A new take on Zacchaeus

I expect everyone is familiar with the story of Zacchaeus (as recorded in Luke 19) You maybe also sang this song as a child:

Now Zacchaeus was a very little man,

And a very little man was he,

He climbed up to the top of the tree,

For the Saviour he wanted to see,

For the Saviour he wanted to see.

Now when the Saviour came that way,

He looked up to the tree,

And said, “Now Zacchaeus, you come down,

I’m coming to your house for tea,

I’m coming to your house for tea!” 

I was reading Daniel B. Clendenin' s website http://www.journeywithjesus.net/ this week and found the following new take on the story.  I have heard the tale many times before I have never understood Zacchaeus in this way.

Traditionally Zacchaeus is a sinner who repents and is converted on the spot and as a result he promises future reparations. Clendenin writes:

"There's another way to read this story in which Zacchaeus isn't a sinner who converts but a saint who surprises. He doesn't make promises about the future, rather, he defends himself and shocks the crowd by appealing to his past. Both interpretations depend on how you translate Luke 19:8, and in particular the verbs that in the Greek text are in the present tense. It's a good example of the interplay between translation and interpretation. Even though the verbs are in the present tense, the typical way of reading of this story follows scholars like Robert Stein and translations like the NRSV and NIV. They render the present tense verbs as a "futuristic present." That is, Zacchaeus the sinner repents and vows that henceforth he'll make restitution.
The second option follows commentators like Joseph Fitzmyer and translations like the KJV and RSV. They render the verbs as a "progressive present tense." In this reading, Zacchaeus is a hidden saint about whom people have made all sorts of false assumptions about his corruption. And so he defends himself: "Lord, I always give half of my wealth to the poor, and whenever I discover any fraud or discrepancy I always make a fourfold restitution.The crowd had demonized Zacchaeus. Jesus praises him."

An understanding of grammar can thus transform the interpretation of the story.  

I like the second way of reading the story. It fits with the many times that in Luke's gospel Jesus calls out good people who are bad and commends bad people who are good. The gospel has some unlikely heroes — the faith of a Roman soldier, a "good" Samaritan, a shrewd manager who was commended for his dishonesty, a Samaritan leper who was the only person to give thanks for his healing, and an un-named tax collector who was commended as more righteous than a Pharisee. This way of interpreting the story of Zacchaeus adds another person to this list that praises those it was considered shocking to praise.

Image courtesy of satit_srihin  /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Social media - the pluses and the minuses

This blog is a tiny part of the phenomenon of 'Social media'. 

Social media of all kinds (especially facebook and twitter) is a tool that connects and informs people and encourages communication and the sharing of opinions. It has grown exponentially and now almost everyone is involved. For those in the church it can be a very effective tool but we need to be aware of the pitfalls. Here are a short list of the benefits and the risks when you get involved. 

The good points -
It is instantaneous
You can communicate immediately with a potentially huge number of people. The people who read what you say can pass on your message. Conversations can be had between people who would not otherwise meet in a public arena and these exchanges can be freely observed by others.
It feels personal
I like the comment of a teenager who said "I love my computer because I meet all my friends there." We can be connected to our network where ever we are in the world in a way that feels personal and inclusive. Social media is a tool that can be used to build relationships and community.
It is not preaching at people
Social media enables people to participate, converse, develop ideas and give feedback. At best it is a debating forum where ideas are robustly discussed. Sometimes this is not for the faint hearted but those who enjoy debates in the real world will find many opportunities to discuss areas of interest on line. 

The Risks

It is a public space

Writing an update on facebook can seem like having a conversation with your friends but you are really writing on a billboard in a public hall. If you forget that it is public, you may also start to think that conventions about confidentiality or gossip don't apply. You must think of anything you say on-line as information that you want and are happy for anyone and everyone to hear you say. Before you paste those words on-line imagine what you would feel if they were to appear in a local newspaper with your name alongside.

It can never be totally private
Even if you set your privacy settings to the highest level, so that only your friends can see what you write, you can have no control on what they do with it once it has left your computer. They can freely pass it on. Do you know and trust all your friends enough to be 100% confident that they would never pass on something. Have you ever shared something without asking the person who sent it to you if you may? When dealing with social media you must think of everything as public.
It is considered publishing in law
The law of the land that applies to libel, copyright, freedom of information and data protection apply on line just as in any other form of publishing. 
Your words will be there forever
If you have second thoughts about something you have written on- line and delete it soon after,  you may be too late. It could have already been shared and may well be stored forever in various places in cyberspace.
What is public and what is private?
There is a blurring of the boundary between public and private space. It is no longer as clear as it once was. If you have a job such as a minister are you writing something in the name of the organisation you are seen to represent or are you writing in a wholly personal capacity. If you say things that offend your employers policies, will you be disciplined? In a church context the personal opinions of church workers may be taken to represent the church. Clergy have been advised to use separate social media account for public ministry and a separate profile for their private life. This is a difficult area as for many of us our public life and private life merge in a vocation that involves all we do. 

The most important thing is to look at what you have written, think twice and then think again. If you have any doubts DON'T POST.

Image courtesy of  jannoon028  /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Friends reunited

I left school almost forty years ago! Wow!  Where did all that time go? But last week I signed up to the "Friends Reunited" website. I have lost contact with everyone from my school days and I wondered what had happened to them.
It was very interesting to see how those folks who have joined the "Friends Reunited" website have described themselves and where they have ended up. Many are now scattered across Europe but quite a number are predictably clustered around the area we came from.
So now my curiosity is satisfied. 
It is important as I reflect on this exercise to remember that I do not know any of the people whose names I recognise. We were together a long time ago and I have had a full and happy family life with a whole new circle of friends. I guess that each one of them has had similar experiences. I cannot see me ever contacting any of them as we all have had such separate divergent lives. We have nothing in common except that forty years ago we sat in the same classroom for several hours a week. (We also had some good social times together as amongst other things we learned about the affects of alcohol!)  At that young age our memories can often seem clearer because they were stored by a much younger brain, uncluttered by the intervening lifetime of stuff.
We have those memories but the people I remember will all have changed and will not be the same today as the children I knew. 
My prying curiosity has been satisfied. However, I will leave my information up there on the website in the unlikely event that anyone, anywhere, ever wonders what happened to me!

Image courtesy of Grant Cochrane /FreeDigitalPhotos.net