Sermon: Proper 17; Luke 19:1-10

Joel Whitehead artist

click on this link to listen to sermon "Jesus and Zacchaeus"

Most Christians are very familiar with the encounter of Jesus with Zacchaeus, it is often told as a children's story because it is rich in drama.  Zacchaeus is short, he can't see Jesus who has come into Jericho in a crowd, Jesus approaches the tree in which Zacchaeus has climbed to get a better view, as Jesus moves underneath the tree he looks up and speaks to the least popular citizen of the city.  This passage has often been used as a classic conversion story based on what Zacchaeus tells Jesus, but in this sermon we look at the tense of the words spoken by Zacchaeus and ask whether we have missed the point.  What is clear, is that once again, Jesus challenges his audience to question the preconceived notions that we have of other people.  

This text is not based on the lectionary for this Sunday but was preached on the occasion of a VBS (vacation Bible school) Sunday.

Singing Our Faith; Sacred Choral Music as Worship, Prayer and Confession

Music has historically been a significant way in which Christians not only worship but express our faith and communicate our theology and belief.  We sing our theology.  It is offered as praise, prayer, celebration and confession, in joy, sorrow, grief and hope.  Occasionally this blog features outstanding examples of our beliefs, expressed in music and song through a variety of outstanding Christian choirs or musicians (see Reformation hymns remembered 10/2014).  This entry features the several outstanding examples of Christian choirs singing the faith in music.

National Lutheran Choir singing "Salvation is Created"by Pavel Tschesnokoff

Salvation is created,

in the midst of earth,

O God, O our God.  Alleluia. 

Lutheran National Choir Home Page

Westminster Cathedral Choir: midnight mass singing "O Magnum Mysterium"

Home page of Westminster Cathedral Choir

Seeking Ecumenical Relationships within Christianity

Although there have been many divisions within Christianity, three major historic rifts occurred.  The first, between the Latin/Greek Church (Catholic and Orthodox) and the Oriental Orthodox Church, (AD 451) the second, the schism between the Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Church in AD 1054 and the third, the rift between the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches during the reformation AD 1517.  These divisions demonstrate the failure of the church to keep the unity of the faith (the one holy, catholic and apostolic church), and highlighting serious theological problems that still exist.  In the light of these fractures within Christ's body, the goal to seek to be in communion as Christians often seems insurrmoundable.  The Orientale Lumen Conferences are an example of interfaith ecumenical attempts to heal the wounds between Christians that may serve as a model ultimately for other Christian denominations.

The second video is an invitation by Pope Francis given in May calling for a week of prayer and celebration of Christian unity.  He describes the divisions in the body of Christ as a wound that needs healing.  Both these videos are powerful examples of the need for continued ecumenical dialogue between Christians of different denominations towards unity and peace.