Christian ethics

In the Midst of Chaos

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “In the Midst of Chaos” Matthew 24:1-14

Our world is feeling especially chaotic these days.

It’s been a week since the United States and Israel launched a war against Iran. The images have been alarming: Tehran’s Mehrabad airport on fire, plumes of black smoke rising from the city, rescuers digging through the rubble of a girls’ school in search of survivors. According to Central Command, the US has struck more than 3,000 targets inside Iran. The strikes have killed at least 1,200 people, and nearly 300 people have been killed in Lebanon since Monday when Israel began strikes against suspected Hezbollah sites. Six National Guard soldiers have been killed. Nearly every country across the Middle East has sustained damage from missile hits, drone strikes, or shrapnel. Yesterday, the president warned that the crisis will escalate, saying the US will strike Iran “very hard” with “complete destruction and certain death” for targeted groups.

We are feeling chaos closer to home like surging gas prices, volatile economic markets, and beloved ones deploying to conflict zones. Christian nationalist churches are preaching a false gospel that the escalating conflict in the Middle East is part of God’s plan to bring on the apocalypse. All the while, there has been a different kind of war unfolding on the home front as concerned citizens and protesters square off against Homeland Security agents. Whistles blow, protest songs ring out, placards wave, tear gas cannisters and threats fly, and force is used—sometimes deadly. Even here in the North Country, immigrant neighbors are disappearing, snatched by ICE or Border Patrol and whisked away to crowded detention centers.

We all know daily chaos, too. The cold virus that just won’t quit. The overcrowded schedule. The relationships stretched thin. The never-ending work. The soaring grocery and gas prices. The worries for our children. Our chaos abounds and it can be hard to know how to live in the middle of all that.

Jesus lived in chaotic times. Jesus lived in an occupied nation. Israel was ruled by Roman-appointed client kings, who did the emperors bidding. Soldiers were garrisoned throughout the land from Capernaum—Jesus’ home base in the Galilee—to the Antonia Fortress—right next to the Jerusalem Temple. There were exorbitant taxes as the people paid for the costs of their occupation and the lavish lifestyles of their appointed rulers. Civil disobedience was ruthlessly dispatched with crucifixion to humiliate dissidents and terrorize communities.

Even the spiritual life of the Israelites was shaped by the chaos of occupation. The High Priests, who controlled the inner workings of the Temple, were also Roman appointees. They came from ancient, affluent priestly families that sat at the top of the social and religious hierarchy of Jerusalem. In the gospels, two High Priests shared top billing. Annas was appointed by Quirinius in the year 6 when Jesus was just a boy and removed from power by Valerius Gratius in the year 15. Yet he remained immensely influential. He controlled a leading faction of the Sanhedrin (the governing council of the Temple). Five of his sons would also serve as High Priests.

Equally powerful was Caiaphas, the son-in-law of Annas. He served as High Priest at the time of Jesus’ death, holding office for almost twenty years. According to the first-century Jewish historian Josephus, Caiaphas had a particularly close and cordial relationship with Pontius Pilate. It was Caiaphas who determined that it would be better for Jesus to be executed than for the wrath of Rome to fall upon the nation. So powerful was the Roman hold upon the High Priest, that, according to Josephus, the priestly vestments were held at the Roman headquarters in the Antonia Fortress. High holy days, like Passover, were strictly controlled by Rome.

After a day in the Temple, as they returned to their lodgings in Bethany, a disciple pointed across the Kidron Valley to the magnificent walls of the Temple, crowning Jerusalem. While the disciples marveled at the beauty of their religious center, Jesus saw the future. The Temple razed to the ground. Famine and earth quake stalking the land. Corrupt, self-serving rulers. And his followers persecuted, tortured, and executed.

Whether we are first century Israelites or twenty-first century Americans, chaos does not feel good. When the bombs fall, we lament civilian deaths, mass destruction, and the rising specter of a third World War. When protesters are abused and immigrants detained, we fear for our public safety and the preservation of constitutional rights. When we are sick or sick and tired, when there aren’t enough hours in the day, when we have more month than money, when tempers are short and love is stretched thin, we feel overwhelmed and anxious. Sometimes this world’s chaos leaves us feeling powerless, even hopeless. We are tempted to tune out and shut down, just to make it through the day.

