Connect & Renew: Energetic Connections Ken Wilson 10.16.16 Reconnected recently with one of my first childhood friends, Marc, across street. Lost connection in HS, then made a trip to reconnect in 1971, disconnected again for 40 years. Found me on FB after Letter to My Congregation. Marc is non-practicing Jew, atheist, spiritually curious. Met a few months ago and he asked, Pastor Kenny [charming nickname for me now] If Jesus is not the answer, what s the answer? I said, Connections. He wrote recently to say how that has been haunting him ever since Sending my old friend Wired to Connect, about four brain systems that aid our ability to connect with others (systems that weaken when we are in bad relationships or disconnected). Calming system (help us relax around others), acceptance (give us a feeling of belonging in safe relationships and signals close-to-physical pain when we experience rejection-exclusion), resonance (helps us mirror emotions of others) and our focus today, energetic (gives us a boost of dopamine pleasure drug when we are connected) Word, dopamine, should get our attention because we know addictions are driven by the brain s craving for dopamine: if we re addicted to social media/unhealthy sexual stimulation/ cocaine/nicotine /alcohol/shopping and the rest, it s because our dopamine system rewards us each time we partake. The dopamine system evolved to reinforce our people connections, necessary for survival. Modern world is less communal, our personal connections weaker. Dopamine is so important to our brains that if we don t get it from our people contact, find it elsewhere. [No accident that AA works because it is a fellowship all about restoring meaningful personal connections] Dopamine mediates feeling you get from someone you like who likes you back. If FB post gets a Like, lift you feel is dopamine. keeps you posting cute things your kids say and pics of your dog. Energizing feeling. When you like someone and they like you back, you get a lift out of being around them, even thinking about them. A smile from a stranger can give you a hit of dopamine. Faith came when I fell in like with Jesus. In a dopamine drought. Moved from hometown Detroit to UM. Left family-friends under cloud of teen pregnancy. Younger than married student housing peers, one of 3 guys in large nursing school class, wife battling post-partum depression. Started reading gospels and the Jesus I met there was someone I liked and could imagine liking me. 1
A tax collector name Zacchaeus (Lk 19) got similar dopamine hit from Jesus. But story really begins in Luke 18 when Jesus encounters a blind beggar. So let s start there. [Acknowledge Middle Eastern scholar Kenneth Bailey] As he approached Jericho [note that, on outskirts of JERICHO] a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard a crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him, Jesus of Nazareth [a] is passing by. Then he shouted, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! Those who were in front sternly ordered him to be quiet; but he shouted even more loudly, Son of David, have mercy on me! Jesus stood still and ordered the man to be brought to him; and when he came near, he asked him, What do you want me to do for you? He said, Lord, let me see again. Jesus said to him, Receive your sight; your faith has saved you. Immediately he regained his sight and followed him, glorifying God; and all the people, when they saw it, praised God. When an important figure is coming to town, leading citizens went out to greet him to escort him in. Already, servants prepping a banquet, in hopes honored guest would stay for dinner and night. So the crowd around the blind beggar would have been this welcoming committee of the leading citizens of Jericho. Upscale crowd shushed beggar when he had nerve to call out to Jesus: they sternly ordered him to shut up. Hearing this, Jesus stood still and ordered [sternly ordered] them to bring beggar to him. He s rebuking the crowd, giving the beggar what they wanted, an audience with the important visitor. Beggar s dopamine system lit up. Upscale crowd? not so much. Jesus is fulfilling Ecclesiastes 4: Again I saw all the oppressions that are practiced under the sun. Look, the tears of the oppressed with no one to comfort them! On the side of their oppressors there was power with no one to comfort them. Jesus asks man, What do you want me to do for you? Odd to us but makes sense in context. Begging was a profession. Had to have a visible handicap like blindness to beg. Beggar said, Give to God! since pious Jews wanted to give alms as commanded by God. When someone did, beggar heaped blessing on almsgiver. Win-win. [Today in Bangladesh doctors offer to cure beggars, refuse because they would lose the only profession they know.] The lift experienced by the beggar being honored in midst of the dishonoring crowd gave him the faith to say, Let me see again even though it meant losing his job. 2
