OCTOBER 8th, 2023 PASTOR DON PIEPER
ONE AT A TIME Eph 2:11-18 / Luke 15:1-2; 19:1-10
“ONE MEAL AT A TIME”
So, to be totally open and transparent with you this morning, I have a confession to make. Are you ready? I'm a Carmel corn criminal. Shocking, I know, but it's true. I can down an entire bag in a single sitting. It's one of my super-powers. It's not so bad, though, cause it's an important part of a healthy meal. It contains one of the four key food groups – it's made from corn, right! Veggies!
What? Don't you judge me! The person who can only eat a handful is the real one with issues!
I saw at QFC that there's a company out there selling Carmel and cheese popcorn together in one bag. I don't whose blasphemous idea that was, but that's the fallen world we live in, I guess.
When I was growing up, a member of our church discovered that my Dad loves Carmel corn and would give us a huge bag of popcorn, cheese corn and Carmel corn for Christmas. We would share it as we sat down to watch a movie together. I discovered early on that science being what it is, sinister and foreboding, causes the Carmel corn to sink to the bottom, forcing a person to have to jam their hand through all the lesser forms of this basic food group to get to the good stuff.
One year I got my hands on the bag, and like an experienced miner, I dug through that other stuff to get to the good stuff, until I'd eaten all of the Carmel corn. Later that day, there was a great out-cry throughout Pieper-land. Wild accusations were flung around the place until someone noticed that I had dried cheese on my fingers and under my fingernails. “I repent – I'm the Carmel corn criminal!”
In the Gospels we see that instead of creating division and causing people to turn on each other, sharing a meal created opportunities for connecting people who are different from one another. In fact, one of the key ways Jesus connected with people living morally questionable lives was by eating with them. In his day, to share a meal with someone communicated that you were friends or family. It's why those in the religious community were outraged by Jesus' meal habits. As Luke notes: “(They) muttered to themselves, 'This man welcomes sinners and eats with them!'” (Luke 15:2)
It's an interesting observation on their part, actually. Jesus did it so often that their statement reveals a kind of strategy on his part. A few years ago, I attended the national Alpha conference where one of the keynote speakers was a pastor whose entire talk was about the ministry of hospitality and meal sharing. She talked about a mentor of hers who put together amazing meals, pulling all the stops with flowers and decorations, and then invited people together who didn't know each other.
It's a vital part of the Alpha experience actually, and I'm so happy and thankful that we're able to offer it again, and so thankful and blessed by those of you stepping forward to help us do that, and do that well, by preparing homemade meals and desserts by which to love on our guests! Thank you!
It's biblical, and no one makes it such a vital part of loving on people than Jesus himself. Even his nay-sayers couldn't help but notice how often Jesus did so. I can't help but wonder if that's part of what the Apostle Paul had in mind when he wrote: “He broke down the wall of hostility that separates us...., creating in himself one new people from the two (disconnected and hostile) groups.” (Ephesians 2:14-15)
Jesus came, not only to help people connect with God but to help people connect with each other, especially across the dividing lines that we erect to separate ourselves from one another.
-2-
Jesus came to break down barriers, and one of the best ways to do that is by breaking bread, the biblical expression for sharing a meal. God is our father, Jesus taught us, whose kids divide over everything from politics to popcorn, from masks to musical preferences for worship. Friendships are fractured by polarizing social media posts. Even families have distanced themselves from one another based on which side of the aisle they're voting for. We're seeking here to be a safe place from all that.
Consider the example of Justine Lee. The day after the election she had an idea. Based on Jesus' model for ministry, she cofounded a group called, Make America Dinner Again, in which they began to regularly gather six to ten guests, from a variety of political view points, to have supper together. Radical stuff, right?
It's now being done in a dozen other cities across America. There they provide an opportunity for people to listen to each other and have meaningful conversation. Participants have shared that the experience has helped them to better understand the other camp and to stop belittling one another.
Interesting. Our gospel reading this morning finds us on the road with Jesus. He's traveling through the city of Jericho when his path intersects with a cheating scoundrel by the name of Zacchaeus. I remember him from my childhood days. There used to be a song that kids were taught about him.
Does anyone remember that one......? (“Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he...!”) Jesus' heart went out to this guy – so does mine. I mean, after all these years, we're still belittling the poor guy. 'A wee little man'? What testosterone filled fellow wants to be called that?
To be sure, though, no one in Jericho felt sorry for this guy! Talk about a scoundrel. This guy had betrayed his fellow countrymen, even his own family. They'd all lost their freedom to the hated Roman army and now this guy, this wee little man, was working for them! And if that wasn't bad enough, he was lining his pockets with exorbitant fees that he added to the taxes he was collecting from his neighbors. He was a traitor, and a thief, and the worst kind of scoundrel in all of Jericho!
