City Church Charlottesville Sermon Podcast
Good Company || At the Table || 9/8/24
- Welcome to City Church. We are a biblically based, relationally driven, spirit-led church, encouraging everyone to follow Jesus, grow together, and serve others. We're excited to share this sermon with you today, and you can always find out more about us online at citychurchceeville.com. (upbeat music) - Welcome this morning, and welcome to those of you who are joining us online, and welcome to my people up in the balcony. (audience laughing) - My name is Gabe, I'm the Congregational Care Pastor at City Church, and I am happy to bring the message this morning. Would you stand with me because you've been sitting too long? And we are going to recite the Lord's Prayer this morning. It should be up on the screen behind me, and so we begin by saying this. This then is how you should pray. Our Father, who is in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, know it's filled as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Let's take a moment to greet each other, and I'll come back to us. (audience chattering) Okay. Well, it's a lovely day today, isn't it? I'm so happy for the cooler weather, and I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt, and this thing, and I noticed that a lot of us have dressed for today, and you look all great, so I'm not scared to preach to you this morning. (audience laughing) (audience laughing) We are at the table with Jesus, we're continuing our series on At the Table with Jesus, and today's sermon is called Good Company, and we're gonna take our comments out of the familiar story, Luke 19, verses one through 10, and the stories about the encounter between Jesus and Zacchaeus. There's a familiar saying that goes something like this. You can tell something about a person by the company they keep, but it's usually said with a tint of negativity, as if to judge someone, or to give cautionary advice. Remember, the company you keep tells something about you, and this was a case for Jesus, actually, because he was described as being a friend to tax collectors and sinners, and this judgment extended to the assumption that Jesus endorsed the morals and lifestyles of those so-called sinners. Well, I think of the woman in chapter, John chapter eight, who was thrown at the feet of Jesus by some religious leaders who had stones in their hands and ready to stone her, but they really were not concerned about her and her lifestyle as much as they were concerned, or focused on entrapping Jesus. They wanted to see which side Jesus was gonna be on. So what do we do with her, Jesus? And Jesus, if you recall the story, brilliantly responds to them and actually calls them out. And he said to them, remember famously, you, without sin, throw the first stone. And they didn't, right? They walked away, they dropped their stones and walked away, probably because they were complicit, some of them were complicit in this woman's profession. And then Jesus looks at her and asks her, where are your accusers, right? Remember that? And she says, well, they've all gone. And Jesus responds to her, well, I don't accuse you either, but go and sin no more. So the fact that Jesus offers compassion and the fact that we can offer compassion and grace does not necessarily mean that I'm endorsing a person's lifestyle that could be personally destructive to them, right? But some of the folks in the crowd in Jesus' day did not get that. And the challenge for us this morning is really around how we can be like Jesus, be good company. Again, I refer back to that statement. You can tell something about someone by the company they keep. And furthermore, bad company corrupts, right? You've heard that. And that's not untrue. And it's wise to be considerate of the kind of company you keep. But at the same time, if you are a follower of Jesus, trust Jesus in you, the spirit in you, to be the good company that can actually produce good results in other people's lives. And this is a challenge before us today. And this is the occasion of the story of Zacchaeus. And I'm going to frame the story in a slightly different way than you're used to. Okay? I'm going to take a different angle on Zacchaeus. And you'll hear that as I go throughout. And it's motivated by the research I've done, but I'm also aware that it may be motivated by the very fact that I am short of stature too. As Zacchaeus is noted to be, and in the Sunday school songs of the past, some of you know it, Zacchaeus was a wee little man. He was probably a leprechaun. (audience laughs) And a wee little man was he, right? And I'm probably standing here in defense of wee little men. And helping, trying to ask you to kind of take your eyes off of that aspect of Zacchaeus and move it to a different aspect of him. So, and I've also framed the sermon this morning in three movements. Movement number one, Zacchaeus' condition. Movement number two, Zacchaeus' call. And movement number three, Zacchaeus' change. Let's begin. Jesus entered verses one through four. Jesus entered Jerusalem coming from Jericho and was passing through, and there was a man called by the name of Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich. Zacchaeus was trying to see who Jesus was, and he was unable to, due to the crowd, because he was short in stature. So, he ran on ahead and climbed up a sick mortuary in order to see him, because he was about to pass through that way, Jesus. So, Luke does tell us something about Zacchaeus, about his condition, right? He names Zacchaeus' job. Oh, and by the way, Zacchaeus' name is Hebrew. So, he is part of the Jewish community, a Jewish man who works for the empire of Rome, collecting taxes and tolls from his own people. And he got wealthy, and yeah, he's short of stature. This stacks the deck against Zacchaeus in the eyes of his community, and they revile him, and they say of him later that he is a notorious sinner. They level this on this man named Zacchaeus. So, Luke tells us a little something about him. Now, let me give you a little bit more information about his job. He was a chief