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A Healing Re-formation

October 30, 2022 By Pr. Joseph Crippen

Life in Christ starts with a leap of action, not of faith. It is the doing that will lead to the believing and the living and the joy and the delight.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
Reformation Sunday, Lect. 31 C
Text: Luke 19:1-10

Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Zacchaeus has so much joy. It’s beautiful.

Whatever he expected when he climbed that tree, when Jesus invited himself over for a night’s stay, Zacchaeus exploded in joy.

Or: maybe the joy really came when he chose his new life. A chief tax collector, Zacchaeus was the top of the pyramid scheme. Whatever the others he managed stole, Zacchaeus stole more, accumulated more. Now he decides to divest himself of half of his wealth. The Torah demanded that if you defraud another, you owe them the amount you stole, plus 20%. Zacchaeus in his joy decides to give back 400% instead of 120%. And he couldn’t be happier.

We’ve seen this joy before. Levi, also known as Matthew, in chapter 5 is called from his tax booth to be one of Jesus’ inner circle. Imagine the disbelieving delight he felt as he followed. In Jesus’ parable of the two lost sons, the younger son had the joy of being embraced by the father he wronged, welcomed home in honor. Wouldn’t it be amazing to know such joy?

Because not everyone found it.

When Matthew leapt from his tax booth, the good and righteous people of the town complained Jesus was choosing the wrong kind of people. When the younger of the two lost brothers celebrated with his father at that party, the elder lost son refused to go in, refused to be happy. And the good people of Jericho, the the privileged and faithful ones, were not at all pleased Jesus chose to honor the traitor, the thief, the despicable Zacchaeus.

What makes the difference?

When he was criticized about Matthew, Jesus said only the sick need a doctor. He came to call sinners, not righteous people. When the good people complained that he welcomed sinners and ate with them, Jesus told stories of the lost being found. Talking to people who, Luke says last week, had persuaded themselves they were righteous, Jesus told of a good, righteous person praying thanks for that life alongside a traitor tax collector begging mercy. And Jesus declared the wretched one righteous. Today, after complaints about Zacchaeus, Jesus again says he’s only come to seek and to heal the lost.

Do you see? If you think you’re fine, you won’t want Jesus. If you think your heart and spirit and life are in the right place and you don’t need God’s healing, you won’t want Jesus. If you think that you’re doing pretty well, are godly and righteous, and have a life you want to keep and protect, you won’t want Jesus. It’s the privileged, wealthy, good people who don’t know what to do with Jesus.

Their problem is Jesus’ Good News involves a complete transformation.

A reformation of the heart and soul and mind and strength. Those who followed Jesus were changed. Zacchaeus utterly dismantled his wealth and made reparations to those whose backs he stepped on to have his life. Matthew abandoned his oppressive occupation. Most disciples left their lives behind and gave up everything. Joanna and Susanna brought their wealth and followed Jesus, supporting his ministry financially, whatever their families thought.

People who think they’re fine, good, righteous, don’t see a need to be changed, and often are scared to imagine change. You and I come here and actually do admit we need God’s grace, want God’s healing. But we don’t easily seek to be changed, either.

So, do we avoid the change, the reformation God seeks in us, because we’re afraid?

Or are we waiting for the conviction and joy of Zacchaeus? Matthew’s boldness in following? Waiting for some magic feeling from Jesus that will give us the clarity of all these who were drawn to Jesus and changed? Was that what the righteous people were missing?

The truth is, you’ll find Zacchaeus’ joy and transformation when you act like Zacchaeus. If you want to live in loving relationships, act in loving ways. If you want to live in a just society, act in justice. Do what God’s reign looks like and you’ll know it, live in it. And be changed.

None of those who were transformed, re-formed, by Jesus waited for absolute certainty. They dropped their nets and followed. They gave away their wealth. They left their tax booth. And they lived new lives.

Zacchaeus saw that in the reign of God Christ came to bring people weren’t cheated and defrauded by others. So he gave back what he’d stolen. That’s when salvation came to his house, Jesus said. Healing came to him. When he took a leap of action. It is the leap of action that leads to faith and trust, and to reformation, not the other way around.

We know what God needs us to do.

Far too much of what we own and cherish came on the backs of our neighbors. When we each individually consider the wealth we hold in property and pensions and IRAs and actually let some of it go we would see what the reign of God really is. Sure, it’s a frightening step. But Zacchaeus must have also taken a deep breath before his decision.

We know that community reparations are also a huge subject these days. This beautiful place is on Native land, stolen from those who lived here. Some of our sibling congregations in this synod in this city already have a budget line item paying reparations to peoples who lived on their land. They’re living in God’s reign already in that, are being changed.

We can’t wait, individually or as a community, for the bolt of lightning to hit and all our confidence to come before we decide to do something like that. It is the leap of action into the reign of God that leads to the faith we seek. To the reformation we need. And to the joy we so deeply desire.

We can stand outside the party and mope, or take the risk and go in.

We can ponder what a good response could be until we’re dead and gone, or we can act, in our own lives and as a community, as if the reign of God Christ is making in this world actually exists.

Get out of your tree, go into the party, step away from your tax booth. You’ll find the joy. And the love of God will give a true re-formation of healing for you in your life, and me in mine, and ours together as God’s people in this place.

And then we will be able to say with Jesus, today salvation has come, healing has come to this house.

In the name of Jesus. Amen

Worship, October 30, 2022

October 29, 2022 By Pr. Joseph Crippen

Reformation Sunday, Lect. 31 C

True reformation – of us as individuals and as a community of faith – comes when we live into the reign of God and find joy and life, like Zacchaeus.