In today’s reading, Jesus shared wisdom about living in chaotic times. Amid all the fearsome realities that the disciples and the early church would face, Jesus urged his disciples to stand firm in their faith. When false leaders arose with selfish ideologies and big promises, the disciples should trust in God instead. When fear threatened to close them down and shut them up, they were to keep calm and carry on. When chaos brought hatred and betrayal, they must choose the better way of love. For it is only love that has the power to save in the midst of chaos. The disciples would need those words of wisdom. By the end of the week, Jesus would be hanging on a cross, and they would be scattered amid the chaos.

I suspect that if we heed Jesus’ wisdom, we’ll find encouragement and a roadmap for how to live in the midst of our present chaos. We start by standing firm in the faith. As I’m always telling the church’s children, any good relationship takes time, attention, and good communication. We tend our relationship with God by feasting upon the Word in scripture, whether we frequent the Wednesday Bible Study, join in Lenten Learning, ponder the weekly sermon, or enjoy the quiet discipline of reading our Bibles. We build our relationship with God through prayer. Perhaps we’ll serve as a link in the prayer chain or attend to the prayer list in the bulletin. Maybe we’ll open our hearts during the prayers of the people or set aside some quiet moments daily, to pour out our cares and listen quietly for the comfort and leading of the Spirit.

As we seek God in scripture and prayer, trust grows. We remember the promise that Jesus made to his disciples at the conclusion of Matthew’s gospel, that he would be with them always, to the end of the age. When chaos threatens to overwhelm us, we hold to the promise that Jesus is with us. We can face the evening news, the overcrowded schedule, and the rising costs because we are not alone. The future belongs to God and we can trust that there will be a better tomorrow.

As we stand firm in faith and grow in our trust of God, we find that we can carry on. We see that we are part of a community of brave and faithful people who call the world to that better tomorrow that Jesus holds for us. We live in ways that anticipate that future. We gather on Sunday mornings to worship and praise, then we go forth into the week to be like Christ, whether we are feeding hungry people, comforting friends in crisis, welcoming strangers, standing with immigrant neighbors, visiting those who are sick or homebound, or speaking the truth in love. When we carry on and get into some good trouble together, hope finds a toehold in the midst of our chaos. We kindle the fire of love—and we know that love, not bombs or bullets or the stock market or Homeland Security, only love can bring lasting peace and salvation for our world.

I wish I could promise that the chaos is going to be better at this time next week. But if I did, I would just be one of those false prophets that Jesus warned his friends about. The war in Iran will undoubtedly escalate. There will be civilian casualties, and we will likely lose more of our own troops. We may shake the last of that cold virus, but the markets will continue to struggle and those gas prices are certain to rise. Kristi Noem may have lost her job at Homeland Security, but the outlook for our immigrant communities will remain bleak. We will live in the midst of chaos, but take courage, my friends. We got this. Stand firm in the faith, trust God, carry on, and love—always love. Amen.

Resources

Matt Skinner. “Walking the Palm Sunday Path: A Lenten Sermon Series for 2026” in Preaching Series, January 21, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching-series/walking-the-palm-sunday-path-in-lent-a-sermon-series-for-2026

Jessie Yeung, Sophie Tanno. “Everything we know on the eighth day of the US and Israel’s war with Iran” in CNN News, March 7, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/everything-we-know-on-the-eighth-day-of-the-us-and-israel-s-war-with-iran/ar-AA1XHgna?ocid=msedgntp&pc=W251&cvid=69ac63a3ee9343808a0aacc504be01e0&ei=21

Julia Frankel. “Country by country, here’s how the unfolding war is affecting the Middle East and beyond” in Associated Press World News, March 6, 2026. Accessed online at https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-war-israel-strait-or-hormuz-deaths-f1619c6bfbbd5fe10857ff0af073aa0e

Corey J. Sanders. “Commentary on Luke 19:28-40” in Preaching Series, Jan. 22, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching-series/sermon-series-matthew-241-14-jesuss-temple-discourse

Rodney Sadler, Jr. “Exegetical Perspective on Matthew 24:1-14” in Feasting on the Gospels: Matthew, vol. 2. WJKP, 2013.

“Annas” and “Caiaphas” in the Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. 1, A-C. Yale U. Press, 1992.

Matthew 24:1-14

As Jesus came out of the temple and was going away, his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. 2 Then he asked them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly I tell you, not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”
3 When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” 4 Jesus answered them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah!’ and they will lead many astray. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places: 8 all this is but the beginning of the birth pangs. 9 “Then they will hand you over to be tortured and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of my name. 10 Then many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 And this good news of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the world, as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.