tax collector, a toll collector. He received tolls, because Jericho was a crossroads city. So, he was there, he was set up in a very strategic place. And he got wealthy, he did. But, most likely, he got wealthy, just because he was doing his job. And it's true that some tax collectors in the day are skimmed or overcharged. Rome didn't care, Rome just said, just give us our part. And if you take more than we're requiring them, well, that's on you. We don't know that that's what Zacchaeus and Zacchaeus did, consistently. He does say later that if I've done this, then I will make restitution. So, his job. Zacchaeus came upon his wealth, not because the wealth landed on him, not like the rich young ruler in the chapter previously, who comes to Jesus and asks, what can I do to inherit eternal life? He was someone that was wealthy because it was generational wealth. Zacchaeus probably didn't fit that profile. So, he was new money, if you will. And assumed to have gotten his money through ill-gotten gain. Luke also tells us that he was short of stature, yes. Now, this actually could mean something other than, or more than, his height. I can't imagine, I can't imagine, and anyone in here who can relate to being short of stature, we call ourselves under tall. I cannot imagine that that is a reason why people would crowd him out. And maybe it was, I don't know. I don't think the Jews of the day were very tall anyway, but so it doesn't make sense to me to assume that because he was a short man, or under tall man, that people didn't like him. A shorter stature could actually mean have something to do with his youthfulness, his age. He was probably a young man. And this put him at the lower end of the social economic or whatever cultural realities. So, the deck was stacked against him. He was a tax collector, chief tax collector, because they have people working for him doing all the same thing. He worked for Rome. He got rich and he was youthful, he was young. And so when he tried to look at Jesus, we are told that the crowd crowded him out. He couldn't see because of the crowd, not because he couldn't see over the crowd, but because the crowd didn't want him to see Jesus. They knew who he was, they didn't like him. They were not going to help him see Jesus. So what does he do? He runs on ahead and he climbs the sycamore tree. So Zacchaeus, we see something about his condition. Someone who experiences the hate. Being reviled. I don't know if you've ever experienced feeling, getting that feeling from people, but I can't imagine what it's like for him to live that way. Now, one could say, well, you could just quit his job and quit doing what he's doing that's causing people to hate him. But I don't think Zacchaeus really thought that what he was doing was wrong. And we'll come to that. For now, let's just kind of focus on his condition. And Luke is telling us something here. And he's motivated to see Jesus. So there's a little story. It's somewhat humorous, but it's serious at the end. On the wall of a subway in New York City was an advertising poster that depicted a dignified older gentleman recommending a particular product. Someone, probably a little boy, attempted to deface the advertisement by drawing a balloon coming out of the gentleman's mouth and writing in it the dirtiest thing he could think of. He meant to write, I like girls. But he made a mistake and wrote, I like grills, G-R-I-L-S. Someone else had come along later and written with a felt tip to pen, it's girls, G-I-R-L-S, not grills. Still, another party had come along and written under that comment. But what about us grills? You know, it's a good question. But what about us grills? What about the people like me that are crowded out that are marginalized? What about us grills? And I think of Zacchaeus as a grill in his community, in his society. Are there people in our lives who are grills, who are curious enough to climb their own sycamore trees to find Jesus? Or maybe that's you. Maybe you are in that tree and hoping to find and see Jesus and meet him and hear him calling you by name like he did Zacchaeus. This gets us now to movement number two. Zacchaeus is called, verses five through seven. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to Zacchaeus to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down. For today, I must stay at your house. And he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. When the people saw this, they all began to complain, saying he has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner. He was called out of the tree, but Jesus didn't stop by and say, oh, hey you little man, come down. And I need to be a guest in your house. Jesus used his name, his Hebrew name. His Hebrew name, which means pure, clean and bright. Very different than the way that other people were perceiving Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus's name, pure, clean and bright. So that when Jesus stopped at that tree, he looked up and said, pure, clean and bright, come down. I need to be a guest in your home today. This was a call of love and affirmation. And it resulted in a powerful, powerful response. David Brooks, a noted columnist, commentator and author wrote about an encounter he had once. He wrote, "A few years ago, I was having a breakfast meeting "in a diner in Waco, Texas, with a stern, "imposing former teacher named LeRue Dorsey. "I wanted to understand her efforts as a community builder "because of my work with Weave, an organization I co-founded "that addresses social isolation." Brooks goes on, "I was struck by her toughness "and I was a bit intimidated. "Then a mutual friend named Jimmy Dorrell "came into the diner, rushed up to her table, "grabbed Mrs. Dorsey by the shoulders and beamed. "Mrs. Dorsey, you're the best, you're the best. "I love you, I love you." Brooks says, "I've never seen a person's whole aspect "transform so suddenly. "The disciplinarian face Mrs. Dorsey had put on "under my gaze vanished. "And a joyous, delighted nine-year-old girl appeared. "This is the power of attention," says Brooks. He continues, "Each