trick or treat

Rev. Harriette Cross
Englewood and Rust Memorial United Methodist Church
October 31, 2010
Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4
Luke 19:1-10
Trick or Treat….
Year C
23rd Sunday after Pentecost


In search of meaning
Just yesterday, a friend told me that she was at borders, looking for a book, she was at the end of her rope and she hoped that this book would help her get her life together. It was just a self help book, but she needed to believe in something that was going to make a difference and help her to find meaning in her life.
All I could do was respond …hmm, as I sat preparing my sermon on finding meaning in our lives. I responded to her that perhaps it would be too simple to try the best selling self help in the world, the one that has been saving lives not only for years, but for generations …the bible.
From Genesis to revelation it is the story of what it means to be a human being, what it means to be a loved child of God, to move from just being a child of God, to knowing that you are a child of God, and that God is always working in our lives.
There is this heart shaped hole in the middle of all of our souls, there are times in our lives when we all feel it, we all know that its empty and we are looking for something, or someone to fill it.



The hole in our lives
We fill it with food, we fill it with possessions, we fill it controlling other people, we fill it with working too much, we fill it with relationships that don’t help us, we fill it with reading self help books, and try as we may nothing seems to fill that hole.
Until we realize that that hole was intentionally put there in our hearts, and it is not meant to be filled... it is meant to stay empty... because it is the place where God enters our lives and takes residence in our souls.
It us only when we realize that the things that we put there are not working for us, when we realize our need for salvation.
Zaccheus story

Perhaps that is why Zaccheus found himself out on a limb, up in a tree that day – attempting to get a glimpse of Jesus. He was in search of salvation. He had no idea of where to find it, or what it even meant, but he was hoping that maybe Jesus had a clue to lead him in the right direction.
Jesus doesn’t spend a whole lot of time talking to us in the crowd- he comes straight to Zaccheus. We will never know if Jesus knew this man at all. Or why he would invite himself to lunch with a tax collector. Matthew was a tax collector before he was a disciple. There are other references to Jesus working with the tax collector.



Our fascination with greediness
The crowd would have had plenty to say to Jesus. And yet the scriptures show that Jesus intentionally went after these people.
Even though this would have been a traitor who sold out his own people and a greedy cheater who lined his pockets with the money of the poor
There seems to be something in our hearts that admires people that get rich taking advantage of other people.
I just saw in the news where the richest man in the world just built a 27 story house – with three helicopter ports, a parking lot, and a weather making room. A building that towers way above one of the poorest cities in the world. When they did interviews on the street to see how people felt- most just hoped that they would be able to get a job in the house.
And just this year they did a remake of the movie Wall Street – where Michael Douglas plays a stockbroker who enjoys cheating everyone – in order to get rich. Greed is good, is his motto. Greed is right, greed works, greed clarifies, cuts through and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit, greed in all of it forms – greed for life, for money, knowledge – has marked the upward surge of mankind.
I will agree with him on one point, greed is not just about money. Greed is about trying to fill the unfillable hole inside of our hearts. We can get greedy about our involvement in church, trying to fill that hole which can never be filled.
And isn’t it funny that no matter how close to God we claim to be, how much time we spend in church – we can’t help but to admire the things that greed brings us. We see the things it buys, the people it attracts, the personal power it affords – and we can’t help but to be interested. That is why movies like Wall Street and money never sleeps makes millions of $.
One of the lines from the movie says however, no matter how much money you make, you’ll never be rich. Until you learn to fill the hole with the things of God. Until you come to think about what real salvation is.

Salvation
The good news for us is that we don’t have to seek salvation, because God sent Jesus into the world to seek us in the midst of our sin, and to hand us salvation on a silver platter.
Salvation is the choice to let God come into that empty hole in your life. We always have a choice to be greedy or to be right with God. We can play into the things that that world admires the cars, the money, the popularity, and the possessions. Or we can choose to listen to God- and in the long run – have the things that truly make us happy- true love, true acceptance, true beauty, true assurance of salvation.

The prophet Habakkuk
The standard of the world have not changed a bit. Our Hebrew bible lesson for today was from Habakkuk. We don’t know who Habakkuk was, or even what time he was talking about – and yet his words remain because they speak a truth. He complained to God – because he needed to acknowledge the fact that the world was winning. The greedy people truly were conquering the world. They were winning and getting their way by taking advantage of everyone else. What is the point of being righteous, when time and time again the righteous always end up on the bottom as losers?
God answers Habakkuk and God answers us today – he says that may be true- the greedy are getting ahead. But that is only true for today. In the long run... whatever has been acquired from greed won’t last. The only eternal things in the world – are those things that we get from God. Those who choose to live right with God will always have the final word. The righteous choose to live in faith – willing to weather the storm for the only thing that is true – God’s love and salvation.
Jesus tried to talk to Nicodemus – a righteous man, who was stuck in his righteousness and what he had gained from the world. Nicodemus refused to change, and Jesus went on his journey – knowing that if he was not willing to give up his riches, then there was nothing else that he could do- there was no hope for salvation. Jesus talked to Zaccheus, someone that he knew was a thief and a liar, and when Jesus asked him to Change – Zaccheus was willing to help others less fortunate and to pay back what he had took.

Repentance
What was the difference? In honor of Halloween, I will use the example of Frankenstein. When Frankenstein’s owner created him, he treated him with love and affection. So when he went out into the world he was truly hurt when the world did not accept him. He didn’t understand their screams, and need to run away from him. Until one day he went home and looked in the mirror- and he saw just how ugly he was. He saw what everyone else was seeing in him – and he got scared too. He changed his demeanor and his appearance. I some ways you could say he repented of his ways.
Zaccheus was willing to change and repent of his ugly ways. Nicodemus was not.
Salvation came to Zaccheus’ house that day – not to Nicodemus.
Jesus must have known that the name Zaccheus means pure, holy and righteous. He saw Zaccheus for who god created him to be, not what the world had made him out to be. He treated Zaccheus as pure, holy and righteous – and that is who he chose to be?
What about you – do you chose to be what the world makes you- or who god created you to be? Do you get your meaning from filling the bottomless pit with the things of the world, or can you leave it empty and let Christ fill it with the right things? Do you choose greed or salvation? Life is full of choices, some lead us nowhere, and others lead us to life everlasting.