Stewardship

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

/ reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

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.”

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

The Glorious Inheritance

/ reverendjoannwhite / Leave a comment

Sabbath Day Thoughts — “The Glorious Inheritance Eph. 1:11-23

On All Saints Sunday, we remember our ancestors in the faith.

In July 1890 when Jennie Conklin signed her name to the church register as a founding member, she was newly widowed. Earlier that year, Jennie’s husband John had moved the family from Rochester to Saranac Lake in pursuit of a cold air cure for his tuberculosis, but John died soon afterward.  A Scottish immigrant with three children under the age of ten, Jennie was hardworking and resourceful.  She transformed the family home at the corner of Main and Church Streets into one of the village’s earliest and most successful cure cottages.  Jennie accommodated nine tuberculosis patients at a time, charging them $16 to $18 a week for room and board. That may not sound like much money, but in today’s dollars, Jennie collected about $4,700 a week, all while tending to a three-year-old, six-year-old, and a nine-year-old. Jennie brought that same ethic of ingenuity and industry to her forty-five years of church membership. When she died in 1935, she was remembered as an “active worker” for the church, known for her “first-class doughnuts.”

When William and Rosa Roberts signed on as charter members of the church, they were Saranac Lake pioneers. Not long after their marriage in 1874, the two had come to the north shore of Ampersand Bay where William served as the clerk for the Saranac Lake House, one of the most famous Adirondack hotels of the 19th century. By the time the Lake House burned down in 1888, William Roberts had moved on to serve as the village’s first postmaster. Then, as the tuberculosis boom brought more and more people to town, Roberts saw his opportunity and took it, launching a real estate and insurance agency. William Roberts helped to build this sanctuary.  He was one of the church’s first two elders. In fact, he served as our clerk of session for thirty-eight years, until his retirement in 1928, taking minutes in a nearly indecipherable hand.  You can see him in the photo at the back of the church walking ahead of President Coolidge and Rev. Newell as they emerge from worship. He was notoriously intolerant of long-winded preachers.  One Sunday, he felt the service ran too long, so he collected folding chairs from the center aisle when people rose to sing the last hymn. Unaware that their chairs were gone, worshippers tumbled to the ground when they tried to take their seats for the postlude.

When William Roberts died in 1934, the church grieved, and the elders of session served as his pallbearers.  Among those who carried the burden was Dr. Hugh McClennan Kinghorn. Kinghorn was the young medical superintendent of Montreal General Hospital in 1896 when he contracted pulmonary tuberculosis. He came to Saranac Lake for treatment from EL Trudeau and stayed on after receiving a clean bill of health, serving first as an assistant to Dr. Trudeau and then opening his own medical practice, just one block up Church Street. There was great excitement at the session table in 1897 when Rev. Tatlock announced that Dr. Kinghorn was joining the church. He was promptly appointed to the newly minted board of deacons and continued to be a mainstay of the church for sixty years, until his death in 1957. Dr. Kinghorn was particularly interested in the spiritual nurture of young people. In the mid-1920’s he recommended that confirmation students be given Bibles upon joining the church, a practice we continue today. He also suggested that the minister counsel the youth of the church on the importance of abstinence from the consumption of alcohol.

Jennie Conklin, William Roberts, Hugh Kinghorn. What a glorious inheritance they have left for us here at the Presbyterian Church!

In our reading from the letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul reminded the church that they were heirs to a glorious inheritance.  Ephesus, on the Aegean coast of what is now Turkey, was the leading city of the Roman Province of Asia.  The prosperous port was home to a prominent Jewish community and a well-established synagogue. There Paul had taught for three months during his third missionary journey, until he wore out the patience of the temple’s traditionalists and was asked to leave.  Ephesus was also a major center for pagan worship. Indeed, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the Tempe of Artemis, drew worshippers from across the Roman Empire.  There pilgrims sacrificed to a many-breasted idol that had fallen from the sky.  Paul, Apollos, Prisca, and Aquila had improbably planted a church in Ephesus, a Christian community that had knit Jews and Gentiles into the body of Christ.

Being a Christian wasn’t easy for those first church members in Ephesus.  They faced opposition from the synagogue, which saw them as heretics who had forsaken the Torah to affiliate with unclean Gentiles.  They also faced opposition from their pagan neighbors.  In one of the most sensational stories of the Acts of the Apostles, we learn that Demetrius the silversmith started a riot in Ephesus in protest of Christians, whose winning ways detracted from the worship of Artemis and put a dent in his sale of silver idols. Members of the Ephesian church were verbally abused and beaten during the riot, and Paul was forced to flee for his life.

