A way to live our leisure time

Use your free time to reflect on your wrongdoings and to change—with God’s help.  You may be surprised by what comes up.

Based on Luke 19:1-10

[A way to live our leisure time based on Luke: 19:1-10, a reading from The Revised Common Lectionary for the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost, 10/30/16.  Short in stature, Zacchaeus, taking time off his work, climbs a tree to see Jesus as he passes through Jericho.  Zacchaeus is the chief tax collector in Jericho and very rich.  Jesus tells Zacchaeus to come down so he can stay with Zacchaeus for the day.  The crowd complains that Jesus has gone to the home of a sinner.  (Tax collectors work for Rome and increase the taxes to keep the extra for themselves.)   Zacchaeus stands there and promises, “Lord, I will give half of my money to the poor; and if I cheated anyone I will repay four times as much.”  Jesus says, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham.”  (Although a sinner, Zacchaeus is still a son of Abraham and one for Jesus to care for.)  Jesus adds that he has come to find and “to save the lost.”

A theme:  Even in their free time, wrongdoers can be reached and helped to change.]