Wee Little Man

Zaccheus was a wee little man
A wee little man was he
He climbed into a sycamore tree
For the Lord he wanted to see
The Lord was walking by that day
He looked up into the tree
"Zaccheus, you come down!
I am going to your house today

This is an excerpt from an early Bible. You think not! You are wrong, then. Children's Sunday school songs are the first scripture small children hear. It influences them all their lives, more than you know. Picture the phrase "Zaccheus, you come down!" with a 4 year old shaking their finger and you definitely get the idea that Zaccheus was a naughty boy. And I guess he was.

However, as I studied the scripture for this week, I saw many things about Zaccheus that I had never seen before. Jesus was passing through Jericho and he was gathering a crowd. Pretty big hurrah, folks were gathering along the street, thick enough that Zaccheus could not see. Zaccheus was desperate to see Jesus, so much so, that the rich tax collector, lowered himself enough to climb into a tree. Just to see Him.

Details are like clues in the scripture. They are not there for nothing! Small in stature was not mentioned casually. It was not reveale simply to set the stage for a bit of climbing. Short people are either very comfortable with their size or extremely not. When they are not, they compensate. Whether it is shoe lifts or being the class clown, they do something.

Zaccheus, tired of being looked down upon (literally) put himself in a place where he could look down on the folks who had disrespected him. Top honcho - kind of like a mob godfather. But in this story, he was not beyond risking embarrassment to get a look at Jesus.

What I love is the fact that Jesus looked into the tree and did not miss a beat. "There you are Zaccheus, been looking for you! What's for dinner?" Wasn't that incredible! Has that ever happened to you. You are in an embarrassing situation and someone steps in and helps you save face. To the crowd, it looked like Jesus came to Jericho just to dine with him. Wow!

Zaccheus was taken aback, but delighted. In that encounter, something happened. Zaccheus was extended scandalous grace. Scandalous in that he did not deserve it. Scandalous in the fact that Jesus was immediately condemned for doing it.

Jesus stated to one and all that Zaccheus was a son of Abraham. No matter what he had done, or how tall he was, or what he would continue doing - he was still and always would be a son of Abraham. God was no discerner of persons and boy did that make alot of folks mad. But it did not matter. Because of that extension of the hand of God, Zaccheus found what he was seeking. And it changed his life.

The life of one wee little man.

Constructive Criticism

What is ever constructive about criticism?

Does it ever "build" anything? I mean other than the purveyor's idea of him or herself. Criticism means there is an assumed ideal. And the ideal is in the eye of the beholder. So it is, in fact,the author of the statement.

So where did the ideal originate. Who was the first authority and where did the concept come from? I love to watch dog shows and it is interesting to see exactly what is considered a "true" breed. There are a few really weird and kooky looking dogs. Who originally said that is a whatcha-ma-call-it and this is the most perfect one there is. Where did their authority come from?

As "Christians" we feel we have the ideal in front (or back) of us. In the embodiment of God incarnate, Jesus Christ. But when we judge, we are not using Him as the plumb line, but ourselves. If He came as the form of unconditional grace, any conditions we place on others are truly ours, not His. And if there is any standard we hold, it is ours. That is where the rub is. If it is do-able (we have proven that) then anything less you do is not up to par, which means you did not give it your all, therefore you are unworthy. But unworthy of what? Love that has no conditions?

You can't see it but I am scratching my head.

Open Wide

Spoon feeding
In actuality, during the first part of my life I was spoon-fed probably 7% of the Bible over and over and over. Taken out of the Bible “bowl” and fed to me by caring teachers, preachers, parents, youth counselors. Heck, up until about 20 years ago, I did the feeding. Taking a popular passage or theme and neatly dicing it into manageable, tasteful bites for my adult class.
Lately though, using the lectionary to teach from, I have faced some pretty challenging passages in the Bible. Now it was tempting to take that bite-size morsel and dress it up with some new twist or take and feed them the same verse again, but I couldn’t do it. It was not the text or the verse, it is me. My tastes have changed.
At first, I would leave the verse where it lay and try to work out the surrounding scripture into some type of acceptable compliment. You know, make it behave and mean just exactly what I had always felt the central verse had always meant to me, traditionally. But that did not work. Like a cowlick in your hair, I just could not make it lay there. It just kept sticking out.
It was so tempting to sweep the tough parts under the spiritual carpet, but I could not do that either. So I served up the dish at the first of the week and just mulled it over with God. No commentaries, no former ideas, no throw down lessons from the past. Just let it sit and ferment. And it always (so far) comes out good. No better than good. God always shows me something I had failed to see before. In fact, He shows me that the best stuff is found in the hardest to reach. Like a hard pecan shell that you have to crack and then dig out the soft moist nut meat because that is the only way you can get to it. So worth the work and the wait.