A Living Wage

Delivered September 25, 2011

Matthew 20:1-16

Back in 1992 Bill Clinton had slogan during his presidential campaign: “It’s the economy, stupid!” Even though I do no approve of calling people stupid, he understood the issue at that time; it was a catchy phrase, and it worked. Here we are 20 years later, and it is the same issue! This presidential primary and general election will be won or lost on the issue of the economy. Obviously there are other issues like war and healthcare – which interestingly were also both issues back then also – but the main issue remains the economy, especially in the last three years of what is being called the Great Recession. People are upset about unemployment and underemployment. The long lines of people applying for jobs and attending job fairs tell the story. People want to work, but they can’t find work – at least not at a wage that will support a family.

The passage of scripture that we are looking at today is about people looking for work. Jesus uses a parable that speaks about a landowner employing people and paying them a living wage. He uses it to communicate spiritual truths about the economy of the Kingdom of God. It is a great parable. I love this parable because it raises all kinds of troubling issues, and I love troubling issues. I love it when a passage of scripture causes us to argue with it. I love it when scripture challenges our assumptions and values. That is what this text does. I want to take it section by section.

I. The first section is just verse 1. “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.” This tells us right away that the kingdom of God involves WORK. That is a controversial statement these days. A lot of people don’t really think that the spiritual life should be work. They work enough during the week. They do not want to come to church and hear a preacher tell them that the spiritual life also is about work. But Jesus says, “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.” Clearly the landowner represents God, and we are the laborers.

But that is not the model that is sold in today’s religious marketplace. Today we are consumers of a spiritual commodity. Religions and churches are like businesses selling a religious product to the public. They package it and market it. The whole point is to try to get people inside the doors of a building to buy a product and put their hard-earned money into the offering plates. The American church has been shaped and defined by American consumerism. Pastors have bought into the model. Many pastors see themselves as CEOs of their churches. Church boards see themselves as board of directors and success is measured in terms of profit or loss defined by the numbers of people and the bottom line of the financial sheetss.

But Jesus does not say that the Kingdom of God is like Walmart or Bank of America. He says that “the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard.” In the economy of the Kingdom of God we are not consumers; we are laborers. We are not the business owners; God is. Jesus uses this image many times. “He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. ³⁸ Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” It communicates the truth that the spiritual life is work.

I think that most Christians don’t think of the spiritual life as work. They see it more as recreation. It is something to do in our spare time on the weekends – like attending a movie, a play or a sporting event. We think that the benefits of religion – things like happiness, fulfillment, meaning and moral character - should be accessible with little effort. In fact we expect it to be delivered to us in exchange for our faith. For many people even attending worship on Sunday morning feels like work. It is just another obligation to fulfill. It is so much more enjoyable instead to take a walk in the woods or read a spiritual book in an armchair at our leisure. But it is called a worship SERVICE for a reason. It is not entertainment. It is service, and we are not the ones being served. We are the servants who render service to the Lord of this church.

Nothing worthwhile comes without a price. That is especially true of the spiritual life. There is a lot more to the Christian life than believing certain ideas about God and Jesus, coming to church, and giving money. Jesus ends the parable with the words: “ For many are called, but few chosen.” That sounds like being a part of the Kingdom of God is not an automatic or a sure thing. It is not pay your money and take your seat and you get a reserved place in heaven. When he says, “For many are called, but few chosen,” that sounds like there is a weeding out process, a winnowing, and God is the one who does the chosing. We have bought into the idea of entitlement so much that we think we are entitled to whatever spiritual benefits God is offering. 

II. The second point Jesus makes is the fair wage given the workers. Verses 2-7 ^“Now when he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing idle in the marketplace, ⁴ and said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ So they went. ⁵ Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. ⁶ And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing idle, and said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day?’ ⁷ They said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He said to them, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right you will receive.’

The landowner contracts with the first laborers for a denarius a day. A denarius was a fair wage in those days. It was a normal day’s wages. It was enough for a man to feed his family. He wasn’t going to get rich, but it would pay the bills. Reaching the end of a job interview, the Human Resources person asked a young applicant fresh out of Business School, "And what starting salary are you looking for?" The applicant said, "In the neighborhood of $200,000 a year, depending on the benefits package." The interviewer said, "Well, what would you say to a package of 6-weeks vacation, weekends off, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50% of salary, and a company car leased every two years – how about, a red Corvette?" The applicant sat up straight and said, "Wow! Are you kidding?" And the interviewer replied, "Yeah, but you started it."

The idea here is that in the kingdom of God, the Lord makes a fair arrangement with his servants. We shouldn’t expect to get rich, but neither will we starve. The Kingdom of God is not a sweatshop where illegal aliens are paid substandard wages. In the Bible there is a constant emphasis on economic fairness throughout the OT and the NT. There are a lot of rules and regulations in the OT law protecting the most economically vulnerable. These just standards should be the model for any society that claims to be founded on Christian or biblical values. All those who are employed get a fair wage. This is repeated in this passage for a reason. It is putting forth the biblical principle. “whatever is right you will receive.”

