Dear Members, Friends, Siblings, All,

In our reading for Sunday in Luke 19:1-10, Jesus invites himself to lunch at the home of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. If this were happening today, as a government employee who has not been paid for some weeks, can Zacchaeus be sure there will be enough food to share with a guest? If his family has ever needed SNAP benefits, can he hope there will be enough for everyone next week or after? Trick or Treat, indeed.

This is the scariest thought I can think of this Halloween. No, I take that back. It’s even scarier that we can’t really see an end to the horror of food scarcity or any number of other frightening realities in our present world. There’s really no need for holiday decorations. I am sufficiently terrorized daily by the news. This is why I must pray more. One moment, please:

Please, God, have mercy! You have created us from love, for love. Help us to create spaces for love to grow, especially when pantries are empty. Stir our imaginations to find ways, invent new ways, take risks, innovate wildly, and experiment fearlessly. Remind us to hold to your unchanging hand, and to always hope beyond hope. Amen.

OK, I’m back with a quick word about Sunday. 

If you have to sing the Zacchaeus Song like Ron Joyner and I do whenever we hear this story, you won’t need the YouTube link below. As he and I confirmed last week, although we learned slightly different versions of the song, the story of the day Zacchaeus meets Jesus is embedded in our bodies. Thanks be to God for the Sunday School class, lo, these many years ago, where we learned it. Now, it will not go away. 

On Sunday, in the story part of the WORD FOR ALL AGES, we have to teach our children this story and this song. 

When I taught a Bible as Literature course to ninth and tenth graders, we made Zacchaeus an “All-Star.” This is a character everyone should know because he can show up anywhere, not just Sunday School and church. My son came home one day in high school, furious that he did not know a certain biblical all-star that came up in his Lit class and he blamed me for it!

There’s a YouTube video below so you can practice before Sunday, if you need to. And we should have words and music by worship time, in case we need that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIjQObYF1cU 

What would I do without you, our Central congregation and community, where I am welcomed to learn more about how the kin-dom of God comes near to us, and to struggle with how that might become part of my own living? 

Not waiting for Thanksgiving, I thank God for you now. And I hope to see you or be seen by you in worship, 11:00 am on Sunday, November 2 (already!), streaming together or gathering together. Together, all the same. Be there or be square. (Groan. That’s as old as the Zacchaeus Song. Sorry.) I’d better go now.

Love and hugs,

Rev. Liz 

PS When you read the passage, see if you can tell if the short one is Zacchaeus or Jesus. Personally, I like thinking about the latter. Can you think why?