Cat Goodrich First Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, AL October 30, 2016 What s in a Name? Luke 19:1-10 Today is Reformation Sunday, when Protestant churches around the world celebrate and remember the men and women who challenged the Catholic church and eventually broke away from it, creating a new way of following Christ and honoring God in community. If Shannon were here, he might have given you a rousing account of life in Calvin s Geneva, or tell you John Knox jokes with a Scottish accent. But instead of looking back at history, I want to look around and think about reformation in our current context. How is the Reformation s catchphrase that we are the church reformed, always being reformed or always reforming true today? What does it mean to be re-formed? What can Zaccheus tell us about reformation? The Zaccheus story is beloved, not just because there s a catchy song to help us remember it, but because in a gospel that doesn t seem to have a lot of good news for wealthy people, Zaccheus offers hope that no matter our wealth or the size of our sin, God s grace extends to us, too. See, Zaccheus was a tax collector, despised for colluding with the Roman authorities to make money off his fellow Jews. In a book that is frustratingly lacking in detail we know nothing of Jesus appearance or Mary s hair color we learn that Zaccheus is short, and he didn t just climb a tree, he climbed a sycamore tree. History has read this as a classic story of repentance. No matter who you are, no matter what you ve done if you repent, God will forgive. Even though he has cheated and stolen from his community, Zaccheus is redeemable. Faced with the welcome and warmth of Christ, Zaccheus cannot help but be changed, reformed into an honest man, willing to bend over backward to repay his debts and make restitution. Recently, some exegetes have questioned this interpretation translating Zaccheus response to Jesus in the present tense: I give away half of what I own to the poor and pay back any I ve deceived four times that amount indicating these are things Zaccheus already does, and that he s been unfairly judged. This reading makes the story more about the judgment of the crowd than about Zaccheus repentance. It makes me wonder: who do we believe is beyond redemption? Who do we vilify such that we could not imagine Jesus
seeking them out to have dinner with? Who have we judged and placed outside of God s grace without even taking the time to get to know them first? If this is a story about Jesus seeking and saving the lost, it makes me wonder who might be lost in our community and our world today. Whatever perspective we take on Zaccheus, this is a story about reformation. It tells me that at our core, we are people being changed by God into who and how God intends for us to be. Whether we see Zaccheus as changed by his encounter with Jesus or the crowd s idea of him re-formed into one that more closely resembled the generous man he was this story tells me that we should not feel limited to one way of seeing, or stuck in one way of being in the world. God gave us the capacity to learn and grow, to change our minds based on new information, to form and re-form ourselves so that over time, somehow, we more closely resemble the people we were created to be. This change is part of discipleship, and inner change leads to outward change work to reform the world around us to more closely resemble the kingdom of God. Zaccheus was curious about Christ, so much so that he ran and climbed a tree to catch a glimpse of him. These are two things a grown man would never do in Biblical times and though I could probably picture Will Marble doing this, not many men would or even could shimmy up a tree today either. But Zaccheus had no reason to think that Jesus would notice him. In fact, he probably was hoping Jesus wouldn t after all, Zaccheus was an outsider, rejected by the community because of his work. Was it Zaccheus curiosity that caught Jesus attention, or his determination not to be shut out by the crowd? Or was Jesus intending to visit Zaccheus all along after all, he was the chief tax collector, a lynchpin in the system that exploited most of the Jews in Jericho. Maybe Jesus was being strategic in seeking out Zaccheus, aware that to win him over would improve living conditions for all in the region! Whatever the reasons, time and again Christ reaches out to those on the margins, to the people deemed irredeemable by religious folks. Zaccheus is no exception. Jesus sees him, walks over to him, and then he does something really amazing: Jesus calls him by name. Zaccheus! Get down from there, I m coming to your house today! What s in a name? What does it mean to you when someone remembers your name, or knows of you before you ve even met? In this story, it means that Jesus must have heard about Zaccheus on the way to Jericho either from the people s contempt for him or from his disciples research about