Notice also that everyone in this parable is employed. There is full employment in God’s economy. No one is turned away. Everyone who wants to work gets to work in this story.  That also is an economic standard that should be modeled in society and in churches. Everyone in a church is involved in the work of the church. But the truth is that there are a lot of people in a lot of churches who do not have much work to do in the church beyond Sunday morning. Some may not want to do any more than that for a variety of reasons, partly because of that consumer and entertainment mindset I was talking about earlier. People do enough work during the week and don’t need any more to do. They are tired.

Some don’t think they have anything to offer. They do not feel they have much talent or time. Some just have not been asked and are reluctant to volunteer for any number of reasons. Others need to be encouraged and taught how important it is to give of time and talent. The church structure of boards and committees in most churches can encourage or discourage getting people involved. No one should feel guilty, but everyone should feel welcome and encouraged and enabled to serve. I am not talking just about church centered work. Spiritual service to God is much more than church programs. Much spiritual work for the Kingdom may not have any formal ties to any congregation. What is important is that we serve God in the way God is calling us. In this parable everyone works according to the ability and time that they have.

Back to the topic of wages, notice here that the wage is not based on the amount of time worked. This is where it gets controversial. The landowner starts off at 6am and hires workers. Then at 9am (the third hour) he sees some other workers and tells them to go into field and work and says, “whatever is right I will give you.’  No set wage is defined here; just that it would be fair.  Then at noon he hires more and at 3pm he hires more, and even at 5pm he hires some, even though quitting time is at 6pm they would only work for one hour. He tells them also “whatever is right you will receive.’

III. This leads us onto the next section, which is payday. Verses 8-12 “So when evening had come, the owner of the vineyard said to his steward, ‘Call the laborers and give them their wages, beginning with the last to the first.’ ⁹ And when those came who were hired about the eleventh hour, they each received a denarius. ¹⁰ But when the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise received each a denarius. ¹¹ And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, ¹² saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’”

This is the punch line of the parable. And it punches us right in the gut. The landowner pays everyone the same amount. The ones who worked 12 hours and the ones who worked 9 and 6 and 3 and even one hour, all got the same wage. This doesn’t seem fair. It didn’t seem fair to the ones who worked for twelve hours. They say in verses 11-12 “¹¹ And when they had received it, they complained against the landowner, ¹² saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the heat of the day.’”  And it doesn’t seem fair. There is a lot of talk and lawsuits these days about making sure that women get the same pay as men. Walmart was recently involved in just such a lawsuit. “Equal pay for equal work.” In this parable it is equal pay for unequal work. There is something inside of us that protests at this arrangement.

This is exactly why Jesus tells this story. He tells us this story to show us that God’s Kingdom doesn’t operate by human standards. He says to the laborers in the parable: “¹³ But he answered one of them and said, ‘Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what is yours and go your way. I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. ¹⁵ Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?’” In short the landowner is saying, “I can do whatever I want, and it doesn’t matter whether you agree or not.” This is a rather blunt response, but that is the way it is. In God’s kingdom everyone gets what they need regardless of how long they have served the Lord. The saint who serves for 90 years gets the same as the thief on the cross who was a servant of Jesus for only 90 minutes, whose arms and feet were tied to a cross and could not serve in any way.

In the kingdom of God, it is not about fair; it is about grace. And it is about attitude. Jesus obviously is trying to highlight the attitude of the laborer who feels he ought to get more than he contracted for. This whole story focuses on the 12-hour workers who are feeling like they got shortchanged by the Lord. I run across this attitude a lot in my ministry. When something bad happens, people ask, “Why me?” Behind this question is the idea that they do not deserve to be treated this way. That they are decent people and deserve to be treated well. And if God doesn’t treat them well according to their standards of fairness, then the heck with God. A lot of people judge God very harshly concerning how he runs things. And they judge Christianity harshly also. They look at the world and their lives and it doesn’t seem fair. They did not get what they deserved, just like these laborers in the parable looked at what they got and it didn’t seem fair.

Jesus told this parable to highlight this idea that life is not fair. People struggle with the problem of evil and suffering in the world. Theologians struggle with it. Why do so many terrible things happen in the world? Why does God allow these natural disasters? Can’t he prevent it? Why does God allow evil people to do terrible things to innocent people? Why doesn’t God do something about it? People reason that the existence of suffering and evil in the world means that there is no God. Or if there is a God, then he doesn’t care or is powerless to do anything about it. This is one of the big philosophical and theological issues. This parable – and others like it – tells us that life is not fair. Get over it. That is basically what the landowner is telling the complaining laborers. 

I will tell you the answer to this great theological problem of evil and suffering. The answer is … that there is no answer – at least not this side of heaven. The Christian life is living by faith when there are no answers. The innocent suffer. Sometimes the innocent die early and painful deaths at the hands of unjust and evil people. That is life. That is what the Cross represents. The Cross is the innocent man Jesus dying an early, torturous and unjust death at the hands of bad people. That is the reality of life on earth. And we can’t explain it away.

But the cross of Jesus also teaches us that there is true and meaningful life in spite of this injustice. The cross is not the final word. That is the meaning of the resurrection. The world shouts “Crucify Him” on Good Friday, but that is not the final word. The final word is “He is risen” on Easter Sunday. The final word is that God has the final word. His word is grace in the midst of the injustices of life.

