{"id":407,"date":"2016-11-01T11:16:23","date_gmt":"2016-11-01T15:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/?p=407"},"modified":"2016-11-01T11:16:23","modified_gmt":"2016-11-01T15:16:23","slug":"jesus-visits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/2016\/11\/01\/jesus-visits\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesus Visits"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Listen to the sermon being preached at the link below<\/h3>\n<audio class=\"wp-audio-shortcode\" id=\"audio-407-1\" preload=\"none\" style=\"width: 100%;\" controls=\"controls\"><source type=\"audio\/mpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Jesus-Visits.m4a?_=1\" \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Jesus-Visits.m4a\">https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Jesus-Visits.m4a<\/a><\/audio>\n<h2>Jesus Visits<br \/>\nA Sermon for the First Congregational Church of Albany, NY<br \/>\nby Rev. James Eaton, Pastor<br \/>\n24th Sunday After Pentecost \u2022 October 30, 2016<\/h2>\n<blockquote><p>Jesus said to [Zaccheus], \u201cToday salvation has come to this house, because this man, too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.<br \/>\n\u2014 Luke 19:9-10<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Visiting Jericho<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cZaccheus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he\u2026\u201d Did you grow up with that song? I did; I can\u2019t help it running through my head when I read about him. So many of the Bible characters are overlain by songs and stories we\u2019ve heard, made up over the years. How did you imagine Zaccheus when I read the story? How did you imagine the scene? <\/p>\n<p>There are some things in the story Luke would have known we may not. Jericho is an ancient city that was the last stop on the way to Jerusalem. In fact, this story marks the end of a long section in the gospel, the section we\u2019ve been reading through with its parables and stories of lost people being forgiven and reclaimed by Jesus. Jericho is a way station; it\u2019s on the way to Jerusalem and Luke knows what will happen there, as we do, don\u2019t we? It\u2019s fall here, a long way from Palm Sunday in our calendar, but in the gospel, we\u2019re right on the edge of arriving at Jerusalem.<\/p>\n<p>Jesus has collected a crowd around him and the approaches to the city are full of stalls where people are selling all kinds of things. Over there is brightly dyed cloth and someone else has pottery. There are jewelers and someone selling used donkeys. Now bazaar sellers are great marketers. They don\u2019t wait for you to come to their stall, they grab your arm, they thrust their pots and tunics and camels right at you. \u201cHere, see this blanket, I should ask 5 denarii for it, but today I\u2019m feeling crazy and, for some reason, I\u2019ll let it go for three!\u201d, one says, while another is pushing fresh bread, \u201cJust try it, try one bite, you won\u2019t be able to resist!\u201d Jesus and his friends make their way through this crowd. The smells of food cooking, the donkey smells too, the conversations in many languages, the pushing, the jostling. the beggars and of course the constant wariness about pickpockets, all this is going on. What is it like to be in a crowd? We\u2019ve all been there; maybe you went to a festival, Lark Street or somewhere, maybe you\u2019ve gone to a parade. There are the colors, music, people, pushing, jostling. Not much has changed about this, so it shouldn\u2019t be hard for us to feel what it\u2019s like.<\/p>\n<h3>Jesus in Jericho<\/h3>\n<p>Jesus is a minor celebrity. They\u2019ve heard he\u2019s a healer, a teacher, maybe someone who is coming to do something about the Romans. He\u2019s a parade waiting to happen, an event always about to occur. You can\u2019t stay home and watch it on CNN because television won\u2019t be invented for a few hundred years, so you have to go yourself. And of course you go with friends. There they are: all together, the ones who believe him, the ones who jeer, the ones who just want to sell \u201cJesus for Messiah\u201d tunics, the hopeful ones, the dirty ones, the followers, the curious, all making a crowd in this bazaar.<\/p>\n<p>But one of them isn\u2019t there with friends. His name is Zaccheus and he doesn\u2019t have friends, just clients, and angry ones at that. Zaccheus is a little man who does the dirty work for Herod, collecting taxes, enforcing payment. People say he cheats and maybe he does; he\u2019s a sharp competitor. He\u2019s probably rich; not many are. Just like we aren\u2019t as familiar with the geography that Luke knows, we aren\u2019t as tuned into the politics. But we can understand it. After all, we are in the midst of an amazingly divisive political campaign. It isn\u2019t partisan to comment people are losing friends and deleting them on Facebook over backing different candidates. <\/p>\n<h3>Zaccheus<\/h3>\n<p>Zaccheus is a rich collaborator with the Roman-backed government. He\u2019s not the kind of man you invite home to dinner or buy a drink for in the local tavern. Zaccheus may have a nice house but no one visits there, no one drops by and says, \u201cI was just wondering how you were doing, Zach.\u201d What does such a man think about at the end of the day? What does he hope? What does he wish? I think of him as a man who has become isolated. He has lots of things; he may not have lots of fun.<\/p>\n<p>Zaccheus is curious like everyone else. But he isn\u2019t big enough to bull his way through the crowd and anyway I imagine most crowds around there included some people who would have been happy to see him knocked around a bit. So he climbs a tree, a sycamore tree. It\u2019s not a big tree, but it has lots of branches and there he sits, all alone, up in his tree, waiting for this Jesus to come past, waiting for a glimpse of&#8230;what? What exactly did Zaccheus hope to see? The story says, \u201cHe wanted to see who Jesus was\u201d. Isn\u2019t that in a sense what we all want? Sunday after Sunday we come here hoping to get a glimpse of Jesus.  