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zenzoidman · 7 years

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Save that which was Lost

“Save that which was Lost” - 32nd Sunday after Pentecost, Sunday of Zacchaeus Luke 19:10 - For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. (KJV) What was lost? I’ll offer some thoughts on that in this sermon. In my last sermon, I talked about how quantum physics has revealed God in every atom of our being. We literally would not exist unless the energies of God were constantly sustaining our existence. Our existence and that of the entire universe is not just a one-and-done kind of a deal- God is ever present with us through his energies and, of course, as the Holy Spirit in believers. As St. Paul affirms, “... in him we live, move, and have our being…” Acts 17:28 (ESV). This is not just a theological fact, it is also a scientific fact. Now we're going to look up, like Zacchaeus did, and see God in the Big Picture- in the cosmic Edenic Plan of salvation. "Save that which was lost.” Like so many things our Lord says, he packs dynamite into simple little statements that can be easy to gloss over. When you probe his statements just a little with your mind and heart, they explode! This is one of those statements. It is an eschatological statement-- concerning ultimate things, the consummation of God's of plan for our salvation with Christ's incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, the gift of the Holy Spirit, his return, our glorification, and the restoration of Eden-- the New Israel. Let’s unpack all this. So what was lost? Well, if you’re a Jew living in that Second Temple period, Christ’s statement would have elicited several things in your mind that were lost: The united kingdom of Israel and their lands The tribe of Israel along with the 9 other tribes when Judah returned from Babylonian exile The original Eden where the Most High God and his heavenly hosts lived together with humans But, of course, it’s bigger than all of these. Adam and Eve broke communion with God in Eden and were cast out. Theologically, now there was a separation between God and humans. The Eden story-- and the rest of the Bible-- shows a connection between geography and communion with God but not in the way most of us think about it. It’s much bigger than a patch of earth delineated as the location of the garden of Eden. The theological message of the Bible, with the land conquests in the OT (militarily) and NT (by spreading the Good News of Christ’s Resurrection), is a retaking of the fallen world where we are partners with God in this conquest. As we’ll see in a bit, the Fall affected far more than just Eden or planet earth-- the entire known universe was affected. The reconquista of our universe begins here on planet Earth, Ground Zero for the Fall. This is Divine Geography. When Adam and Eve partook of forbidden knowledge in Eden, death entered the world. Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men…” (ESV). Another way we see that death has entered the world is in thermodynamics where everything tends toward maximum disorder and the lowest lowest energy level. Engineers call this Entropy. We actually use it to design refrigeration systems (Fun Fact to Know and Tell). Entropy is a manifestation of death. It takes a constant input of energy to counteract entropy. A simple example: a living person dies and their body begins to decay. The cells of their body break down to molecules and the molecules to atoms, the lowest energy state with maximum disorder (entropy) of their former body. The entire known universe operates under this Law of Entropy (emphasis on "known"). So at the Fall, death entered the entire known universe. The universe is vast and old. They don't know how vast because they don't see an edge or anything like that but there are about 15 billion stars. The Big Bang occurred about 14 billion years ago. A tiny point of matter inflated rapidly to form what we know as the universe today. Because of the effects of entropy, energy loss, gravity, etc., scientists expected to find that the rate of expansion of the universe was slowing. They actually found something profoundly shocking: the expansion of the universe is accelerating! So scientists did some more probing and number crunching and deduced the existence of this thing called Dark Matter and Dark Energy (DM/DE) throughout the universe. These are not theological terms. They called it DM/DE because we can't measure or detect it directly with any of our current instruments. Now here's the kicker: turns out that everything that we can see and detect with instruments in the entire vast universe is only about 5% of everything else that's out there! The other 95% is this DM/DE. As I mentioned, we can't measure or see it directly- its existence is deduced by the effects it has on what we can see. The existence of DM/DE explains why the rate of expansion of the known universe is increasing instead of decreasing. So then what is this stuff we call DM/DE that comprises the other 95% of the universe? Bottom line answer: we don't know. It does not seem conform to our known laws of physics- otherwise we