The Kingdom of God

Delivered September 18, 2011

2 Corinthians 5:12-17; Mark 1:14-15

I take suggestions for sermons. In fact for years I have devoted the whole summer to a series I have called “Summer Sermon Suggestions.” People give me their ideas for sermon topics or certain passages of scriptures, and I preach on them during the summer. I did not do it this summer, but probably next summer I will resume that practice. I may even do a Winter Sermon Suggestions! Anyway, this summer after one of my sermons a member of the congregation had a sermon suggestion. She said, “You can just leave us hanging, pastor. You need to follow up that sermon and preach on the Kingdom of God.” That stuck with me, and so I am going to preach some sermons on the Kingdom of God. The thought had already been going through my mind anyway, so I saw that suggestion as the Spirit of God confirming that I need to address this central concept of Jesus’ teaching.

The Kingdom of God was Jesus’ original message. The gospels tell us that right after his baptism (which was for Jesus a powerful spiritual experience and his call to ministry) and after his forty days in the wilderness (which was his time to integrate it all and prepare himself for ministry) then he appeared on the scene in Galilee as an itinerant preacher. His message was simple.  The Gospel of Mark says, “Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  This was Jesus’ original message. Before the church filled Christianity with creeds, rituals and ecclesiastical structures, there was the simple message of the Kingdom of God. That is what I want to talk about today.

If I am going to talk about the Kingdom of God, then I need to define the term. That is not easy to do because we 21^st century Americans do not know much about kingdoms. Back in Jesus’ day everyone knew about kings and kingdoms. There were lots of monarchies back then. There are not so many now. In the news you may read about King Abdullah of Jordan, and Queen Elizabeth of Great Britain, and Emperor Akihito of Japan, and there are others. But for the most part monarchies with real power (and not just figureheads) are part of the past. Our nation threw off the yoke of the English monarchy at the time of our revolution. We Americans have not had a king for 235 years. So we don’t really understand what it means to live in a kingdom. This fact makes it difficult to translate the term “Kingdom of God” in the way that is meaningful for us. Israel had always had a king over them from the time of King Saul. If it wasn’t a Jewish king ruling Israel, it was an Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian or Greek king. In Jesus’ lifetime they were under the Roman emperor, which was basically the same thing. But we Americans threw out the only king we ever had. We sometimes have presidents who think they are kings and act like kings, but we just vote them out.

We just don’t use the word kingdom any longer, nor have any real feel for what it means. I wish I could translate the phrase into some current concept. I have thought of using the word Reign of God or Realm of God, but those still have royal connotations. I thought about the Presence of God, but that really doesn’t capture it either. Probably the Power of God is better, but that seems so impersonal. Putting these two together comes closer: the Present Power of God or the Powerful Presence of God. That is as good as I can do. The Kingdom of God is God’s presence in power. Let’s now see what Jesus says about this. He says in our text for today, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  I will take this phrase by phrase.

I. First, “The time is fulfilled.” This communicates the present reality of the Kingdom of God. It deals with where the kingdom is in time. It is now. The time is fulfilled. The waiting is over. The time has come. Eugene Peterson’s translation of the verse puts it this way: "Time's up! God's kingdom is here."  There are passages in the NT that speak of the Kingdom of God as still in the future. The Lord’s Prayer teaches us to pray, “Thy kingdom come” as a prayer for the kingdom to appear in the future on earth. The kingdom is a complex concept with both present and future aspects.  You can’t deny that without distorting Jesus’ teaching. But often Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God as present now.

On one occasion Jesus was casting out demons. As usual the Pharisees were upset because Jesus obviously had great spiritual power, but he didn’t fit their idea of a godly man. So they decided Jesus must be evil and that he was casting out demons by the power of Satan. Jesus called that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, the unforgivable sin (which is a whole different subject). He told them, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Jesus was saying that the Kingdom of God had arrived. This is also true for us. The Kingdom of God is now. Of course there is a sense in which the Kingdom of God is yet to come. But in a real spiritual sense, the Kingdom of God is already… if we have eyes to see and ears to hear. This is a part of what Jesus meant by that badly misunderstood phrase “born again.” Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Unless you are born again you cannot see the Kingdom of God.” If we are born again, we can see the Kingdom of God. If you aren’t, then we don’t. The Kingdom of God is now.

II. Second, the Kingdom of God is here. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.”  What does it mean, “the kingdom of God is at hand?” “At hand” means literally within arm’s reach. You can reach out and touch it. It doesn’t mean that it is around the corner. It doesn’t mean that it is in Rome or Jerusalem or Tibet or India or in a monastery or some holy place. It is right here. In Luke 17 Jesus had a discussion with the Pharisees about the Kingdom of God. “²⁰ Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; ²¹ nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’^[d] For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” That phrase “within you” can also be translated “in your midst.” Whether it is within us or around us, in either case it is here now. People who are only looking for the kingdom “out there” are missing it.  Those who are only waiting for the kingdom at some future date will miss the kingdom that is right under their noses.

This is an important teaching of Jesus and an important part of the Christian spiritual experience; but it has historically been downplayed. Christians have gotten caught up in future expectations of a dramatic coming kingdom or have been involved in trying to bring about the Kingdom of God on earth by changing society. Nothing is wrong with either of those. If you want to spend all your time looking for signs of the return of Jesus or working to bring about paradise on earth, go ahead. But if your heart and heart are completely buried in those pursuits, you will miss the Kingdom of God that is right here right now.

