Good Guys and Bad Guys by Erica Lloyd

The Twenty-first Sunday After Pentecost

Okay, this morning we’re going to start with a little activity!

Folks at home, you’re going to want some pen and paper for this, and now would be a good time to do that while we in the sanctuary get ourselves situated… because you MAY get help from people around you, and it would be in your best interest to mix intergenerationally. Kids, you might need some help from some of the older folks, and adults you might need some help from the younger generations. So I’m going to give you a minute to rearrange yourselves a bit. 

In just a moment, you’re going to see some characters on the screen. And your first task is to identify as many of these characters as you can. So you’re going to take your sheet and write down who these characters are. 

Ok, now task number 2 is to sort these characters into two groups. I’m not going to tell you what the categories are, you decide. 

Now what categories did you choose? Raise your hand if you did something similar:

Good guys vs bad guys
Human vs other creature
Live action vs animated
Special powers vs those who don’t
Disguised vs those who aren’t

I set you up, today I want to take a few minutes to talk about good guys and bad guys. 

Let’s talk about the good guys first, because today we are celebrating All Saints Day! This is the first Sunday in November every year when we take time to remember people who have been so good at helping and loving other people who have died during this past year. We take some time to think about them and celebrate the love they put into the world. Today we are remembering John’s sister Mary, and Sonya Dyer, you can see them here on the altar. I want to tell you a bit about Sonya because she is someone who is very special to me and to our church, and I remember her from when I was just a little kid (yeah, a really long time ago). Now, what did Sonya do that was so special? Well first of all, she helped create Seekers Church and was one of our first leaders. Sonya was one of the people who helped us discover that God has called each and every one of us to be God’s hands and God’s feet everywhere we go. A lot of people used to think that serving God could only be done at church, or could only be done in special places or ways. But Sonya wanted to create Seekers church to teach everyone that God is calling us to love and serve in our families, and at our jobs and schools, and as citizens of our country. Sonya is the one that showed us that when we help our parents clean up, that’s being God’s hands, and when we march for justice in our community, we’re being God’s feet. So you can see, we are all here today in part because of Sonya. Let’s take a moment to say, altogether, nice and loud, THANK YOU SONYA! On the count of three…

Ok so let’s also take a minute to talk about the bad guys, because our gospel story today is about one of those bad guys. His name was Zaccheus. Now you may be thinking, Erica, didn’t you get that wrong? Because we just sang a song about him, and we heard in the story that Jesus went to go stay at his house. But Zaccheus used to have a job where he took advantage of people, used his power to steal from them or scare them into giving up their money to him. He got rich by using his power to exploit and harm other people. Like, we can all agree that’s real bad guy stuff, right? 

So why did Jesus go hang out with him? The truth is, deep inside every bad guy is a good guy. Let’s think back about some of these bad guys we saw up on the screen. Did any of them ever do anything good? Now sometimes that seed of goodness is buried under so much bad stuff, we can’t see it. But God can always see it. And sometimes, God can help that seed of goodness come out, just like with Zaccheus. After Jesus talks to him, Zaccheus promised to give back what he stole. 

You know, we like to sort people into these categories, good guys and bad guys. Heroes and villains. But Jesus shows us that it’s not that simple. And we can see that when we think about those characters up on the screen, can’t we? Like Deborah told us last week, we always want to label ourselves the good guys! And that can make it hard for God to show us when we let someone down, when we need to say sorry, when we didn’t do our best. And it can make it too easy to say, hey that bad guy can never do anything good! But Jesus showed us with Zaccheus, sometimes people who do bad things can realize their mistakes, and make them better. 

So maybe instead of labeling people as good guys or bad guys, we don’t need to put people into categories at all. Now that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t stand up against injustice or unfairness or hatred, but maybe we don’t need to say, hey, because you’ve done this bad thing, you’re the villain. Because, as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. told us, “There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us.” So maybe, like Jesus, we can still look for the good guy inside of every single person. What do you think?

Ok, let’s pray:

God, you created every single one of us for LOVE and JOY and HOPE and PEACE.

Help us to be those things in the world.

Help us to see those things in others, even when it’s hard. 

Amen.