Printer-Friendly Version
Last week our gospel lesson was about a parable that Jesus told of a Pharisee and a tax collector praying in the Temple.  This week we hear about another tax collector … or is it the same one?  This week’s tax collector is named Zacchaeus and he is a “chief tax collector” in Jericho.  Last week’s tax collector was praying in the Temple in Jerusalem.  Jerusalem and Jericho are about 16 miles apart … could they be they be the same person?  

Printer-Friendly Version
In this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells a parable “to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous:” Two men go up to the temple to pray.  The first is a Pharisee, a religious insider who serves a vital leadership role in the spiritual life of his community.  In the guise of a heartfelt “thank you,” he makes a personal progress report to God: “I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers.”  He then humbly brags about his pious lifestyle: “I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.”  Presumably, he leaves the temple feeling exactly the same way he felt when he walked in: just fine.  No growth, no change.

Sermon by The Rev. Deena M. Galantowicz
Printer-Friendly Version
Though we have been apart for a while, I know many of you have been prayerful in many ways, about many people and situations.  And tho’ I have not been here, I have been very prayerful about you here at St. Cyprian’s.   So,this morning I would like to talk about the importance of persistence in prayer and the significance of today’s Gospel parable in our lives. ///// The parable has an introduction which suggests why and to whom it was first addressed.  We read, “Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and moreover, not to lose heart.” He is speaking to his disciples, to people who have been taught to pray and who do pray.  But, these same people may be in danger of losing heart, losing hope.  There had to be times when the followers of Jesus were in danger of losing heart because of the situations they faced, the lack of understanding on their own part, and the sheer weariness of travelling the road they were called to travel.  Jesus told them this story in order to give them courage for the long haul, courage to continue in patient and persistent prayer.  The parable is about prayer…their prayer and ours.  “They ought always to pray and not lose heart.”  The parable is about faithfulness…theirs and ours.   

Printer-Friendly Version
Our readings this morning … specifically from the Prophet Jeremiah, and the Gospel of Luke … have to do with hope, and living in wholeness.  How can we enter into a faith that will provide hope, and show us a doorway to wholeness in our lives, even when the world around us … and within us … seems so fragmented?  

Printer-Friendly Version
My father died twenty years ago … in 1999.  For many years he followed the path of a corporate executive in New York City.  It was a well-paying secure career and as the father of six children it was the responsible thing to do.  But my parents had a dream, and when I was in high school they bought a house overlooking the Intercostal Waterway in Morehead City, North Carolina.  The family had been vacationing in the area every summer since I was a baby.  And, every year when we visited the area my father would disappear for part of each day to paint watercolors of shrimp boats, and the Cape Lookout lighthouse, and sea gulls flying over sand dunes.  But, purchasing a large, rambling brick house in 1960, 600 miles from our home on Long Island, with so many other priorities, seemed foolish … even to me.