"Get out of that Tree!"

Readings: Psalm 119:137-144, Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4, 2 Thess. 1:1-4, 11-12, Luke 19:1-10
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, on October 30, 2022

Something about being a kid makes you view trees as things that need to be climbed. I know I did. Even had a little den – a tree-house – in the old tree at the back of my parent’s house. It was a good place to be – particularly if there were jobs needed doing and you weren’t inclined to do them right then. You couldn’t stay up there forever. The inevitable would catch up and some one would be hollering, “Get out of that tree!”

Our Bible reading gave us the story of another little tree climber - a man named Zacchaeus. He’s described as having made a healthy income for himself, being short of stature and engaged in the profession of tax-collector.

There were all sorts of reasons why he could have been up the tree. Tax collectors weren’t the most popular people in Israelite society.  Maybe he was up there trying to stay out of people’s way. He also had a bit of money, so maybe being up a tree kept him out of the way from pick-pockets and other petty thieves that crowds tend to attract.

Or maybe it was just because he was short and couldn’t see what was going on. Luke tells us that he had run on ahead of the crowds when he had seen that Jesus was coming to town in order to get a good view of all that was taking place. Luke doesn’t tell us why he wanted to see Jesus or what had so stirred Zaccheaus that he felt the need to be mingling with the folk on the streets. For sure though there was something about Jesus that had gained his attention. The last thing he had expected was to gain Jesus attention.

That’s what happens. Jesus comes by and shouts, “Get out of that tree!” Or rather He says, "Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today." And Zaccheaus climbs down and is overjoyed to offer Jesus hospitality.  The mere fact that Jesus has taken the time to recognize him and calls out his name is enough to bring about a radical change in the little man’s life. He’s a little man with a big heart.

"Look”, he tells Jesus “Half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much." Having encountered the love of Christ, life could not just carry on as it had done before. He was making some changes – changes for the better.

It’s not just kids who hide up trees. Zaccheaus wasn’t a kid. But he was hiding up a tree. It makes me ask, “What sort of trees are we hiding in? What trees do we need to come down from if we are going to be disciples of Jesus? What’s our tree?”

I know that we all have our own systems for coping with life. We all have our own views about what’s important and why we’re on this planet and what’s right and what’s wrong. And most of the time, these ideas about life – these ‘trees’ that we hide in are comfortable places to be.

Now I can’t tell you exactly what your tree is. But I can make some generalizations. It’s the place you go to ignore the genuine challenges of the world around you. It’s a place where you can shut out the voices of the crowd and do what seems right in your own eyes. It’s a place where you feel comfortable about yourself – even when there are things about your life that should make you uncomfortable.

Some trees are more obvious than others. Some have a well-stocked bar whose alcoholic content is the main thing that gets them through the day. Some have other forms of escape. Some trees are built out of harsh words and criticism towards those who are not the same or don’t share their ideas of right and wrong. Some of us are very selective about who we allow in our tree-houses.

Zaccheaus was doing all right. He had his circle of friends. He knew his place in the scheme of things and hoped others knew theirs. He kept his distance when he had to. It wasn’t his fault that the poor were poor. Yes, he cut a few moral corners now and then, but didn’t everybody? There were worse people than him about – why should he feel bad about himself?

Then Jesus comes along. He already knew that there was something different about Jesus. When people allowed Him to get to them strange things would happen. Healings. Miracles. Changed lives. He really didn’t seem to care what anybody else thought of Him. He wasn’t afraid to speak in harsh judgment to those who gave the impression of being righteous. He seemed to have unlimited time to share with the most insignificant of people. Then… there was Jesus, calling his name, saying… Zacchaeus “Get down out of that tree’.

It must have taken more than a bit of courage to come down. Why was Jesus calling him? Was he going to make an example of him before the crowds? Was it to humiliate him? Was it because he had money? Was it because he’d cheated people? No…. the look on Jesus face was not one of condemnation, but of acceptance.

It was a look Zacchaeus hadn’t seen for a long time. An look of acceptance. The people, even as he climbs down, are singing their usual tune. "He’s a sinner!" Jesus was crossing a barrier of ritual purity. A tax collector was considered unclean because he entered houses and inspected goods in a way unacceptable to Jewish law.

By entering Zacchaeus’s house, Jesus was acknowledging the chief tax collector’s dignity and worth. Jesus, who was being followed by the crowds, would have brought honor to whatever house He entered. He conferred a special honor on Zacchaeus by offering to receive hospitality from him.

