Reparations

This week we’ll be thinking about the theme of reparations - what it means to repair damage that has been done. It’s a theme that comes up over and over again in scripture. It has personal, communal, and national implications. It’s not something that’s going to be solved in one sermon or one week of devotionals. This is an ongoing conversation - more of a marathon than a sprint.

To get us started, read through this classis story from the Gospel of Luke. It’s hard not to hear an argument for reparations in it, although very few of us have ever heard reparations mentioned when this passage has been preached before. Why is that? What is the Spirit saying to you about these things today?

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” - Luke 19:1-10