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Truth to Power

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Truth to Power” Mark 12:1-12

Rachel spoke truth to power. For her senior year at Evergreen State College, Rachel proposed a special independent study. She would travel to Gaza with the International Solidarity Movement. There, she would live in community with Palestinian families, initiate a “sister city” project between Olympia and Rafah, and start a pen-pal program between children in the two cities. Rachel was shocked at the destruction she found in Gaza. Every day, homes were leveled and people detained and killed. Rachel wrote of her experience to her family. Inundated by the abounding hospitality of her beleaguered Gazan hosts, she wrote, “I just feel sick to my stomach a lot from being doted on all the time, very sweetly, by people who are facing doom. . . Honestly, a lot of the time the sheer kindness of the people here, coupled with the overwhelming evidence of the willful destruction of their lives, makes it seem unreal to me.”

Bill spoke truth to power. He served as an infantryman in World War II, went to college, and worked for the CIA, but a spiritual calling took him to seminary. Bill’s passion, inspired by his faith, was social justice. In the 1960s, he was arrested three times as a Freedom Rider, challenging segregation laws by riding interstate buses in the South. Next, Bill turned his attention to America’s growing involvement in Vietnam. He used his significant influence as the chaplain of Yale to organize for the anti-war effort, earning the scrutiny of the Johnson administration. Wishing to make an example of Bill, he was arrested on federal charges of conspiracy to advise draft evasion and found guilty.

Zyahna spoke truth to power. At fifteen, she drafted a petition to the Charlottesville City Council calling for the removal of that infamous statue of Robert E. Lee and the renaming of Lee Park. The seeds of Zyahna’s protest were planted in her fifth-grade studies of the Civil War. She remembers, “Once I learned the truth about slavery and the Civil War, I felt disgusted that my city wanted to display a statue that celebrated my ancestors’ pain.” The City Council responded by creating a commission to consider the statue’s removal and ultimately voted to remove it.

Jesus spoke truth to power. His provocative Palm Sunday parade dramatized the tensions between the Kingdom of God and the earthly powers and principalities. Later that day, when Jesus arrived at the Temple and entered the Court of the Gentiles, he was so offended by the greed and corruption he saw that he overturned the tables of the moneychangers and the seats of those who sold doves for sacrifice. It was not a subtle entry into the city. In fact, it drew the attention of the chief priests and elders, some of the most powerful people in Jerusalem. They hailed from wealthy influential families at the pinnacle of society and walked a fine line between loyalty to their tradition and fealty to the Roman emperor. They came to Jesus as he was teaching and demanded to know who had given him the authority to undertake such a radical and prophetic act.

Jesus answered his critics with a tough story about a landowner and his vineyard.  As Jesus began, it seemed as if he might spin some midrash on Isaiah 5, the Song of the Vineyard. Isaiah described God’s frustration and disillusionment with Israel through the story a loving farmer, who cleared land, worked the earth, built a protective wall and watchtower, and carefully planted the very best vines to bear a bumper crop of sweet, juicy grapes. At harvest time, though, the farmer found only wild grapes—tough, sour, and inedible. God expected a harvest of righteousness from God’s people—folks living in right relationship with God and one another, but God found oppression, bloodshed, and injustice.

When Jesus told his parable to his critics, he made a few key changes in Isaiah’s plot.  That loving farmer went on a long trip and entrusted his beautiful vineyard to some hired hands.  Come harvest time, the vineyard was producing abundantly, just as the landowner had anticipated. The trouble was with the tenants. They seemed to think the vineyard existed only to serve their personal and economic interests. They didn’t think they owed the vineyard owner a red cent. Jesus’s vineyard owner was merciful to the point of foolishness. He repeatedly sent servants, even a beloved son, to speak holy truth and return the wayward tenants to the right path. Right about then, the chief priests and elders must have been feeling a bit uncomfortable.

The story that Jesus told is a juridical parable, a combination of allegory and hyperbole (exaggeration) that is intended to shock and provoke the listener. His listeners were invited to stand in judgment of themselves with the hope that change could happen. Confronted by their failure to honor God and the ridiculous, overflowing mercy of God, Jesus sought to shift perspectives and change behaviors. Could the Son be welcomed? Could the tenants return to God the righteous action that was needed? The graced moment passed. Judgment was pronounced. The chief priests and elders withdrew, conspiring to turn Jesus over to Pilate. We anticipate the close of that first Holy Week: Jesus, outside the walls of the city, his broken body nailed to a cross, breathing his last.

