Transformation at the Table

Devotional Reflection, Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Proper 5, the week of the second Sunday after Pentecost

The Rev. David W. Perkins,Th.D.

Key phrases for reflection in today’s Gospel reading:

5When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’ 6So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’

. . . .

9Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 970)

AM Psalm 61, 62; PM Psalm 68:1-20 (21-23) 24-26 Deut. 30:11-20; 2 Cor. 11:1-21a; Luke 19;1-10

David's Reflections

Leonard Sweet once observed, "Jesus was always running off to dinner with odd people, a fact that the French monk and scholar Jean Leclercq made into the essence of the gospel: 'Jesus ate good food with bad people.’”*

This Gospel story occurs only in Luke and presents us with a vivid and dramatic instance of Jesus' meal ministry with outcasts, those the strictly pious within Judaism regarded as unclean and with whom they would not share a table. Jesus routinely reclined at meals of religious significance with people like Zacchaeus, people with whom the strictly pious (like the Pharisees) would avoid social contact until they repented and made restitution to those they had defrauded. They regarded people like Zacchaeus as ritually unclean because of their allegiance with Rome and their routine social contact with Gentiles. That is what they meant by calling him a "sinner."

Jesus disdained the purity laws that formed the basis of the barriers that kept people like Zacchaeus at arm's length from the religious establishment. He most likely shocked Zacchaeus by inviting himself to his home for a meal. Jesus practiced a kind of radical inclusion that neither Zacchaeus nor the strictly pious understood.

At table, Zacchaeus experienced transformation. His offer to make restitution came freely, not in response to any demand from Jesus. He was a wealthy person, who in his conversion found freedom from his possessions and committed to divest himself of most of his riches. Jesus responded by affirming Zacchaeus' salvation and reaffirming his own mission, to seek and save the lost. In other words, he had come to bring God's saving love to people exactly like Zacchaeus. But, we do well to remember that Luke also narrates Jesus at table with the religious leaders, the very people who rejected the Zacchaeus’s of that day (Luke 7; Luke 14). He sought the transformation of those who rejected Zacchaeus as well as that of Zacchaeus.

Holy Communion rests not only on the foundation of Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples, but also on the foundation of this wider meal ministry with outcasts and Jesus’ post-resurrection meals with his followers (Luke 24 and John 21). We believe that Holy Eucharist is a foretaste of the heavenly banquet at which Jesus will preside when the kingdom comes. In a similar way, the ceremonial meals at which people reclined in Jesus’ culture were regarded as anticipatory of the final banquet of salvation. To recline at table in such a meal meant that the participants expected to share in that heavenly banquet. The strictly pious would not have invited Zacchaeus until he had repented, made restitution, and become ritually clean. Otherwise, they would have been rendered unfit for social contact with other pious Jews without going through purification rites.

As the church, we share this mission of Jesus, to find the Zacchaeuses of our world and invite them to table, our tables and the Lord's. Each Sunday Holy Eucharist provides a vivid portrayal of Jesus' seeking love. Unbelievers belong with us in worship just as Zacchaeus belonged at table with his fellow Israelites. We do well to assume their presence in worship and act accordingly. (Note Paul’s assuming that very thing in his instructions to the church in 1 Corinthians 14:13-25.)

By being a sensitive, inviting church, we can bring those far away very near to God's saving love and count on that love displayed in Holy Communion and in the church’s hospitality to touch and transform them into followers of Christ. There is no such thing as an outcast from the love of Jesus. That was the thrust of Jesus statement that Zacchaeus too was a child of Abraham, a brother to those who shunned him.

Every Sunday, we experience Jesus' meal ministry in Holy Communion. We hear his words of institution, uttered on the night before his death, "This is my body, this is my blood." We pray for his presence, and his presence becomes focused in bread and wine. In those symbols of his sacrificial death, we experience again the power of his death and resurrection, receiving forgiveness, nurture, and the transforming, freeing touch of Jesus.

Obviously, the traditional order for becoming part of the Christian community is font to table, baptism first, then communion. However, if someone attends worship and feels drawn toward the Holy Table at communion, they might well experience awakening to God’s love there and find their way to the font later.

Without undermining the traditional font to table order, I resolved years ago to make the symbols large and the periphery permeable@ for newcomers by explaining the Communion procedure at the peace and being certain newcomers understood they did not have to participate but could if they felt drawn. Some have found Christ at the table and gone on to baptism and membership. And, I’ve been surprised at the number of Episcopalians who have found the brief explanation enlightening and helpful.

We get a rather stark reminder that God's love has transformed all of us from outcasts who would be far from God's love if left alone. None of us would be at God's table of love were it not for God’s having sought and found us and Jesus having given himself for us.

As Henri Nouwen, Roman Catholic priest and theologian, put it:

"Jesus is God for us, God with us, God within us. Jesus is God giving himself completely, pouring himself out for us without reserve. Jesus doesn't hold back or cling to his own possessions. He gives all there is to give. 'Eat, drink, this is my blood . . . this is me for you."+

*Leonard I. Sweet, "The Rainbow Church, " The Christian Ministry 17 (March 1986):7

@I am indebted to Gordon Lathrop for this language. See his Holy Things: A Liturgical Theology. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993, p. 132.

+Henri J. M. Nouwen, With Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1994), p. 67.

Collect of the Day, Proper 5 The Sunday closest to June 8

O God, from whom all good proceeds: Grant that by your inspiration we may think those things that are right, and by your merciful guiding may do them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

A Collect for Grace

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into sin, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100)

For the Sick

Heavenly Father, giver of life and health: Comfort and relieve your sick servants, and give your power of healing to those who minister to their needs, that those (or N., or NN.) for whom our prayers are offered may be strengthened in their weakness and have confidence in your loving care; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 260)

A Prayer for Light

O Lord God Almighty, as you have taught us to call the evening, the morning, and the noonday one day; and have made the sun to know its going down: Dispel the darkness of our hearts, that by your brightness we may know you to be the true God and eternal light, living and reigning for ever and ever. Amen. (BCP, 110)

A Collect for Mission

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen. (BCP, 101)

Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer

Daily Office Reading, Luke 19:1-10

19:1He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’ 6So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7All who saw it began to grumble and said, ‘He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.’ 8Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded

anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ 9Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of

Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’