St. Paul’s United Church Sunday, October 31, 2010

Sight Lines – Rev. David Mundy

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12 Luke 19:1-10

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It’s not easy being tall! As you can appreciate, I don’t make this statement from a hypothetical vantage point, being just a tad over six feet, four inches in height myself. I reached this lofty elevation by the time I was 15 or 16 and I discovered the hard way that the world is not built for tall people. Tall people are forever cracking their “melons” on everything from light fixtures to low hanging branches to street signs set at a level that assumes everyone is at least six inches shorter. We regularly get “hey, you’re tall, could you reach up there for . . . ?”

Things have improved in the clothing department, but there was a day when it was really difficult to get clothes that were long enough in the arms and legs. Tall people always want to know whether the beds in hotel rooms are queen size, and I once had two nurses and an anaesthetist laugh themselves silly as I was being wheeled into surgery because my feet were hanging over the end of the gurney. So much for bedside manner.

No doubt the vertically challenged people here are muttering “give me a break – try living as a short person!” It’s true that there are many disadvantages for short persons.

They have to arrive early at parades or they might as well forget about it. Short folk read all the statistics about taller people doing better in job searches, and that world leaders are often tall. There are way more short jokes than tall jokes.

There was even a hit song years ago about short people that was quite meanspirited. Musician Randy Newman now writes theme music for films such as Toy Story and Cars. But some of you will remember the song called Short People which included the lyrics:

Short people got no reason
Short people got no reason
Short people got no reason
To live

They got little hands
Little eyes
They walk around

Tellin' great big lies
They got little noses
And tiny little teeth
They wear platform shoes
On their nasty little feet

Well, I don't want no short people
Don't want no short people
Don't want no short people
`Round here.

Ouch! It turns out that Newman isn’t exactly a giant himself, and he says the song was meant to be a satirical statement about discrimination, but a lot of people didn’t get that. I suppose short people just don’t have good senses of humour.

Jesus is often portrayed in art as being quite tall, although there is not a thing in the bible to suggest he was. It may surprise you to hear that the average height for a Mediterranean male in Jesus’ time was five five. Today we heard the story of a man named Zaccheus who was short enough that when the Jesus parade went through the town of Jericho he couldn’t see a thing. It seems that everywhere Jesus went the “word of mouth” brought out the curious and the eager and the desperate to see and hear the latest teacher and healer.

So Zaccheus realized that he should get creative and find a better vantage point if he wanted to catch a glimpse of Jesus. We’re told that Zaccheus is a tax-collector, which means that he was willing to be despised by his peers by working for the Roman occupiers and grossly overcharging people to line his own pockets. The payoff was that he became wealthy, but the sense we get is that he did not feel rich, that there was something missing in his life, so he was willing to literally “go out on a limb” to see Jesus.

We need to appreciate something here. A dignified man in Jesus day did not run anywhere, but Zaccheus sprinted to the tree. This was not just embarrassing, it was socially shameful. And kids climbed trees, not wealthy entrepreneurs, but Zaccheus, the short guy, just needed to have a sight line to Jesus for reasons he probably didn’t understand as he made this impulsive move.

Somehow Jesus knows this, and picks Zaccheus out of the crowd. He goes to Zaccheus and tells him to come down so that they can go and share a meal together. In that moment Zaccheus had to be taller in spirit than he has ever been before.

Do we have a good view of Jesus, good sight lines this morning? I hope we all realize that we are still about seeing Jesus and encountering the living and life changing Christ. Supposedly the Jesus parade still passes through congregations on Sunday mornings and in the rest of our life together.

That message gets muddled at times because there are so many challenges to our Christian faith these days. We end up being more than a little confused about what Jesus looks like with an avalanche of different images. Many congregations have become so preoccupied with survival, of making sure that the bills are paid and buildings are maintained that we forget that we exist in the first place as the community where Christ is revealed. We tend to turn up our noses at the more conservative churches and say that we’re not like them, with emotional pleas to “give your life to Jesus.” But if we’re not like them, what are we like?

And there are many people in our increasingly secular culture who may want to catch a glimpse of Jesus but are uncertain about how that should happen. They don’t get the opportunity to climb up in a tree to get a decent sight line and then have the living breathing Jesus walk over and say “I have Good News for you. Let’s do lunch!” Still, we are told all the time that in our relatively affluent society where lots of people are running around after the toys of a consumer society there are many who just aren’t happy in the heart or the core of their lives. They try all sorts of things to find inner peace and go to great lengths – Eat, Pray, Love will tell you all about one person’s quest. Some still seek out churches, and they might come and go. That happens a lot these days.

But others have the encounter, the experience of Christ which allows them to feel accepted and loved. Sometimes it is a mystery as to how that happens, but it does happen. I spoke this past week with a former parishioner from another congregation, a person who is now a friend living in Colorado with her husband. When I first met her she hadn’t been in a church in 25 years, and when her first husband died of cancer at an early age they didn’t have a religious funeral because it just wasn’t who they were.

Then she met someone, an American who was visiting Nova Scotia, and they fell in love. One problem though. He was and still is a devout Christian and while he didn’t try to impose his faith on her, he let her know that on Sundays he would seek out a church. For several weeks she dropped him at the door of the church I was serving in downtown Halifax and would find something to do for an hour or so. One Sunday she decided that she would rather be with him than alone at Tim Horton’s and so she joined us.

Lo and behold, she had a profound experience of God which meant that for the next fews months she met with me each week to ask every question imaginable about God and Jesus. She has since apologized for being so “over the top,” but it was a wonderful challenge. I would like to tell you that she had this experience because she heard the best sermon ever, but it was God who was at work within her, not me flapping my gums.

So the long and the short of my message today is that Christ still meets us if we are looking because he is looking for us in the crowd. This is true whether we are here for the first time, or have been here forever and a day.

You may have noticed this morning that along with being All Hallows Eve, or Hallowe’en, this is Reformation Sunday. It is a day to acknowledge that renewal movement 500 years ago that emphasized the grace of God Christ. The person we give credit for starting the protest or Protestant movement is Martin Luther and his story is a fascinating one. Luther was a Roman Catholic monk who lived with a great deal of anxiety and fear about his own salvation. He did everything he could to earn favour with God, and he “prayed his knees off,” so to speak, but the sense of dread just didn’t go away. Then Luther had a moment of awakening in which he realized that fearing a punishing, angry deity was not what God wanted for him. In essence Christ invited him into a relationship of love and grace.

Our invitation is to make sure that the Jesus parade does go through this sanctuary and that we don’t get in the way of those who come perhaps tentatively, or eagerly to get a glimpse of the one who can bring salvation to every house and heart. There are still people who are willing to take the risk to seek out Jesus.

We can remember that in the midst of all the fuss and bother of church life Jesus sees each one of us and will make us feel ten feet tall if we are open to that happening. The message of grace and transformation in Christ is meant for all of us who seek him.

One last thought this morning. A decade ago Ruth and I were in downtown Boston where a number of historic churches are now condos, and concert halls, and national historic monuments – remnants of a bye gone era. But one of the oldest congregations, called Trinity, is very active and has a feeling of energy and spiritual life despite being nearly 300 years old. In the entrance, in big, bold letters, there is a greeting for visitors and members alike and it seems like a good way to end today:

If you are curious and have come to see

If you are weary and have come to rest

If you are grateful and have come to share

If you are hurting and have come for solace

If you are listening and have come to pray

If you are seeking and have come for answers

Welcome