For the week of April 6 – 5th Sunday in Lent
Morning Prayer: God of the covenant, in the glory of the cross Your Son embraced the power of death and broke its hold over Your people. In this time of repentance, draw all people to Yourself, that we who confess Jesus as Lord may put aside the deeds of death and accept the life of Your kingdom. Amen. (Lectionary Prayers)
Opening Hymn: #61 Come, Thou Almighty King
- Come, Thou almighty King, help us Thy name to sing, help us to praise!
Father all glorious, o'er all victorious, come and reign over us, Ancient of Days! - Come, Thou incarnate Word, gird on Thy mighty sword, our prayer attend!
Come, and Thy people bless, and give Thy word success,
Spirit of holiness, on us descend!
- Come, holy Comforter, Thy sacred witness bear in this glad hour.
Thou who almighty art, now rule in every heart, and ne'er from us depart,
Spirit of power!
- To Thee, great One in Three, eternal praises be, hence, evermore.
Thy sovereign majesty may we in glory see, and to eternity love and adore!
Psalm 15 (CEB)
Who can live in Your tent, Lord?
Who can dwell on Your holy mountain?
2 The person who
lives free of blame,
does what is right,
and speaks the truth sincerely;
3 who does no damage with their talk,
does no harm to a friend,
doesn’t insult a neighbor;
4 someone who despises
those who act wickedly,
but who honors those
who honor the Lord;
someone who keeps their promise even when it hurts;
5 someone who doesn’t lend money with interest,
who won’t accept a bribe against any innocent person.
Whoever does these things will never stumble.
Prayers of Intercession: Thank You, Lord, for hearing our prayers for those dear to our hearts. We now pray as You have taught us: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. Lead us, not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Offering spotlight: UM Summer Camps. Lightstreet United Methodist Church invites all children and teens to experience Christ at one of the United Methodist Camps. Check out the adventures at suscrm.org, the website of Susquehanna Conference Camp & Retreat Ministry. Kids and parents, LUMC pays half of all camp fees for any child who wishes to attend. There is quite a variety of age-level and special interest camps. These experiences help kids build authentic connections in Christ, community and creation. Talk it over with Pastor Becky.
Offering prayer: Loving God, source of all joy, we come before You with hearts full of gratitude. During this reflective Lenten period, may our offerings remind us of the abundance You’ve poured into our lives. Help us to give extravagantly, not out of duty, but from hearts filled with joy and gratitude. Bless these gifts and use them to bring Your hope to the world. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen. (Discipleship Ministries, adapted)
Hymn of Preparation #397 I Need Thee Every Hour
- I need Thee every Hour, most gracious Lord; no tender voice like Thine can peace afford.
Refrain: I need Thee, O I need Thee; every hour I need Thee; O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.
- I need Thee every hour; stay Thou nearby; temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh.
- I need Thee every hour; in joy or pain; come quickly and abide, or life is vain.
- I need Thee every hour; teach me Thy will; and Thy rich promises in me fulfill.
- I need Thee every hour; most Holy One; O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son.
Scripture: Luke 19:1-10 (CEB)
19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through town. 2 A man there named Zacchaeus, a ruler among tax collectors, was rich. 3 He was trying to see who Jesus was, but, being a short man, he couldn’t because of the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed up a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus, who was about to pass that way. 5 When Jesus came to that spot, He looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down at once. I must stay in your home today.” 6 So Zacchaeus came down at once, happy to welcome Jesus.
7 Everyone who saw this grumbled, saying, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
8 Zacchaeus stopped and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my possessions to the poor. And if I have cheated anyone, I repay them four times as much.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Today, salvation has come to this household because he too is a son of Abraham. 10 The Human One[a] came to seek and save the lost.”
Message: Giving Up Bad Habits for Lent Pastor Becky
We all have habits. It’s our nature. We are creatures of habit. Some of our habits are good: exercise, prayer, brushing our hair, brushing our teeth, taking care of ourselves. Some are pretty neutral: driving, wearing a certain outfit, drinking from a particular cup. They might seem like preferences, yet they all have an effect on your comfort. Maybe you always eat popcorn as a snack at 8:00 pm. You’re not going to die if you don’t eat popcorn or you drink out of the wrong glass, but skipping it has a level of discomfort.