Now we re ready for Zacchaeus. He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, since he was short in stature So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. When 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. So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it began to grumble and said, He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner. Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, Look, half of 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. Then Jesus said to him, Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost. Though he was rich, Zacchaeus didn t join the crowd of leading citizens to meet Jesus outside the city. He s nervous in crowds Remember Jesus is on route to Jerusalem for PASSOVER celebration of deliverance from Egypt s oppression--and everyone knew it. Jesus was by this time a Messianic figure, as indicated by the beggar calling Son of David! They hoped he would lead an army to overthrow occupiers. With rebellion against Rome in the air, Roman collaborators were laying low, watching their backs, avoiding politically agitated crowds. Too easy for someone to quietly slip a knife in your back if you were a tax collector. How did Jesus know the little-man-in-the-tree s name to call him down from the tree? The agitated crowd was likely pointing him out to Jesus with accusatory language. Note that Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. He had no intention of staying for customary feast that was likely being prepared for him by the town s leaders. He was planning to walk the 17 miles to Jerusalem that day. But at the sight of Zacchaeus, change of plans: Hurry and come down for I must stay at your house today! Jesus is relating to Zacchaeus like he s excited to see an old friend! Zacchaeus is getting flooded with dopamine: so he hurried down and was happy to welcome him while the angry crowd is grumbling, He s gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner! Burst of dopamine flips a faith-switch in Zacchaeus. Probably during the meal a semi-public feast he stands up and says, If I ve defrauded anyone here [which he has] I will make 4- fold reparations knowing the crowd will hold him to it. 3
This is a beautiful moment: the unexpected connection with Jesus has inspired him to take a step that will reconnect him with his community. In the 12 steps of AA this is step 8 & 9: Step Eight: Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Step Nine: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others Amends are different than apology. During WW2 Japanese-Americans were herded into detention camps for the duration of war. After they were released, no formal apology. That came 30 years later. But U.S. Congress also offered some financial redress: 20K to each person illegally detained. The fact that virtually no amends have been made for the national crimes of slavery or the destruction of native populations is a stain and a weight on our national soul. So we re still divided, this wound is still festering. Justice & reconciliation require steps 8/9 making amends. When the amends take place, that s when Jesus is happy and says Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost. This is what his salvation looks like. It s what we are called to. But I want to go back to moment this process began. When Zacchaeus, surrounded by a hostile crowd, was called out by a Messiah who was eager to be with him, who treated him like a long-lost friend. What if we are all Zacchaeus in one way or another? What if we fear others turning on us if they only knew us, so we are harboring a chorus of accusations inside our own heads, if nothing else. And so we scramble up our trees and keep a safe distance from others. I think we are. What if Jesus or the God Jesus reveals is someone who spots us in this condition and, without explanation, regards us as a long-lost friend who says: Hurry up and come down from that tree! I d like to spend some time with you today! I think he is. What if we could be that friend to other people that Zacchaeus found in Jesus? The one who ignores the chorus of accusation that anyone could be subject to, and says to the nervous people in hiding, You look like someone worth getting to know better 4
I think we can. QUIET REFLECTION Take a minute or two to identify with Zacchaeus up in the tree, at the very moment Jesus notices him and says, Hurry down from that tree I want to spend some time with you. Zacchaeus had traded the dopamine hit of personal connections for the dopamine hit of something else, in his case ill-gotten gain. We can all, perhaps, identify with that in him. Rather than seek our dopamine in personal connections it takes tending relationships, working thru rough spots, reaching out again & again we often go for our own version of something else some habit that isolates us but rewards us with a little hit of dopamine. I want to suggest that you bring that knowledge of your Zacchaeus self to a time of reflection. I m going to read the text twice. While I do that picture yourself in that tree with Zacchaeus when Jesus comes by, calling both of your names When 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. So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 5