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October
31, 2004
(Jimmie
Johnson)
Scripture Readings for October 31, 2004
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
The oracle that the prophet Habakkuk saw. O LORD, how long shall
I cry for help, and you will not listen? Or cry to you “Violence!”
and you will not save? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look
at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention
arise. So the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The
wicked surround the righteous--therefore judgment comes forth perverted.
I will stand at my watchpost, and station myself on the rampart;
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me, and what he will
answer concerning my complaint. Then the LORD answered me and said:
Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so that a runner may
read it. For there is still a vision for the appointed time; it
speaks of the end, and does not lie. If it seems to tarry, wait
for it; it will surely come, it will not delay. Look at the proud!
Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their
faith.
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Luke 19:1-10
He entered Jericho and was passing through it. A man was there named
Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying
to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not,
because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore
tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 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.”
So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. All who saw it
began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of
one who is a sinner.” Zacchaeus stood there and said to the
Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to
the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay
back four times as much.” Then Jesus said to him, “Today
salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.
For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
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How do we pull off the trick of being bold men and women of conviction
without being full of baloney? How can we hold to our core beliefs
without feeling that our mission is to reform everyone else in our
image? I am not sure I know.
But I do know that somehow as Presbyterians, as citizens of these
United States, as Protestants and as Roman Catholics, as heterosexuals,
gays and lesbians, as Republicans and Democrats, as pro-choice and
anti-choice, we had better find a way to master the trick of being
one without being the same. We are never going to be the same. Not
in this life. But can we enjoy unity without requiring uniformity?
This might be the great spiritual issue of our time.
Reformation Sunday has not always been a rally day for unity. Decades
ago, too often Reformation Sunday was a day simply to bash the Roman
Church by pointing out all its faults in order to enhance our own
sense of righteousness. So, today on Reformation Sunday 2004, let’s
allow the occasion of celebrating our unique Protestant perspective
to teach us tolerance and mutual encouragement rather than trying
to diminish others who are different from us,
other faiths whose core convictions are not the same as ours. After
all the “Protestant Principle” itself leads to a constant,
humble re-examination of all our truth claims, acknowledging that
perfect truth always lies just beyond our grasp.
This ability to have convictions without becoming militant and divisive
is not simply a religious issue but a huge human problem regardless
of the sphere of life. Overbearing absolutists can destroy their
own families, drive away work colleagues, and make life miserable
in the car pool. On the larger scale, technology, instant information,
and communication have made the world way too small for isolationism
and the wickedness of arrogance regarding truth.
No nation, even a super power, can afford to try to go it alone
in the world. Nations must learn that their political convictions
need to lead to connecting with others, not separating from others.
And religious houses, whether it is a mosque, a temple, or a church,
must learn that believing one’s truth does not mean no one
else has truth. Believing Jesus is the way, the truth and the life
does not necessarily mean we end up believing the stranger to our
beliefs is illegitimate in the eyes of God.
For us Christians, Jesus can indeed be our core controlling belief
when it comes to finding our way, believing our truth, and living
our life before and with God, but our Lord and Savior can be the
center for us without the uniqueness and singularity of Jesus canceling
out others being included as children of God. Perhaps it is simply
the worldwide existence of terror and the realization that no one
is safe, but whatever the cause, now is the time we must stay in
touch with anyone who is different from us.
Whether our separateness is based on religion, or politics, or economics,
or sexual orientation, or gender, or age, or language, or national
borders, or form of government, this world is too wired for us to
detach and pull back into our own preferred enclave. We must have
our religious, political and moral convictions, yes, but they must
be connecting in purpose or else they are dangerous. And we must
have leaders that understand the importance of dialogue and bringing
people together, not wedging them apart.
This doesn’t mean we forfeit a sense of right and wrong. This
doesn’t mean all truth is relative. This doesn’t require
us to be without a moral compass informing our decision making.
It simply means we are to realize we live by faith and faith requires
at the very least a tad of humility about being the only ones who
are right before God and each other.
The world is so connected now through technology that we can’t
afford to hate. We can’t afford to be arrogant. We can’t
risk seeing ourselves as being sole possessors of truth. No one
can have the luxury anymore of thinking and believing he or she
is absolutely right. The world is far too dangerous a place for
that kind of arrogant thinking and believing.
We are called by our time and circumstances to practice the lost
art of tolerance and mutual forbearance. We are called by God to
make sure that we are never so sure as to write off the perspective
of the other, the stranger, the contrary point of view.
“O Lord, how long must I call for help before you listen,
before you save us
from violence?... Destruction and violence are all around me, and
there are fighting and quarreling everywhere. Evil people get the
better of the righteous and justice is perverted.” The prophet
Habakkuk lived in a time when the powerful Babylonians had crushed
Israel and dominated their way, their truth, and their very life
as a people. Habakkuk the prophet, out of a deep spiritual disturbance,
debates with God concerning the unfairness and wrongness of life.
And the Lord basically has one response: “The just shall live
by faith...” (2:4). This is a deep radical trust in God’s
ability to be God.
We must “trust God,” and as Luther wrote, “sin
on bravely.” Luther means we must accept our human blindness,
our human finiteness, our human inability to be perfect and instead
of dreading this truth, allow it to propel us towards God’s
love and mercy and power and see each other as fellows all caught
together in the helplessness of our hearts. We must let this truth
keep us from seeing that there are one group of people called sinners
and another group of people called children of God. Luther says,
“No, we are all sinners.” We must let this connect us
in humility and mutual need rather than divide us into the right
and the wrong.
The great generative power of convictions is never to allow them
to be confused with God. Let your convictions enlarge your heart
and mind, not shrink your spiritual and intellectual horizons. The
prophet Habakkuk writing to his fellow believers in the time of
fear implores them to live by faith in God’s goodness and
in God’s passion to be faithful.
This is the kind of religious vision which causes Jesus to spot
Zacchaeus hiding in the tree. Jesus sees the man hiding. He’s
in the tree not simply because he might have difficulty in getting
a good look at Jesus but because he fears for his life. He is a
chief tax collector which means his life is at risk because he is
so despised for cooperating with the occupying force. He is afraid
in a large crowd that someone just might stab him and he wouldn’t
see it coming. But Jesus who is possessed with the most unassailable
inner convictions doesn’t let his moral certainty about right
and wrong, about who is God’s child and who isn’t, about
any categories for dividing people into the good guy and bad guy
categories prohibit him from reaching out to Zaachaeus. Jesus’
core convictions expanded his heart and mind and faith rather than
controlled him or made him less.
Jesus, even if it makes his followers angry and even question their
beliefs about him, chooses to risk anger and loyalty because above
all Jesus knows his identity with God creates and establishes his
identity with others. Jesus knows he is Zaachaeus’ brother.
Jesus practices the faith which the prophet Habbakuk heard straight
from God’s lips to his ears. The just shall live by faith.
Let go of fear and hatred and mean-spiritedness in any of its forms
and let God be God. Let God be God. You and I are called not to
be in charge but to trust that God is, and in doing so, we will
see that our relationships with others will be empowered to bring
about transformation and occasions for good news to be heard and
received.
Jesus said he didn’t come for the good and the righteous and
the godly. His core convictions led him to seek and to save those
who have lost their way. What do we do with those with whom we have
serious issues and doubts? If Jesus’ life is indeed our way,
truth and life, we obviously eat our convictions for the baloney
they mostly are and then reach out.
Reach out, brothers and sisters. Just like Jesus, reach out to those
your religion and the religious crowd says you can’t. Be like
Jesus in the text and say, “I must.....”
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