One of the traditional adjectives to describe God is “omnipresent” which means that God is present everywhere. We also describe God as eternal, which means transcending time.  God will not be more present in the future than he is right now. We don’t have to wait until we die to experience the Kingdom of Heaven (which was equivalent term Jesus used for the kingdom of God.) We can experience it here and now. This is a very practical aspect of the gospel of the Kingdom. Trying to decipher prophecies or looking for codes in the Bible to predict the date of the Second Coming of Jesus is impractical. You do not need to wait for the Kingdom to come. Christ is here now. That is what Jesus meant on the Mount of Olives when he said that some that where standing there that very day would not die before they saw the Kingdom of God coming in power. Jesus is here. He said, “I will be with you always, even until the end of the age.” The Kingdom of God is here now. We just need to have eyes to see and ears to hear. 

On one occasion Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah saying,

“ ‘ Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
      And seeing you will see and not perceive;
       ¹⁵ For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
      Their ears are hard of hearing,
      And their eyes they have closed,
      Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
      Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
      So that I should^[a]heal them.’^{[b]  16} But then he added, “But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear.”

          The kingdom of God can be seen here and now. How?

III. Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  Repent. This is another very badly misunderstood concept. It is used in Christianity nowadays almost exclusively as a ethical term meaning  to turn away from sin. That we are sorry we did something wrong. Once again, that is part of it. Repentance does have a moral component; but it is a secondary part, not the essential meaning of the word. The word repent that is used in the NT refers to a transformation of one’s mind. I normally try not bore you with the Greek terms that are found in the Bible, but here I will risk boring you. The word is metanoeō. The root of the word means “to understand, perceive, consider, think”. It does not have to do with our actions, but with our thinking. What we do ethically will flow from what we think. But the thinking comes first. The word literally means to think again, to rethink – to think beyond the boundaries.  Metanoeō is meta-thinking, it is thinking on an entirely new level, a different way – a transforming way of thinking.

Before repentance we see the world as the world. But by the grace of God working in our lives, we can see the world as the Kingdom of God here now. From childhood we are taught to see the world the way everyone sees it. Our brains are conditioned in a certain way. Even Christians, who are supposed to be new creatures in Christ, see with same old tired jaded eyes as everyone else. When we are in Christ everything is made new. We see with new eyes. We are new creatures, a new creation. When we are in Christ then the world is seen not just as the world, but as the Powerful Presence of God. The veil is removed. Everything is changed. We wake up to the presence of God that was here all along but which we were blind to. “Twas blind, but now I see,” as the hymn Amazing Grace says.

This is the difference between the spiritual life and worldly life. Between what the apostle Paul calls spiritual and carnal. In the worldly life whether you call yourself a Christian or not, then the world is just the world – filled with sin and suffering and death. In the light of the Spirit, the world is no longer the world. The world is seen as the thinnest of veils covering a spiritual reality that is shining with the presence of God. Elizabeth Barrett Browning writes these famous words: "Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God, But only he who sees takes off his shoes; The rest sit round and pluck blackberries." That is what I am talking about.

IV. The fourth aspect of Jesus’ message of the Kingdom of God is faith.  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” We have already talked about repent, now on to believe. This concept is also badly misunderstood. Sometimes I wish we could come up with a whole new vocabulary to describe the spiritual life. Good Christian words have been so badly distorted through misuse over the centuries that they can barely be used any more without being misunderstood. One of those is believe or faith. A belief is nowadays seen as an idea, a doctrine, an “article of faith” that we are expected to adhere to. That is not what it means. Sure there are doctrines. I am really a very traditional Christian doctrinally. But dogma is not what the gospel of the Kingdom is about.

Belief or faith (they are the same word in the NT) does not mean to accept theological statements based on religious authority. Absolutely not. Some people say that if the church teaches something or our religion teaches something then we should just take it on faith, even if you have a hard time really believing it. I disagree. I don’t think we should accept anything that we do not personally know to be true. Faith is not accepting something without evidence or in spite of evidence to the contrary. Faith is the evidence. The Book of Hebrews defines faith as “the evidence of things not seen.”  By that it means not physically seen. Faith is a different way of seeing. Faith is a way of knowing. It is a way of directly apprehending reality.

When Jesus says, “Repent and believe the gospel” he is not telling us to accept something just because he says it. He is inviting us to see what he sees. To rethink the world from his perspective – to know reality as he knows it. As the apostle Paul puts it “to have the mind of Christ.” “Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Jesus is inviting us into his world. He is inviting us to enter his kingdom, which is the Kingdom of God. And all we have to do is open our eyes to heaven, open our minds to Christ, and see with the eyes of faith. There is no better time than now. “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” 

