2009-10-18 - "Getting Closer to God: God’s Invitation"

"Getting Closer to God: God's Invitation"
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Text: Luke 19:1-10

You could tell from the intensity in his eyes that Tomas Halik had a great love and a great passion for his people: a Czech from Prague, with a deep love for his people, and a great passion for them to know and to love and to be embraced by the love of God. The name Tomas Halik might not mean much on this side of the Atlantic, but in his native land and in many parts of Europe he is well known and well respected, the reason being that he was a psychoanalyst and a psychotherapist of the highest order, and known not only as a scholar and writer, but as someone who cared for his patients and his people.

When the Communists took over the Czech Republic, Czechoslovakia, as it was at that time, Halik had another passion: not only to heal the minds and the emotions of people, but also to bring a sense of the sovereignty of God into their lives. Even though the Church was formally prohibited from ordaining new priests, under the gaze of the State, secretly, Halik studied and eventually became a priest in an underground movement of the Church.

When the Communists finally left and the regime came to a close, and the walls that had barred people from one another in Europe came down, Halik became a very well known and powerful person. The bishops in the Czech Republic decided to make him, even though just a priest in the general sense, Secretary of the Bishops' Council. Vaclav Havel, who was the president and part of the great movement for freedom and democracy, decided to make him one of his right hand people and one of his greatest advisors.

This man, who then walked in the company of the powerful and knew people of power still had another passion: that the people of his country would know and appreciate the power of God. Deciding that he was going to continue in his work, he stayed at Charles University in Prague, continued to teach in areas of spirituality and also in psychoanalysis, but he still had this burning passion for his people to know God and for God to know his people.

It is fascinating that when he looked at the world around him, and he looked at the modern state of the Czech Republic, as he did with many other countries that were part of the Eastern Bloc, he felt that there was a functional atheism for many years. He looked at that and realized that many people had little or no instruction in the faith of the Church except that which was done privately or quietly underground.

There wasn't the overt support of the State, in fact there was the complete opposite, and many people learned to live functionally as if God and worship had no place in their lives. He suggested it was one of the great struggles to then move in those circles with people who would functionally act as if God was dead, and if not dead, certainly placed at the periphery of life.

He was also concerned that any ethics that arose, any sense of good, any values that people had, again arose from our faith in God and not just expedience or humanism. Nevertheless, he saw signs of hope around him. He lived with this paradox that a country that had some of the most significant cathedrals and churches in towns and in cities and in villages that have spires reaching way up into the sky for all to see on the top of castles and mountains, is still a place where a generation hardly set foot inside any of them except for historical curiosity. Still, the Church is there, still there is this latent memory of what the Church believed.

Another concern he had was that while there were many people who had little or no background within the faith, he was concerned that churches maintain a vibrant ministry and not lose heart and patience and passion for the people. He suggested that there were pockets throughout all of that part of Europe where people worshipped, where they flooded back to their churches, and where they found, particularly in poorer parts, a great love of God and a great power in gathering together in worship.

Indeed, in one such town in Presov, Slovakia on a Friday night, I went into a church on a town square and to my absolute amazement found it full from back to front. People were even around the back door of the church and into the sanctuary, just to be able to witness the celebration of the Mass. With me was someone from Toronto who elbowed me and said, “Wouldn't you like it if on a Friday night your church was as full as that?”

I replied, “Yeah, but I am not in church on Friday nights!”

And he said, “That's why it would be full, Andrew!”

It was awesome to see in a country that had endured the ravages of atheist Communism people piling into church to worship. Halik said the same thing happened in the Czech Republic, but not as much as he would like. I asked him, “Where does one turn to find support and strength for a mission to your people?”

He had just written a book titled Patience with God. In it Halik explains that the motivation for mission comes from a story between Jesus and Zacchaeus - today's passage.

In the book he suggests that it is in this encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus that the Church finds its mission, its passion, its purpose, its perseverance, and its patience. I went back and re-read Luke 19 and realized exactly what he was writing about, for when you look at this story, as told to us by Luke, it is a marvellous, expanding story of mission.

It begins in Jericho. It is fitting that it is here and it is of historical importance because Jericho was the commercial centre of that part of the Middle East at that time. It was the gateway between Jerusalem in the west and Jordan and Mesopotamia in the east. People would cross through Jericho to do their trade. It was a stopping point for people to exchange currencies and to exchange contracts. Jericho was known, according to Josephus, as being a “divine city” - it was so beautiful - lined with fig trees and willows and palms, a producer of balsam wood, a place where people would gather to exchange goods and chattels. It was the beautiful centre of that part of the world.