could detect it directly. This is also evidenced by the fact that the rate of expansion of the known universe is increasing, contrary to our known laws of physics. It’s important to point out, too, that this DM/DE stuff-- whatever it is-- doesn’t exist “out there” somewhere, as though our known universe is in a bubble. No, the DM/DE “universe” is interpenetrated with our universe. It’s in the room with you right now. Here's a thought: maybe the DM/DE part of the universe was unaffected by the Fall-- not subject to death and entropy-- and the universe we do see and detect is in a type of quarantine. Maybe the plan for us, as human image-bearers of the Most High God, is to redeem the known (fallen) universe from quarantine and re-join the rest of the universe, to re-join the heavenly hosts there. This kind of gives a whole new perspective on St. Paul's account of being caught up in the third heaven: “I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows.” 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 (ESV) Also gives a whole new perspective on who Christ is and the real scope and meaning of the catholic or universal church. Isn't it amazing that, in all our astronomical searching, we've never found any other detectable life in the known, vast universe? Maybe it’s because, as a result of the Fall, we either killed it or prevented it from coming into existence in the first place. Maybe the DM/DE universe is teeming with life! Maybe this is the unseen realm of angels and all the other heavenly hosts “invisibly present here with us.” What were Adam and Eve doing in Eden? They were gardening, of course. In the ancient Near East conception-- a desert culture-- gardening wasn't just mowing lawns and trimming hedges. It was tending new and precious life! Our divine destiny, as human imagers of the Most High God, is to nurture new life throughout the universe- the New Eden and the original Edenic vision. It was God’s plan for us from the beginning. It's a holy and awesome job that we are called to do. We are to minister to that life and be their priests, offering them up to God. We will name them, like Adam did-- we give them meaning. That is our priestly role and destiny as the body of Christ. In other words, we will be going to the stars just not in the way science fiction portrays it, which is really just a modern, high tech aspiration of the old motive behind the Tower of Babel. No, we will be doing it with God and according to his original Edenic vision. In our lives as Christians right now, we are still gardeners. We are practicing for our destiny as cosmic gardeners when we’ll be nurturing new life all over the universe. We do this now in our lives by nurturing the life of Christ in our own lives, in each other, and in non-believers. We are gardeners of our own hearts through prayer, fasting, repentance, studying scripture, all the other spiritual disciplines the church gives us. We are gardeners for each other by coming together for worship and in fellowship by affirming and encouraging each other in the faith. As St. Paul says in Ephesians 5:19 “...addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…” (ESV). In other words, avoiding vain, empty, or divisive talk when we come together as the Body of Christ. And we are gardeners for non-believers in our lives by not hiding our faith or being ashamed of it but rather sharing it with them, planting the seed of faith in Christ. We heard an interesting verse in the Epistle today: 1 Tim 4:9 “...because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” (ESV) Savior of all people. Hmm, sounds like universal salvation so no problems, right? All paths up the mountain lead to the same peak? Actually, no. This is not a statement of universalism. Rather, it is a statement of uniqueness. As in, “there is no other savior for anyone.” In other words, this other group of people “over there” doesn't have a different savior. And there's no other “savior” coming later. Christ is it. This is why we say we're living in the end times. Imagine you are suspended in space and you’re looking at a planet that’s covered in thick, black, scabby plates. Out of the corner of your eye, you see a point of light like a comet rapidly zoom in and pierce the scabby sheath over the planet. You keep watching for the longest time and nothing seems to be happening. Finally, the black scabby covering is blown off and the most brilliant light bursts forth from the planet, extending instantly throughout the entire universe. All things are made new and suddenly you find yourself surrounded by legions of luminous beings that you’ve never encountered before. They tell you that they’ve been here all along but you couldn’t see them until just now. In the story, the planet is our Earth, the comet is Christ, the transformational explosion of light is his glorious second coming, and the luminous beings are the heavenly hosts, the kingdom of heaven. We are living in that period of time from when the comet enters the planet to the explosion of light. That is why we say we are living in the End Times. The cure (Christ’s incarnation) has been administered and is doing its work. We are part of that work. The