who s who in the city s power structure. Jesus knows who Zaccheus is. By calling Zaccheus by name, Jesus says: I see you. You are worth knowing. And the moment Zaccheus is seen and accepted by Christ despite his work, even though the community sees him as a sinner, Zaccheus is a changed man. To be seen and accepted for who we are is to experience grace. Those of us who have ever felt unworthy or unwanted, left out or ignored know that someone saying your name, wanting to share a meal with you can feel like a life line. It s why we celebrate young people who speak to the kid sitting by himself in the cafeteria none of us wants to be left out or forgotten! When we are seen and known and accepted for who we are, when we experience grace, Something happens, because grace just cries out to be shared with others. We want to pass it on. Zaccheus reformation is immediate and total he gives away his belongings, rights the wrongs he s done with lavish restitution. And I can t help but wonder if this was part of God s plan all along Inner change accompanied by outward action. The reformed become reformers. They say that part of what drove the reformation was the creation of the printing press when people had access to Bibles printed in their native tongue and could read the Word for themselves, it changed them. and it made them want to change the way that the church operated, opening and imagining new ways of being in relationship with God. Re-formed people became reformers. In this week s Christian Century, a prison chaplain writes about a reformation of sorts. He describes the transformation that can come from faithful people writing and exchanging letters with people in prison. The article caught my eye because the Connections Class is reading Michelle Alexander s New Jim Crow, and the book is opening our eyes to the racism imbedded in our criminal justice system. I was also interested because Faith in Action Alabama has been working to draw attention to the District Attorney s role in confronting or perpetuating the problem of mass incarceration, and had a forum with the candidates this past week to give them a chance to talk about that. The chaplain, Chris Hoke, comes at the problem of mass incarceration from a different angle, thinking about building relationships that might help support ex-offenders when they are released from prison. Instead of seeking
to dismantle the obstacles formerly incarcerated people or returning citizens face when they get out Shannon preached about these Labor Day weekend, describing a local ban the box campaign that is trying to make it easier for people to find work when they get out of prison. Instead of taking that angle, Hoke proposes a church for very prisoner Suggesting that congregations partner to write to a prisoner, who are often isolated and feel forgotten while serving long sentences. And then network to form support systems for them when they are released. When church people exchange letters with those in hell, he writes, they learn their names. They hear their cries. And they start questioning the system of gates that s keeping them inside. 1 They learn their names. What s in a name? Knowing and being known. The possibility for friendship, warmth, welcome. To know someone s name is to say, I see you. You are worth knowing. Knowing someone s name opens a door to total reformation and reformed people become reformers! Our challenge this week is to be the church reformed and always reforming. There are Zaccheuses among us people we shun because their sins are too great, or their work is too fraught with evil. There are those we shun because we disagree with them politically or theologically, those we shun because they system says they are a criminal, or those we avoid because their gender or racial or religious identity is not one with which we are comfortable, the rich, the poor, police, protestors I don t know who or what it is for you but it seems like we are at liberty to fear and despise so many these days! The election has exposed fault lines of race and class, gender and fear that painfully divide us and we ve seen people we love land on opposite sides of those divisions. It s exhausting. Many in Jesus Jericho would have put Jesus and Zaccheus on opposing sides Zaccheus cooperated with the Romans, profited from and exploited the poor. Jesus resisted the Romans, showed compassion for the poor, and called all to care for them. And yet, Jesus sought Zaccheus out, knew him by name, saw who he really was beyond his job as tax collector, and shared a meal with him. And that changed everything, both inside and out. Zaccheus heart was reformed into one of compassion and generosity. His work was reformed into one that did not exploit. And the first step was learning his name. 1 Hoke, Chris, A Church for Every Prisoner, The Christian Century, October 26, 2016, Vol. 133, No. 22. p.26.
Let us be people who are reformed by the grace of Jesus Christ, and always reforming the world around us.