In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory forever.

Brothers and sisters, Zacchaeus is introduced to us as one who's made a mess out of his life. He's a tax collector. And if we don't tend to like tax collectors today, the IRS doesn't exactly have the best name in the world. That is all the more true of tax collectors in the ancient world. It was a miserable job, hated by everyone, and it was inherently corrupt. The whole way that you made a living was by skimming off the top, by squeezing people a little extra on their tax bill, and whatever you managed to squeeze out of them—there's no exact amount. So whatever it is that you can intimidate your victims into paying, well, that's what you get paid. And Zacchaeus was rich.

Being rich in the Gospel according to St. Luke in particular is never a really good sign. All the way through there are warnings about how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of heaven for those who are rich. But here we have someone who got rich from being a tax collector, doing this awful, corrupt, hated job. He was good at it. So he's the kind of person that we love to hate in a story—someone who's just scum of the earth that we can—like, we may have all our disagreements and things about all sorts of matters—we can all unite together to despise these tax collectors. And Zacchaeus is the worst.

And it's nice because anybody can be better than this guy. Even us with all our own messes and failures and disappointments, we look good by comparison with Zacchaeus.

But then Zacchaeus hears of this Jesus, and something in him completely changes. He looks back at the scope of his life, everything that has led to this point, and he realizes that all that he has accumulated is garbage and worse. It is polluting everything in his life and leading him to destruction, and he needs to make a big change. And the only way he knows to look is towards Jesus.

And so he climbs up into this sycamore tree because he can't even see over everybody that's crowded around Jesus. And we have to think this is really pretty humiliating for him. You know, again, he's not somebody that ever wants to get attention. He's there in his nice expensive robe that he's getting all dirty and torn as he climbs up into the tree, looking like a fool as he's there over the crowd, listening and looking to see who this Jesus is.

And he doesn't worry about any of that. All his attention is focused right on Jesus, who then says to him, "Come on down, because today I'm coming to your house."

And that makes things even worse there in town because everybody's muttering to one another saying, "Oh, look at Jesus. He's gone to be a guest in the house of somebody who's this rotten, terrible, miserable, awful sinner—tax collector Zacchaeus."

Zacchaeus doesn't defend himself, doesn't make excuses, doesn't go and hide either, but instead comes forward and simply says, "Look, Lord, I'm giving half of what I own for the needs of the poor. And if I have cheated anybody anything, if I've taken anything from them through false accusation, I restore to them four times over."

It's a really dramatic witness of repentance, of a desire to change and be changed from the inside out, to find a new life. And he's willing to give everything for this great prize that he has found.

Brothers and sisters, today the Lord has come to this house where we are gathered to hear his word and be fed by his food. We are guests at his table today. And he comes today to your own house, to all of us. And he makes this despised Zacchaeus now into a great example for us, an invitation for us to follow.

What would it mean for us to respond to the Lord in some small measure as little Zacchaeus has today? What would that look like?

We are here today by the grace of God at the close of a liturgical year, of the whole cycle, the pattern of everything that leads us from Pascha and Pentecost of the year that's passed all the way till now. This is the last Sunday that we're counting according to that cycle. And we're about to turn a new page, literally opening a new book, the Triodion, which guides us into Great Lent next week. So here we are at the end of this turning of the year, and we can look back and see what we've made of our lives, all of it, summing it up.

And we have this opportunity not to be consumed with regret or with envy over what we imagine are the blessings that other people have that we don't have and somehow we got less. Nor do we have to imagine that if only our circumstances were different then we could make something of our lives. But instead, we can be honest. We can get to a proper vantage and see things more clearly with God's help, to see how it is that God has given all things to us.

He is the Creator who is good and loves mankind and has made all things for us. He's given us everything that we have, everything that we are, our very life and breath, our families, all that we identify as particularly ours. It comes from heaven above, from God who loves you and knows you best of all. And these things are given into your hands to use with a blessing, to use to make a blessing, to grow further into the Kingdom of God—these things that we so often abuse and use selfishly and self-centeredly, harming ourselves and other people.

Our Lord has delivered us from this as well, coming all the way down to meet us who are entangled in sin. And he has freed us from this and from death itself, so that we do not need to fear. But we can be firm in the sure hope of the resurrection. And he invites us to take therefore all that we have received, everything that we have, everything that we are, and lift it up to God as a thank offering, an offering of praise, holding nothing back, to show to God all that we have, freely giving it into his hands. "Look, Lord, this is what it means to be me. This is what I have to offer."

That this is what we together can offer from our possessions, our money, our time and attention, our gifts, our talents, all of that—to deliver up to God for a blessing, and to choose well in this life that we have, this short time that is laid out for us to serve his holy will, to love God and to love our neighbor, so that we can learn what it means to be children of God.

And if we can begin to do this, if we can begin to follow the example that he has set for us in righteous Zacchaeus, then truly salvation has come to your house. And we who were lost can truly recognize our salvation and be found in Christ Jesus who has come to seek us and to save us and to lead us into life everlasting.

Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ. Glory Forever.