Transformed by Jesus At the Table

Devotional Reflaction, Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Proper 29, the week of the last Sunday after Pentecost

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

Key phrases for reflection from 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.’ 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.’

You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.

Daily Office Lectionary Readings (BCP, 995)

AM Psalm 119:145-176; PM Psalm 128, 129, 130

Zech. 12:1-10; Eph. 1:3-14; Luke 19:1-10

David's Reflections

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. This story brings to mind a pithy quip from Mary Karr. "By eating with the wrong people, you learn something about God.” # Jesus ate with the “wrong people”; as a result, we learn quite a bit about God.

Jesus routinely reclined at meals 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 required association with the Romans and their routine social contact with Gentiles. Their work for Rome made them complicit with Roman rule. That is what they meant by calling him a "sinner."

Jesus disdained the purity laws that created barriers keeping 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.

Holy Communion rests not only on the foundation of Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples, but also on this wider meal ministry with outcasts and Jesus’ post-resurrection meals with his followers (Luke 24; John 21). Jesus’ meal parables (Luke 14 and 15) also give us insight into his table practice.

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 have believed an unrepentant Zacchaeus would not share in that salvation banquet. Jesus’ dining with him called on the religious to be reconciled with outcasts.

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. Worship itself is an act of mission as well as our expression of praise to God. If we eat with the wrong people, we’ll learn a lot about God.

That was the thrust of Jesus statement that Zacchaeus too was a child of Abraham, a brother to those who shunned him. 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.

Our Book of Common Prayer, published in 1979, has no rubric about who can and cannot receive communion. The editors wanted clergy to be able to make pastoral exception and commune the unbaptized if the situation called for it.* Our tradition correctly establishes the normal order as font (baptism) and then table (communion), a tradition the framers of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer did not intend to undermine. To commune an unbaptized person means practicing pastoral exception to the traditional font/table ordering.

Some, in response to that lack sought a revision to the canons. That revision was added to the canons in 1984 to specify that only baptized Christians can receive communion. However, underlining that in our bulletins and our announcements has the effect of shutting down the Spirit’s saving work with the Zacchaeuses in our assembly. Better to explain communion and give the Spirit room to operate—leave room for pastoral exception as it were. That unbaptized seeker may well violate our traditional boundary and receive communion. Our hope would be that they have a Zacchaeus moment and become a follower. I have seen that take place numerous times and have heard reports from others about people awakening to Christ’s love while receiving communion.

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 he becomes present in bread and wine. In those symbols of his real humanity and of his death, we experience again the power of his death and resurrection, receiving forgiveness, nurture, and the transforming, freeing touch of Jesus. We get a rather stark reminder that God's love has transformed all of us from outcasts who left alone would be far from God's love. None of us would be at God's table of love were it not for his having sought and found us and 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."+

*Shared with me in conversation at Sewanee, TN, by the Rev. Dr. Marion Hatchett, one of the chief framers of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.

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

Collect of the Day, Proper 29, the week of the last Sunday after Pentecost

Almighty and everlasting God, whose will it is to restore all things in your well beloved Son, the King of kings and Lord of lords: Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 236)

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 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.’

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