Now we are well-versed in bad habits. Addictions, selfishness, gossip, greed. The habits that affect us adversely. Those things that we do that hurt us and hurt others. Those habits don’t reflect any regard for anyone but us and what it is that we want.
Our habits are so deeply ingrained in us that we don’t even realize our habits anymore. They grow to a point of becoming a personality trait, which can be good if it’s compassion or generosity or attentiveness. But habits like criticism … never having anything nice to say to anyone or about anyone, or always speaking lies or continuing to spread gossip, they get us labeled. They get us get us labels like “critical” or “gossiper” or “a liar” and most of those have to do with what it is we say.
It is so true that our tongue does hold the power of life and death. I think you know where I’m going with habits; especially our bad ones so as we sit and think about it, we know that there are some bad habits that we need to shed so that we can change and people’s perception about us changes. Because if we are truly transformed, there will be a Redeemer for us.
Not that Jesus won’t help us in our transformation. But if you are always critical, or one thing or another that’s bad, the moment that you begin to transform, someone will begin to vouch for you and say, “But’s that’s not how I experience them now.” So this bad habit thing, we also need to look at ourselves and also look at one another.
So we look to Zaccheus. Jesus comes into town, and as Jesus always does, He draws a crowd. Now if you are a short person, it’s going to be hard to see over the crowd. Zaccheus wants to see Jesus, so what does he do? This is where we sing the song:
Zaccheus was a wee little man, a wee little man was he.
He climbed up in the sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see.
And as the Savior passed that way He looked up in the tree.
And He said, “Zaccheus, you come down. For I’m going to your house today; for I’m going to your house to stay.”
So he climbs a tree. He wants to see Jesus and he gets seen. He moved from where he ordinarily would feel comfortable. He is accustomed to having power and recognition and moves himself so that he would see Jesus. Jesus sees him! In that instant it moves Zaccheus to repent of his greediness, his haughtiness, his abuse of his fellow residents. It’s a total life transformation. Because of his encounter with Jesus, because Jesus saw him, Zaccheus could see himself in the light of Christ. He decides that half of all that he has is going to the poor; and he’s going to rebate anyone that he cheated. So if you were cheated by Zaccheus by $10, he's now going to pay back $40. To be able to able to pledge that level of financial distribution is a rich we can’t understand. But it’s systemic to the abuse he wrought upon Jericho.
Now he’s not pledging to go into destitution, but to rebalance. To give away the ill-gotten gains quickly, to put as much distance between who he had been and who he is now. What had been his practice but yet will no longer be. For Zaccheus there is no turning back. This is a start and a radical change. Jesus gave Zaccheus back his heritage. The townspeople and his own greed had stripped him of own identity and Jesus restored it, calling him a son of Abraham. Zaccheus’ life is changed and he is transformed … and we want to be transformed. At least I do. I would hope that you do as well. So that we are closer to the likeness of Jesus, and giving up our bad habits makes us more Christ-like. But sometimes it is easier said than done.
So how do we do it? Well first we have to recognize our bad habit and call it by name. We have to look at ourselves be very inquisitive about ourselves. In the book, Giving Up Some Bad for Lent, James Moore tells a story about visiting one of his congregants who is incarcerated. He said it was unsettling because his congregant was so out of place in prison. He had been a well-respected member of the community, a beloved employee of the bank. Yet he’s now serving a long sentence for embezzlement. It all started innocently. After the close of business one day a woman came in to make a deposit. His congregant says, “I’m sorry; the bank is closed.” But she is adamant that this deposit has to be made today. He put the money in his pocket and went home with the understanding in his own mind that tomorrow he will make the deposit. Well the morning gets busy and he doesn’t wear the same suit jacket and gets to work and realizes he doesn’t have the money. So instead of going home and getting the deposit, he just moves some stuff around, makes it look like the money is there but it’s not … It’s home in his suit jacket. And of course he's like, Tomorrow … tomorrow I’m going to fix this and be done with it. Tomorrow never happened. What happened was after being able to get away with it, thoughts began in his head of you know I’m not really paid enough and this is just a little bit of extra. Well that little bit of extra became a little bit of extra and a little bit of extra and … he ended up being charged with embezzlement of tens of thousands of dollars. While Moore is talking with this man, the congregant said something very striking. “I never thought of myself as a thief. When the townspeople and the press started describing me as a robber, a criminal, I couldn’t believe they were talking about me.” Because his habit had blinded him and he couldn’t see what he was doing wrong and hadn’t realized what he had become.
