Transforming Encounters: From Despair to Hope
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A number of years ago, I was living in Hutchinson still. We had an awesome doggo named Dozer. He was the sweetest boy that seemed to just “know” when you ‘needed’ some love. He loved being outside and enjoying the sunshine and chasing whatever was in the yard. So, one day, we had some things to do and we left him outside. Now, we had a 5 foot privacy fence that did a great job of containing my full of energy wonder-pup, but on this day, we had an air conditioning guy that came by on a semi-regular basis to clean the coils and service our compressor. He was a full-bearded guy that looked like he just came out of the wilderness and hopped on his Harley and came over right before hanging out with his biker buddies at the bar. In reality, he was a super nice guy. Dozer thought he was there to play with him, so he brought him a ball, which our guy dutifully played for a while and then finished his work and left.
Well, as it was, he left the gate a little open and Wonder-Dog found his way out of the yard. When we got home, we realized that Dozer wasn’t where we left him and started getting frantic, he was everyone’s favorite! We walked and drove all over the place looking for our beloved pup, but to no avail. We looked for hours. Well, he went down the road about two blocks west and got about 12 blocks south when a really nice older lady took him into her house and kept him safe overnight. She called the pound the next day and they knew our boy because he had a chip and we went and he rescued us once again.
So, what does this have to do with me? Glad you asked. You see, when I thought Dozer was stolen, hit by a car, just wandering loose - keep in mind, he had never wandered away, I had all kinds of emotions, fear, anger, despair. You name it. I didn’t sleep well that night.
But when we sprung Dozer from the pound that day, I wasn’t mad at Dozer. I had been for him wandering off, but when I saw that sweet face and his big doggo eyes, everything else became insignificant. My doggie was safe and back with his family.
You see, God’s grace is just like that, no matter how far we wander from home, His love for us never fails. And when He comes and gets us from the pound, His mercy is everlasting!
Our Gospel reading gives us an interesting launch point today…
1. Zacchaeus' Zeal for Jesus
1. Zacchaeus' Zeal for Jesus
Every time I start reading the story of Zacchaeus, I can’t help hearing a song…
“Zacchaeus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he…”
1 He entered Jericho and was passing through.
Jesus was just passing through. He had no intention whatsoever for staying in Jericho. But there He was, just walking along and encountered a crowd. Must have been like the Beatles coming to New York…
2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich.
Zacchaeus wasn’t a popular guy with anyone. He was two things, -to most, one as bad as the other simply because he got rich because he was a tax collector and probably wasn’t the most, how do I say… scrupulous.
3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.
4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass 4 way.
Just love the visual. Rich, little guy climbing a tree. Must have been a sight. I’m sure that the locals had a time giving him a lot of grief too.
But then…
5 And 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.”
Remember the first verse. Jesus was just passing through. He didn’t have a daily agenda but to get from here to there. He encounters a crowd who wanted to see Him, maybe see him do something wonderous and amazing.
So, what does He do? Nothing.
Until He got to Zacchaeus, called him by name and went to his house.
Now, in thechapter right before this, we read last week about the Pharisee and the tax collector in the temple and the Pharisee’s pride and the tax collector’s humility. Now, we see Jesus demonstrating His Grace personally to a guy that otherwise, doesn’t deserve it.
Everyone else just wanted to see Jesus, Zacchaeus obviously recognized that he needed much more than a sighting of Hope, he needed to encounter Hope incarnate.
We all need to encounter Hope.
But times get tough, times are a challenge. Circumstances slap us in the face. Trials come in droves. Everywhere we look, we see we have chaos. Sickness slaps us in the face and money woes stop us in our tracks. People we thought we could count on when things get tough, well… they are our worst critics at very best. People fail us. We get discouraged. Maybe we feel like giving up and just maybe, are doing our very best at doing so.
That’s when Hope comes…
2. Thessalonians' Triumph in Trials
2. Thessalonians' Triumph in Trials
Paul’s writing to the Church in Thessalonica comes at a time of persecution for that particular Church. Both the Jews were being critical of them and those around them, well, because of their profound worship of false gods, the Church was under constant attack because of thier abandonment of what was widely accepted and embraced. The “worship of one god? The ‘One True God?’”
This had to make them wildly popular in town. So, here’s what Paul says…
1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ:
2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is an amazing greeting right there. Nothing like being given Grace right out of the shoot!
3 We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.
Oh, how good it is to hear when we’re doing good! Paul usually writes when we’re messing up the whole game!
4 Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.
Let’s bring this to Broadway please. Foundry, in spite of all of the trials, tribulations and persecutions that we have endured, Foundry has endured. We may be small, like Zacchaeus, everyone else out there may be critical of us and maybe even dismissing us as ‘irrelavant,’ your faith is growing, your love is increasing! Be steadfast in doing the Good works of God! He will carry us!
3. Invitation to Inner Cleansing
3. Invitation to Inner Cleansing
It is in this place of humility, growing and loving that we find our Loving God calling us deeper yet. Our coming to God in humility cannot be overcome by when His Grace shines upon us, feeling like somehow, we have arrived. It is when we feel that we have arrived ~ our place of “Spiritual Nirvanna,” that we find ourselves not like Zacchaeus or the tax collector in the temple, but rather like the Pharisee or like Zacchaeus’ neighbors in Jericho.
In this place of not wanting Jesus to ‘walk on by…’ we must be ever vigilant to remain pure and holy before Him. Isaiah cried out for God’s people like this…
16 Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,
I remember David praying for “clean hands and a pure heart.” This isn’t just like lady Macbeth scrubbing her hands crying out “Out damned spot! OUT!” While she was trying to satisfy her conscious, this is a deep reckoning that no matter how far I’ve come, there is still iniquity and sin in my life that I need Jesus to cleanse and make me pure.
Then…
17 learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.
When we have allowed Christ to cleanse us and make us holy, then we can really go about “doing good, correcting oppression, bringing justice, pleading the widow’s cause…”
Then…
18 “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
We, as the modern church have seemed to gottent this backwards. We want to “reason” with others trying somehow to help them understand the ‘errors of their ways,’ when we haven’t allowed God’s cleansing to make us clean and holy, then demonstrate loving care through service and real compassion.
4. David's Delight in Forgiveness
4. David's Delight in Forgiveness
There is nothing in the world more satisfying than understanding God’s Grace being demonstrated to us ~ especially when in all reality, we are the most of the underserving of that Grace being gifted to us.
David messed up a lot! But, he was also very willing to allow God to cleanse him when he failed. He says this…
1 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
What a great understanding to know that God has forgiven you! It’s kinda like a former felon who has done his time, and changed his ways and now he isn’t looking over his shoulder looking for the law to catch up with him!
3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
How many of us are “groaning all day long” because we have kept silent and not allowed God to forgive us?
4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah
See, there’s that word again. This is that place of pause to allow God to forgive us.
5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah
And there it is for us to pause and give glory and thanks to God because HE has!
So, what sins are harbored in our hearts this morning? What is keeping us up groaning because we have remained silent. Maybe you’ve felt like Zacchaeus this morning and that God isn’t really interested in you. You feel insignificant and unworthy, and reality is, like Zacchaeus, you are filthy guilty of transgressing the laws of God.
Let’s find ourselves in a place of humility, willing to approach the King of Glory ~ even if it seems that He is just “passing by.” His Grace is Amazing. His love is unshakable. His mercy is unfathonable. From that place of humilty, ~ even in suffering and persecution, God is right here, waiting for us to climb down from our sycamore tree.
