"Conversion"
Sermon Transcript for June 26, 2005
By Rev. David Mark Owens
It is my blessing to be here. I asked Pastor Mike and Dan and the Worship Committee that was meeting the other day how long I should preach during this service. And Dan was about to say something and then the phone rang and then he turned and answered the phone and I don’t think he ever did tell me how long to preach. So I’m kind of winging it. I will take a little personal privilege. Roger Smith is a friend of mine. For years we directed church camp together. He did the music part and I did all the camping part. Now, he’s out there talking right now to the Relay for Life people so he’s not paying any attention. So you ask him about this later. Roger loved the kids and he did a great job with the music. And they would do musicals and we would take it to Franklin Community and other places. And he did a great job with that. He just loved those kids to death; and he would be tireless, you know, in un-air conditioned Moneto and some places like that. I would do the campfires and things and the kids would go to bed. And the next morning Roger would show up energetic ready to go. Now what the kids didn’t know is every evening Roger went home to his own bed and slept rather than sleeping there at Camp Moneto. But I appreciate so much the opportunity to share with you today.
On June 18th there was a big event in Indianapolis. I don’t know if any of you went, but it was the Indiana Tree Climbing Championships. And some twenty contestants, according to the Indianapolis Star, gathered to determine who was the best tree climber at Eagle Creek Park. There were five different challenges. They had to jump from tree to tree and skill and agility and all the things a tree climbing might imagine. Some fifty spectators were there. Our sermon this morning is about tree climbing. Now I don’t recall who was first, second, or third, but our sermon this morning is about tree climbing. Passages in Luke 19, and before we read that, I thought I’d better clarify. Tree climbing is a term that not everybody associates with. So I thought I’d better define it a little better. Those in Amity call tree climbing “arbor ascension”. The Bargersville people call tree climbing “bark barreling”. Franklin people call tree climbing “foliage flying”. Greenwood people call tree climbing “leaf leaping or limb luging”. The Southport people call it “sap sprinting”. And the people from Trafalgar call tree climbing “twig touring”. The people from Edinburgh, well, I couldn’t think of anything for Edinburgh. They call tree climbing “tree climbing” down there.
Luke 19:1-6 says this and it’s all about tree climbing: “Then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. Now behold there was a man named Zacchaeus who was a chief tax collector. And he was rich. And he sought to see who Jesus was but could not because of the crowd for he was short of stature. So he ran ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see Him for He was going to pass that way. And when Jesus came to that place, He looked up and saw him and said to him, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down for today I am going to stay at your house.” Now there is one more verse, but I want to hold off on that just a moment.
There are two main lessons here in this passage. The first is all about Zacchaeus. We know a lot about him. He was a man. He lived somewhere between Jericho and Jerusalem. He was a tax collector—not only a tax collector but a chief tax collector. He was rich, short of stature. He was a roamer. Zacchaeus was a tree climber. And we really know a lot about Zacchaeus maybe more than 90-95% of the characters in the Bible. So Luke has gone to great efforts. Luke, the physician, as physicians do, I find, are very detail oriented. And Luke has gone to great efforts to tell us about Zacchaeus.
But Luke 19 is also about a tree. Now one thing that I understand about this service, the 9:15 a.m. service, is that there are some here that appreciate theological subtlety and here it comes. Any time in the bible that we see a tree or a bush, there is more going on there than just a tree or a bush. There is some mention, some illustration, about the people of Israel. The burning bush is about a burning bush but it is also about something happening to the children of Israel, the Hebrew people. When Jesus curses a fig tree, there is something going on there bigger than just cursing a fig tree. And so we have it here that it is more than interesting, more than subtle, that when Zacchaeus climbs, he climbs up a sycamore tree. Sycamore trees were common in Israel throughout the Holy Land at that time. They are kind of a common tree. They especially grow on the low lands and could reach pretty good heights. Sycamore trees can have fruit also though. And Amos of the Old Testament is a sycamore tree tender. He harvests the fruit of sycamore trees. And here is what I want you to hear. The figs, they call them figs from the sycamore trees, are only good if someone goes through a few days before they are harvested and punctures, pierces each and every fig. So you have this sycamore tree representing the people of Israel and you have the fruit of that sycamore tree that has to be punctured before it is of real value, real usefulness. And I’ll let you take the analogy from there.
You have this man of Israel, this common man of Israel, this son of Abraham climbing up the sycamore tree because he wanted to see Jesus. There is a lot going on in this passage. Now you and I, we are up in that tree also with Zacchaeus. We are sitting right there beside him. The passage is written in such a way that it really involves you and I also. Many of our Bibles contain family trees, don’t they? And, really, we are in the tree here also because we too are drawn to see Jesus. And we are drawn to see Jesus from the perspective of who we are. We don’t check out our identity when we come in the door. In fact, I had my I.D. badge on but I took it off. We don’t put those away when we come in the door of the sanctuary; we bring that with us. We are people of some identity when we come in here. As a man, I see Jesus in a certain way, a certain tree I’ll climb up, if you will. As a Caucasian I’m in a certain tree when I see Jesus. As a Hoosier, as an Indiana person, I’m seeing Jesus from a certain tree. I forgot to tell you about the tree climbing championships, they jump from tree to tree was one of the parts of this tree climbing championship in Indianapolis. Well, some of us jump from tree to tree. We see Jesus in different ways for who we are. And that is okay. Franklin Grace United Methodist Church is a great church. During the prayer time I was struggling to remember all the many ministries of the church; and there are many. You are a great church. Franklin Grace United Methodist Church is really a tree that we climb up to see Jesus. That we climb up to have a perspective on Jesus. And that is okay. And I encourage you to climb that tree. No matter who you are, no matter what you bring to this very moment, really you are sitting in a tree beside Zacchaeus trying to see Jesus.