By not blaming our bad habits we allow ourselves to be blinded to our deficiency or deaf to it. We don’t hear how we sound to others. So in our bad habits we have to be blunt and truthful with ourselves. We have to hold ourselves up to the light of Christ to have our dark spot revealed. If we don’t name it we will continue to explain it away or rationalize it. So in shedding a bad habit, the first this we have to do is name it for what it is.
The second step to stop a bad habit is make up your mind to stop it now. Here’s the thing, and we know this to be true. Habits start slowly, subtly, gradually, over time. One drink becomes two and over time becomes a fifth or a case. One pill becomes ten. One lie becomes two until everything you say becomes questionable and your credibility is gone. One whispered confidence becomes two and we begin to share more and more, and when we don’t have anything to share we make up half-truths or make conjecture truths and someone is destroyed.
To break bad habits we have to go cold turkey. We have to plant our feet firmly that today is the last day that I will (drink) (gamble) (gossip) (steal) (whatever our habit is). We have to declare the end. Our habit started with a choice and it has to end with a choice. Nobody accidently stops doing something destructive. An alcoholic doesn’t forget to drink, they choose not to drink. A gossiper doesn’t forget to gossip, they choose not to gossip. A gambler doesn’t forget to bet on the game, they choose not to.
Zaccheus made a pledge. He was done stealing and abusing the residents of Jericho. He made an immediate change of practice. So step two is to stop it now.
The third step is to replace a bad habit with a good habit. That kind of makes sense. Sometimes we tell ourselves that we can continue with our bad habit while we’re still going to pick up a good habit and just try to diversify a bit. If your habit has anything to do with talking, we have to start speaking blessings. Talk about how good God has been in your life. When God is the topic of conversation, it’s really hard to destroy someone else. Because conversations about God lead us to God’s goodness.
If your habit is idleness, you just get up.
There are many ways to exchange a bad habit for good. If you get stumped, if it’s not merely just an exchange of doing the opposite, replace your habit with prayer. Zaccheus traded overcollection for generosity. So step three would be swapping out. That’s where a struggle can be … is finding out what feeds us in the same way that our bad habit fed us. Finding calmness. Finding whatever it was in our bad habit; finding a good habit that has the same rewards. Or at least makes us feel rewarded.
The last step is to realize that you have a source outside of yourself for strength. Zaccheus could make this change because he had Jesus with him. He wasn’t alone in this change. The complete reorganization of Zaccheus’ life couldn’t happen alone. This is why AA is so successful. There is accountability and support. When making dietary changes, it is much better that the whole house do it to be successful. We need to do these changes together because accountability is not punishment, but support, a reminder that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. It builds our community together. It fortifies our fellowship. It reminds us who we belong to and who we are. Zaccheus is reminded that he is a son of Abraham. It ties him back to the God who has sent Christ to redeem him.
Often our habits get in the way of seeing who we are and who we were meant to be. We need to remind each other who God is and who we are so that we can experience the life God has ordained for us so that we are that support. So that our lives change and the lives of those around us change.
Closing Hymn: #400 Come, Thou Fount of every Blessing
- Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I'm fixed upon it, mount of Thy redeeming love. - Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by Thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood. - O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love;
here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for Thy courts above.
The blessing: May the Lord bless you and keep you and make His face shine upon you this week.
