“Zaccheus was a wee little man and a wee little man was he. He climbed up into a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. And as the Saviour passed that way he looked up into the tree. And he said, Zaccheus, you come down. For I’m going to your house for tea! For I’m going to your house for tea!”

Zaccheus, was what the people might look at as a double agent. Although he was born Jewish and lived as a Jew, he really worked for the Roman authorities. You know the story -He was a chief tax collector. He was given power by the roman authorities to take a head tax from each person to increase the wealth of the Roman Empire. If people did not give him what he requested, he could report them to the local military garrison who would use violence to persuade families to pay the tax. Zaccheus hurt people. Took advantage of them and misused his power.

Part of the sweet deal for Zaccheus was that he could take more from families then he was required to give to the Roman Authorities. He took as much profit as he could. That’s what all the tax collectors did. It was how they made their living. But in doing so Zaccheus cut himself off from his people. They were disgusted by this act of treachery –being Jewish, but doing the work of the Romans. He lived among his people, but had no connection with them. . Zaccheus did not really belong. He was cut-off.
Klazeina lives at Coleman Health care centre. She was just a face with a beautiful smile  when I met her a couple of months ago. She was confused and not able to really have a conversation and so I smiled back at her and held her hand. Recently, I visited Coleman again and went looking for Klazeina. It was then that a beautiful miracle happened. Klazeina was herself- able to talk, full of memories of her life as a busy farm wife just north of Barrie. She had moved from Holland as a young bride and together with her husband she worked to make a life for herself and her family. She baked and gardened- worked hard. As she softly spoke the Dutch term of endearment that her husband used to call her, her eyes brimmed with tears.  She was reconnecting to her past – all that she had been and still was deep with in her heart. She recalled how she was an involved member of her church community at Crown Hill United Church.  We talked about people we both knew from Crown Hill – Bernice, Charles, Nancy- and as each name came up her face lit up just a bit brighter than before.  Time passed and it was time for me to go. I gave her a hug, but as I was going she said “this has made all the difference. I feel connected again.”
 “this has made all the difference. I am feel connected again.”
 And I knew that was no small thing because as she said it I could feel the air prickle with power, vibrate with a sense that this had been a miracle of reconnection. Klazeina had reconnected with  what gave her life meaning and with her people. She felt known. She remembered that she belonged to others and to God. 
It started me wondering. What does it mean to be connected?  What does it mean to be cut off or disconnected?

For Klazeina, sitting in a wheelchair having a snack beside the nurses station where I found her,  her life partner gone, dependant on a healthcare aid to help her use the toilet or get into bed or get dressed, being cut-off or disconnected was a familiar place. It was a difficult place for me to enter, but one person’s presence was all that was needed for her to be connected again. Once we started talking she knew she was more than just a disabled senior. She was Klazeina – a loving person and person well loved. To be connected again meant being in a relationship that reconnected her to her purpose. 

Being connected. It makes all the difference.

Like Klazeina, Zaccheus was cut off.   Cut off from his people. Cut off from their love and support. Cut off from his roots. But cut off for a different reason than Klazeina. He was cut off from community for the sake of wanting more. Offered this position as tax collector he probably thought it was a good idea, especially for the wellbeing of his family, but we enter his story at a time when he had had enough of the broken relationships with friends and family to which his job had led him..

Along comes Jesus, itinerant preacher, to Jericho. Everyone wants to see him.  Zaccheus too is attracted by Jesus’ way of living that is all about community. He wants to hear about how to live in right relationship with others which is the only way to be in right relationship with God. And although no one else has given him the time of day or a space to park his small body along side the road, he finds a tree that let’s him see. Jesus notices him all alone up there in the tree and is intrigued. Asking a local who his is he finds that it is the tax collector, Zaccheus. Jesus could have been indignant with someone who was taking advantage of poor people, could have spoken harshly to him and cut him off some more, but what happens surprises everyone. And Jesus is always surprising people and turning the world upside down.