The Cross at Ground Zero

Delivered September11, 2011

I Corinthians 1:17-25

Two days after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, a worker found a 20-foot cross of two steel beams in the debris. It immediately became a makeshift shrine. People who had access to the site prayed at it and left messages at it. After a few weeks, it was in the way of the cleanup so it was moved to a spot where it continued to be a focal point for visitors to ground zero. It was just a prefabricated part of the building, but it had the proportions of a Roman cross, and so people felt that it was symbolic. A Roman Catholic priest name Fr. Brian Jordan, a chaplain at Ground Zero, spoke at the cross and called it a "symbol of hope... symbol of faith... symbol of healing."  A Protestant minister said of his visit to the site, "It was as if the cross took in the grief and loss. I never felt Jesus more.” The 9/11 cross has continued to be a spiritual symbol which has infused meaning into this terrible event in the life of our nation. But it has not been without controversy. Today there are plans to include this cross as part of a permanent memorial at the site. But there has been opposition. An organization called American Atheists has filed suit to stop the cross from being a part of the memorial unless other symbols from other faiths and nonreligious groups were also at the site. Today I would like us to ponder that Ground Zero Cross.

1. First, the cross is a symbol of death. When we think of September 11, 2001, we think of the 3000 people who died in New York City, Washington, DC, and in Shanksville, PA. The deaths of all these people are what makes this day different from all other days. All of us remember where we were when we heard the news of the attack. People of my generation remember when we were when we heard of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. September 11 is like that. It is a date indelibly inscribed on this generation like December 7th 1941 is a date remembered by the WWII generation. FDR called the December 7th attack on Pearl Harbor "a date which will live in infamy."  September 11 is such a date for this generation. It has shaped our country for the last ten years. Just as Pearl Harbor prompted our entry into the Second World War, so did the attacks of September 11 inspired the War on Terror. It inspired countless young men and woman to enlist in the armed forces and fight in Afghanistan and Iraq.

When death strikes, we pay attention. When it happens to someone close to us, we drop everything we are doing and attend to it. When it happens to 3000 Americans at one time then the nation pays attention. That is why the cross at Ground Zero is so meaningful. It is a symbol of death. Historically the Cross has been a Christian symbol of death for 2000 years. Jesus died on a cross at the hands of those who hated him. He was considered a traitor and a blasphemer by certain leaders at that time. They thought that his crimes deserved death. And not just any death but a ignoble and painful death. So they nailed him to a cross. It is no accident that Arlington cemetery is marked by rows and rows of white crosses. The cross is a symbol of death.

2.Second, the cross is a symbol of sacrifice. The Cross at Ground Zero tells us that these deaths of September 11, 2001, were not meaningless. These were not just victims of an act of terrorism. They are much more than that. This is especially true of all those who rushed toward the twin towers when everyone else was running away. When civilians were fleeing, fire departments, police departments, and emergency medical personnel were driving as fast as they could toward the towers. When people were running out of the buildings, they were running into the buildings. We rightly call these men and woman heroes. Many died as heroes that day. They are still dying today. The toxic effect of the clouds of dust from those buildings is still killing people. These people risked their lives to save others. They gave their lives just as certainly as any soldier on the battlefield risks their lives and sacrifices their lives. The cross is a symbol of that sacrifice.

According to the Christian gospel, Christ’s death was a sacrifice. Jesus said of his own death on the cross, “No one can take my life from me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what my Father has commanded."  Christ’s death was a sacrifice in the sense that it was freely given. It was also a sacrifice in the sense that it was offered in place of another. There are stories from 9/11 about people who gave up their lives to save another’s life. Among those are the so-called heroes of the 88^th floor.

Construction manager Frank De Martini and construction inspector Pablo Ortiz, both worked with the Port Authority on the 88th floor of the North Tower.  Armed only with a flashlight, a crowbar and walkie talkies, the two men selflessly worked to rescue survivors from behind jammed doors on the upper floors of the North Tower during the 108 minutes between the attack and the collapse of the building.  Both Frank and Pablo died when the tower collapsed, but their acts of heroism and courage saved the lives of 77 people and touched many more.  Their bravery and sacrifice inspired those around them to step up and help others as they exited the towers, which in turn saved many more lives. They sacrificed their lives but in the process they saved other lives.

This is the heart of the Christian gospel and the meaning of the cross. The gospel says that Christ’s death on the cross was a sacrifice that saved us.  What we are saved from might not be as readily apparent as the heroes of 9/11 but it is just as profoundly true. It is the heart of Biblical truth. The whole Old Testament is based on the idea of sacrifice. Chapter after chapter in the Torah talks about sacrifices offered in the temple. Those animal sacrifices were understood as taking the place of the one who was offering the sacrifice. That whole idea might sound kind of strange to our ears, but religious sacrifice was the mindset not only of the ancient Hebrews but practically every human culture that has ever lived. Sacrifice of some sort is present in nearly every religious tradition.  The Christian gospel says that all those sacrifices offered in the Old Testament and on the altars everywhere from India to China to South America to Africa to the Middle East were communicating a spiritual truth known deep in every human heart. Jesus voiced it when he said, “No greater love has a man than this –that he lay down his life for his friends.” We know instinctively that it is a noble act to sacrifice your life for others. That is why we honor fallen soldiers. 