It sounds like a tough setting for ministry, yet Paul wrote that his Ephesian friends had every reason to celebrate.  Through Jesus Christ, God had claimed them for God’s purpose and adopted them into the people of Israel. They had a share in the glory and honor and power of Jesus, who had been raised from the dead and seated at God’s right hand in the heavenly realm.  Earthly powers of synagogue and temple might make for challenging ministry, but the faithful of Ephesus were heirs to a glorious inheritance among the saints.  Because they dared to hope in Jesus, the Ephesians could live for the praise of his glory. Their mourning turned to dancing, their lament to jubilation. How could they keep from singing?

On All Saints Sunday, we consider our glorious inheritance among the saints – the saints of Ephesus and the saints of Saranac Lake, like Jennie Conklin, William Roberts, and Hugh Kinghorn.  We, too, have been claimed by Christ and sealed with the Spirit for God’s purpose.  We also acknowledge the responsibility that comes with that wondrous heritage. As heirs and bearers of a legacy, we live in ways that are worthy of our calling. We honor the past and look to God’s future, confident that we are beloved children and inheritors of an imperishable legacy. 

This church abounds with people who honor our glorious inheritance with the sharing of their time, talent, and treasure.  Ted Gaylord, Anita Estling, and Skip Outcalt followed in the footsteps of William Roberts as Clerks of Session.  They may not have served in that capacity for thirty-eight years straight, but their handwriting is a whole lot better.  And with the advent of computers and acid-free papers, the minutes they take today will be perfectly legible for the saints of tomorrow. Others among us have served as elders, doing the prophetic work of making budgets, planning programs, discerning where the Spirit may be leading, and sharing the yoke of leadership. Do we have some elders here today? 

Others among us have, like Dr. Kinghorn, been called to the Board of Deacons.  We care for members and friends in times of sickness or struggle.  We are the first to welcome our babies and to bless our dead.  We have been known to prepare a delicious Spaghetti Dinner or offer tasty treats in big bake sales.  We raise money and awareness to support vulnerable neighbors through the Deacons’ Fund. Do we have any deacons here today?

Many, like Jennie Conklin, honor our glorious inheritance as “active workers” behind the scenes.  We prepare the sanctuary for Sunday mornings as Sanctus volunteers.  We mow the lawn and shovel snow.  We roll up our sleeves for the annual spring cleaning.  We ply the paintbrush, hammer nails, hang drywall, run electrical wiring, or implement new technology. We make “first-class donuts,” chicken noodle soup, and Mardi gras king cake.  Do we have any “active workers” out there?

On this All Saints Day, we remember that we are heirs to a glorious inheritance and bearers of a local legacy.  Through Christ we are welcomed into the company of all the saints, and by choice we have followed in the footsteps of local saints.  Let us live in ways that are worthy of our calling, honoring the past and looking to God’s future, saints one and all.

Resources:

Evelyn Outcalt and Judy Kratts. A History of the First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake. Church archives.

Historic Saranac Lake. “Hugh M. Kinghorn.” Accessed online at https://localwiki.org/hsl/Hugh_M._Kinghorn

–. “Dr. Hugh Kinghorn Dies; 61 Years in Saranac Lake.” Adirondack Daily Enterprise. Nov. 7, 1957.

–. “Jane Conklin.” Accessed online at https://localwiki.org/hsl/Jane_Conklin

–. “MRS. CONKLIN DIES AFTER LONG ILLNESS.” Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 15, 1935.

–. “William F. Roberts.” Accessed online at https://localwiki.org/hsl/William_F._Roberts

–. : W.F. ROBERTS, SARANAC LAKE PIONEER, DEAD.” Adirondack Daily Enterprise, Dec. 13, 1934.

Sally Brown. “Commentary on Eph. 1:11-23” in Preaching This Week, Nov. 7, 2010. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/all-saints-day-2/commentary-on-ephesians-111-23-5

Emerson Powery. “Commentary on Eph. 1:11-23” in Preaching This Week, Nov. 3, 2019. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/all-saints-day-2/commentary-on-ephesians-111-23-4

Mark Tranvik. “Commentary on Eph. 1:11-23” in Preaching This Week, Nov. 3, 2013. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/all-saints-day-2/commentary-on-ephesians-111-23-3

Ephesians 1:11-23

11In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, 12so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. 13In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; 14this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory. 15I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason 16I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 20God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. 22And he has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

First Presbyterian Church of Saranac Lake, 1901