All over this community, all over everywhere, Christians are in churches where they will hear stories they\u2019ve heard before, just like us, hoping to see Jesus.<\/p>\n<h3>A Child of God<\/h3>\n<p>Whatever Zaccheus hoped, up there in his tree, surely he wasn\u2019t prepared for what happened. Jesus is walking past, the center of this crowd, people are yelling prices, people are calling questions, people are asking for healing, it\u2019s a noisy crowd and suddenly he stops and the noise must have stopped too. Just that moment of stillness, right there, right under the tree, and Jesus looks up and sees this man, this lonely little man, up in a tree. And right there, right then, he smiles and speaks.<\/p>\n<p>We don\u2019t really know what was said; did he greet him: \u201cShalom\u201d? Luke says he called out, \u201cZaccheus, come down, I must stay at your house today\u201d .  What went on in Zaccheus in that moment? What went on in you when someone called you out of your tree? There\u2019s a low murmur from the crowd; they know there are a lot of people in Jericho who deserve this special recognition more than this tax collector. He\u2019s not one of us, he\u2019s not a good man, he doesn\u2019t go to worship, he doesn\u2019t pay his tithe, he doesn\u2019t do right. \u201cJesus! Some Messiah! Look, off to have dinner with that sinner!\u201d, they say. The crowd looks at Zaccheus and sees just this: the difficult little man who doesn\u2019t fit in. But Jesus sees something else. To Jesus, Zaccheus is a son of Abraham. That is\u2014a child of God, a person God meant to make a blessing. This is how Jesus sees Zaccheus; whatever Zaccheus sees, this is what Jesus sees in him.<\/p>\n<h3>Jesus Visits<\/h3>\n<p>Zaccheus comes down and makes promises about helping the poor and changing his life. Maybe he did, maybe he didn\u2019t; who knows if he paid his pledge? But for that moment, at least for that moment, his life changed, not because he saw Jesus, but because he saw Jesus seeing him. Because Jesus came to him and called him out of his tree. \u201cCome down, Zaccheus\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>This is what Jesus does: he comes to people, some are lost, some are waiting to be found. He comes to them and sees them and helps them see themselves in a new way. He sees the child of God in them.  <\/p>\n<p>Now we all come to see Jesus but what we really need is to see others as Jesus sees. This is the deep challenge he makes, every day: can we look at others as Jesus sees them? WE have so many categories for people: friends, enemies, acquaintances, colleagues, strangers. Even in the church, we do it: visitors, regulars, members, pastors, officers. Jesus has one category: child of God. When we look at someone that way, Jesus visits them too, just as he did with Zaccheus.<\/p>\n<h3>Someone Who Blessed Me<\/h3>\n<p>Let me tell you about someone who helped me by seeing me that way. Mercedes Carlson was an older lady in 1995 when I began preaching here. She was short and round, just like Zaccheus. She had one of those smiles that suggested she knew there was a great party somewhere and just might tell you about it. We all choose pews that become our regular place and Mercedes\u2019 pew was down in front to my left. Those were difficult days for me. My father had recently died, I\u2019d moved alone to a new community and a new church. I was used to preaching to a full congregation. My former church was full every week; my new one had lots of empty space and I found those rows of empty pews intimidating. People here weren\u2019t too sure about the new pastor; like most churches, it was tough to make the transition.<\/p>\n<p>But every Sunday, as I stood greeting at the back of the church, Mercedes would come and smile and say, \u201cThank you, Pastor, that was a terrific sermon!\u201d  In fact, she was so consistent in her enthusiasm for my sermons that after a few Sundays I began to suspect that maybe she did not have a critical facility. I soon learned, however, that it wasn\u2019t a lack of critical facility; it was just that Mercedes couldn\u2019t hear. When I first found this out, I was a little dismayed, to be honest; I\u2019d relied a bit on the emotional satisfaction of knowing that someone really liked my preaching\u2014it was tough to realize she hadn\u2019t heard a word of it! But she did something much better than all the sermon evaluators of all time: she had gave me a unique and special grace. She didn\u2019t have to hear my words; she only had to know I was God\u2019s child and doing my best.<\/p>\n<p>We all have this capability, to look at someone the way Jesus looked, to give them the grace they need to come down out of their tree. God didn\u2019t put us here just to watch. We have a mission. \u201cThe Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.\u201d That\u2019s what he hopes we will do: that\u2019s what he does with us. Every time we look at someone with the eyes of Jesus, every time we give someone the grace they need to come down out of their tree, Jesus visits. Go with God: be the blessing God intended.<\/p>\n<p>Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Listen to the sermon being preached at the link below Jesus Visits A Sermon for the First Congregational Church of Albany, NY by Rev. James Eaton, Pastor 24th Sunday After Pentecost \u2022 October 30, 2016 Jesus said to [Zaccheus], \u201cToday salvation has come to this house, because this man, too is a son of Abraham. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[53,52,3,13,2,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-afterpentecost-c","category-pentecost","category-sermon","category-theology","category-worship","category-year-c"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":412,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407\/revisions\/412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstreflection.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}