Zaccheaus is delighted to receive Jesus. For sure it would mean some changes. If Jesus was prepared to take him just as he was, then it was only right that he should start living like he was somebody important to God.

Through this story Jesus is calling “Get out of that Tree”. As I say, I don’t know what sort of tree you are hiding out in, or exactly what it means for you to get out of that place and move on towards a better place. 

But I do know that all of us are sinners who fall short of the glory of God. That we all have defense mechanisms against whole hearted commitment to loving God - with all that we are - and loving others as much as we love ourselves. I know that doesn’t come easy – or without a price to pay.

But thank God – Jesus has paid the price. He calls us to come down, not in condemnation – but in acceptance. The Good News is not – “Clean up your life so that you may be acceptable to God” but, “Hey – God loves you and accepts you. Today God is calling your name.  Today God is challenging you to move forward. Now is the hour of salvation!”

If you’re in one of those moods where you feel like “Well, nothing good ever comes my way”, or “Nothing amazing happens in my church” or “Why can’t this be this or that be that” – then get down out of that tree. That tree of self-pity – or that tree of disillusionment – or that tree of rebellion - or that tree of self-satisfaction – or that tree that’s covered in green leaves but is actually dieing on the inside – that tree of confusion or disbelief or self-condemnation or fear or anxiety.

Come down from that tree! Jesus wants to come to your house. He’s calling your name. He wants to share a feast with you. Today He wants to honor your life with His presence – today. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20).

Sure we can stay in our tree house. We can pretend not to hear. We can act like the name being called wasn’t ours but some other with the same name. But winter’s coming. Being stuck up in a tree when the rains start to fall can leave you pretty miserable. If the winds start to blow, your whole tree might come crashing down. There’s more to life than living in trees.

Our story concludes with Jesus saying, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost." May salvation come to our lives and our homes today, because – today – we have heard Jesus calling our name and promising that as we open our lives to the influence of the Holy Spirit, it’s not going to be just more of the same, but new life in Jesus name.

Let us move forward into the future aware of God’s desire to walk with us, to feast with us and share in all that it may bring. Let us allow God to work the changes in us that are a result of God’s acceptance of us. Let us seek to live as God’s people, simply because that’s who God calls us, by name, to be! 

“Get out of that tree” to the glory of God. 

AMEN!                         

The Reverend Adrian J Pratt B.D.

"The Unjust Judge"

Readings: Psalm 119:97-104, Jeremiah 31:27-34, 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5, Luke 18:1-8
 Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, October 16, 2022

There are some verses of Scripture that men probably relate to better than their spouses. Indeed, I hesitate to mention these particular passages. They seem rather politically incorrect to today's ears.  But they do kind of fit in with today’s bible story. I’m thinking of a couple of verses in the Book of Proverbs. I’ll give you them as they appear in the Good News Bible, a Bible that when it was first released had the title “Good News for Modern Man.”

Proverbs 19:13 “A nagging wife is like a tap that goes drip, drip, drip.”
Proverbs 25:24 “Better to live in a corner, out on the roof, then share the house with a nagging wife”

Hey, it’s the inspired, infallible, unchanging, Word of God, don’t get mad at me!  Just telling it like written.

According to tradition and 1 Kings 11:3, King Solomon, the compositor of Proverbs words of wisdom, had seven hundred wives, princesses and three hundred concubines.  You could say he was pretty experienced in the wife department.

In fact, it was some of his wives, wives who had come from foreign lands and wanted temples set up to their favorite deities, who eventually led Solomon away from the path of the Lord his father David had hoped he would follow and weakened his reign.

“Go on Solomon give me a temple to my god. You’ve got a great big temple for your God. How about a little one for mine. I mean you gave whatshername a temple for her god. That’s not fair. I want one. I need one. And I’ll never ask you for anything ever, ever, ever again. Please Solly baby, please, pretty please, it’s just a little god, just a little temple, that’s all I’m asking”

Words. Endless torrents of words. Waterfall like, gushing, crushing floods of words have a habit of breaking a person down. “Allright, Allright, Allright, I’ll do it. Please just BE QUIET!”

Of course, you ladies know that we guys don’t give up so easily. Oh no. We give it the silent treatment. If you say “Well why don’t you say something?” we know that what ever we say it’s going to be exactly the thing we shouldn’t have said.  As comedian Jeff Foxworthy says, “I have learnt that when my wife says, “We need to talk” I’m not going to be saying a whole lot”.

