Reflections on "Free to Change" Luke 19: 1-10; Joh 4: 4-26; 39-42

I think I am going to like preaching this post-Easter series.  I love the two stories referenced today.  So many things that could be done with Zacchaeus' and the woman at the well's stories.  
Probably should have found a good story about change, although the biblical text provided two good stories to tell in the sermon

"Free to Change" Luke 19: 1-10; Mark 16: 1-8; FPC, Troy, 4/27/14; Easter series

Introduction: Notice the white – a reminder that we are still celebrating Easter.

Last Sunday was the beginning of Easter, not the glorious end.

Last Sunday we declared Christ is risen – now we get to reflect on what that means for our lives.

Free to be the person God wants you to be.

Free to change. We look to Zacchaeus and the woman at the well as our examples this morning.

Move 1: Zacchaeus wanted to change.

a. Remember Zacchaeus.

1. The “wee” little man that we sing about in VBS or Sunday school.
2. Frederick Buechner's description of Zacchaeus:  Zacchaeus stood barely five feet tall with his shoes off and was the least popular man in Jericho. He was head tax-collector for Rome in the district and had made such a killing out of it that he was the richest man in town as well as the shortest. (Here is Buechner’s description of Zacchaeus, originally published in Peculiar Treasures and again later in Beyond Words as found in Weekly Sermon Illustration: Zacchaeus; http://frederickbuechner.com/content/weekly-sermon-illustration-zaccheus).

3. He was in a position of power as chief tax collector and he was rich.

4. but he had something going on inside of him.

5. his life did not satisfy.

6. he wanted to change.

7. Maybe you know what Zacchaeus was thinking because you want to make a change in your life.

b. As we read the story, we discover that Zacchaeus really wanted to change.

1. In fact, he seems almost desperate to change.
2. He wants to connect with Jesus but he's too small to see Jesus in the crowds, so Zacchaeus runs ahead and climbs up in a sycamore tree.
3. We do not know why Zacchaeus wanted to change, but we do know that a man of his stature in that culture would never run. He was too dignified.
4. And a man of his stature would never climb a tree (Julia Wharff mentioned this in her sermon and attributed it to Kenneth Bailey; The Interpreter's Bible section on this passage also mentions this).
5. But there is Zacchaeus, desperate to change, taking desperate measures to see Jesus to somehow connect with the one whom he thinks can help him become a new person.

    6. Zacchaues reminding us that if we want to change our lives, we have to be really committed to making the change.

100. Zacchaeus also has to claim this change for himself.
     1. In his job as chief tax collector, Zacchaeus probably had men who went out and did most of the dirty work of collecting the taxes.
     2. Zacchaeus would reap the reward of their work.
     3. but he cannot send one of his men to climb a tree for him; or to meet Jesus for him; or to change for him. Zacchaeus has to claim the change in his life for himself.
     4. Just like the people the woman at the well tells about Jesus. Did you notice that interesting point made in that story. The people who believed in Jesus did so not because of what the woman had told them, but because they had come to believe in Jesus themselves.
     5. No one could do it for them.
     In the resurrection of Christ, possibilities for what we can do and who we can be abound – but you have to want to change and you have to claim that change for yourself.

Move 2: Jesus offers the possibility of change.

a. Jesus seeks out Zacchaeus.

1. We do not know if he's seen Zacchaeus around town.

2. or maybe Jesus figures that any man crazy enough to climb a tree to see him must really want to some help.

3. we do not know how Jesus knew Zacchaeus need, but we know that Jesus meet Zacchae3us in the need and offered him the chance to change his ways.

b. Or remember the woman at the well.

1. Jesus knows all about her.

2. He knows the dissatisfaction she feels in her life.
3. And he invites her to make a change in her life.

100. That's the Risen Christ we proclaim.
     1. The God who comes to us in Christ to offer the hope and power of the resurrection – to give us new life.
     2. Your desire to change is met by the God who comes to empower us to make those changes.

Easter means that God can change death into life; it means we can dare to believe that in Christ we can make changes to our lives.

Move 3: Notice that Zacchaeus makes a concrete change in how he does business that day.

a. Notice that Jesus does not look up in the tree and make an appointment with Zacchaeus for next week.

1. No, “today” Jesus says he wants to come to Zacchaeus' house.

2. Zacchaeus does not commit to next month changing his tax collection plan. No, in the moment he makes a commitment to radically change how he does business.

3. They both realize that to make a change means acting in the moment – change that gets put off until later becomes wishful thinking.

4. Jesus and Zacchaeus realize that they have to act in that moment.

        5. think about the change you desire in your own life. Why put it off?

b. Notice that Zacchaeus takes a concrete action.

1. I am reminded of something Carl Jung wrote in his book Carl Jung in his book The Practice of Psychotherapy comments; “we seldom get rid of an evil by merely understanding its causes….and for all our insight, obstinate habits do not disappear until replaced by other habits.”
2. For Zacchaeus to change his life, he has to alter what he does.
3. He has to replace the bad habit with the good habit.
4. Our desire to change can happen only when we act in specific ways to make that change.
5. We cannot just close our eyes and wish for a change.
6. Living into the new creation God calls us to be demands that we work at how we live our lives.
   c. I heard a sermon on Zacchaeus at the last presbytery meeting.
   
   
   1. I took some notes on what the minister we preaching, but soon found myself writing in free-flow some questions that might one day make it into a poem.
   
   
   2. It went like this:
   
   
   Whatever happened to little 'ole Zacchaeus.
   Did he go and give away his money like he said?
   For a year? For two years? How long could Zacchaeus go.?
   When he looked around and noticed that he could not longer buy as much, did he reject his commitment.
   Did he go back to to what he had been?
   Or did his see the new life he had?
   
   
   That's the last question I had.
   
   
   3. I suppose that was kind of cynical. Maybe a comment on how hard change can be.
   
   
   4. but as I reflected on those questions for this week's sermon, I realized that the Zacchaeus' story does not worry about the future.
   
   
   5. It is about today.
   
   
   6. today Jesus comes to Zacchaeus' house.
   
   
   7.  today Zacchaeus commits to making changes in his life.
   
   
   8. Today, Christ empowers Zacchaeus to change.
   
   
   9. Change will never happen if we worry about the tomorrows – what change are you making today? Amen.