Speaking truth to power is never easy. It is not thinking that the world is wrong and only we are right. It is a bold bid for change and transformation that requires tremendous moral courage. It demands firm conviction that our righteous action is in keeping with God’s best hopes for humanity. Our words must pass the litmus test of love. Will the truth we speak ultimately increase love for God and neighbor—all neighbors? Speaking truth to power is an act of ethical resistance that can cost you your friendships, family, status, reputation, livelihood, safety, and even your life. Just ask Jesus. But without those who are bold enough to speak the truth, change cannot come.

Rachel Corrie never completed her senior project. Her efforts to stand with her Gazan hosts as they contended with the Israeli Defense Force ended her life. Rachel placed herself between an IDF Caterpillar bulldozer and a Palestinian home, thinking to prevent its demolition. Instead, she was run over twice. Her death brought international attention to the plight of Gazans. After her death, her family launched the Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace & Justice to “support programs that foster connections between people, that build understanding, respect, and appreciation for differences, and that promote cooperation within and between local and global communities.”

William Sloan Coffin’s conviction on federal charges of conspiracy to advise draft evasion was overturned on appeal. Bill continued to advocate for non-violence and world peace. His provocative activism took him to Iran in 1979 to perform Christmas services for hostages being held in the U.S. embassy during the Iran hostage crisis and to Nicaragua to protest U.S. military intervention there. He became president of SANE/FREEZE, the nation’s largest peace and justice organization. His activism sometimes put him at odds with his parishioners, who admired his messages but wished he would spend more time actually being their pastor. Shortly before his death in 2006, Bill founded Faithful Security, a coalition for people of faith committed to working for a world free of nuclear weapons.

Zyahna Bryant’s petition to remove the Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville inflamed supporters of Confederate monuments. In August 2017, white supremacists descended upon the city in an effort to preserve the statue. Anti-racist demonstrators rallied to counter protest. One person was murdered and several others injured when a white supremacist used his car as a weapon, ramming a group of counter protesters. Zyahna Bryant is still using her voice to speak truth to power. She’s a student now at the University of Virginia, and serves as the youngest member of the inaugural Virginia African American Advisory Board. The Robert E. Lee statue was removed on July 10, 2021, and melted down in 2023 to be repurposed into new public art.

When the beloved son was killed, that foolishly merciful landlord did not destroy the unscrupulous tenants. Instead, God raised the Beloved Son, who returned with a message, not of judgment, but of love. It’s a love so great that it broke the power of sin and death. It’s a love so all-encompassing that it can meet all the evil of every wicked tenant that has ever lived and work from it a miracle of redemption and life. The risen Lord comes, again and again, calling the world to be in right relationship with God and one another.

We remember that the beloved son sent his friends out to do the same. They spoke God’s truth and took their licks, from the disciples to the apostles and martyrs, from Catherine of Alexandria to Francis of Assisi, from Martin Luther to Sojourner Truth, from Dorothy Day to Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Bill Coffin to Rachel Corrie to Zyahna Brayant—to us. With trembling voices, we join the throng, lamenting acts of genocide, unjust war, systemic racism, and more. We call the world to the better way of love. We do our part, pay the price, and hope for change.

Resources

The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice. “Rachel Corrie” and “Projects.” Accessed online at https://rachelcorriefoundation.org/

Robert Shetterly. “Rachel Corrie” in Americans Who Tell The Truth. Accessed online at https://americanswhotellthetruth.org/portraits/rachel-corrie/

Robert Shetterly. “William Sloane Coffin” in Americans Who Tell The Truth. Accessed online at https://americanswhotellthetruth.org/portraits/william-sloane-coffin/

Robert Shetterly. “Zyahna Bryant” in Americans Who Tell The Truth. Accessed online at https://americanswhotellthetruth.org/portraits/zyahna-bryant/

Zyahna Bryant. “Zy Bryant Official: More of the movement, less of myself.” Accessed online at https://zybryant.com/

Rupert Cornwell. “The Rev William Sloane Coffin: Radical priest and rights activist” in The Independent, April 14, 2006. Accessed online at https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/the-rev-william-sloane-coffin-6103769.html

Matthew Skinner. “Commentary on Mark 12:1-12” in Craft of Preaching: Preaching Series, Jan. 22, 2026. Accessed online at https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching-series/sermon-series-mark-121-12-parable-of-the-wicked-tenants

Spalding, Richard E. “Pastoral Perspective on Matthew 21:33-46” in Feasting on the Word, Year A, vol. 4. Louisville: Westminster john Knox Press, 2011.

McMickle, Marvin A. “Homiletical Perspective on Matthew 21:33-46” in Feasting on the Word, Year A, vol. 4. Louisville: Westminster john Knox Press, 2011.