It literally cost Jesus Christ his life to save us. And we see his sacrifice as an act of God. God was in Christ. In Christ’s death, not only was a man named Jesus sacrificing himself, but somehow God was giving himself. Self-sacrifice is the heart of the cross. The cross of Jesus was an act of heroism and sacrifice. In return we give our lives to God, just as God have his life to us. That is what eternal life is – receiving eternal life from God in the act of giving our lives to God. Jesus said, “"Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” That is why the cross is the symbol of the gospel, and why it is such an appropriate symbol for the memorial at Ground Zero. The cross is a symbol of sacrifice.

3. Third, the cross is the symbol of hope. The cross is not just a symbol of death and sacrifice. It is also a symbol of resurrection, of life that comes from death. The 9/11 cross came from the rubble. It emerged out of the debris. Like the mythological phoenix, it was born from the ashes. The Ground Zero Cross is a symbol of hope. It was such a symbol from the very moment it was found. Let me relate to you the story of the man who found this cross and how he found it. His story appeared in Guideposts magazine.

His name is Frank Silecchia, an excavation laborer and a member of union local 731. He lives in New Jersey, but is a New York City native from Brooklyn. After the Towers collapsed, he heard they needed guys with his skills for search-and-rescue work at Ground Zero. He couldn't get there fast enough. He'd seen the news coverage, but that didn't prepare him for the reality on the ground. It was like hell on earth. Fires burned out of control. Destroyed vehicles littered the streets. Everything was blanketed with dust; the air was filled with a choking stench. He soaked a bandanna with water and wrapped it around his head to cover his nose and mouth. He went to work wondering if he'd be able to get through this.

Six firefighters and Frank entered World Trade Center building six, which had been flattened by Tower One. They took a smoke-filled stairway down into the garage levels, searching for survivors. There were no cries for help, no signs of life. They spray-painted orange Xs to indicate where they'd searched and to help them find their way back. After 12 hours of searching, they had recovered three bodies. By then he was exhausted, but he decided to work a little bit longer. "I think I'll take a look over there," he told the firemen, motioning toward the remains of the lobby atrium. Picking his way through the massive piles of debris, he peered into what had become a sort of grotto. Illuminated by the pale light of dawn were shapes that looked like crosses. How did these crosses get here? The largest was about 20 feet high and weighed a couple of tons. He writes “In that little grotto I felt a strange sense of peace and stillness. I could almost hear God saying, “The terrible thing done at this site was meant for evil. But I will turn it to good. Have faith. I am here.” He says, “I fell to my knees in front of the largest cross. Tears came, and I couldn't stop them. I cried like a baby.”

The article ends in these words. He writes: “Ground Zero was not obviously a place of hope. But it was there that I learned we can always have faith. In fact, we must have faith if we are to go on. New life will rise from the ashes. I know that because the cross was a sign, a promise from God that he is with us even in the face of terrible evil and untold suffering. Especially then.” The Cross is symbol of hope

4. Fourth, the cross is a symbol of Strength. What we sometimes forget about the 9/11 cross is that it is really just a steel cross beam. The World Trade Center was built using prefabricated parts, which were bolted or welded together at the site and then lifted into place. This process dramatically reduces construction time and costs. Using this method, t-beams and other types of cross beams were created and used in each of the World Trade Center buildings. In other words the cross – along with many other crosses - was made beforehand and placed into the building. These were the crosses that Frank Silecchia saw in the grotto under the ruins of World Trade Center Six. I see significance in this. The 9/11 cross was a part of the World Trade Center before 9/11. The cross just was only revealed for all to see when tragedy hit.

The Cross is embedded in the heart of the world. There is a verse that I love that refers to Jesus as “the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.” This verse tells us that the cross of Jesus wasn’t just an historical event that happened in the first century AD. It God’s heart, it happened from the beginning of the universe. It is an eternal reality. It is the nature of God. It is the foundation of the world. It holds the world together just like the steel crosses held the World Trade Center together. But it is hidden from human sight until the right moment, as the Bible says, “I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world.” The apostle Paul calls it  “the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ,” “the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.” 

The Cross of Jesus was not a mistake. God was not improvising when he saved mankind through the cross. The Cross was his plan from the very beginning. It is built into the heart of the universe. We only see it when the world crumbles around us. When the towers fall, the cross is revealed. When our lives fall apart, the cross is shown as truth. That is what I hope all of us can see today. It is our hope for the future.

The 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center is not going to be the last attack on our nation. I am no prophet, but it doesn’t take a prophet to see that the forces of violence, intolerance and fanaticism are still alive in this world and have not given up. There have been recent calls for more acts of terrorism to avenge the death of Osama Bin Laden. Life is dangerous and the future is uncertain. None of us knows that other dates in will live in infamy, dates that our grandchildren will remember as clearly as we remember September 11. But at the heart of all history lies the cross – a symbol not only of the inevitability of death, but also a symbol of heroic sacrifice in the face of death, a symbol of hope and resurrection. A symbol of strength  that at the heart of the world and in the heart of God is the cross – the symbol of Jesus Christ, a symbol that is eternally true and cannot be destroyed by any weapon or any terrorist. It is this cross we are asked to carry. As Jesus said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. ²⁵ For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.”

