{"id":899,"date":"2016-10-30T10:08:08","date_gmt":"2016-10-30T15:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=899"},"modified":"2016-11-03T10:11:07","modified_gmt":"2016-11-03T15:11:07","slug":"god-loves-even-those-who-are-lost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/?p=899","title":{"rendered":"God Loves Even Those Who Are Lost"},"content":{"rendered":"

31<\/span>st<\/span><\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time<\/span><\/h3>\n

Wis 11:22 \u2013 12:2; 2 Thes 1:11 \u2013 2:2; Lk 19: 1-10<\/h3>\n

By Deacon Larry Brockman<\/h3>\n

Isn\u2019t it wonderful how much God loves us!<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Listen again to these words from Wisdom:<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cFor you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>How could it be otherwise?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>How could God loathe anything that He had made; else He wouldn\u2019t have made it.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And that is such good news for all of us, because no matter how far astray we go or have gone, God still loves us; for he still loves all things He made.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, we can get lost, can\u2019t we?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>We can get very far off the right path like the prodigal son in the story a couple of weeks ago, so lost that we separate ourselves from the love of God.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And so, whether God still loves us or not, we can experience the pain of separation from God.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

It might not seem like it at first, but Zacchaeus was one of those folks who had gotten lost.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>We know that Zacchaeus was a Jew from the context of the Gospel.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But Zacchaeus had elected to become a tax collector for the hated Roman establishment.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>That meant he hounded his fellow citizens to collect taxes.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Not only was Zacchaeus a tax collector, but he was the chief tax collector.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>That means he had to have been cunning and ruthless at some point in his career.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>It had earned him the promotion and it had made him a wealthy man.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And so, Zacchaeus had become lost in the secular world and had abandoned his Jewish roots.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

But Zacchaeus was one of the lucky folks who got lost.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Because he came back; yes, Zacchaeus had a conversion in heart, maybe because of what he had heard about Jesus.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The Gospel today is full of all kinds of symbolism about Zacchaeus and his conversion.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Zacchaeus runs ahead- something considered below the dignity of a cultured citizen.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Because of his small stature, he climbs a tree, also below considered one\u2019s dignity.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Now one Bible Commentator says that Palestinian Sycamores have long smooth trunks that are hard to climb, and would be much more difficult to climb if you were short.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>So, Zacchaeus motivation for climbing the tree was not just idle curiosity.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>He had abandoned proper behavior for a person of his social status; and had to work hard to get up that tree.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Zacchaeus was definitely a man who had a change of heart and was seeking to change his life.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And as the dialogue with Jesus shows, he was prepared to put his conversion of heart into practice by following the Mosaic law of 4-fold restitution for anyone he had cheated, and by promising to tithe and give half of his wealth to the poor.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

And so, what does Jesus say to Zacchaeus?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Jesus says: \u201cFor the Son of Man has come to seek and save what was lost\u201d.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Symbolically, Zacchaeus can be seen as the lost members of the faithful who have committed themselves to repent, and who are joyfully awaiting the coming of the Lord.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>And when the Lord comes to him, He calls Zacchaeus to come down from the tree to serve him.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

Now in the letter to the Thessalonians, Paul prays that God will make the Thessalonians worthy of his calling to them.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>He also prays that they would \u201cpowerfully bring to fulfillment every good purpose and every effort of faith\u201d. This applies to us today as well.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Today, we are being called, and we are expected to bring to fulfillment every good purpose and effort of faith.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>We are being called to come down out of our trees, and in a spirit of conversion, serve the Lord and his purpose as we live our lives going forward.<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

But Paul also says something else to the Thessalonians.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>He says\u00a0\u201cnot to be shaken out of your minds suddenly, or to be alarmed either by a \u201cspirit,\u201d or by an oral statement, or by a letter allegedly from us to the effect that the day of the Lord is at hand. <\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Let no one deceive you in any way.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

This is a day and age in which there are many false prophets; there are many persons trying to deceive us.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Let me give one example.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>There are popular Preacher\u2019s out there who predict the end of the World.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Some of them interpret the Book of Revelation by drawing parallels between current events and Revelation.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But nobody, according to Jesus, knows the time or the hour.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Yes, we have prophets and sages and government people heralding the end times in their own way.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>But don\u2019t listen to them.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Our challenge is to be prepared for the day of the Lord at all times; but not to be anticipating it or hurrying it.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>God loves us just the way we are, young or old; feeble or agile; intelligent or dumb; pretty or plain; as long as we love Him, believe in Him, and are doing his will because the Son of Man has come to save all of us.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>All of us, that is, except those who choose to stay lost and abandon Him.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time Wis 11:22 \u2013 12:2; 2 Thes 1:11 \u2013 2:2; Lk 19: 1-10 By Deacon Larry Brockman Isn\u2019t it wonderful how much God loves us!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Listen again to these words from Wisdom:\u00a0 \u201cFor you love all things that are and loathe nothing that you have made\u201d.\u00a0 How could it be otherwise?\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[434],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":900,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions\/900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.deaconlarry.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}