Mark 12:1-12

12 Then he began to speak to them in parables. “A man planted a vineyard, put a fence around it, dug a pit for the winepress, and built a watchtower; then he leased it to tenants and went away. 2 When the season came, he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his share of the produce of the vineyard. 3 But they seized him and beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 And again he sent another slave to them; this one they beat over the head and insulted. 5 Then he sent another, and that one they killed. And so it was with many others; some they beat, and others they killed. 6 He had still one other, a beloved son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they seized him, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. 9 What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy the tenants and give the vineyard to others. 10 Have you not read this scripture:

‘The stone that the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone;
11 this was the Lord’s doing,
    and it is amazing in our eyes’?”

12 When they realized that he had told this parable against them, they wanted to arrest him, but they feared the crowd. So they left him and went away.

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Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” Luke 19:1-10

Americans are worried about income inequality, the disparity of wealth between the rich and poor in our country. In the lead up to the 2024 election, 71% of Americans said that the growing gap between rich and poor would be a crucial factor in how they cast their votes. America’s 806 billionaires control more wealth than the 65 million families that make up the lower earning half of our population. That wealth gap has grown dramatically since the onset of the pandemic with the combined fortunes of America’s top twelve billionaires jumping from $1.3 trillion dollars in March of 2020 to more than $2 trillion dollars today.  Those in the middle and lower classes have not similarly benefited. In looking at just financial assets like savings or stocks and bonds, the typical American has added no wealth in the past thirty years. The median retirement savings for the bottom half of Americans is zero. 52% of Americans have no emergency savings; they are one economic setback away from financial hardship. 23% of Americans aged sixty-six and older face poverty. When compared to the rest of the world, we have greater disparity between rich and poor than any other nation in the G7.

The government shutdown shines an uncomfortable spotlight on our economic disparity. If you are like me, you were shocked to learn that 42 million Americans receive SNAP benefits, food assistance from the federal government. That’s about 12% of our population. 38% of SNAP benefits help children, and 20% assists the elderly. Depending on whose statistics you use, between 40% and 85% of households that receive SNAP work, but their low-wage jobs don’t bring in enough income to put food on the table. The shutdown affects more than SNAP. It compromises WIC—Women, Infants & Children, a USDA nutrition program for children under five which helps 41% of our nation’s infants. It also burdens the national school lunch program, which serves up 4.8 billion meals a year to school-aged children. Lord, have mercy.

Jesus lived in a time of shocking income inequality. A small minority, like King Herod, the emperor, and the Temple elite, possessed vast wealth while the majority struggled to meet their basic needs. Property ownership and access to resources were concentrated in the hands of a powerful few, creating an economy where the privileged accumulated more and more wealth while the lower classes remained trapped in generational poverty and want. The bible weighed in on the personal responsibility of faithful people in a world plagued by poverty; Deuteronomy 15:11 taught, “There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore, I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.”

In this world of vast economic differences, Zacchaeus was a rich man. He had amassed his wealth as the Chief Tax Collector for the Jericho region. Rather than collecting the imperial taxes themselves, the Romans farmed out the debt.  Zacchaeus personally paid the taxes of the entire Jericho region. Then, he set about making his money back, hiring lesser tax collectors to collect debt—with a comfortable commission tacked on to cover his expenses and make a tidy profit. It was a system rife with greed and corruption, with Zacchaeus turning a blind eye to the heavy-handed collection efforts of his minions while his personal wealth grew and grew, year after year, and his neighbors lived in poverty.

Zacchaeus was not only the wealthiest man in town; he was also one of the most unpopular.  His neighbors saw him as a Roman collaborator, a traitor to his people, growing ever richer at their expense. Zacchaeus’ ongoing contact with foreign money and Gentiles rendered him “unclean”—someone who was ritually impure and separated from God. Anyone concerned about holiness would have avoided Zacchaeus. The man did not receive a lot of dinner invitations.

Who can blame the neighbors for getting a little uppity at the gracious welcome that Jesus shared with Zaccchaeus? The man was a reprobate, but there stood Jesus, looking up into the sycamore tree and insisting that the tax collector come down and share a little Jericho-style hospitality with him. More than a few righteous families had hoped to host Jesus, but he chose to honor the wealthiest, least loved, and shortest resident of Jericho. Jesus chose to remind Zacchaeus that he was still a child of Abraham, even if he had gotten terribly lost somewhere along the way.