Just Passing Through

Delivered September 4, 2011

Luke 19:1-10

Sometimes people are just passing through Sandwich.  Sometimes such people are lost. They are on their way to somewhere else and suddenly find themselves in Center Sandwich. You will see them stopped on the side of the road, looking at a map or just looking confused. Not long ago I was walking to the post office and a car stopped, and the occupants asked me for directions. They wanted to know where the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center was. They seemed to expect it to be just around the corner. They were distressed to hear that they were in the wrong town and that the Science Center was a 20 minute drive back in the same direction from which they had come. They were just passing through.

Verse 1 of our passage says, “Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.” Jesus was just passing through Jericho. It was a common thing for pilgrims to pass through Jericho on their way to Jerusalem. Jericho is one of the oldest cities in the world, having been occupied since 9000 BC. As an oasis in a dry land it was and is a place that a lot of people stopped at on the way to somewhere else. It was on the customary pilgrimage route from Galilee to Jerusalem. On this particular occasion, Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem for the Passover. Later in this chapter is the Palm Sunday story of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. After three years of public ministry, Jesus had developed a reputation. So when news spread that Jesus was coming through town a crowd of people gathered along the roadside to get a glimpse of him.

One of these people was a man named Zacchaeus. Our gospel story tells us some things about Zacchaeus. Verse 2 says, “Now behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.”  As a tax collector Zacchaeus was an official of the Roman government, and therefore not a popular guy. Rome was the occupying military force; for a Jew to collaborate with Rome was seen as a form of treason and betrayal of one’s country and people. Tax collectors were not popular. As the chief tax collector he would have likely been the least popular man in Jericho. It also says that he was rich. His wealth would have come from his occupation, which was known for its corruption. In the gospels the phrase term “tax collector” is often found in conjunction with the word “sinners.” For example Jesus was known to often associate with “tax collectors and sinners.” Being a tax collector meant involvement with graft, extortion and bribes. Zacchaeus would have been known for his unethical as well as unpatriotic behavior.

A third fact that our passage tells us about Zacchaeus is that he was short. Verse 3 “And he sought to see who Jesus was, but could not because of the crowd, for he was of short stature.”  He probably had the physical condition known as dwarfism. He was a little person. Dwarfism is very noticeable and often carries negative connotations in society. Because of their unusually short height, people with dwarfism have often been ridiculed and discriminated against. In societies where physical labor was the usual form of livelihood, little people had to find creative ways to make a living. This probably accounts for him taking a job as a tax collector. And he apparently was very good at it. It would be tempting to do some armchair psychoanalysis of Zacchaeus here , but that would be speculation. But I think it would be fair to say that Zacchaeus’ life had not been an easy one physically, socially or emotionally. There are four points that I want to make about Zacchaeus in this story this morning.

I. First, Zacchaeus grasped the opportunity to see Jesus. Jesus was passing through town, and Zacchaeus made sure that he did not miss him. I don’t know about you, but there have been times in my life when I have missed opportunities simply because I did not take advantage of them at the time. For example, thirty years ago in my first church in Southern Illinois one of my deacons was a dean at the local community college. He was doing a film documentary on coal mining and needed someone to help him carry the equipment. One day he asked me to accompany him into a deep coal mine. I had several coal miners in my church, and this was a wonderful opportunity to see their working conditions first hand. Unless you work for the mining company people don’t get a chance to see these mines up close. But I looked at my busy schedule and told him I did not have the time. That was a mistake. Looking back on it, I should have made the time. I have no idea what I did on that day that seemed so important, but I should have gone down into that mine. I have never had the opportunity since.

At one point in my career I had to decide whether or not to pursue a PhD and go into teaching, as my professors were encouraging me to do. I already had been accepted into the PhD program and saw a teaching career ahead of me. But I was tired of school and really enjoying being a pastor, so I chose to switch to the DMin program and enter the life of pastoring churches. I am glad I did, but I sometimes wonder what my life might have been like if I had chosen the other path. In his famous and overquoted poem Robert Frost talks about coming to a fork in the road. He had to choose one path, but he said he “kept the first for another day. Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back.” Once we take a road, we usually can’t go back.

We all have had to make irrevocable decisions that affected the rest of our lives. We all have had missed opportunities. We may have had missed spiritual opportunities. There are certain times in our lives when we sense that the Spirit of God is opening up an opportunity. We have to decide right then and there to step out on faith into the unknown following the leading of the Spirit, or stay with the known and familiar. After a while the opportunity passes, the portal closes, and we settle back into our familiar routine. God gives us opportunities like that throughout our lives. The more we say “yes” to God, the more opportunities arise. But if we keep saying “no” then we see fewer and fewer spiritual opportunities opening to us. “Use it or lose it.” Carpe diem. Seize the day, or let it drift away. When God calls, we must respond or the opportunity is gone. Zacchaeus seized the day. When he heard that Jesus was passing by, he left his tax collector’s booth and he sought out Jesus.

II. Second, Zacchaeus overcame obstacles. Zacchaeus was so short in stature that he could not see over the heads of people lining the street to get a glimpse of the Messiah. And he was so disliked in the community that no one was going to get out of the way so he could see. But he did not quit. He did not get angry at life and God for making him short, or get angry at the big people for not making room for him. He solved the problem. Verse says, “So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him, for He was going to pass that way.”   Zacchaeus did not let physical or social barriers stop him from meeting Jesus.