of us has a characteristic way "of showing up in the world. "A person who radiates warmth "will bring out the glowing sides of the people he meets, "while a person who conveys formality can meet "the same people and find them stiff and detached." The first point of my story, Brooks says, is that you should attend to people in the warm way Jimmy does and less in the reserved way that I used to. But my deeper point is that Jimmy is a pastor. When Jimmy sees a person, any person, he is seeing a creature with infinite value and dignity made in the image of God. He is seeing someone so important that Jesus was willing to die for that person. The table is the place of this kind of affirmation it can be, where people can be known and seen, known by their names, and seen, and that opens up a way for them to receive God's mercy and God's grace. This brings us to movement number three. I'm moving along, all right? Maybe this is why I call them movements to keep me going. You're gonna have a lot of break time between now and lunch, but Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, "Behold, Lord, half my possession, "I am giving to the poor. "And if I have extorted anything from anyone, "I am giving back four times as much." And Jesus said to him, "Today, salvation has come to this house "because he too is a son of Abraham, "for the son of man has come to seek and to save "that which was lost." Here's where I'm reframing the story of Zacchaeus. (clears throat) In a way that departs from the traditional reading and understanding, and it's not without good research and scholarship and self-motivation to defend people's shirt or stature. This is not primarily a story about repentance or conversion. If it were, Luke would have been, would have given us some details here. You probably heard me emphasize as I was reading from the text a couple of phrases. Behold, Lord, half my possession, I am giving to the poor. And if I've extorted anything from anyone, I am giving back four times as much. The tenses in these phrases in Zacchaeus' speech are present tenses. They are not future tenses or conditional tenses. Now, many, if not most of our translations would say, I will give, I will make restitution. But the actual tense in the Greek doesn't say that. It is, I am giving or I give. What does this suggest to us? It suggests to us that Zacchaeus is already doing that. And this makes sense of Jesus' declaration. He is a true son of Abraham. Because he is exceeding the requirements of the law. Leviticus chapter six, verse five, when he says, I will make restitution four times as much as I took. So Jesus is affirming him already for what he's already doing. Why then is he considered a notorious sinner? Because of his job, they can't get over it. They can't see past that and see that he has been a faithful son of Abraham in his economic dealings at least. And Jesus affirms him by saying, you are a true son of Abraham. And this was an affront to people around him. It was because they thought they were it. How can you name this person who's a notorious sinner as a true son of Abraham? I think I fear, not just fear, I know that sometimes, and I was just having a conversation with the man behind the camera people, Jonathan Martin. And he gave me, he fed me this question. I wonder if the church sometimes presents itself as an obstruction to God's grace and compassion. I wonder if we, whether deliberately or inadvertently, are the people in the crowd who are aghast? Because of what we imagine people's lives to be. And rather than being people who help bring folks like Zacchaeus to Jesus, we obstruct their view of him. We crowd them out. This is a challenge to us, to sort of do some serious integration on the way that we judge people unfairly. We don't see Jesus doing that. In fact, we see him affirming Zacchaeus. And it's not that something didn't occur in Zacchaeus's heart. I don't know how one can have an encounter with Jesus and not have something leap within their souls that motivates them to change. But I think that what Zacchaeus experienced here was an affirmation that he was okay. And our challenge today is, I'm gonna invite the worship team and the prayer team should be ready to pray for the folks. Our challenge today is that Zacchaeus's story is our story, it really is. Whatever side of the story we are on, some of us here today are, in fact, in that sycamore tree looking to get it, not just a glimpse of Jesus, but to look upon him in a way that there's a longing. I think I believe Zacchaeus, the fact that he bothered to climb a tree. He was motivated by something more than just curiosity, right? And then when Jesus called him by name to come down out of the tree, pure, clean and bright come down, Zacchaeus came down, Luke tells us with joy. So that tells us something about his motivation to see Jesus. It wasn't just curiosity. And there are people here who want to see and encounter this Jesus in that way. And I wanna encourage you to share that with one of us this morning when it comes time after the worship team leads us in some music. And then there's us who have responded to Jesus and we have been found by him and we live into our identity in him and we live out the fact that he calls us and knows us by our names. And we live in his affirmation. This is a challenge to us then to be good company around the table that Jesus calls us to and to invite people in our lives to sit around the table, to sit that good company can be the influence. There are boxes, you've heard about these for the last few weeks and if you haven't gotten one, this is your startup kit for the app to table with Jesus campaign that we're doing for four weeks. So I wanna encourage you to pick up one of those boxes and also continue to stay aware of Alpha and pray for Alpha because Alpha is a table experience where people who are really truly looking for Jesus can find him not because of the good food that's served, not even because of the presentations, but because of the people that are keeping company with them around these tables. (gentle music) [MUSIC PLAYING]