April 26, 2026 Sermon

As some of you may know, there was a shooting at Swedish Covenant Hospital yesterday morning, and the two police officers that were the targets were brought to Illinois Masonic while I was working yesterday. As I reflected last night and this morning, I was grateful to have this story running through my head. Let me explain.

But first, we are starting our Curious Hearts, Honest Questions series this morning with the question “Is God really accessible to us?”

First, Zacchaeus was a chief tax collector. He is rich. And he is short. We get these details right off. These qualities are important enough to Luke to mention.

So, we know his job. Being a tax collector was seen as choosing the empire instead of the community. So, he was assumed to be morally compromised because of the system he works in, so if the story was today - this guy maybe would be an ICE agent and a corrupt police officer.

Due to his job, his wealth was also suspicious - was he skimming off the top in addition to siding with the empire? Luke also often uses wealth to indicate a disconnection from justice in his gospel.

Then, we find out Zacchaeus was short. As we know, feelings about bodies are not neutral. That was even more the case in the ancient world. Bodies were and are laughed at and sometimes excluded for what they are or are not.

So,Jesus, a person that stands with the community and against the empire shows up, and the community wants Zacchaeus to be excluded for being an empire lover, rich, and short - and Zacchaeus still wants to be a part.

He might not be able to immediately reduce his role in the empire or know how to reduce his wealth immediately, but he can climb a tree. He can risk looking like a kid - possibly ridiculous, for sure exposed and visible. He isn’t able to be in the shadows looking for Jesus, instead people are going to know he was here.

Yesterday, as police officers filed into the hospital out of a sense of loss, duty and grief I saw first hand this very desire. The heavy hitters, the people that often are symbols of the empire, or the violence in my city, needing to get a little closer to the ones who heal, the ones who are allowed to be gentle and soft.

Jesus, seeing Zacchaeus, includes him. Without Zacchaeus needing to explain, Jesus sees him and invites himself over for tea with hummus and pita.

When I was a kid, I got stressed about this idea. I knew we weren’t allowed to have guests without cleaning up our house. The idea that Jesus invited himself over, and you can’t really say no to Jesus. But the amount of stress I felt to get my room (always a disaster) ready for Jesus got to me.

But Jesus wasn’t asking Zacchaeus to change or clean his house - he was meeting him where he was. Jesus wasn’t waiting for the conditions to be perfect. He just invited himself over.

I can imagine the crowd being a bit miffed. I am guessing that some folks had clean houses ready in case an invitation came, mad that Jesus picked the guy that wasn’t one of the good guys to go eat at.

The grumbling likely started - look at that guy - he’s short which means he’s impure, but duh! He continued being unholy by working for the empire. And Jesus chooses him?!?.

Yes, Jesus includes Zacchaeus. Including his shortness, his job that makes him suspect, and his wealth that makes him an outcast.

Jesus didn’t use any of those things as worth staying a far, instead we see a God who comes near.

A God who enters homes. Who eats with the excluded. Who is willing to be with bodies that others find unholy. A God who is not ashamed of human limitation— but present within it.

Its due to this nearness, that Zacchaeus decides to change. This past week, was Jim and I’s anniversary and its amazing how much I have changed due to my proximately and love for Jim. I asked Jim, and he said the same about me. It happens due to the nearness, not necessarily because of stated words or a request to change. And I believe that likewise, A God who is near - can change us if we are open to it.

I wonder if we lack this nearness with others. We know that people feel more and more lonely, to the point of epidemic levels. We want to blame individuals, like Zacchaeus, for the wrongdoing, blame physical differences, and spiral into us vs. them sorts of debates.

While usually I am retelling Bible stories that focus on the marginalized and have common denominators with BIPOC, LGBTQI+, folks living in poverty, or some other United Nations recongized minority, Zacchaeus sounds a lot like a republican white American man or many of the police officers that I encountered yesterday.

That is hard for me to admit, because if Jesus is near to Zaccheaus that means my understanding of inclusion and of accessibility is not just for those that the world deems unworthy but also for those that think they have it all, and fight like its not worth losing. Jesus is including all those police officers that I have all sorts of thoughts about. Jesus is including me and you.

Jesus is near, God is near, to us no matter who we are.

Kelly Hayes wrote in her book, Let this Radicalize You:

By not abandoning people, we contribute to a culture where we, ourselves, are less likely to be abandoned. By defending one another, or even rescuing each other, in times of danger, we are reclaiming our capacity to help each other survive.

I want to abandon people most days when I listen to the news and hear what is being done often in my name as a US citizen. And yet, I see Jesus being near to everyone, which doesn’t mean he agrees with everyone - but is near and present. In many ways, teaching us how to have the capacity to not abandon, but instead come as close as we can to people. I wrote this before yesterday, and yesterday I was trying to live them out - when 300 police officers are grieving, could I honor that, walk alongside that grief, that fear, and come near?

So, to answer the question - How do we know that God is accessible to us?

I don’t know for sure. (I have a feeling I will say that a lot in this series.)

And yet,

I think a God who champions those that are outcast, but refuses to walk away from the world’s champions;

A God who is written about as a God who meets the writer’s social enemies in the writing and loves them.

That a God who feels near to me,

wants to be near us.

A God who wants everyone to belong - not just in the language of belonging, but the action of inclusion.

Maybe the question asker was specifically asking about ways of accessibility - I think prayer may be one of the ways that we can feel near to God. I would guess if Jesus tells us he is coming over to our house; Jesus wants to talk or just sit with us feeling close in that house.

But I think that traditional prayer isn’t the only way - staring off into nature, walking and talking with friends, or art - to mention a few that God can feel near.

And that is our hope for all of us, that we may we all feel God near to us.