It was then that the miracle happened. When those neighbors started to grumble about Jesus’ choice of dinner companions, Zacchaeus promised to do something about the economic inequality in Jericho. He would give half his possessions to the poor and make 4-fold restitution—that’s 400%—to those neighbors he had defrauded.  When we consider that the Torah required restitution of only 120%, we see that Zacchaeus’ encounter with Jesus rendered him radically generous and righteous. It was a miracle, indeed.

Meanwhile in America, income inequality grows. Federal workers are furloughed, some working without pay. Fifty-two million of our neighbors wonder how they will put food on the table. It feels like a Zacchaeus moment. It feels like Jesus is standing at the foot of the American sycamore tree and inviting himself to dinner—he wants to bring some guests who are every bit as poor as he was. He knows there is enough for all if we will only open our hands and hearts. Jesus wants a miracle of us. The jury is out on whether or not he will get it.

Given the income disparities of our nation and the economic challenge of this moment in time, preaching on stewardship isn’t easy. I can confidently say that not one of us is among America’s 806 billionaires. We are among those 65 million families whose resources would need to be combined to equal the wealth of those 806 richest Americans. We know people with more month than money—our college grads who can’t get a decent job, our senior citizen friends surviving on social security, people bankrupted by health crisis, young families who fear they will never buy a home. We want a miracle for them. We want the world that Jesus envisioned, where the hungry are fed, the sick are healed, and there is enough.

Perhaps the greatest reason that we pledge to this church is because this is a place that has heard Jesus calling to us from the base of the sycamore tree. We are out of the tree. We are doing our best to stand on Jesus’ level. We want a world table where everyone has a place, the plates are full, all are satisfied, and joy abounds. That’s why we partner with the Food Pantry to feed hungry neighbors. We house the homeless at Samaritan House and have rolled up our sleeves to renovate Beacon House. We befriend refugees and advocate for our immigrant neighbors. Our Deacons Fund helps out people in crisis, whether they struggle with rent or healthcare costs, car repairs or utility bills. That’s why we dare to be provoked by sermons that wrestle with big, uncomfortable questions of faith—like “How do we love Jesus and love our neighbors in a world where income inequality abounds and the rich get richer while the poor get poorer?” We trust that our gifts to this church make a difference and move this world closer to the Kingdom.

We don’t know what happened to Zacchaeus after Jesus went on up the road to Jerusalem. I like to imagine that he went home and looked at his fine house, abundant flocks, and big bank account. Instead of seeing them through his eyes, he saw them through Jesus’ eyes. He began to make some different choices. He refused to defraud his neighbors and cracked down on the collectors in his employ. He lived generously, paying the dowries of the poor women of Jericho and offering micro-loans to help families launch small businesses. He took up bread baking and gave away all that homemade goodness. He opened a soup kitchen and took regular turns dining with his impoverished guests. He imagined that Jesus was his guest, always his guest. Local folks even began to grudgingly like him and accept him as a brother, a child of Abraham. The more Zacchaeus shared, the greater his joy.

I trust that the government shutdown will come to an end when our politicians can no longer make political hay from it—or it somehow pricks the conscience of our 806 billionaires. But the Zacchaeus moment won’t pass. As the Deuteronomist warned, “There will always be poor people in the land.” Will we give them a seat at the table? Jesus stands at the foot of our national sycamore tree. Will we come down?

Resources

Sarah Anderson. “Ten facts about wealth inequality in the USA” in the blog of the London School of Economics, Jan. 1, 2025. Accessed online at Ten facts about wealth inequality in the USA – LSE Inequalities

Teresa Ghilarducci. “7 alarming facts about wealth inequality” in Forbes Magazine, April 18, 2025. Accessed online at 7 Alarming Facts About Wealth Inequality: Bring On the Pitchforks?

American Compass. “A Guide to Income Inequality,” April 27, 2021. Accessed online at A Guide to U.S. Economic Inequality | American Compass

Factually. “Fact check: What is the average employment rate of food stamp recipients in the United States as of 2025?” October 29, 2025. Accessed online at Fact Check: What is the average employment rate of food stamp reci…

Barbara Hartshorn. “Economic Disparities in Biblical Society: An In-Depth Examination” in Bible Journal, Dec. 4, 2023. Accessed online at Economic Disparities in Biblical Society: An In-Depth Examination

Eric Barreto. “Commentary on Luke 19:1-10” in Preaching This Week, Nov. 2, 2025. Accessed online at Commentary on Luke 19:1-10 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

Lis Valle-Ruiz. “Commentary on Luke 19:1-10” in Preaching This Week, Oct. 30, 2022. Accessed online at Commentary on Luke 19:1-10 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