So when Jesus' entourage encountered this wee little man sitting up in a Sycamore tree, because everyone was elbowing him into the back of the crowd, they must've tried hard to ignore him. But not Jesus. He sees Zacchaeus in that tree and what does he do? Something no one else in that city would've done! He invites himself over for lunch! “Zacchaeus, come down out of that tree, (post pronto)! (Why?) Because I must stay at your house today?” (Luke 19:5)
Jesus' friends are, no doubt, speechless. “Say what?”
The people in the crowd are scandalized: ‘He wants to be the guest of that treacherous sinner!' (Luke 19:7)
It's outrageous! It's bodacious! It's contagious! His disciples are soaking it up and soon will be following his lead. One of them will later recall one of the mission statements Jesus made: “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him!” (John 3:17)
As shocking as that is for us to hear, Jesus didn't come to condemn sin, but that by showing compassion and grace, to bring down the wall of sin, drawing us to God, and to one another. So it was that Jesus had lunch with Zacchaeus and by dessert the scoundrel was no scoundrel any more: “I'll give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I've cheated anyone, I'll give them four times as much!”
I imagine Jesus' initial response to that......! (Luke 19:8)
“IF you've cheated anyone, Zacchaeus? Good one, my wee little man!” But this is what Jesus said about him: “Today salvation has come to this house!” Then he said, in effect, he's now one of us!
-3-
Now what do you suppose was the lesson for those who were following Jesus around as his students, his disciples, seeking to learn from him? How are they to love others like Jesus does? One way is one meal at a time, because breaking bread has a way of breaking down barriers. That's why Jesus was known for wearing his “Eats With Sinners” T-shirt!
So, who's your Zacchaeus? Who has God put in your path who is far from God? Everything doesn't typically happen in just one meal, like it did in Jericho, but you never know where one meal might lead, to what further conversations may occur, once you've shared a meal with them.
Kyle Idleman shares the experience of friends of his, Dave and Beth, who had dinner together at a restaurant in Pennsylvania, where they were attending a conference. As Dave was leaving a tip, Beth headed to the door, and when Dave met her there, she introduced him to the hostess: “Dave, meet Leah. Guess where she's from? She's from Kenya! Dave traveled there with our daughter years ago.”
“It's true,” Dave said. “We met a waitress there and had dinner with her several times while we were there. We still keep in touch with her. Maybe you know her?” Beth rolled her eyes at that because, after all, Kenya is home to some fifty-one million people! Still, Dave grabbed his phone and found a picture on Instagram of the waitress he'd met, and showed it to the hostess. She looked at it, her eyes exploded from their sockets, and she exclaimed, “Nadia!”
Dave and Beth's jaws dropped open. “What? Wait – you actually know Nadia?” Dave's “Maybe you know her line had never actually worked before.
“Absolutely!” Leah said. “We worked at the Radisson together.” Beth grabbed Dave's phone, took a picture of Dave and Leah together, and texted it to Nadia. Moments later Nadia responded: “Nadia!” Since it was almost closing time, Leah, invited them to sit with her in a back room where they had an amazing conversation together and shared a dessert. At one point Leah opened up and said, “I've only lived here for two months. I don't have any friends and I miss my family. I'm so lonely.”
That's when Dave and Beth invited her to come to a church service that weekend where Dave had been asked to speak. To their delight, Leah came, and eventually came to faith. God had a divine appointment for Dave & Beth and it was set it up at a meal three years earlier and over seven thousand miles away. The same could be said for Leah, actually. It's a wonderful case in point that you have no idea what God might have in store for you if you love people one meal at a time. (from Kyle Idleman's book, One At A Time)
It's why we regularly have potluck meals here after worship. It's to give us a chance to make connections with one another. I'm always grieved when some leave and forego such an opportunity. So today I urge you to stay & look to make a connection with someone you don't know that well. Love on one another by asking good questions, including perhaps, how you can be praying for each other.
But let's go beyond that as well. This whole series was built around the theme of our seeking to have a positive impact on the lives of those around us one person, or in this case, one meal at a time. At the end of his time with this wee little man, who had become a giant in Jesus growing kingdom, Jesus articulated again his mission: “For (I) came to seek out and to save the lost!” (Luke 19:10)
Seems rather significant that Jesus engaged Zacchaeus in Jericho, where God had once brought down the walls in a physical way. Now he seeks to do it again in a spiritual way, and he's chosen us to make it so. So who's your Zacchaeus? Who has, or might, God put in your path who is far from God?