cure must work through us and with us, as believers, as the body of Christ. When is Christ coming back? Wrong question! Since we are in the end times now, the right question is what should we, as the believing and faithful Body of Christ be doing? I’ve already touched on that point. We are blessed and privileged to be living in this unique and final chapter in human history. It also means that, as Christians knowing the truth, more will be expected of us. We are created in the image of the Most High God. This means we are free, as in we have free will and are free to make choices. But, although we have free will, we are not free agents. In other words, we are not sovereigns. We will belong either to Christ or to a high order angelic being who is in rebellion to Christ (and who has already been judged, condemned, and defeated by the Cross). Colossians 2:14 “...by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.” (ESV) Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. (ESV) The Satan-- the adversary, the lord of the dead-- has a claim on every soul that comes in the world. This is why in the last line of the Lord's prayer we ask God to deliver us from the evil one. What's the first thing we do before every Baptism? An exorcism. Why? To release that claim of the adversary. Once released, we are not free to go on our merry way as though we are unattached. As our Lord tells us: “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it passes through waterless places seeking rest, but finds none. Then it says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when it comes, it finds the house empty, swept, and put in order. Then it goes and brings with it seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and dwell there, and the last state of that person is worse than the first. So also will it be with this evil generation.” Matthew 12:43-45 (ESV). Once released from the claim of the enemy we turn right around and "put on" Christ in Holy Baptism and so pass over from death to life because we have entered into the Resurrection by faith. That faith is our choice to make-- it is how we “opt in” to God’s plan of salvation. We are free to choose either death with the lord of the dead or life in Christ, the giver of life. There is no other choice. But we are free to make that choice. Not making a choice IS making a choice... for death. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16 (ESV) In other words, the only other option is death. So choose life! Okay, how do we do this? Zacchaeus shows us the way. We stop being obsessed with the mundane things of the world and look up. Each of us climbs the tree of our own cross and fixes our eyes (hearts and minds) on Christ. This means we have to stop living like the Gentiles, preoccupied with earthly cares-- what will I eat? what will I drink? who got elected?-- and instead start living the new life in Christ and telling others the good news about Christ. Simply being baptized and taking communion does not guarantee that we will be cosmic gardeners in the new Eden. As the Lord said through Isaiah, “... this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me..." Isaiah 29:13 (ESV). Where are our hearts when our lips approach the chalice? Not just at that moment, but all the other moments throughout each day of the week? It's not enough to pay lip service to believing in Christ- that belief has to inform and shape the thoughts we allow to dwell in our hearts and minds, the kinds of things we pay attention to, that we allow to enter our minds, the kinds of things we talk about, and what we actually do. It is a daily walk with the Lord that informs and permeates everything in our life. Baptism and communion are awesome gifts but we still have to do our part. Our Greek fathers called this synergia- a cooperative working with God. Zacchaeus' heart was already converted before he even climbed the tree; he had already repented. Think about it: Jesus had just healed Bartimaeus near Jericho where Zacchaeus lived so no doubt everyone was talking about him as the Messiah. Everyone had heard of him, which is why Bartimaeus called out to him “Son of David”- another Messianic title. The Lord knew the heart of Zacchaeus just as he had earlier known Nathanael’s (Jn. 1:48). That's why he called Zacchaeus in the first place. Zacchaeus' announcement of restitution to Christ were confessions of something that was already a reality in his life. He believed in Christ which prompted words and action- repentance. His announcement of restitution and a radical change in his life and behavior were tangible fruits of his repentance. St. Zacchaeus accompanied St. Peter on his travels and followed him to Caesarea. Peter appointed him the Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine. He was living the new life in Christ, preaching the Gospel and shepherding others in the new life-- living the life of a cosmic gardener right here, right now. We commemorate St. Zacchaeus on April 20. Holy Hierarch Zacchaeus, pray for us sinners! Rdr. Socratis Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church Claremont, NH January 2017

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