Zion's 100th Anniversary

What does one preach about for a 100th anniversary? I know there are guest from our community along with past pastors and members and on top of that, our district president! So when preparing, I knew I wanted to do my best to be engaging and relevant with the times. I would like to preach on something everyone can relate with. SO what is the talk of the town, maybe even the talk for the past 100 years? You guessed it... Road kill! Greasy Grimy gopher guts. All over the road and in our talk. Almost as popular as talking weather. No one but the dogs like it. It destroys the things we love. Don’t touch it.. the slime will stick on you. I repeat don’t touch it... it could burst at any second. NOt only does the gooey goop stick on you but the very stench can linger about for months. Nobody wants to see it either... it’s disgusting and sad. Enter greasy, grimy, slimy, chief tax collector Zacchaeus. If there was road kill in Biblical time, the people would probably have chosen it over Zacchaeus. Like roadkill he wasn’t much to look at. Like roadkill he was sticky. He was the Chief Tax Collector- a government sanctioned thief and therefore unclean and unworthy of salvation. And to make matters worse, even if he was well liked and not a thief, he did a shameful thing by running and climbing the sycamore tree. Not something respectable Jewish men ought to be doing Greasy, grimy gopher guts. Unworthy and unclean and yet we hear the grumbles, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” My dog Dudly when he finds roadkill, he can’t just sniff it or walk around it. He has to roll in it! Jesus has done just that. He has gone in to be the guest of sinners and in the nostrils of Pharisees that would make Him stink like a sinner and outcast as well. Zacchaeus may have been a descendant of Abraham but his reputation declares him lost and unworthy to that inheritance. You know it is easy to discredit someone else by their faults, especially those who are often on the tail end of a joke such as tax collectors, pharisee’s, and lawyers. What of your rottenness? Pointing to Zacchaeus and his tricks does not help you. You do not get a boost up to heaven on the backs of another persons sin. Your guts betray you, Jesus says,“What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” Mark 7:20-23. Which of these, how many of these are festering inside of you? There is no amount of good you can do to purify your putrid sinfilled self. For 100 years, the men and women here at Zion have struggled with sin, no matter how many pastors have told them not to sin and have warned them of the dangers and the mess sin brings, like broken relationships and DEATH its still here. We still sin. What hope do our greasy grimy Gilmaner guts have? “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” Or to put it in Jesus’ words, “Today salvation has come to this house.... for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” That is why we are here today even after 100 years. Jesus has come into His creation to save it. Without Him we are dead as roadkill. (“But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved.”) Christ Jesus took on flesh so that He could die for you. He opened up the gates of paradise and began unraveling the effects of sin such as death and decay. He restores us to God the Father by taking our sin’s punishment and taking away our guilt and shame. The stench that lingers. And we people loved by God get to come to this wonderful place every week and be strengthened with God’s marvelous gifts that encourage us that in Christ our sins are forgiven. What Christ did for all the world extends into eternity. The very hope of Christ life, death, resurrection, ascension and His return for you and all the living and the dead is the very same hope the disciples shared, Zacchaeus shared, the hope our church has shared for the last 100 years and the hope that God willing our children and children’s children will share here on earth and in heaven for all eternity. When the naysayers grumbled and said, “he has gone in to be a guest of sinners,” they would cast Him off as a sinner and an outcast. Thanks be to God that Jesus our Lord did become an outcast and did become a sinner for us. Not that He sinned but that He took all your sin into Himself so that you are saved. St. Paul writes, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 People loved by God, it is beyond our comprehension on the why does He or how could He, but God loves your guts. His Word even tells us that nothing can separate us from His love and His actions through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ proves it. All glory be to our God, The Father, Son, & Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen!