The Scripture for Sunday 10/31

Protestants chose October 31, the day Luther posted 95 Thesis on Indulgences to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, to celebrate the beginning of the Reformation. The reformation was the movement that articulated many doctrines and liturgical practices of the church in new and often controversial ways. And the movement resulted in the formation of many of the churches that we now know as Protestant, and the divisions that were created at that time remain in many cases to this day. As important as it is to retrace and celebrate the history of our particular churches, it is also important to acknowledge the fragmentation of the church, the body of Christ, and yearn for the day when God might reign over a dominion not divided by walls. It is possible to celebrate the good of the Reformation and at the same time express sorrow over our inability to heal the deep divisions in the body of Christ. For Presbyterians it is also important to not simply see the reformation solely as an historical event in the past, but as a living movement. One of the Presbyterian Church’s foundational statements is, Ecclesia remormata, semper reformanda…The church reformed, always in need of reforming.

Where is the church called to reform today?

Becoming a fully welcoming church?

Open to ordination and full inclusion (marriage) of the glbt community?

But how do we do with people of special needs…dietary, hearing, seeing, in wheelchairs or not able to make it to church?

What percentage of our budget is for administration? Property? Helping others?

How might worship need to be reformed?

Or our thinking and speaking of God?

Matthew Fox wrote a modern day  “95 Theses or Articles of Faith for a Christianity for the Third Millennium” you might find interesting as you ponder a modern reformation.

John Shelby Spong also has written an article titled A Call for a New Reformation that is very interesting.

Scripture

·       Gospel Luke 19:1-10

¹Jesus 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 Jesus, "Look, half of my possessions I give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I always pay back four times as much." ⁹Then Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because Zacchaeus is also a child of Abraham and Sarah. ¹⁰For the Human One came to seek out and to save the lost."

One last outcast on the way to Jerusalem: Zacchaeus, whose name means "clean" or "innocent," is, assumed to be , unclean and a sinner by those in the story and those listening.  Jesus is really the main character in this story about Zacchaeus. While the tax collector is seeking him, Jesus is seeking Zacchaeus, this "non-person" shunned and hated by the crowd. The people and the listener, of course feel, have good reason for their judging the tax collector, since tax collectors are traitors, instruments of Rome's oppression, and this is a "chief" tax collector. (We may all be sinners, but this one is a really bad.) He's also rich, so he has presumably extracted his wealth from his own people. A few chapters back, though, we learned that "the lost" are dear to the heart of God, in stories of lost sheep, lost coins, a lost son, all worth going after and looking for because they are so greatly valued by the seeker. "Not simply clever or perplexing stories," these accounts "live at the heart of God's purpose of salvation," Sharon Ringe writes (Luke, Westminster Bible Companion). Zacchaeus may be hated by the crowd, but he is loved and valued by Jesus, who has come to find him. It is "who Jesus is" to seek the lost, including us: it is his mission.

This is also a story about joy, a theme that runs through the Gospel of Luke just as much as the theme of reversals. Zacchaeus is happy, not afraid, to welcome Jesus into his home. It's a new day for the tax collector, who feels God's mercy and love reaching him through the love and acceptance of Jesus.  Zacchaeus joyfully welcomes Jesus, and gives away extravagantly more than what is required, "symbolizing his independence from his money," writes Charles Cousar (Texts for Preaching Year C).

What kind of trust is necessary to offer half of our possessions to the poor?

What sort of experience would inspire that kind of trust?

Bt is it Jesus' visit, and the grace of God, that moves Zaccaeus to promise to give away half of his money to the poor and to make lavish restitution where needed. They translate his verbs in the future tense. Others claim that a present tense is appropriate, and that Zacchaeus is honestly claiming to be an observant Jew. Richard Swanson presses this case persuasively, writing about the ritual of separation and exclusion necessary to mark off a faithful Israel, the ritual of hospitality that makes it an honor for Jesus to visit; and the ritual of caring for the poor, which is really "binding the world together." The surprise in this story is that the outcast is the observant one. "This is a scene of revelation, not of redemption" (Provoking the Gospel of Luke). Yes, it's the grace of God at work, but perhaps God has been working on Zacchaeus for quite a while. And John Pilch believes Zacchaeus is describing his "repeated, customary practice," not something he's going to start doing now: Zacchaeus "converted earlier and was misjudged by the grumbling Pharisees. Even in antiquity the only exercise some people got was jumping to conclusions" (The Cultural World of Jesus).