I finally had that experience as a preacher where I started writing my sermon... and was nearly finished when I decided to chuck out the whole thing and start over. I just couldn't get to where I wanted to go, and then I didn't feel good about where I was going.
So it was back to the drawing board to come up with this sermon.
Texts: Hab.1:1-4; 2:1-4; Luke 19:1-10
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Prophets are some of the best at expressing what needs saying for
any particular time.
And the words of Habakkuk certainly come in handy for both the
crisis facing the people of Judah in times of war and invasion…and our own 21st
century.
The news of the past week has been pretty grim.
The husband of the speaker of the house got violently attacked in
their California home by a guy given to conspiracy theories.
Shoe manufacturers are rapidly dropping their contracts with the
rapper Kanye West for peddling in antisemitic speech.
The billionaire Elon Musk has acquired Twitter… and promised to
reinstate accounts that the social media platform had blocked for abusive and vicious
speech.
Within hours… social media watchers reported that use of the N-word
spiked 500-percent… and neo-Nazi rants about Jews were getting shared several
thousand times over Twitter.
And we haven’t even touched on political ads.
At our monthly meeting…those of us who are clergy in the Episcopal
Church were left shaking our heads as we talked about what’s been coming at us
through our TV screens from candidates. And we’re doubly cursed with seeing ads
from Georgia AND Florida.
All of this makes the prophet’s cry sound like one of our own:
“Why do you make me see
wrongdoing and look at trouble?
Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention
arise” (Hab.1:3).
Why God? Why must we live in such mean-spirited and dangerous
times? Why do those who want to lead us insist on ginning up our fears and
stoking the fires of hatred?
This is where Habakkuk becomes our friend as he takes his complaint
to God…turning to the Holy to answer for what good can possibly come from such
violence.
And he goes to his watchpost to wait for the answer…which is where
I’m going to leave him for now as we look at our Gospel where we have Zacchaeus
up in his sycamore tree.
Little Zacchaeus has come to seek out Jesus…but he can’t see him on
account of the crowd. The crowd represents a physical barrier…and an entity
that is keeping Zacchaeus at arm’s length. So he climbs up a tree…his watchpost…
to wait for Jesus.
Funny enough… Jesus… wading through this crowd of tall people spots
Zacchaeus…moves toward him and tells him to come out the tree.
Jesus is like, “it’s dinner time. I’m hungry. And I’m coming to
your house, Zacchaeus!”
As much as Zacchaeus was seeking Jesus…it seems Jesus was also
seeking Zacchaeus.
In his watchpost.
Waiting to have a chance encounter with this Son of the Most High
God.
What makes this significant is who Zacchaeus is in his society.
He’s the chief tax collector.
That makes him in charge of the others exacting a toll on the
Jewish citizenry… and that means he’s not just rich; he’s very rich.
Just as I was saying last week…the tax collectors are universally
despised by their fellow Jews. They represent the collaborators with their
Roman oppressors… the jerks who shake down Jews for the Emperor.
They are the “others” of their own people.
And here’s Jesus… cutting through the crowd to approach Zacchaeus
in his sycamore watchpost to say, “I wanna break bread with you, little sinner man.”
Zacchaeus knows he’s not liked and that his job makes him a “less
than” in the eyes of his fellow countrymen.
He probably had no expectation that Jesus would see him.
And now… not only has Jesus seen him…he is seen by
him and is willing and wanting to be seen with him. I
n fact… Jesus goes so far as to acknowledge him as a Son of
Abraham… an affirmation of his Jewishness… in front of a crowd who regarded the
little Zacchaeus as an “other.”
Whatever Zacchaeus might have thought that he was seeking when he
went up in that tree… he is so moved at this recognition… this desire of Jesus
to re-member him into the people of God… that he declares he will not only do
what is expected…the mitzvot…of taking care of the poor; this very rich man is
going to give up half of his possessions.
Furthermore… any additional money he has gained through underhanded
dealings and extra interest charged he’s going to pay back four-times as much.
(It is an interesting phenomenon that those who are on the margins
of society… in a group that is historically on the outs…always feel they have
to do more… overachieve and out perform expectations. They can’t just be good;
they have to be great… excellent… perfect… in order to feel accepted by the
majority. And even then… one slip up… and they’ll tumble out of favor quickly.)
Jesus boldly calls this chief tax collector a “Son of Abraham” in front of all these
other Children of Abraham… much to their irritation.
But Jesus’ point is that Zacchaeus… by pushing past that barrier of
the crowd…by not letting their judgment keep him away… and seeking Jesus by
climbing up into his watchpost in the tree…Zacchaeus has shown the commitment
he has to his Jewish faith.
By seeking out Jesus and feeling seen by Jesus… not only has
Zacchaeus demonstrated to all that he is a faithful Jew… his commitment to his
people has been revitalized and renewed.
That brings us back to the prophet Habakkuk in his watchpost.
In the same way that Zacchaeus climbed up into the sycamore
tree…Habakkuk knows that he must go to a higher place to seek God…and wait
there for God to answer his plea about the violence he’s witnessing.
And the answer God gives is “I’m on it. Be faithful and wait.”
That might not make us feel good in our world where we are so
connected with our phones and text messaging capability. Patience and waiting are
becoming harder and harder.
But God’s answer to Habakkuk is a reminder that those who resort to
violence will not succeed. It may look like they are in the short term, but
faithfulness will pay off, and the proud will be brought down while the lowly
will be lifted up. A chief tax collector will see the light… and will be
restored to his people.
Now… we may never see politicians running campaign ads repenting of
their sins of making minority groups political footballs for selfish purposes
of gaining votes from scared people.
I doubt Twitter trolls will take down their hate speech from social
media platforms.
What we can do is not follow that lead.
We can ascend to our own watchposts and pay attention to the way in
which we treat each other. All of us…each one of us including me… has the
responsibility of not feeding the beast of anger and hatred that seems to be
dominating our culture.
The spirit of God is a spirit of Love.
Remaining faithful to Love… and patiently and steadfastly sticking
with it… is our best bet to carry us through to the other side of these trying
times.
In the name of God…F/S/HS.
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