Transformative Power of Proximity in Faith

There was a lot of unrest and a lot of un -peace around. And so in the city of Durham, they were having trouble and so they called a 10 -day community meeting. Ten days filled with meetings and presentations and things to try to get people to begin working together. And they called two co -chairs for that meeting. One was C .P. Ellis, a prominent and high leader in the Ku Klux Klan at that time. And the other was Ann Atwater, a prominent civil rights advocate. [00:01:08]

And they were put together to lead this meeting. And so it's ten days of forced proximity where they had to be close to each other and they hated each other. They hated what each of them stood for. And it was very difficult. They were hostile. They barely talked at first. but over the days they had to talk and meet and and begin to discuss some of these issues and what they found is over time as they sat at the same table as they ate meals together as they talked about these difficult issues the prejudices that they both had began to erode they began to fade away little by little. [00:01:48]

And one of the major things was Atwater's concern for children even C .P. Ellis's children she went out of her way to help them and over those days they began to see each other as people they tried to see beyond the stereotypes and the caricatures that we all have of certain groups of people right and they had them of each other too and at the end of 10 days C .P. Ellis the Ku Klux Klan leader stood in front of this the large gathering to you know they were giving their conclusions here's what's going to happen and in front of the whole crowd he tore up his his members car to the Ku Klux Klan and and renounced his membership. [00:02:28]

And Ellis and Atwater began a 30 -year friendship during which time they worked together to help overcome the divides and and the difficulties that the racial divides of that part of the country at that time and because you see proximity proximity changes our perspective on things proximity changes the way we see things and when we see the faces and the people behind the issues and the things that we debate and the things we see on news it changes the way we see people it changes the way we think about things. [00:03:08]

Last week we talked about taking the alternative route you know the the magi had to decide where we're going to go back to Herod and go that way or are we going to go in the way of Jesus and we talked about the alternative route and that it's a difficult way it's it's a longer path sometimes it's fraught with with trouble but taking that alternative route with Jesus is really the only way to go and it's a difficult way to go and it's a only right response to meeting Jesus and bowing down to worship him. [00:03:48]

And Jesus answers them with a statement that is really important for us today and is going to inform what Luke's talks about all throughout his gospel Jesus says in verses 31 and 32 of chapter 5 healthy people don't need a doctor but sick people do I didn't come to call the righteous but sinners to change their hearts and lives or to put it in our language to take an alternative route to go a different way to change who they were and go in a different direction. [00:05:48]

And when Jesus walks by sure enough he sees he sees Zacchaeus and he points him out and he says in verse 5 of chapter 19 Zacchaeus come down I'm going to your house I mean Jesus totally invited himself over for dinner right in our culture that would be you know impolite maybe a little imposing maybe improper but in in you know for Jesus that's no big deal he invited himself over for dinner but here's the thing we need to realize it's not just a meal in in those middle eastern cultures and you know of that time and even today sharing a meal together is not just sharing a meal it's friendship. [00:11:48]

When you invite someone over or when you're invited over it's it's an offer of friendship it's an offer of hey I want to get to know you better hey I think I want to spend some time with you you're worthy of me investing a little time in you're worthy of me investing a little time in you're worthy of me investing a little time in you're worthy of me investing a little time in you're worthy of me so let's share a meal together and so Jesus does that and because everyone everyone notices and they say what's he doing he's going to go be the guest of a sinner and a tax collector he can't do that Jesus you should have learned by now we've told you so many times you can't do that because everyone saw him call out to Zacchaeus and everyone saw him invite himself over for dinner and everyone knows what that means Jesus wants to know this person to be his friend. [00:12:28]

But Jesus is not fazed by the stairs he he's not worried about the whispers of scandal he's going to Zacchaeus's house because Zacchaeus is a child of the heavenly father a man created in God's image and because of that he has inherent value and as we look around the people around us too sometimes we need to be reminded of that that this person in front of me no matter who they are I'm going to be his friend I'm going to be his friend I'm going to be his friend no matter who they might be no matter what their reputation might be no matter what they've done and who they are they are a person loved by their heavenly father created in God's image and because of that they have inherent value as one of God's children. [00:13:08]

And Zacchaeus response is is great he says look Lord I'll give half of my possessions to the poor if I've cheated anyone I'll pay them back four times I mean I'm serious about this this this meeting with Jesus is transformative it changes his life it puts him on that alternative route a different way than he was going the hands that once grasped and hoarded are now open in generosity the the heart that once took and stole what wasn't his to take and steal is now making efforts to restore and repay what was taken and it's a beautiful picture of how meeting Jesus puts us on a different path puts us on an alternative route and shifts our priorities and our perspectives. [00:13:48]

Because the truth is we can't see people's hearts right I look at so I don't know what's in their heart we can get some evidence by by observing them but only God knows what's in the heart right and because of that we sometimes need to give the benefit of the doubt we sometimes need to give people the opportunity to or we need to look at things in the best light possible and sometimes we need to look at things in the best light possible and sometimes we need to look at things in the best light possible and sometimes it means that you know if we're going to make a mistake if we're going to lean too far in one direction we're better off leaning too far in the direction of love rather than something else and that's hard to do sometimes isn't it really hard to do. [00:14:28]

And as we continue this through this series of alternate routes we're going to continue on this theme of of walking that route and being with Christ as part of our mission as the church we're going to see that the church does not have a mission but the the mission of God has a church we say that again the church does not have a mission i think we might have a slide on this one yeah the church does not have a mission not like we -we -we say you know our mission is this another church says our mission is that the church is the mission of God god's mission has a church god's mission has us to carry that mission out in the world we are the plans we are the final plan a and plan b and the backup plan to plan b this is the church we we are god's mission in this world. [00:15:08]