Download worship folder for Sunday, October 30, 2022.

Presiding and Preaching: Pastor Joseph Crippen

Readings and prayers: John Crippen, lector; Vicar Mollie Hamre, assisting minister

Organist: Cantor David Cherwien

Download the readings for next Sunday for this Tuesday’s noon Bible study.

Click here for previous livestreamed liturgies from Mount Olive (archived on the Mount Olive YouTube channel.)

The Olive Branch, 10/26/22

October 26, 2022 By office

Click here to read the current issue of The Olive Branch.

Who’s to Judge?

October 23, 2022 By Vicar at Mount Olive

God declares everyone righteous and seeks us out to be healed, but what about when we are persuaded righteous to ourselves instead?

Vicar Mollie Hamre
Twentieth Sunday After Pentecost, Lect. 30 C
Texts: Luke 18:9-14

Beloved in Christ, grace and peace to you in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

In 4th grade, I got detention.

I had gotten in trouble for splashing paint onto a classmate of mine, which ruined her new white shirt. Most would think that the time that I spent in my classroom quietly contemplating my actions would have been the punishment, but that was the easy part of my day. The hard part was the reaction and the judgment that came from my fellow 9 and 10-year-old classmates. My spot in the front of the classroom had been taken, I was shunned during lunch hour and I was pushed to the back by myself.

Needless to say, young Mollie never wanted to experience judgment that came from detention ever again. Because judgment creates separation and divides. Pushes away each other when in those times, we are in need of the opposite.

Which is why the parable leaves me uncomfortable.

Luke tells us a story, appearing to compare two people, leaving us imagining where to place judgment. Who do we want to be?

The Pharisee in the Gospel doing all the right things. This person is fasting, tithing, and doing their best to live out their faith. The Pharisees are known in the Jewish tradition as people that expanded theology, oral tradition, and engaged in lively discussion. This person is not a “bad guy” despite the way we have become accustomed to hearing the parables in Luke.

And tax collectors, as we know, were despised in the ancient world because of their direct connection to the Roman Empire. The job of tax collectors was to get a certain sum of money determined by Rome from the communities they were in. Any extra money they collected would be their wage, which would mean the more money collected, the more wealthy one could be. With a history like this, no one could believe such a parable stating that a tax collector would be declared righteous when standing next to a Pharisee.

But God does.

God knows that healing can happen when we reach out, because God is already there waiting. Yet, here we are. Stuck in this judgment loop, deciding who we want to be and who to push out.

You might be thinking, “What if I am the Pharisee? I’m doing the right things–but I don’t want to be judged. I do not want to be separated. Or maybe you feel like you are the tax collector, unworthy, not feeling that you can look to God.

This is not the first time we have interacted with this dynamic.

In Luke 15, a conversation between the tax collectors, Pharisees, and Jesus begins with Jesus being told that he “welcomes sinners and eats with them.” This is where we hear the parable of The Lost Sons. As we know, the parable ends with the younger son coming back home and his father rejoicing. In doing so, the eldest son becomes angry with his father for the celebration of his brother’s return. What the father says in return, is not judgment or condemnation, but love. 31 “‘My son, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’” Jesus is not interested in judgment and rejection, but in healing, embracing, and celebrating.

And even earlier in Luke 5, Jesus calls the tax collector, Levi, which the Pharisees question and Jesus answers, 31 “Those who are well have no need of a physician but those who are sick; 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

This same theme is happening in our parable today with our Pharisees and tax collectors.

You might ask then if Jesus comes for the tax collectors, “what about the Pharisees?”

They were doing the right thing, just like the eldest brother. They should be part of the healing too.

Let’s think back to my elementary classmates on the day I received detention. They correctly followed the rules, and did what they were supposed to do, why associate with someone who got in trouble? Yet, in this moment of self-validation came judgment too. A decision to create separation from the person who messed up instead of embracing as Jesus, God with us does. Maybe they were in need of healing but didn’t know it. And what about if you do not think you need healing?

Where else do we do that in our own lives?

In decisions to separate from those people with differentiating politics? Those that are just too unlike oneself? What about ignoring those that are oppressed? Because Jesus does not plan to leave them behind. The need for healing can go both ways, healing is not just something that is seen as held for the people that need it more, but given to all.

Honestly, I do not think we can receive too much grace, mercy, and love, even on our well-behaved days. We should welcome healing within ourselves and alongside those who seek it out too.

I recall going to my mom with the detention slip, holding back my tears, and then erupting once she saw my face.

When I later asked my mother about her side of the story, she recounted that I looked so emotionally exhausted by the end of the day she realized I had already learned my lesson before she could get to me. So, she told me it was okay, checked in about why I had received detention, gave me a hug and we moved on.

Any form of judgment, shame, and hurt I had experienced that day rolled off my shoulders because I was given grace for the times I had messed up. And amidst it all, I was told that I was loved and it will be okay.

It does not matter if you are a Pharisee, or a tax collector.

There is no correct answer or judgment call for this parable. Jesus comes to those that are sick and in need of help, and that frankly, means everyone. God seeks out those with detention slips shaking in their hands as well as calling back those that push others away. And that is great news because we all need that kind of grace, healing, and mercy–even when we feel persuaded to think the opposite. And each time we separate ourselves, casting judgment on others, persuaded in our own righteousness, we are called back, promised by the Triune God that all that are lost will be once again found and healed.

In the name of the Father, and of the ☩ Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.