David Lose. “Commentary on Luke 19:1-10” in Preaching This Week, Oct. 30, 2022. Accessed online at Commentary on Luke 19:1-10 – Working Preacher from Luther Seminary

Luke 19:1-10

19 He entered Jericho and was passing through it. 2 A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. 7 All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” 8 Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” 9 Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”

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Extraordinary Love

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Sabbath Day Thoughts — “Extraordinary Love” Luke 6:27-38

On June 17, 2015, twenty-one-year-old white supremacist Dylann Roof entered the Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church and made his way to a basement classroom where Reverend Clementa Pinckney was leading the Wednesday night Bible Study. Dylann was warmly welcomed. He took a seat next to Rev. Pinckney and listened silently for forty-five minutes. As Bible Study participants rose to hold hands for a closing prayer, Dylann Roof pulled out a hand gun and opened fire, killing nine church members and wounding three others.

Dylann had been radicalized in a classroom of his own making, doom scrolling daily through white nationalist websites. He penned a manifesto that stated his belief that the white race was in danger and “no one [was] doing anything but talking on the internet.” In Dylann Roof’s mind, someone needed to take action, and he was the man to do it. When asked about his motive for the attack, Dylann Roof said that he had hoped to ignite a race war. He has never apologized or repented for his actions.

“Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. . . Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful… Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Jesus’ words from the Sermon on the Plain are among his most challenging and uncomfortable teachings. In the first century world, members of a community looked to their leaders to set the moral standard for their conduct—a synagogue leader, a wise rabbi, the family patriarch or matriarch, perhaps even Herod or the emperor set the moral tone for those who followed. But Jesus told his followers that they must look to God as their ethical guide and seek to release people from the retribution that they may deserve.

In November of 1957, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reflected on Jesus’ words in his sermon, “Love Your Enemies,” he emphasized that love is the ethical choice that Christians must make in a world where we may not like our experience. King reminded his congregation that Christian love is agape, the selfless love of God working in the lives of men. Instead of retaliating when we are mistreated, we can choose to extend to others the love that God has for us. That divine love can live in us and enable us to reach out to others. Indeed, King wrote, you can love the enemy, even when you do not like what he is doing to you. You can love your enemy who denies your right to vote. You can love your enemy who refuses to pay you a living wage. You can love your enemy who threatens you with lynching. King believed that when we dare to put the selfless love of God to work in dealing with our opponents, we can wear out the hater, break down barriers, and redeem the enemy.

Long before June 17, 2015, the Mother Emanuel Church contended with hate. The church was founded in 1816 by free and enslaved Black people of Charleston who wished to worship together as a community of color. Six years later, church member Denmark Vesey, a freed slave who worked as a carpenter, planned and organized an uprising of city and plantation Blacks. Inspired by the successful revolt of Haitian slaves in 1790, Vesey called for rebels to attack guardhouses and arsenals, seize arms, and free the enslaved people. Authorities were tipped off on the eve of the insurrection, and Vesey with thirty-five of his conspirators, many of them members of Mother Emanuel Church, were hanged. The church was burned to the ground and Black houses of worship were banned. The congregation of Mother Emanuel met in secret from 1822 until 1865, after the Civil War. Later, in the 20th century, Mother Emanuel faced threats of violence for hosting prominent Black leaders, like Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King Jr., and organizing significant civil rights events, like Coretta Scott King’s march for local hospital workers in 1966. Rev. Clementa Pinckney, who was killed by Dylann Roof, taught that despite a history of suffering, Mother Emanuel was a place that sought to continue to “work on the hearts, minds, and spirits of all people.”

“Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. . . Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful… Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” Our world today works in transactional and reciprocal ways. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. We don’t get mad; we just get even. Payback time is gonna’ come. What we experience dictates how we will respond. It’s an escalating pattern of retribution that seems to never end. We find it hard to make different choices. And if we were to look to national leaders to set the moral tone for our conduct, then we would hate our opponents, and we wouldn’t want the best for them.

Truly, the only way to step out of the spiral of vengeance and hate is to consider the mercy of God to us. Though we are sinners, deserving of judgment, God chose to become flesh and enter the world’s darkness. In Jesus, God chose to live for us and show to us the way of agape. In the ultimate act of self-giving love, on a merciless cross, flanked by common criminals, Jesus revealed that God loves us enough to die for us. In the enormity of God’s costly love for us, we begin to see another way. We begin to see that only love can heal hearts, transform an enemy into a friend, and make a changed future possible.