People let so many things stop them from meeting Jesus. People let their past stop them. They let bad experiences with a church stop them. Or they let no experience with religion stop them. They let the behavior of some Christians get in their way. What if Zacchaeus had let the bad opinion that the townspeople had of him stop him? So often we let the bad behavior of some Christians get in the way of our relationship with God. I have known a lot of Christians during my life and ministry. Most are wonderful folks, but a few of them were real jerks. They give Christianity a bad name. There are some Christians whom I cannot relate to at all; I am not so sure we have the same Lord except in name. It would have been easy for me at points in my life to focus on those bad experiences with bad people and turn my back on what is called Christianity. But that would be letting these people get in the way of my relationship with God. Too many people let other people get in the way of their relationship with God. Why? It is so much better to overcome the obstacles than to let them overcome you. Zacchaeus overcome the obstacles.

He saw the route that Jesus was taking through Jericho, and he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus. I love the image of Zacchaeus climbing a tree. I have not climbed a tree since I was a kid, I don’t even like climbing a ladder any more, especially after I had a fall. But when I was a kid I loved climbing trees. Big white pines are wonderful climbing trees. I used to climb way up high. I was one of those kids who built a platform of a few boards high in a tree just so could sit there for hours. As a child I think it was a spiritual experience.  When you are up a tree it is precarious yet exhilarating at the same time. You feel insecure, yet alive. That must have been the way that this little man Zacchaeus felt. He was a little man, but he was taller than everyone that day! And he was about to have the most important spiritual experience of his life.

III. Third, Zacchaeus responded to Jesus’ invitation. Verses 5-6 “And when Jesus came to the place, He looked up and saw him, and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.” Zacchaeus showed determination and creativity in running ahead and climbing the tree. But that was as far as he could go. It was up to Jesus to take it from there. And he did.Jesus invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house.

You have to understand the culture of the time to see how unusual it was for Jesus to say this. At that time and place there were well-defined rules when it came to hospitality. Hospitality was – and is still – a very important custom in Middle Eastern culture. One thing you never did was invite yourself to someone’s house. You waited to be invited, but you did not invite yourself. But Jesus does exactly that. ^“Jesus said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I must stay at your house.”  He wasn’t just inviting himself for a meal; he was inviting himself to spend the night.

The fact that Jesus was breaking the cultural rule about hospitality makes a powerful point. In our spiritual relationship with God, it is God who takes the initiative. Jesus says to his disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you.” This breaks our social rules also. We think that religion is a matter of personal choice. Freedom of religion, we call it. When it comes to God, we think it is our choice. We are all pro-choice when it comes to spirituality. We think we choose whether or not to believe in God. If we choose to believe in God, then we get to choose what type of God, what type of theology, what type of church. We custom make our spirituality to fit us. We pick and choose from the spiritual buffet set before us in our American culture.

I will tell you something you may not like. It is not our choice. God chooses. God calls us on God’s terms. All we get to do is say Yes or No. Jesus told Zacchaeus that he was coming to stay at this house. Zacchaeus did not have the option to say, “Today is not a good day, Jesus. How about tomorrow or possibly Sunday?” It was now or not at all. Tomorrow would be too late. Tomorrow, Jesus would already be on his way to Jerusalem and by Palm Sunday he was heading into the last days of his life. Within a fortnight Jesus would be dead. For Zacchaeus the only option he had was yes or no. Zacchaeus said Yes. Our passage says, “So he made haste and came down, and received Him joyfully.”

When it comes to God, our choice is either yes or no. We do not get to fashion God after our image, according to our spiritual tastes and preferences. We do not get to accept God on our terms in our timing. As scripture says, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” When God calls, our only choice is to respond now or not. As the Book of Hebrews says, “Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.”  When you stop to consider for a moment, today is all we really have. Yesterday is just a memory a thought in your mind; the same is true of tomorrow. Today is the only time we have. All responses we make to God must be made in the “Today.”

IV. Fourth, Zacchaeus was changed. At that moment when Jesus called out to Zacchaeus and he responded, a transformation happened in Zacchaeus’life. Verses 8-9 “Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; ¹⁰ for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Up to that point Zacchaeus’ life was centered on money. As I said before, tax collectors were known to get a lot of their money by dishonest means. Here Zacchaeus’ life had changed instantly. He no longer cared about the money. When people heard that that Jesus was going to going to stay at Zacchaeus’ house, they complained according to verse 7 “He has gone to be a guest with a man who is a sinner.”  But immediately Zacchaeus made it clear that he had changed. He said he would give away half of everything he owned to the poor and make fourfold restitution to everyone he had ever cheated. Clearly something has happened in Zacchaeus’ heart and soul. Jesus knows this. He exclaims, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Jesus is passing through Sandwich today. Christ is here in this place. He said clearly, “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.”  Christ is present here. He said, “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.”  That is why we come here. We come here on Sunday mornings for the same reason that Zacchaeus climbed that tree – to hopefully get a glimpse of Jesus. That somehow in the midst of all this religious stuff we do here – singing hymns, and saying prayers and reading scripture – that we might catch a glimpse of Jesus. That we might hear his voice. And if we hear his voice, it will be as a call to us, saying, “I am going to come and stay at your house today.”  If you hear that call of the Spirit inviting you to the spiritual life, just say yes.