Psalm 51:1-12
Romans 3:21-26
Luke 19:1-10
As most of you know, I have chosen to abandon the set lectionary readings this month in order to focus our Sunday worship on some basic Christian themes, from a Presbyterian perspective. It’s all part of Presbyterianism 101 — and today’s theme is salvation or reconciliation with God.
In our prayer of confession, we used words from “Living Faith” that acknowledge the ways in which our sin separates us from God, and in the assurance, I proclaimed the fact that through Christ our sins are forgiven, also using words from “Living Faith,” our Presbyterian statement of Christian belief. Then we joined in the psalmist’s confession with Psalm 51, and heard Paul’s proclamation of justification by faith from the letter to the Romans.
The scriptures are full of stories and teaching about sin and forgiveness, about reconciliation and salvation. I could have chosen any number of stories, but today I chose the story of Zacchaeus — the despised tax collector about whom Jesus declared, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham.”
Zacchaeus was obviously sinful! At least, … Read more »