Jesus gives us a parable, not about a man and a wife, but an indifferent Judge and a poor widow.  The woman has very little, in terms of wealth or social position or prestige. But she has one thing that wears the corrupt judge down. She is what in Liverpool they’d call a “Motor-Mouth”. “Ag-Ag-Ag Ag-Ag-Ag- Ag-Ag-Ag”

We are told at the start of the parable that it is a parable about our need to ‘pray and not to lose heart.’ (Luke 18:1). As is often the case with parables, the characters involved are greatly exaggerated. The man is not simply a judge, but a judge whose characteristics question his ability to do the job.

In a society where the two most important commandments were about loving God and loving your neighbor, this guy’s saying, “God? Whatever! Who cares what God thinks, I’m the main man around here. You’ve got a problem? Get over it. I have better things to do.”  Just the sort of judge you want on your case. Right?

Then there’s the widow. As the parable unfolds the widow represents the chosen ones, ‘the elect’ of God. The widow stands for all those who, though chosen by God to enjoy God’s blessings, live outside of those blessings and feel powerless to bring about any change.

The parable focuses on a relationship that has gone wrong because one of the parties, the judge, is failing to fulfill his duties. It challenges us to consider how we see God. Do we see God as this “I answer to nobody” –Distant – barely movable force out there – who really isn’t concerned about us – because He has more important – God-focused things to do in the world?

Do we, building upon such an image, concede that the only way to ever get an answer to our prayers is to keep going on and on and on and on and on until God gets tired of hearing us and caves into our demands?

On the contrary Jesus is quite clear that God is the total opposite of the Judge pictured in the parable. God is the one who does step in and who honors justice and lifts up those who have fallen. God does not drag God’s feet when it comes to things that concern God’s people. Verse 7 poses the question, “Will not God grant justice to His chosen ones?”
 
As is often the case with the parables of Jesus, there is a sting in the tale. It’s as though we are set up for a fall! Follow the argument through to the last sentence. There are layers to this story.

God (the God who is not like a bad judge who ignores a needy widows prayer) hears us and will meet us in our needs when we pray to Him. The initial verdict is given, that we should therefore be persistent in prayer, and everything will work out right. Sounds simple! Until you get to the last line. The last sentence offers a whole new layer of perspective. Verses 18. “And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?”

What a set up! Here we are being told that prayer and asking are as straightforward as dialing 1-800-GOD LOVES U. That it’s not complicated. That we ask and we receive. But then comes this disturbing rhetorical question. “When the Son of man comes will He find faith on the earth?”

The implication is “No, He won’t.” That if a faith evaluation had taken place on the earth back in Jesus day, or were to take place in the midst of our busy days, or anywhere in between, the last thing to be found would be found was faith. That in spite of this business of persistently asking and graciously receiving from a good and great God, we still miss the mark.

What I’m thinking, where this parable is pushing me, is to consider that faith, real faith, has very little to do with getting God to do anything or even God getting us to do certain things. That faith is really about allowing God to be God and allowing ourselves to ‘live and move and have our being' in God's love.

That persistence in prayer has little to do with asking and asking and asking but has a whole lot to do with trusting in and resting in God’s love and accepting ourselves and the situations of our lives as only finding meaning through their relationship to God.

In the parable, what creates the situation that causes the woman to ask, ask, ask, ask, and ask again, is the character of the unjust Judge. So, Jesus explains, God is completely the opposite of such a judge. God is ready to help, always does the right thing, and is way above such a tawdry character as the unjust judge.

The implication is that if God is not like this bad judge, then we don’t have to be like the widow, who can only get things done though incessant talking. That we have a God who elsewhere is pictured as having every hair on our head accounted for and knows intimately what is going on in His Creation to such an extent that even if a little sparrow falls to the ground, it does not go unnoticed.

By picturing for us a bad relationship, the parable attempts to push us to consider what a right relationship may look like. We laugh about nagging wives and retreating husbands, because there is part of us that realizes that although that’s not the way relationships should be, that’s the way they sometimes go.

Putting it in that way, opens the door then for us to go beyond the kind of relationships built upon asking and receiving, towards relationships that are built upon accepting and believing.

Often in long-term relationships it starts to be, that less is said, and a whole lot more is understood. Communication becomes not a matter of words, but a matter of understanding. The one partner doesn’t have to tell the other what’s going on, because the other has come to a point where they recognize the problem even before it can be framed into words.

