November 4, 2001
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
There was a minister who wanted to know what it is like to be homeless. He wanted to know what are the issues homeless people struggle with. So he put on some tattered clothes, left his money and his credit cards at home, and had his wife drop him off on a downtown street in Miami. The only thing that made him different from any other person living on the streets was the fact that his wife would pick him up again in three days.
At the end of the three days, he was hungry, dirty, smelly, and shaken. When he stood in the pulpit the following Sunday, he wore the same rags which he had worn on the street.
There were many things he wished for during those three days he was homeless. A hamburger. A bath. A blanket or a bed. But that was not what had shaken him so badly. The worst part of the experience of living three days on the street was the way he was treated by other people.
It wasn’t the fact that people put so little into his outstretched hand, it was their refusal to see him. The way they refused to make eye contact. The way they looked through him. The way they looked past him.
It was as if he did not exist.
Asian Eyes
We Asian Americans don’t look people in the eye either. Traditionally, we have come to learn that direct—in your face—communication is offensive and impolite. And when someone who is an elder talks to us, we are to look down or away. It’s almost like you didn’t exist.
There was a college classmate of ours who came from the Philippines. She told us that students wore tinted eyeglasses while only teachers could wear clear glasses. In the Philippines, students haven’t earned the privilege yet to see clearly. Tinted eyeglasses labeled students and kept them in their places.
Looking each other in the eye is such a problem in China that if you need to apologize to someone and you don’t want to lose face. You can go to the Apology and Gift Center where you pay $2.50 to have a person deliver an in-person apology on your behalf. Also on Beijing People’s Radio, you can avoid eye contact by calling in at 10:00 PM to “Apologize in Public Tonight,” where people can phone in their apologies and have them broadcast! I wonder how sincere is the apology when the person doesn’t have the courtesy to look you in the eye.
Zacchaeus
The minister who experienced homelessness for three days learned that homeless people need someone to recognize them and to greet them as worthwhile human beings. They need to be honored for their worth and integrity. They need to be treated with dignity; simply because they are human beings.
It was like that for Zacchaeus. He longed for someone to recognize him as a person. Zacchaeus wished for someone to look him in the eye. He yearned for a friend who would sit down with him over an evening meal. Just for the fun of it.
Bu Zacchaeus was beyond friendship. He was an outcast because he was a tax collector. He had turned traitor to work with the Romans. He collected the taxes they demanded. And he added a little bit more to line his wallet.
People like Zacchaeus don’t deserve the friendship of anyone. We don’t need to pay him any common courtesy. It’s okay to be rude to someone like Zacchaeus. Pretend you don’t notice he’s there. Look right through him, like you do the people shuffling along Market Street pushing grocery carts holding few possessions they own, as if there’s no one there.
Poor little, lonely Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus who aches and yearns for someone longs to be treated with common courtesy and dignity. Zacchaeus who lies awake at night wondering what it would be like to just have one friend. Just one person who would treat him with honor and respect. Just one person who would enjoy having dinner with him. For the fun of it.
Friendless and outcast, Zacchaeus climbs the sycamore tree to get a better look at Jesus. Jesus, the friend of the friendless.
You know the rest of the story. You’ve heard it a hundred times. You’ve been singing about it since you were a little kid. When Jesus looks up into the tree, he looks Zacchaeus straight in the eye. And Zacchaeus was never the same again.
The Gospel lesson, my friends, is about Jesus, who comes to the outcasts of our world. Jesus who is the friend of the friendless. Jesus who walks right up to people who our world called hopeless. All the down and outers. Jesus looks the down and outers in the eye. Gives them respect and dignity. Treats them with the honor due any human being. Treats them like a friend.
It happened then for Zacchaeus. And, it keeps on happening down through human history. Jesus comes to the friendless and the outcasts of our society, and looks them right in the eye. With respect.
Looking Visitors in the Eye
A couple of weeks ago, the Deacons reviewed the Sunday worship attendance figures—a responsibility they have for the church. If you have felt that there seems to be more
people in worship, more activities almost every weekend, more people to care for, you are right.
From the beginning the year, we have had a total average of over 270 people worshipping on Sunday morning with the past 3 months surpassing 300! While all three services are showing increased numbers, 10:05 worship surpassed over 100 people in worship beginning the year with seven months over 120. And for the month of September, we averaged 143 in worship.
As you can imagine, I am delighted to see the increase in worship attendance. It means that people want to come to worship God. Perhaps like Zacchaeus, we were once lonely and friendless. But we have found at this church, Christian acceptance and friendliness that we are seeking.
In the coming weeks, we will be celebrating the holidays of Thanksgiving and the holy night of Christmas. There will be many strangers and visitors coming to worship with us. Some of them may be the homeless—the down and outcasts. Some of them may very well be like ourselves. Are we ready to welcome them by looking them in the eye?
In the ancient world, hospitality was a central theme. One never knows when the divine will choose to visit or in what form the divine visitor will appear, so one must always be ready to welcome the stranger. When Jesus declared his intention to stay at Zacchaeus’ house, the laws of hospitality were immediately invoked so that Zacchaeus and Jesus were called upon to play the roles of host and guest respectively.