But it doesn’t matter who you are in a way. A few weeks ago we had Bishop Cloner here and I was here for that service. And it was wonderful. We were trying to do things our normal way. And you could tell Pastor Mike, Pastor Dan and everybody was trying to do things the normal way. But we also wanted things to go right and not mess up. And, you know, so we were a little bit on edge because this great leader of our church was here. Well, the story goes, Pastor Bishop Jobe of the United Methodist Church was visiting a congregation on Sunday morning. And he went there and he preached a sermon. The people were all on their finest, you know, and everything went well. And it was a great sermon; the people were inspired. And afterward, he went down and was shaking hands with people as they left. And here came a little girl. Pastor Jobe recounts, this is a true story, he says, “I couldn’t resist reaching down to her in all my love and with all my bishoply stance and saying, ‘You are a beautiful little blonde haired girl’.” And she shot back immediately, “And you are an old bald man.” You know, the perspective of God may sometimes be for bishops, but it is also from little girls looking at us. God sees us from who we really are. And while we are sometimes identity laden, God sees us for who God sees us. And I’m thankful for that.
Second lesson of this passage is this. It is open ended. Now I didn’t read that last verse and it’s because of this. There is a remarkable, I don’t know if you studied it there, but there is a remarkable thing that goes on in this passage. Jesus says, “Hurry down Zacchaeus because I must stay at your house today.” And then what happens? There is a big open space. I went through every translation and there is an open space no matter what version you use—the NIV, the NEV, the NKG—whatever version you use there is a big open space there! And that is where we need to come down today because my assignment was to preach about conversion. That’s where the magic, the mystery, the power, the dynamic, the awe-filled presence of God occurs—in that open space! The Son of God is looking up at Zacchaeus and He said something to Zacchaeus and now Zacchaeus has to respond. Zacchaeus has to do something. And it is there that I find God meets us.
Now perhaps you heard different things in that passage where Jesus is speaking. It says, “Make haste, hurry down, I must go to your house today.” Some of us would immediately say, “What? You are going to my house today? I’d better go home and clean the kitchen up.” That would be me. Some of us would hear the hurry, the make haste part. I’ve been in services where some people just could not wait to get to the altar of prayer. And I guess I’m that way a little bit. It’s kind of the Type A people that black and white, and either I turn my life over to Jesus or I don’t. They ran down to that altar of prayer when the spirit moved them. Billy Graham is in perhaps his last great service this morning. Billy Graham’s favorite statement is this, “Can we not be changed, can we not be transformed in an instant by the love of God?” Make haste!
Some of us would see the “come down” part, put our emphasis on that. We’re kind of the slower, deliberate types that aren’t going to jump in to anything. Now these are all good responses. We’re not going to jump into anything until we’ve really considered all that this implies when we turn our lives over to Jesus. Kind of like tree sloth’s, we’re just slowly moving that way. Yeah, we are moving that way but we are a little slower. We slowly, deliberately descend to Jesus. Dag Hemmerskull, the great Secretary General of the UN between ’53 and ’61 says this. And I like this passage. This is in his journal. “I don’t know who or what put the question. I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering the question. But at some moment I did answer “Yes” to someone or something and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that thereafter my life in self surrender had a goal.” It’s good stuff.
Friends, it is in that blank space where you and I must come down today because we are in that tree. Luke, Verse 6, says, “Zacchaeus hurried down and welcomed Him with great joy.” But it is in that blank space that really this Bible passage, I think, is written. That you and I are coming face to face; hopefully in this service or at some point, coming face to face with Jesus saying, “I want to come to your house today.” And we must respond. I hope you will say, “Yes”.
My closing illustration is by my favorite author, Max Lucado. Max Lucado has a four-year-old daughter named Sarah. And Sarah, you can tell, is the apple of her daddy’s eye. Well, I’m just going to read, I’ve written exactly what he wrote here. And it is about making decisions. “I stand six feet from the bed’s edge my arms extended hands open on the bed. Sarah, all four years of her, crouches posed like a playful kitten. She’s going to jump. ‘Are you sure’, I ask? ‘I’m sure,” she shouts. I extend my arms and she springs—superman without a cape, skydiver without a shoot! Only her heart flies higher than her body. In that airborne instant of choice, her only hope is her father. If her father is weak, she will fall. If her father is cruel, she will crash to the ground. If her father is forgetful, she’ll tumble to the hard floor. She has chosen to trust her father.” The good news is Lucado catches her. And then Lucado goes on, and this is the part as a hospital chaplain I can relate to because I have been with some of you in this kind of scenario. Lucado goes on to another bedside and he is again standing six feet from the edge of that bed. This time his elderly parishioner, Ann, lies on the bed. And this room is solemn. The doctor has just left the bedside. The family is gathered all around. There is no more surgery planned; and the pain is real. There is no doubt that death is happening. It’s jumping off time. It’s time for Ann to decide if she truly has faith. “Trust Him,” Lucado tells the family. “Trust Him,” Lucado tells Ann. “His arms are open.” And, of course, God catches Ann.
It is there that we are this morning. I’m thankful for those who’ve lived long lives of Christian discipleship; and you are out there. I’m thankful for those who are new to the faith. This morning I particularly want to focus, though, on those who just aren’t sure how to respond to this. And I want to give you and your heart a chance to respond to what Jesus would be saying to you this morning. “Make haste, come down, I’m going to your house today.”
Will you join me in prayer right now? “Lord and Savior, in these sacred moments between who we are in our trees and, Lord, who you are waiting for us, work that eternal promise and bring salvation our way. Lord, work that eternal blessing. Forgive us our sins. Make us new and take us joyfully where you want us to go. Work in our hearts now, Lord, and we will praise your name. Amen.”
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