Is it Zacchaeus Sunday already? What does this scripture found in the Gospel of Luke mean to you? (Luke 19:1-10)
For many of us we travel through life flowing along downstream, occasionally bumping into things, after all, the ole folks say hard heads got to feel! Don’t touch that stove because it is hot!!Raise your hand if you do it anyway? But anyhow, the life-flow keeps pulling us along. For some of us, something catches our attention along the way and we turn a bit, or make an effort to see, just what this distraction from the fast currents of life is? And some of us sense an upcoming falling off the cliff or plummeting over a consuming waterfall if we continue to be part of that flowing passage. Instead, we must choose to fight our way from the worldly pull and change our deathly habits.
So I see that many folks today identify as being Christians, and yet they don’t participate in weekly worship, they don’t read their bible or pray without ceasing. Is that Christianity? Just how can we learn to love our neighbor if we are not part of a church family? In your biological family, if you think you have some irritating relatives that you only have to see once or twice a year, come join our church family, we are here throughout the week and you can get a big ole taste of our dysfunction!! Now please, I am not stating that we have some extraordinary, get under your skin type of people here, but when we come together as a church family, again and again and again, there is bound to be some conflict! We all have a different home life and types of activities and jobs, but here, we are one! We all bring different prospective and different gifts to the church. If we do not practice humility at home and here with our church family, we need to be climbing that Sycamore tree with Zacchaeus because we are missing out as the Lord comes our way!
St. Paul writes to the church in Colossae, an ancient city in Asia Minor, as some friction is developing, and he gives them these instructions of forbearance: “Put on for yourselves, therefore, as elect of God, holy and beloved, compassion from your inward parts, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another, and graciously forgiving one another, if anyone hath a complaint against someone; even as the Christ graciously forgave you, thus also do ye. And over all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfection.” [Col. 3:12-14]
Metropolitan Sotirios of Pisidia of Korea instructs us: “One of the most serious issues affecting society on all levels is the complete breakdown of relationships between people. This can be seen even within the same family, where spouses are estranged because of disagreements, and there is alienation between children and parents. What is the result? Husband and wife end up divorced. Children cut ties with their parents (or vice versa). It can be seen everywhere in our communities: Brothers, friends, associates, and neighbors are cold to one another, accuse one another (or worse) and avoid each other. There are many reasons why relationships end up in this way. The key reason has to do with our own selfishness. When another person does or says something that offends us, we react strongly against it. Or when we feel that we are right about something, and others disagree with us. When we think only of our own feelings and disregard the other person, conflict is inevitable. This is led to sad consequences for all of us.”
Sounds like we need to be more like Zaccheaus and get climbing up that tree doesn’t it!! Or as Saint Kyril writes: “for in no other way can a man see Christ and believe in Him, except by mounting up into the sycamore, by rendering foolish his members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, etc.” [Ib., 505, 506.]
And then let us not forget that even here on this land where our church is built was once a battlefield of the Civil War, back on June 8, 1862. That conflict of pride and money has cost many their life! Without humility, we just can’t see Christ. And even when I go to confession to tell the priest just how bad I have it and how I have amplified my anger again this week, he reminds me of that martyrs crown that I need to put back on, it has to be humility, not pride! To identify as a Christian we must love each other sacrificially, recognizing that we may all be a little different but we are all on that same climbing path, limb by limb. Let us all make haste so we too may all hear these words of our Lord: “Today, to this house, salvation came to pass, inasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which hath been lost.” [Lk. 19:9,10]
Fr. Gabriel Weller 2-2-2025
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