Jesus walks right up to him, calls him by name and as the song says invites himself for tea. He re-establishes connection – he’s probably been the first Jewish person to speak in a friendly way to him in a long time. As they talk, I imagine the heaviness falling away from Zaccheus as Jesus says you can be free to admit how you have hurt people and be free to be forgiven. Free to live God’s kingdom way of love and justice.  We don’t know how Zaccheus figured out how to return 4 times more than he took from his people or what poor people he gave half of his wealth to.  We don’t know how long it took people to realize that he was reaching out to them saying, “I need you. I need my people” We don’t know how long it took  them to wrap him up with arms of love and forgiveness. We only hear Jesus saying, “Today you are right with God and right with people.”
Jesus’ visit with Zaccheus reminds us that God created us for companionship - for relationship. God created us to be connected with others. It’s how we are hardwired. Life has no meaning or purpose or hope when we are alone. Zaccheus was created for relationship and meeting Jesus empowered him to let go of his fear about not having enough money and to step into right relationship with God and others.

Connected again.  It makes all the difference when you have cut yourself off.

Meeting Jesus in the difficult place of admitting his abuse of power enabled Zaccheus to live into right relationship.
My Nana’s mother died when she was 13. When she was 15, her father, angry with her for going over to  the French Roman Catholic Side of Victoria Harbour, threw her out of her home. She went to work in Toronto for a family  of a different culture that locked her in her room and made her work all the time. Alone and vulnerable,  cut- off from her sister and all support systems, she wrote in tears to her Sunday school teacher about her situation. Her teacher wrote back and told her to come back to Victoria Harbour and live with her. She would give her work at the post office.
That was such a true gift of grace for my young Nana who spoke of her Sunday school teacher with such gratitude. It was a gift of reconnection to circles of love and support, to people who valued and cherished her.

Connected again. It makes all the difference when you are alone.

And meeting Jesus in the difficult place of my Nana’s lonely tears empowered Nana’s Sunday school teacher to live into right relationship.

This week I was speaking to a native friend from Manitoulin Island and asking how the residential schools had affected his family. His mother had been younger and not required by law to go away, but her older siblings had been sent away. My friend’s uncle had been sent away at age 5. Separated so long and in a severe environment his uncle did not receive any loving touch or affection such a long time that when he became a parent he could not express love to his own children. Cut-off and touched by the sexual abuse at the school his uncle had learned to shut down parts of himself as a means of self protection. Today, he finds it helpful to speak to his family and others about his experience.  Part of his life-long healing is to connect with others through telling his story so that they will understand and stand with him and his people. 

Our role in the past as members of a church who ran residential schools has cut us off  from right relationship with our native people. In order to help people like my friends uncle heal we need to hear their stories and let them know we are sorry and that we understand how we have hurt them by imposing our ways and culture.

Connected again. It makes all the difference to the healing.

And meeting Jesus in the difficult place of residential schools empowers us as people to live into right relationship with our native people.

At Christmas time the Amnesty international branch at Dalston Crown Hill Church provided notepaper, pens and sample letters to international prisoners in jail for standing up for human rights in their own countries. It is difficult to imagine what that kind of experience is like– frightening, isolating, wondering if you are even remembered by anyone.  The Barrie Amnesty groups along with others all around the world, tries to let people know they are not forgotten, that they are advocating for their freedom and release.

Connected again. It makes all the difference when in prison.

Meeting Jesus in the difficult place of human rights abuses around the world empowers the Amnesty Group at Dalston CrownHill to live into right relationship. 

Two weeks ago I visited Moms need a break. What I was most touched by was the power of the connections between the women there. The support they give each other as they go through challenging health issues with their children. What a powerful place they play in each others lives  to be able to call each other when they are at the end of their rope and no longer able to cope. It is no small thing to be connected to others who are for you and with you all the way. I could feel the energy in the air when they spoke.

Connected again. It makes all the difference when you are overwhelmed with what life has brought your way.  

I am so grateful to Klazeina and that connection we had. I am so grateful for that  God moment when the air was alive with the spirit at work and she said, “That made all the difference. I feel connected again.”
We leave here knowing that  Jesus  notices, stops, says our names and like he did with Zaccheus  enters with us into places that are difficult and allow us to live into right relationship with others and God. Thanks be to God.