Immanuel Lutheran Church Weekly Devotion + Monday 1 November 2010

   

    +

 Romans 3:21-25a NRSV  But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood, effective through faith.

    +

One of the first classes I took when I started my theological education was at St. Mary’s Seminary - Ecumenical Institute of Theology in Baltimore; the class was Spirituality of the Early Church. A husband and wife team where the instructors; they both had Th.D.s from the Pontifical Institute in Montreal. They were very well versed in the early church and very smart. We were talking about Paul and the early church and the instructor asked the class a question and I remember responding with the verse from Romans 3:23. This was only the second class I had enrolled in and I did not have a very secure grasp of scripture. As I had attended church in the years before I enrolled in this class, I must have been paying some attention to what I heard, for every so often I have heard read this third chapter of Romans. I will not claim that I was always paying attention when the lessons are read, but apparently I was able to recall this verse from Romans.
    Many people love Jesus, but hate the church. All to often, modern culture and media portray the church as composed of a bunch of straight laced, moralistic, judgmental hypocrites. People give this as a reason not to be involved in a church. To some extent there is truth in their evaluation of the composition of the church. But, I have heard it said: “there is always room for one more.” If the church were composed of people who have not sinned, we would have no need for church. We all fall short of the glory of God and sin. There is no getting around it. We come together in church to admit we are sinners, and to ask God to forgive our sinful nature. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. We cannot redeem ourselves. Jesus has redeemed us by his death on the cross, once and for all. Paul is offering us a liberating truth. We are sinners; sinners of God’s redeeming, through the blood and body of Jesus Christ. As we acknowledge this truth, we can get on with our life.

    +

We pray: Most merciful and loving God, we come before you as repentant sinners, sinners of your redeeming. Walk with us through life, as we face our struggles, our fears, our concerns. Always remind us that we are your beloved children, even when we sin and fall short of your glory. Our steps may be faltering as we walk with you, you are there to help steady us and guide us on our life’s journey. In your Holy Name we pray.  Amen.

Reformation Sunday + 31 October 2010

I have decided to preach from the Gospel of Luke today. The usual text for Reformation Sunday is from John. This is the Gospel text for the 23rd Sunday after Pentecost. The story of Zacchaeus is indeed about being justified by grace. Zacchaeus responds by acting faithfully, by bearing good fruit. Zacchaeus is indeed a son of Abraham, he is living righteously.

This is a story of the one who is a seeker becoming the sought after one. Of all the stories in the Gospel of Luke - this is the one where by the Word of Jesus, a person is justified out right. But Zacchaeus is a tax collector and apparently a very good one at that. Our opinion of tax collectors has not really changed a whole lot since Biblical times. The only difference is that in Biblical times the tax collector was not an impersonal bureaucratic extension of the government, it was an individual who may or may not have been a Jew, who collected taxes for the occupying government of the time - The Empire of Rome. It is one thing to disdain a bureaucracy, but disdain can be much more palpable when it is a person you interact with day in and day out. Zacchaeus is such a person. As a tax collector, the tax collector gets a cut of the taxes he is able to collect. Ironically Zacchaeus means pure one or righteous one. Zacchaeus was not disdained and called a sinner for doing his job of collecting taxes, he was called a sinner for his working with Romans, foreigners, those who are ritually unclean, impure. That he collected taxes and was rich, did not help win him any friends either.

So here is this “little” man who wants to see Jesus. Because of the crowds he cannot see Jesus, so he climbs a tree in order to better see Jesus when he walks past. What the text does not tell us is the motivation behind his wanting to see Jesus. How many of us would want to see the Lord Jesus if we heard he was coming this way? Why would we want to see Jesus, what would be our motivation at wanting to see Jesus? Our motivation or reasons for wanting to see Jesus are as varied as we are. Zacchaeus just wants to see the Lord Jesus; he is seeking Jesus out. Zacchaeus is out on a limb so to speak and Jesus is walking underneath, looks up and says to Zacchaeus: “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. If Jesus turned to any one of us and made the same announcement would we greet the announcement with happiness; would we thing that Jesus was being a bit “forward”or would we be worried that we were behind in our house keeping? I don’t think it would matter to Jesus. Jesus just wants to be with us, us sinners.

As we read this text closely, we realize that things have not really changed a whole lot since the time of Jesus. ‘All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.”’ Apparently the crowd grumbled because they must have assumed that they do not sin, they are righteous and pure, pure as the wind driven snow, and wouldn’t Jesus be more comfortable staying with them? Jealousy and envy are still alive and well and these sins still tempt us today. Yet as Zacchaeus is a sinner, so are we. But that does not stop Jesus from asking to be a home with him or us. Jesus is saying to Zacchaeus, I want to be with you and eat with you. Jesus offers us the same invitation today. Jesus invites us to the table where he offers us a meal he hosts, in his holy house.

How does Zacchaeus react to the presence of Jesus in his life, this gift of grace coming to his home? ‘Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord: “Look, half 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.”’ The text does not say Zacchaeus repents or has faith, but Zacchaeus responds to the Grace of God, through the presence of Jesus Christ in his life. He freely responds to this gift of grace. ‘Then Jesus said to him: “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.”’ Salvation comes through the Word, the Word made flesh and dwelling among us - Jesus Christ. We seek to see Jesus, we long to hear this word of salvation, this promise of Life eternal offered to us. Luther feared God; he was seeking to find the merciful, loving God. Luther realized there was nothing he could do to attain God’s mercy, love and salvation - no amount of works could justify him. Life in our world is just as chaotic and uncertain as it was in Jesus’ Day, as it was in Luther’s day. Life’s uncertainties are so often beyond our control. When we think we have everything squared away, something happens, a decision is made - beyond our control - and all our best laid plans have gone awry. Through the Word of Christ we hear that salvation has come to us today. Jesus does not offer us an IOU - we have the promise given to us now, today. This is what we believe and hold fast to when everything else around us falls to pieces. This is why we gather together - we hear the Word of God proclaimed, we hear Jesus promise to us of salvation, today; we gather at the table and have the meal that is the physical promise given to us of God’s love and mercy. We receive God’s grace of the forgiveness of our sin given to us by the body and blood of Jesus Christ. This is how we are made righteous - justified by God’s grace through our faith in Jesus. Jesus who comes to us, us poor sinners and says to us: “I want to be with you, I want to stay in your home; I will be with you always.” Listen, Jesus is standing, knocking at the door - open the door and Jesus will come in and be with you and will eat with you. And we say: “Come Lord Jesus, come and be our guest, come and be part of our lives.”     Amen.