09/03/2024
"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."
John Quincy Adams
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly….All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
The Gospel of Luke
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Jesus changed people.
I am not talking about how he healed people
Doing for them what they could not do for themselves
I am talking about how he made them
Better
Peter, James, John, and all the disciples
Zaccheus
Nicodemus
The woman at the well
The stories are incomplete
Fragmentary
But we see the seeds of change planted
And sometimes bloom
I love Zaccheus
That man so little in so many ways
Suddenly becoming big
Moving from greed to repentance to restoration
Even generosity
I am reminded of the controversy
Around Angel Reese and Caitlan Clark
They are both outstanding in their own way
But what Caitlan seems to do that makes her amazing
Is make everyone around her better
In a small way reminding us
Of how Jesus works
I am not suggesting a shallow analogy here
Helping another person make more baskets
Or a team garners more wins
Is not the same as helping another
Overcome their personal demons
Or ushering in the kingdom of God
It is not that simple or simplistic
But I can’t help but think of Jesus and his disciples
Gathered in the Upper Room
Defeat looming
And of Jesus saying, “All right my righteous dudes (and dudettes?
Hers the plan”
I gift you, and you gift others
I forgive you and you forgive others
I empower you, you empower others
I protect you, and you protect others
I love you and you love others
Capisce?
In the Bible the One does a lot of stuff for the people of Israel
God frees them from slavery
Gives them manna
Even, we are told, gives them a land
A land dripping, nay flowing
with milk and honey
but even in that story of conquest
from a time when tribes battled and lands changed hands
constantly
there was something more
“When you come to the land
when you no longer are warriors, but are farmers
you are to treat aliens and strangers
as neighbors”
The One blessed the people
So they could be a blessing
No, it is not all clean
No, it doesn’t always work
Yes, we often fail to learn the lessons
And fall into attitudes and behaviors that
Are not very Jesus
But when we connect with God
We get better
And we become people who make others
Better
And make their lives
Better
And make the world
Better
Which is another way of saying
When we love God
We learn to love others
And ourselves too