It is no coincidence that Jesus, in his ministry in moving from the North to the South, would pass through Jericho. It is also no coincidence that in Jericho there would be a man like Zacchaeus, who we are told, was a tax collector. It was his job to collect taxes from people both commercially and personally, and to pass on the money to the Roman governing powers.

These tax collectors were looked upon with the greatest of suspicion, not only because they took money from the Jewish people and from travellers and traders and gave it to the government, but because they kept a percentage of what they collected. The more taxes Zacchaeus could get out of you, the more he was able to make for himself. Luke makes it abundantly clear that Zacchaeus was a tax collector and he was rich - he was good at it! The problem was that as a Jewish man, working for an alien organization, taking away their money, he was reviled.

Zacchaeus had heard that Jesus of Nazareth was coming to town. We are told in Luke that the crowds were starting to follow Jesus at this point in his ministry. Word was out about his teaching, but most of all about his healings. There was excitement about him. He was a star! He was coming, and there were crowds of people lining up to see Jesus of Nazareth, but Zacchaeus thought, “Oh my, how I would love to see him, but what would happen?” Realizing that he was a little man and he couldn't even see over the crowd, we are told he climbed one of the Sycamore trees which had low lying branches so that he could at least see Jesus.

What takes place is an encounter between them, as we see. But, the fact is that Zacchaeus went out of his way to see Jesus and Jesus saw Zacchaeus. We do not know if Jesus had heard much about Zachhaeus - Luke does not tell us - but probably there was a buzz. “Zacchaeus is in the audience, Zacchaeus is here, that wretched man, what right does he have to come and see Jesus of Nazareth?” The people must have muttered. But Zacchaeus wanted to see a superstar, he wanted to see the big name and so he climbed the tree.

Tomas Halik suggests that in this encounter we find the mission of the Church. For a lost Zacchaeus, coming to find Jesus, and as we shall see in Jesus' response to Zacchaeus, we find our mission. It is no coincidence that this was in Luke's Gospel, for Luke earlier had quoted Isaiah 61 1-2, where Jesus said that “The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him to bring good news to the poor and to bring those who are in bondage and make them liberated.” Zacchaeus was in bondage, and he needed something desperately.

Halik suggests that in that encounter is the Church's mission. But, let us not underestimate the tension that must have existed between Jesus and Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus felt unworthy to come and see Jesus and Jesus, in approaching Zacchaeus must have wondered what this might do to his ministry. But Jesus realized that he had already been with Samaritans, with lepers and with blind people and other outcasts, so what was another one?

I think we need to be frank. If we use this model we need to realize that tension sometimes exists between the state of the society, the community, and our sense of ministry. I think that tension is born by a society that has deep spiritual needs.

I think that many people, not all, are trying to find some sense of meaning and purpose in their lives. They want to be recognized, they want to be known, and they want to be valuable. Is that not the impetus behind MySpace and Twitter and reality television shows? Everybody wants to be somebody, to be in the public eye: maybe even float a balloon and say your son is in it so people might pay attention to you? People want to be known, they want to be valuable, they want to have a sense of belonging. Sometimes they are just materialists and try to find it in things, but even still they want something.

On the other hand, from our point of view, they are suspicious of the Church, just as in fact many people in the post-Communist world are suspicious of the power of the Church. They are concerned that one tyranny would replace another. They look at the Church and they see it as being nothing more than a footnote in history. They are concerned that if they belong something might be asked of them, something might be demanded of them, they might have to change or become something else and so there is this tension.

Even this week, Dr. Hunnisett and I were astonished when we met a couple of people who were amazed that they were allowed to come and worship in the church - now this is true - and they said, “Are we allowed to come and worship at Timothy Eaton Memorial? We are not members.” Now, you and I may think that what they mean by that is that they are not baptized, or they haven't been confirmed. No, they mean they haven't paid their fees to belong to Timothy Eaton Memorial Church and that only those who have paid their fees can actually come and worship here. It's like belonging to a club. They genuinely believe that. That is how they saw the church. So, when they were invited to come and take part in worship and attend a lunch for nothing, they were astonished!

You see, my friends, there is sometimes a disconnect between how we see ourselves and how the world sees us, between official religious institutions and a society that is actually craving something. How do we bridge this gap? We do not have the same problems that they have in the post-Communist world, where they have dealt with institutional atheism, but still there is a functional secularism and atheism in our world.

There is a sense in many powerful circles that they don't care what happens to the church. I think we are seeing that a little bit this morning because people had a hard time coming to church because of street closures. There is a sense it really doesn't matter that much, or if religious identity is something important or not. I think that happens and it is growing. What should be the response? As Halik said, “Should we just get angry?” Maybe, but is that Jesus' way? Definitely not!

