In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today, because of the
liturgical calendar, we have the coincidence
of the feast day of the entrance of the Lord
in the temple, and then also the Sunday of Zacchaeus,
which is a signal that Lent is approaching. feast
day of the presentation of the Lord in the temple
is an important one because as the liturgical
texts emphasize so beautifully, the maker of
the law who gave on Mount Sinai the law to Moses
now comes to the temple as a little child of
40 days in fulfillment. of the law. As beautiful
as this feast is, I want to focus our attention
this morning on Zacchaeus and Zacchaeus Sunday.
I have always enjoyed reading the story about
Zacchaeus. His conversion experience is exemplary
for all of us. He was a tax collector, short
in stature. He climbed up into a tree to see
who this Jesus was, this important person. And
Jesus acknowledges his presence and says, today
I will dine with you. Zacchaeus comes down and
throws a dinner at which our Lord is present.
I always found it somewhat humorous that Zacchaeus,
who was a tax collector, when this Sunday comes
around, is when people normally start fretting
about their income tax and paying IRS. It's sort
of maybe a reminder to us that this world is
not as important as we might think it is. But
his conversion experience, as I said at the beginning,
was exemplary. He stood up this person who was
despised because the Jewish people did not like
tax collectors, especially those who were themselves
Jewish, because they had a reputation for defrauding
others. And of course, that's... We always think
in one way or another that the impersonal IRS
takes too much of a bite out of our wallet anyway.
So tax collectors have never been very popular.
But Zacchaeus stands up and he says, if I've
cheated, I'll give half of my goods to the poor.
If I've cheated anyone or defrauded everyone,
I pay it back four times over. Now, we can look
back in our lives, and I'm sure that each and
every one of us have had some type of a conversion
experience. Maybe it's not as dramatic as Zacchaeus',
but a conversion experience nevertheless. Those
of us who were born and brought up Orthodox,
in the teens, or in early adulthood, when our
faith in one way or another is challenged. And
at that point, we either decide, yeah, I'm going
to take my faith seriously. I'm going to go to
church. I'm going to say my prayers. I'm going
to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Sometimes,
After many years, this same person baptized as
a Christian will come back and resume the practice
of taking Christianity seriously. Clerical commentators
on this type of event call these folks not converts,
but reverts. because they've come back to the
church. I always found that a little amusing
myself too. Then those of us later on who probably
as adults have either turned our faith and taken
it seriously or we were raised perhaps in another
Christian church. And we started investigating
the Orthodox Church. And that, our conviction
came that in the Orthodox Church, that is where
the fullness of the Christian faith resides.
So look for a moment into your own heart and
see what was the conversion. that took place
in your life. How did you come to take Jesus
Christ and his church seriously? That varies,
as I said, for many of us. But we made that commitment.
And as Christians, we have to follow upon our
commitment. This is done, of course, by being
faithful as possible, in church attendance, in
receiving the sacraments, confession and holy
communion, and particularly also preparing appropriately
by fasting and saying those prayers before communion,
by being faithful in our daily prayers. Sometimes
that isn't easy. I think for older folks like
myself who are retired, and don't have business
and family obligations, it's a little bit easier.
But many of you have to pack off the kids to
school, jump in the car, and go to work, or work
from home nowadays. But one way or another, we
have to take time out to be faithful in our daily
prayers. And also, in reading the scriptures.
You could go on the OCA website and find the
epistle and the gospel for each and every day.
I would suggest also, as I've suggested many
times, to divide up the Psalter so that you say
some Psalms in the morning and some in the evening.
Because the Psalms express all possible human
emotions and needs to pray with the Psalms and
reading the scriptures and then saying our own
prayers. So Zacchaeus' conversion experience
today reminds us that not only of our own personal
conversion experience, but reminds us also that
each and every week, each and every day, we have
a recommitment, a return to that commitment that
we made to Jesus Christ at the moment of our
conversion. So let us ask our Lord today to give
us the grace to be faithful to our commitment
and to love him with our whole heart and soul
and body and strength and express this in our
love for one another. Amen.