Zacchaeus who is the host, welcomed Jesus into his house only knowing him as a holy man. The interesting twist here is that Jesus is not the stranger here, the host is. The crowd didn’t know who Zacchaeus truly is. Zacchaeus didn’t know about himself either except that something was missing in his life. He was yearning for something he didn’t know—to be someone else, someone who is new.
By the end of the story, Jesus, the guest has become the host, welcoming Zacchaeus into the kingdom, and the host has become the guest, received by Christ. The roles of guest and host often become reversed in hospitality.
When hospitality is offered or shared, amazing things can happen. Guests become hosts, hosts become guests, identities are revealed, the Kingdom is proclaimed, salvation is present.
Through hospitality, the open sharing of lives one with another, we are given eyes to look into each other’s eyes. In this story, Jesus recognizes Zacchaeus as lost, yet saved. Zacchaeus is given eyes to look at his own life in the eye and into the eyes of Jesus. And what he saw was a person who needed forgiveness and when Jesus looked Zacchaeus in the eye, he was not the same person anymore.
The Outcasts in Our Midst
So what does it mean for us today? Most of us sitting in this sanctuary do not qualify as outcasts. We aren’t wandering the streets of downtown. We are here today because we’ve already been looked in the eye by Jesus. Like Zacchaeus, we are never the same once Jesus has looked us in the eye. And like Zacchaeus, we seek mercy and forgiveness for the things that we have done wrong—“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.”
Looking into each other’s eyes isn’t that easy when we have our own needs. We lose sight of what’s really important to honor each other and to give each other the dignity that all human beings deserve—sometimes even toward our own loved ones.
A frail old man went to live with his son, daughter-in-law, and four-year old grandson. The old man’s hands trembled, his eyesight was blurred, and his steps faltered. The family ate together at the table. But the elderly grandfather’s shaky hands and failing sight made eating difficult. Peas rolled off the spoon onto the floor. When he grasped the glass, milk spilled on the tablecloth. The son and the daughter-in-law became irritated with the mess. “We must do something about Grandfather,” said the son. “I’ve had enough of his spilled milk, noisy eating, and food on the table.”
So the husband and wife set a small table in the corner. There, Grandfather ate alone while the rest of the family enjoyed dinner. Since Grandfather had broken a dish or two, his food was served in a wooden bowl. When the family glanced in Grandfather’s direction, sometimes he had a tear in his eye as he sat alone. Still, the only words the couple had for him were sharp scolding when he dropped a fork or spilled his food.
The four-year-old watched it all in silence. One evening before supper, the father noticed his son playing with wood blocks on the floor. He asked the child sweetly, “What are you making?” Just as sweetly, the boy responded, “Oh, I am making a little bowl for you and Mama to eat your food when you grow up.” The four-year-old smiled and went back to work.
The words so struck the parents that they were speechless. Then tears started to stream down their cheeks. Though no word was spoken, both knew what must be done. That evening, the husband took Grandfather’s hand and gently led him back to the table. For the remainder of his days he ate every meal with the family. And for some reason, neither the husband nor the wife seemed to care any longer when a fork was dropped, milk spilled, or the tablecloth soiled.
For this husband and this wife, it took their 4-year old son to show them that they should look into the eyes of the Grandfather. And when they did, they didn’t just see the tears falling from his eyes, they saw a human being that deserves dignity, respect, and honor.
We are like Zacchaeus. We are never the same once Jesus has looked us in the eye. There is so much in that gaze of Jesus. Dignity. Respect. Honor. Friendship to the friendless. We who have been looked in the eyes by Jesus are the ones who are empowered to carry Jesus to other people.
Just like Jesus, we are to look people in the eye. We can begin by practicing looking into the eye of each other now. Perhaps as we come to take communion. Perhaps as we sing a hymn. Perhaps as we bring our gifts and offerings. Perhaps as we gather for coffee over at the Y for Sunday school.
If we dare to look each other in the eye, we will be changed. We will become the community of faith, the family of God, as God intends us to be.
When we look each other in the eye, we will stop criticizing. We will stop shaking our finger like a demanding parent. We will stop complaining behind someone’s back. We will speak directly to the person we are unhappy with. We will honor the work others do. We will see everyone’s dignity as a child of God.
When we look each other in the eye, we will see that person as Jesus does. We will see someone who needs to be loved. We will see someone who aches and longs to be honored and respected as a human being. We will see someone who deserves to be spoken to in love. We will see someone who lies awake at night wishing and yearning for a friend to have an evening meal with. Just for the fun of it.
Look each other in the eye. Only then, my friends, will we be able to carry Christ to the world around us.
Let us pray.
Lord, we ask for your forgiveness when we don’t respect your creation of all persons. We are sorry to deprive from the people who need it the most, our attention and love. We seek, dear God, the caring heart that can come only from you when we accept Jesus the Christ as our Redeeming Savior. In the name of our Lord Jesus that we pray. Amen.