My wife Yvonne and I have been together for over four decades.  And we recognize that nonverbal communication has become part of the way we are. On an almost daily basis we'll say something and the other will respond “I was just thinking exactly the same thing.”

Scripture talks about how in marriage the two become one. Only further down the line have I realized the deep truth in that statement. And to have that sort of relationship where we know, and are being known, is a beautiful thing.

By asking “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith in earth?” Jesus is seeking for people who have in their lives the depth of relationship that Jesus had with His Father in heaven. He is asking, “Will people be at the point Jesus prayed for in His High Priestly prayer in John 17:11; “Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one, as We are one.”

This parable tells us that faith should not function after the manner of a nagging widow badgering an unjust Judge, but rather within a framework of mutual respect and understanding. We are called to be persistent in prayer.  Persistence in the light of a God who knows our every need, is not about asking and asking and asking till we get what we want, but trusting and trusting and trusting in God in such a way as we become quietly confident that God is working out God’s purposes in the situations of our lives.

Nagging wives and idle husbands, persistent widows and unjust judges, these situations do not offer us role models to be copied. They show us the reverse side so we can flip things around and discover how to approach troubling situations in a positive way.

To summarize, God is not like the unjust judge, but is a loving parent. Though we may feel that it is by our words that we can line up God with our agenda, true spirituality comes as we recognize God already has everything in hand and is inviting us to a relationship of  faith.

There is no more positive approach to life than placing our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, than believing that God is in control, and seeking to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and lead us through the varied situations that come to our lives. 

For there is no greater name than that of the Lord Jesus Christ, and no greater endeavor than to be involved with others in the work of His kingdom.   To God’s name be the glory. AMEN.


The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

"Attitude of Gratitude"

Readings: Psalm 26:8-12, Jeremiah 29:1, 4-7, 2 Timothy 2:8-15, Luke 17:11-19, 2
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church on October 9, 2022

I'd like to share with you an adaptation of a meditation originally written by the late Rev. Richard J. Fairchild.  His instructions are; "Relax - allow the story to speak to you as it must have spoken to those who were there at the first, those like you - those who were following Jesus Christ to learn from him the way of life."

 Attitude of Gratitude

 "We were heading with Jesus to Jerusalem. We had taken the old border road that ran between Samaria and Galilee, and it was a hot day. It was the kind of day when the dust of the road lies thick on the bushes and puffs up around your feet with every step you take. The kind of day when the sweat runs down into your eyes and turns the grime on your face into streaks of mud.

For a while - the only sound that any of us heard, was the low drone and buzz of the insects as we walked, but then through the still of that day, at first in the distance, then closer and closer - we heard them "Unclean, unclean, unclean".

There were ten of them, and even if we had not heard their cry, we would have had  no problem knowing what they were. Some of them had rags wrapped around their hands,  others had their feet bundled up in strips of old cloth, all of them were dressed in the tattered and torn clothing that people in their condition were required to wear, and all of them had, as they were supposed to, long unkempt hair.

There was no mistaking what they were - they were lepers and at the sight of them standing just off the path staring at us like hungry and wounded animals we stopped. None of us wanted to get any closer to those wretched creatures - and who could blame us for that.

I mean everyone knows about leprosy, don't they?  It is simply awful. No one can recover from it, it slowly rots and destroys the body, and worse yet, it is so easy to catch. That’s why the priests insist that everyone who has a skin blemish report to them for an examination.

The priest looks at them, and if they have raw patches of flesh or white bumps or red marks on their skin, or if their hair is discolored, he pronounces them unclean, and the person must go into isolation for seven days so no one else is put in danger.

 It must be very difficult for those people, wondering for all those days if they have leprosy, wondering if they are ever going to be able to live with their families again, but it is fair, fair for the rest of us, and fair for their families, because leprosy is not good, not good at all.

Most times the person does not have leprosy they go back to the priest after seven days, their blemish is healed over, and they are pronounced clean and allowed to return to their homes. But for others, for those like the ten we saw that day, their blemish has worsened, the color of their sores is brighter or more of their flesh is infected, and they are banished.

They are declared forever unclean. forever unable to have normal human contact, unable to bounce their children on their knees, unable to hug their wives or husbands, unable to do anything that might cause someone else to catch what they have. Imagine, if you can, living out the rest of your life in a hovel, having to live in a camp and spend all your time with those who are suffering and diseased like you.

