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We Shall Be Changed
The year 2010 is marked with personal historical significance. I witnessed my mother move from diagnosis Read More
Rosemary D. Gooden | Read Luke 19:6-10
As Zacchaeus hurries down from his perch in the sycamore tree and welcomes Jesus to his house, everyone witnessing this scene starts murmuring. We can hear them now: “What kind of man would go to the house of a chief tax collector for dinner? Is he out of his mind?...
Holy and life-giving God, thank you for seeing us in the crowd and offering us the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. Help us humbly to repent and follow you daily. Amen.
Habakkuk stands aghast at the “destruction and violence” all around and wonders how justice never seems to conquer. At the end of the reading, God contrasts the proud, whose spirit “is not right in them,” with the righteous who live by faith. The psalmist delights in God’s righteousness and in the commandments of God; however, he admits that “I am small and despised.” The psalmist’s “trouble and anguish” appear in Second Thessalonians also, but here the “persecutions and the af ictions” endured by the faithful serve a particular end: They stand as signs of the imminent return of Jesus Christ. In the Gospel reading Jesus tells Zacchaeus, “Today salvation has come to this house,” which reminds us that the righteous who live by faith are not necessarily the socially or religiously acceptable.
• Read Habakkuk 1:1-4; 2:1-4. What situations in your life and world cause you to cry out to God, “How long?”?
• Read Psalm 119:137-144. Who have you known who trusts God implicitly? How has that person’s example helped you in the past? How might you let it help you in the future?
• Read 2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12. How will you offer Christ’s peace to someone you meet today?
• Read Luke 19:1-10. Jesus’ interaction caused Zacchaeus to trust God and straighten out his life. Where and with whom might God be leading you to share with others the heart of Christ?
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