The Jesus way is the way he approaches Zacchaeus, an outcast, someone hiding behind the crowd, up a tree. He says, “Come, I want to have dinner with you tonight.” Can you imagine Zacchaeus' reaction? He is up the tree, everyone hates him, there's gossip about who he is and the superstar, Jesus, the holy man of God, wants to have dinner with him! He must have been absolutely overawed! Luke tells us that immediately he said “Yes.” No kidding! It is like if David Beckham came to town and there were a whole bunch of people and he said, “Andrew, please come and have dinner with me tonight.” What do you think would happen? I would drop everything and go! Of course! When superstars come to town and they want to see you, you go.

Zacchaeus' encounter with Jesus was not just with a well known personality. It was something that fundamentally changed him. Jesus said, “Come down Zacchaeus for I want to have dinner with you now” and in so doing Jesus identified with the outcast, he identified with the lowly, he identified with the person who was not considered a legitimate child of Abraham any more. Jesus risked everything for the sake of inviting this person. What a moment!

All the tension must have just evaporated at that moment. All the wondering on the part of Jesus or on the part of Zacchaeus must have just melted away. We're going to have dinner together. We are going to dine together. Let's get to know each other! And from Jesus' point of view: Zacchaeus, you are going to get to know God again! What a moment!

This is Mission and Service Sunday. It is a time when we remember and we celebrate the mission that we have, not only now, but in the past and in the future. I went back and looked at a person who is very well known in mission circles. His name is Jonathan Goforth, and in the latter part of the 19th and the early part of the 20th century, Goforth was one of the great missionaries in the world. He was from Toronto, studied at Knox College, and he went to China.

As part of his mission in China he sought to bring the gospel to a place that, like Zacchaeus, had little or no knowledge of Christ. He went there and he was passionate about it and eventually he handed over the mission to the United Church of Canada. He said to the United Church of Canada, “Take over this mission that I have.” But, once he handed it over, he still had this passion, like Halik for his people.

He wanted more people to know about the Gospel, but he was 70 years-old. His wife was ill, he had two assistants, who were invalids, and he had one other assistant who couldn't speak Chinese in any form. Still, at the age of 70, having handed a ministry off to the United Church, he decided he would go back to China, to Manchuria and there with these people who were invalids and couldn't speak the language, he sought to bring the Good News, he sought to share the love of Christ to an impoverished area that had little or no learning or educational skills, to rural people who were living in the poorest of circumstances. Goforth wanted to share the Good News of Christ.

Everywhere the door was closed to him until finally he got to northwest Manchuria. Suddenly, like a door had been opened by the Spirit, people came in droves to hear him. They were ministered to by the team he had sent. People came to know and to love Christ and they wanted to read the Bible, so they became literate. When they became literate, they read other things, and when they read other things, they wanted to be educated, and when they wanted to be educated, they started to grow professionally, and when they grew professionally, they developed as a people. All because Jonathan Goforth would not give up, all because his passion was for those people and their knowledge of God and Jesus Christ. He would not be defeated, he was persistent in his ministry, but he was patient and he allowed God to work.

That is exactly what Jesus did with Zacchaeus. He went to his house and we're told that in that moment, after all that tension, there was this great transformation. Zacchaeus sold what he had, he paid back to those that he had cheated four times what he had taken in accordance with Jewish law, and Jesus said, “This man is now truly the Child of Abraham. He is back in the covenant because of his encounter with me.”

My friends, I firmly believe that the way one ministers to people and the transformation that takes place is not something that is done by technique; it is done by the movement of the Spirit in changing peoples' lives. It is that Spirit that transforms injustice into justice, that turns unrighteousness into righteousness, that brings holiness where there is un-holiness, and brings a sense of compassion for the lost where there is ennui.

No one put that more clearly than Eugene Peterson in his most wonderful book that I recommend to you all: Jesus' Way. In it he states:

Those of us who understand ourselves as followers of Jesus seem to be particularly at risk of discarding Jesus' ways and adopting the world's ways when we're given a job to do or a mission to accomplish. When we are supposed to get something done in Jesus' name, getting things done is something that the world is very good at doing. We hardly notice that these ways and means have been worked out by men and women whose ambitions and values and strategies for getting things done in this world routinely fail the 'in Jesus' name' test. But, once we start paying attention to Jesus' ways, it doesn't take us long to realize that following Jesus is radically different from following anyone or anything else.

Who knows that better than Zacchaeus, the tax collector from Jericho? Our mission is clear. Amen