  He's been found.  Jesus will sum up his ministry: The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost (verse 12) and Zacchaeus is bowled over by the spiritual reality of being found in God's love and purpose.

The transformation is extraordinary. For someone for whom money was everything it is now as though it's nothing. Look Lord, here and now, I give half my possession to the poor. If I've cheated anyone out of anything I'll pay him four times the amount. Being found upends all he has been living for. Everything is different.

One of the Histon church members, Richard Pike, read my earlier postings about preaching on Zacchaeus. He mentioned that he had written what he calls an 'imaginative contemplation' on this story, when he was engaged in a project a few years ago. I asked to see it and when I read it I knew that it just had to be included in my sermon. 

So get ready....

Holy Curiosity

A French painter James Tissot, who painted at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth imagined the scene in a watercolour picture. 

Zacchaeus is centre-stage, wearing a gold robe with jewelry and headgear. Others are in the trees alongside him, dressed simply, as are members of the crowd with Jesus on the road below.  As I look at the figure of Zacchaeus he seems to be straining to get as good a view as possible. There is nothing casual about his stance. He wants to see who Jesus is, he wants to know.

The truth is that something is happening inside Zacchaeus. Bluntly, God is at work.  I heard someone on the radio interviewed about their life who said that he was fuelled by a 'furious curiosity', not furious in the sense of being angry but with such passionate desire that he had to know.  I think I would call the happening inside Zacchaeus as 'holy curiosity' because he really needed to know more about Jesus. Whether it was the celebrity news surrounding Jesus that aroused his interest, or someone shared a story about what Jesus had done, or Zacchaeus had let his faith in God lapse and felt strangely drawn to see Jesus.  Whatever the reason, and there are tens of other possibilities, it's the way that God works in the lives of people who find themselves wanting to know more. I guess Zacchaeus doesn't realize that.

Currently a large group is on an Alpha course at our church and I guess some are there because God has been working - through a friend who invited them, or a reminder of past days of believing, or a sense of need.  One of the great mysteries of Christian life that many of us can testify to is that along the way through family, friends, needs, questions we were led to the point where we wanted to see Jesus.  God was working in our lives before we realized it.

A weird turn

Though Zacchaeus' story begins negatively it takes an extraordinary turn at verse 3. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but being a short man he could not, because of the crowd. We can understand the crowd not letting him have a good view. Place children at the front and in no way to let this unpopular man elbow his way through. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way. 

A traditional site in Jericho claims to be the tree. It's not a sycamore tree as we know it and many such traditional claims are less than likely. Yet they underline the reality that there really was a tree in Jericho that Zacchaeus climbed. There really was.

 

And that picture brings the story vividly and weirdly alive -  that a grown man, wealthy and entitled, climbs a tree to see Jesus. As a boy I enjoyed climbing trees and even as a teenager I climbed occasional lampposts until I realized it failed to impress someone I wanted to impress!  What is utterly bizarre is the way that this man, with all his wealth and status, is apparently willing to take the risk and embarrassment of climbing up.  Apparently the sycamore-fig tree has accessible branches and is heavily leafed so that someone could potentially avoid being very visible. So, perhaps he could be a spectator only.

I need to show you a second picture.....

Beginning negatively

To understand Zacchaeus involves giving a little background.  Publicani were a class of people in efficient Roman society, and it was ruthlessly efficient, that were public contractors responsible for a number of tasks, of which tax collecting was the most obvious. The right to collect taxes for a particular region would be auctioned every few years for a value that (in theory) approximated the tax available for collection in that region. Jericho was a wealthy area. Any excess (over their bid) in tax collected would be pure profit  That could be a big deal!  

Publicans were monied, powerful and detested. For Zacchaeus and others like him were Jews, who had defected to serve the hated Roman occupiers. Betraying their own people they now had authority to extract extra money, to rob their national family. We can imagine this job took a particular kind of person. They had to have some money in the first place, perhaps Zacchaeus' Dad was a tax collector so that bidding in the auction was a family thing.  But they needed personality hardened enough to withstand hatred and envy from their own people,  That’s why they were bracketed - publicans and sinners. 

They really had set themselves against God’s people and against God. And the chief tax collector was top of the pile of rich betrayers.  He didn’t mind being unpopular (we see that in the story), because you really can’t have enough money. You really had to be money-crazy to put up with being hated every day But money does that. It brings the worst out of people and when you’re in love with it enough there’s hardly any limit to which you will cut corners, cheat friends, trample on strangers. The background chant could be the Abba lyric: Money, money, money always sunny in the rich man's world,  Aha it's a rich man's world. Somebody had to do this job and just look at what it has given him in wealth and status.. 

As we meet Zacchaeus he doesn’t seem to have much going for him. A totally negative character. Not likely to become a friend!

An old man's chuckle

I'll get back to Zacchaeus but this week I chuckled over one of those surprises life throws up. One of our new church deacons asked me to accompany him to interview a couple seeking church membership. He emailed me the two forms outlining the areas to be covered in the interview, and the key responsibilities of church members. On the appointed afternoon, it was a delight to meet up since the new members are neighbours whom I already know well. They brewed coffee and with baked cakes made it a real occasion! 

As we started the deacon commented that he was glad I was there because I had done this before. And I had a flash back to the heady days of ministry in the 1970's when the Baptist Union produced leaflets to help churches in every aspect of their life called Baptist Basics.  Several different leaflets were packaged in an attractive envelope. I can picture the design.

And this was the flashback! Because (having not thought about it for 50 years) I wrote the leaflet entitled Visiting prospective church members. Did I really? That's another lifetime.  The Baptist Basics series has since been re-written by a younger generation of Baptist leaders. 

Of course, I didn't mention this at the time. This is just an old man's private chuckle about the dimming past that I can jot down in my blog. Yet, don't we feel pleasure when we are still involved in something 50 years later with another generation? I certainly do.  And what made it even more of a joy was this couple's story about how Carol's insistent invitation to come to our church led them eventually to trying it and now wanting to belong.  Now, that's encouragement!