Stand at my watchpost

Scripture Lessons: Luke 19: 1-10 and Habakkuk 1: 1-4 and 2: 1-4, OT pages 871-872 Sermon Title: Stand at my watchpost Preached on October 30, 2016 This is a sermon about views, and I wish everyone could see the view from my office window. My office window looks out on our church parking lot, so from my desk, as I face my computer, I can see the library and just the tops of the dream forest sculptures, also known by some as Presbyterian Stonehenge, but the thing that I wish everyone could see at least once is a day in the life of Melvin Taylor. Melvin sits in our parking lot. He’s out there this morning as he always is unless it’s too cold, and the reason that I wish you could look out my window is that watching Melvin for a day changes how you see the world. Last Friday morning Renea unloaded his groceries from Piggly Wiggly. After lunch Bill brought over hot dogs and hamburgers. On Sunday’s Frank brings him lunch from Captain D’s. Last Monday three people stopped that I saw – the Bugout man stopped just to talk a while, two guys in overalls in a yellow truck brought him a two liter of coke, and Renea brought him a meatloaf sandwich. On Tuesday James brought him his coffee and his pills. On Wednesday morning, I unloaded his order from Walmart, and on Wednesday evening Bill brought him a plate from our fellowship meal. Then on Thursday, if you could see out of my window, you might have seen Marcy challenging him to stand with his walker or a man drop off a coat or a woman hand him a blanket. Last Christmas a man brought by gift wrapped up in paper – it was a DVD player, and on his birthday, our parking lot was full of people with cake and ice cream and balloons. You see, I got to watch as Joan helped him with his checks, as Judy brought him water to bathe, as Joe Graham stopped to talk about the weather and the Bible and the news. I see cars honk and Melvin waves. Little kids wish him “Good morning” and the lady who walks around the block every day – if he’s not out by the time she walks by she knocks on his door to make sure he’s alright. I get to see all that because that’s the view from my office, which is different from the view from my living room where I look out on the world through the evening news. What is the view like from where you are? Our 2nd Scripture Lesson begins with the prophet’s lament: Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble? Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise. So, the law becomes slack and justice never prevails. The wicked surround the righteous – therefore judgment comes forth perverted.” Of course, I’ve seen that, and I know you have too. Murder, theft, and corruption. Drugs, guns, and violence against women and children. Racism, war, anger, disrespect. And it’s all right out there, and maybe you like the prophet are asking, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen? Why do you make me see wrongdoing and look at trouble?” But then the prophet goes to his watchpost. He stationed himself on the rampart. “I will keep watch to see what [God] will say to me, and what [God] will answer concerning my complaint,” and when the prophet goes up to the watchpost to take in the view, he sees not only the suffering of the innocent and the injustice of the world but that “the righteous live by their faith.” That’s what I get to see. And I get to see it every day. A box of tissues is on my desk as the righteous brush away tears to testify to the mighty power of God. And did you hear that we have a pig? Because a member of the Presbyterian Church in Lynnville gave to God what he had and the preacher there called me and I called Will Satterwhite and now we have a pig. Or did you know that we prayed for healing as a church and the healing came – or that an unemployed woman was ready to give up looking until we prayed for a job and the very next interview – they gave her a job on the spot. Did you know that on my phone is a voice mail from a woman named Tracy who called to say that she got to move in to a new house with her son, and that as she thanked our church for the assistance that we gave she just barely got the words out through her tears, “We now have a place that we can call home.” Some people pray for faith enough that they can believe – but if you could just see what I get to see from the view of my office you would know. And it’s not that I don’t see the suffering, because I do. I see that too, but from my office window I see that in the sea of suffering and injustice and death and broken hearts the righteous are still living by faith. And that kind of perspective changes things, for the same world looks so different depending on your view. It’s something like the difference between how your mother saw you and how your grandmother saw you – the you is the same, but the view is so different. Danny Rosenblitz lived next door to me when I was very young and I was always jealous because he lived on the second floor with his parents but his grandparents lived on the first floor, so whenever he got in trouble with his mother all he had to do was run downstairs. Zacchaeus is kind of like that too. Only he had to climb up. In our First Scripture Lesson from the Gospel of Luke we heard that great story of the tax collector Zacchaeus. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, so he climbed up that sycamore tree to see him. He adjusted his view – but what’s so important in this story is not just that Zacchaeus saw Jesus from up there – once he got up there Jesus saw him. And its Jesus’ view that really changes things you know, because he doesn’t see the way the world sees – and he doesn’t see us the way the world sees us. A tax collector was what the world saw – but what did Jesus see? His host for dinner. The world looked at him and saw someone who was lost and who should be forgotten, but the Lord looked on him up in that tree and saw a man who might have lost his way but all he needed was for the Father to call him back home. Now this place – this church – this faith of ours, it has a lot to do with shaping our view of the world. It has a lot do with shaping our view of life and death. But more than that, this place, this church, this faith of ours proclaims that while the world may look on us and see one thing, our Lord sees from his view something different. So, Zacchaeus, he climbs up that tree just like the prophet Habakkuk climbed up to his watchpost, and from his view he got a good look and lo and behold, here comes hope incarnate walking up the road. And Hope looks up at him and he says, “Hey there, I need you. I need you to feed me dinner tonight, but then I need you to show the world that even tax collectors can change.” Not only does Jesus see Zacchaeus, Jesus invites him to be a part of the change that he brings into the world. He invites us to fight the shadow with him. To sing a song of praise to God in a world of broken promises and half dead dreams. Jesus came into the world and he’s not just faithfulness in a sea of disappointment – he invites you and I to be a part of it. A part of the difference. A part of the change. A part of the hope. And I want you to know that I want in, because I want to be a part of what our Lord is doing. I want to be a part of the work that our church is doing and has been doing for over 200 years. And I want you to be a part of it as well. Amen.