48 hours after having lost mothers, sisters, sons, husbands, and wives, members of the Mother Emanuel Church appeared in court for Dylann Roof’s bond hearing. It was the first time any of them would come face to face with the perpetrator of the hate crime that had robbed them of their beloved ones. The judge presiding over the hearing invited them to make a statement, should they wish. First to speak was Nadine Collier, who lost her mother Ethel Lance. Fighting back tears, Nadine said, “I forgive you … You took something really precious from me. I will never talk to her ever again, I will never be able to hold her again, but I forgive you and have mercy on your soul.” Other church members followed suit and said that they, too, forgave the gunman.

Chris Singleton, an eighteen-year-old who lost his Mom in the mass shooting, wasn’t in the courtroom on that day. He was playing minor league baseball for the Chicago Cubs. He wasn’t following the news and had no idea that the families had decided to issue statements of forgiveness at the hearing, but half a country away, Chris came to the same conclusion. He needed to forgive. Chris says he hopes that the choice for mercy has made a difference. Chris says, “After seeing what happened [at the church] and the reason why it happened, and after seeing how people could forgive, I truly hope that people will see that it wasn’t just us saying words. I know, for a fact, that it was something greater than us, using us to bring our city together.”

Ronald J. Allen, who taught preaching and New Testament at the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis for many years, taught that putting Jesus’ ethical teaching into action can have powerful consequences for our oppressor, ourselves, and our world. In extending love and mercy to those who have wronged us, we open the door to their repentance. As Rev. Pinckney said, our mercy “works on the heart, mind, and spirit” of the other and awakens the possibility for change. In extending God’s love and mercy to others, our personal experience of God’s mercy deepens. We understand that no matter how misdirected or lost we may become, there is always a way back for us, a second chance, a new beginning. Thank you, Lord. Beyond working out reconciliation between two people, when we put Jesus’ ethics into action, we embody the promise of the Kingdom of God. The world begins to imagine God’s realm where we “wear out the hater, break down barriers, and redeem the enemy.” What a wonderful world it will be.

This June marked the tenth anniversary of Dylann Roof’s assault on Mother Emanuel Church. Rev. Pinckney’s widow Jennifer says this was a tough year. Her oldest daughter graduated from college and her 16-year-old went to her first prom without her dad to see her off. The church is in the process of building a memorial to her husband and the other eight victims. They have also purchased a nearby house to serve as a museum for the outpouring of love that Mother Emanuel received from people all around the world in the wake of the shooting: quilts, prayer shawls, artwork, a hand embroidered chair, crosses, banners, music, and more. Asked what the world should take away from this tenth anniversary of Dylann Roof’s hateful act, Jennifer Pinckney said, “The world needs to remember, to come together. We got to love one another. We got to move forward and work together.” She sounded a lot like Jesus.

“Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. . . Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful… Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

Resources

US Justice Department. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA V. DYLANN STORM ROOF in the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina, Charleston Division. July 20, 2015

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica. “Denmark Vesey”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 28 Jun. 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Denmark-Vesey. Accessed 4 October 2025

Cory Collins. “The Miseducation of Dylann Roof” in Learning for Justice, Issue 57, Fall 2017. Southern Poverty Law Center. Accessed online at The Miseducation of Dylann Roof | Learning for Justice

Rasha Ali. “Five years after Charleston church massacre: How ‘Emanuel’ reveals the power of forgiveness” in USA Today, June 17, 2019. Charleston church attack and the power of forgiveness in ‘Emanuel’

Claude Atcho. “Mother Emanuel and the Witness of Black Christian Faith” in Christianity Today, June 5, 2025. Accessed online at Mother Emanuel and the Witness of Black Christian Faith – Christianity Today

Billie Jean Shaw. “‘Stronger than hate’: How the son of a Mother Emanuel victim chose to embrace forgiveness” on WIS10 TV, June 16, 2025. Accessed online at ‘Stronger than hate’: How the son of a Mother Emanuel victim chose to embrace forgiveness

Ronald Allen. “Commentary on Luke 6:27-38” in Preaching This Week, Feb. 24, 2019.  Accessed online at workingpreacher.com.

Sarah Henrick. “Commentary on Luke 6:27-38” in Preaching This Week, Feb. 20, 2022.  Accessed online at workingpreacher.com.

Mary Hinkle Shore. “Commentary on Luke 6:27-38” in Preaching This Week, Feb. 23, 2025.  Accessed online at workingpreacher.com.

Luke 6:27-38

27 “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; 28 bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. 32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap, for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

Image source: https://religionnews.com/2019/06/06/mother-emanuels-forgiveness-narrative-is-complicated-says-reporter-turned-author/