It just so hard to think about, of not being able to see anyone you love except at a distance, of only being able to talk to them by yelling from far off. Imagine too, waiting to see what will happen to you,  waiting to see if your disease will spread as it has in others, taking from you your fingers, your toes,  destroying your mouth and nose, till at last you starve to death, or die from some infection...but not until you have lingered for several years.

Imagine it - waiting - and hoping - trying to hope, trying to hope for that one in a million chance- hoping that your sores will clear up and that you will be able to go to the priest and hear him say the word CLEAN over you. That is what leprosy is all about. No one in their right mind would want to come near it.

That is why we stopped on the road when we saw the lepers that day. We were being cautious, as cautious as any right-thinking person would be. We stopped and we wondered what Jesus would do, because Jesus, in defiance of all common sense, did not seem afraid of lepers.

We had seen him once touch a leper who had come to him and begged to be healed. And Jesus reached out and touched him and said to him "be clean" and the man had been healed. It was quite the event, and I figure that the ten lepers we met that day must have heard about it because as we started again to work our way down to the village. they spotted the teacher and began to call out to Him,  'JESUS, MASTER, HAVE PITY ON US'.

When Jesus heard this, He stopped, and as the sun beat down on our heads He turned towards them and holding out His hands He said, “GO, SHOW YOURSELVES TO THE PRIESTS.” As we watched them go, the dust rising from their tracks as they hurried ahead of us we began to realize that Jesus had healed them. And, as we found out just a few minutes later, indeed that was the case!

We were told that as they went down the hill towards the village that their sores began to dry up, and their blemishes disappear. With every step they took towards their old home, they felt stronger, younger, more energetic, till, when they had rounded the final turn on the way to the village, they were completely healed.

It must have been an incredible walk for them, to think of it - after all their suffering and then, all of sudden, at the word of a stranger, their loneliness, their pain, their banishment began to evaporate.

We saw one of the lepers again. It must have been about fifteen minutes after he and the others had disappeared down the road to the village that he came back up the road to us. We could tell something had happened to him while he was still far off.

The shuffling cautious walk of the leper was gone, he was striding rapidly up the hill towards us, and he was singing and laughing and saying over and over again, 'Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.' When he got close to us, he singled out Jesus, and still singing and saying 'Alleluia, Alleluia' ran over to Jesus and threw himself down at His feet and thanked him over and over again till finally Jesus touched him on his head and looking at us said,

 "Were not all ten cleansed?  Where are the other nine?  Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" At first, we did not understand what Jesus was talking about, but then we noticed that the man at Jesus' feet had the accent of a Samaritan. He looked down at the man and said, “Rise and go, your faith has made you well. “And the man got up and went his way still singing and praising God.

We stood there a minute and thought about what Jesus had said.

We wondered if Jesus was angry at the other lepers for not coming back and thanking Him and God for giving them their lives back. One thing was certain, all ten men had been cured of leprosy, Jesus had said so, but also it seemed to me that the one man the one who came back to us and thanked Jesus, had something even more special happen to him.

He was not only cured.  
He was made whole.

The others with me that day also thought the same thing, and as we talked about it among ourselves, we asked each other if Jesus was trying to tell us that there is something special about giving thanks. And we all got to wondering about how we might have behaved if we had been given what the ten lepers received that day?

Would we have been like the one who came back to thank Jesus? Or would we have been so happy about what we had received that we, like the nine, would rush through the formalities with the priests, and hurry back to our homes and our normal lives.

We asked ourselves and each other if we had ever really thanked God for what we have, or if we had done all our lives what so many do, if we had simply gone to the priests and the temple at the times prescribed by the law, and made the offerings and said the prayers that our religion asks us to say, and then returned to our homes to carry on as before.

We wondered -- were we like the nine lepers who were cleansed? Or were we like the one who was not only cleansed, but, because of his faith, because of his giving thanks was made whole."

Closing thoughts

A lack of gratitude can paralyze Christian life.

A lack of gratitude takes the blessings of God and walks away, hiding them in the heart.

A lack of gratitude never turns healing into wholeness, never turns salvation to sanctification, never gets beyond childish response to become spiritual maturity.

An attitude of gratitude paints everyday with thanksgiving to God, releases God's presence in our hearts in such a way that it joyfully escapes from us and positively affects others.

An attitude of gratitude is the response of people who are aware of the greatness and thoroughness of God's love in Christ.

An attitude of gratitude reveals people whose hearts are being renewed by the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Don't be a grouch,
With a slouch in your walk
And a grumble in your talk;
Walk by faith in God's Kingdom latitude,
Live every day with an attitude of gratitude.

   The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.