All Saints – even Zacchaeus

Isaiah 1: 10-18

Luke 19: 1-10

Today is the nearest Sunday to All Saints day (November 1^st) and so I thought we could think about ‘saints’ today.

But the readings we heard are the ones chosen for this Sunday, and not specifically chosen because they are about saints. Yet in reading these – both the gospel story of Zacchaeus and the teaching of Isaiah – I realised they had a lot to teach us about saints.

I only learnt this week that Zacchaeus is considered a saint by the Orthodox church – he has his own day – April 20^th – and he even figures in some icons. This print out is a bit blurry – but it shows a bearded man with a halo and the words ‘hagios zakaios’ – saint Zacchaeus – or ‘holy Zacchaeus’.

The crowd who surrounded him when he climbed the tree to see Jesus were very clear that they did not think Zacchaeus was a saint.

Quite the opposite – when Jesus invites himself to Zacchaeus’ house they grumble “He has gone to stay at the house of a sinner.”

Zacchaeus is the chief tax collector and a very wealthy man – he is a civil servant for the Roman Empire and there is more than a suspicion that he is rich not only from being in the pay of the Romans, but also because he cheats people to line his own pocket.

And yet.. Jesus not only notices him, he goes to his house and he tells the grumbling crowd “Today salvation has come to this house because this man too is a descendant of Abraham”.

Jesus sees a child of Abraham who is worthy of his time and his company, when all the crowd sees is a sinner.

And the encounter with Jesus changes this tax collector. He says to Jesus "Look, 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."

Zacchaeus wants to put things right and he wants to be worthy of the title ‘child of Abraham’, so he acts for justice and mercy.

The reading we had from Isaiah makes it clear what God requires of his people, the children of Abraham. Isaiah tells the people that God does not ask for worship or sacrifice, but he tells them

“Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.”.

Jesus recognizes that Zacchaeus is a child of Abraham, not just a sinner. And Zacchaeus recognizes that as a child of Abraham he needs to prove himself worthy of the title through correcting any injustice in his life.

So Zacchaeus the tax collector becomes St Zacchaeus – for the Early church, if not for the writer of the gospel.

That Greek word on the icon ‘hagios’ zacchaeus is used many times in the New testament, but never in reference to any one person, however admirable or holy. When the writers of the letters are writing to the growing churches they greet ‘All the saints of the church’ – and the word ‘hagios’ is used  - the holy ones.

I was talking to a friend in ministry this week who told me this story of how she had changed her thinking about ‘saints’.

She was doing a summer pastorate as a student and was allowed to use the minister’s vestry to work in. On the desk there was a box marked ‘the saints of this church’ – it contained a collection of cards with names and addresses. She looked for the other box – for the names & addresses of the people of the church who were not saints. There wasn’t a second box.

The saints of the church were all the people of the church.

And so you, sisters and brothers, like Zacchaeus are beloved children of Abraham, and also members of the body of Christ. You are the saints of Immanuel URC.

Yet like St Zacchaeus, yours is not just an honorific title – it is a recognition that you are those who listen to the demands of God that Isaiah gives us.

As saints you need to cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.

But please don’t think that today I am challenging you to be saints and not sinners. We are perhaps used to reading the story of Zacchaeus as a story of dramatic change – as if he went up the tree as a sinner & came down it as a saint. Zacchaeus was certainly changed by his encounter with Jesus. But even in his new and generous life, Zacchaeus will have made mistakes, and not always treated people well. Even a saint of the Orthodox church cannot be perfect, nor do we expect them to be.

Saints are holy, filled and inspired by God’s Holy Spirit, but they are still human. Zacchaeus may have shaken off the terrible label ‘sinner’ but that doesn’t mean he never sinned again.

Saints of Immanuel URC you may be, but that does not mean you are perfect. Even as you strive to learn to do Good and to seek justice, you will make mistakes.

But Jesus is waiting for us when we do make mistakes. Jesus is clear that he has came to “seek out and to save the lost”. That is not simply taking sinners and turning them into saints, or seeking the lost and making them found – it is about the merciful grace of God which is always waiting to invite us down from our position of detached observation of life, and come in to eat with us, and share with us, and change us for the better, day after day; time after time.

And to God be the glory now and forever. Amen.