Sermon for Year C, Proper 26: "Out On A Limb"

Preached on Sunday, October 31st at Christ & Saint Stephen's Church, New York. Bible readings this sermon is based on can be found here.

I can remember hearing the story of Zacchaeus and the sycamore tree quite often in Sunday School as a child. I think it was an oft repeated story because it was a popular one with children – climbing trees being a chief pursuit of childhood.

But for Zacchaeus, having to climb up a tree in order to see Jesus is a bit of a come down. Zacchaeus is a rich and powerful man in Jericho, but he is also the object of disdain. The text indicates this we hear that Zacchaeus is short, too short to see above the crowds. We can almost see him hopping up and down behind the parade watchers trying to see. Then scrambling up a tree like a child at play, looking not very rich and not very powerful out on the limb of the sycamore tree. And furthermore the text tells us that Zacchaeus is an object of derision among the Jews of Jericho. When Jesus tells Zacchaeus that he will be his guest, we hear them squawk. The text reads, “All who saw it began to grumble and said, "He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner."

Jesus is passing through the streets of Jericho, Zacchaesus’s hometown, swept up in an adoring throng. And Jesus spots Zacchaeus out on a limb in the sycamore tree and says to him, “Better come down from that tree, Zacchaeus, I’m coming to your house for dinner tonight.” Figure of fun or disdain or not, sinner or not, Jesus sees Zacchaeus up in his tree And Jesus singles Zacchaeus out, not for ridicule for climbing up in a tree like a child, not for condemnation as a sinner, but Jesus singles Zacchaeus out in order to honor him. For Jesus to come to Zacchaeus’s house, to accept Zacchaeus’s hospitality, is a great honor for Zacchaeus. Jesus treats Zacchaeus with respect; in fact he singles out Zacchaeus for special notice and honor.

And this respect, the regard Jesus shows for Zacchaeus, has a profound effect on Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus comes down from the tree, and stands before Jesus and he makes a pledge. He says to Jesus, ‘I will give half of all my wealth to the poor,and any whom I have cheated as chief tax collector, I will repay fourfold.’

Zacchaeus becomes righteous after Jesus comes into his life, after Jesus takes notice of him and treats him with honor and respect, and it is this that causes Zacchaeus to change his ways. Because of the loving notice and regard of Jesus, Zacchaeus becomes the person God intends him to be.

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It is the action of God that causes the reaction and redemption of Zacchaeus. And likewise in our lives, it is through God’s grace and favor, through the gift of God’s love that we are able to become true children of God. It is because God loves us that we can in turn love what he commands and can hope to obtain the promise of salvation and eternal life.

Very often we feel as if we need to be good for God. Not so, not true at all. We don’t need to be good for God, rather we need God in order to be good. When we are not at our best, it is then we need God more than ever. And when we know we are failing, when we know we are falling short of the commandments of God, we should not hide away from God in our shame, but rather seek God out and ask for God’s help to be better, to be more what he would have us to be. At our worst, it is not the wrath of God we should fear, but the love and support of God that we should seek.

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It’s election season in our country and I am at this moment quite grateful to God for the gift of Tivo. I can just fast forward past all those vitriolic commercials. And I’ve stopped watching the news altogether, and I’m rationing my Internet news as well.

There is an ill-spirit in our electoral life these day, and we find some Americans making the most scandalous and unsupportable claims about some of the candidates running for office. It doesn’t seem to matter if what you say is true, only that it can strike enough fear in the hearts of voters to get them to the polls. As in recent elections, the threat supposedly posed by equal rights for lesbian and gay folk is being bandied about rather freely and quite viciously.

When such a poisonous atmosphere exists in the adult world, it is particularly toxic for our children. Such animosity openly expressed helps troubled teens identify a designated victim – a scapegoat – and following our example, teenage unkindness becomes much more serious, more aggressive and even deadly, as it seems to have lately.

Recently, there has been a very sad spate of suicides by gay teenagers across our country. In the month of September alone 5 American teenagers committed suicide, in part due to the bullying they experienced at school and on the Internet because they were gay. Most of us wonder how their peers and classmates could be so persistently cruel to their fellows as to drive them to suicide?

There are questions now about whether those who foment homophobia, either in their political speech or in their proselytizing , might be guilty of inciting the bullying that has led to these tragic deaths. In the wake of these recent suicides, a poll conducted by the Public Religious Research Institute found that more than 2/3s of Americans believe that religious messages about homosexuality contribute to the higher rate of suicide among gay youth.

Friends, the religious messages they’re talking about are coming from our fellow Christians.

But there’s another message out there too. In recent weeks, several Lesbian and gay Americans and many others have done just that. The “It Gets Better” campaign on You Tube is comprised of thousands of videos from many different people -- our President, celebrities like Ellen DeGeneres and Neal Patrick Harris and everyday gay folks. The very sincere and often moving messages urge gay teens to hang on, to hold on to their lives.

A few weeks ago, Mother Liles reminded us of some of the words of Teresa of Avila:

“Christ has no body but yours, No hands, no feet on earth but yours, Yours are the eyes with which he looks compassion on this world, Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good, Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.”

I would only add that yours is the voice with which Christ can offer solace to the world, yours the voice with which Christ can call for justice.

To me these messages to victims of bullying show the very face of Christ to this world. These videos find lots of teenage Zacchaeuses all along the many branches of the Internet sycamore tree -- out on a limb, hanging on and with a desperate need to hear that someone respects them, someone honors them, and that life can and does get better.

If you need an antidote to the bilious rhetoric that seems to be everywhere these days, check out the “It Gets Better” channel on You Tube. You’ll see the face of Christ, you’ll hear the voice of Christ there.

And then take some time to let your children know, and your children’s children know, your nieces and nephews; let them know that you love them no matter what -- and that God loves them even more.

Make sure they hear you over the din of those who might say otherwise.

And if you happen to see someone up a sycamore tree, out on a limb, then look with the eyes of Christ, and speak with the voice of Christ and tell them that they are loved and respected and honored by you and by very many of your Christian brothers and sisters.

If enough of us do that, then it may come to pass that the next survey finds that the religious message of Christians about homosexuality -- and every thing else -- is a message of love, honor and respect for all the children of Abraham and for every child of God.

(c) The Rev. Mark R. Collins