When I was a theological student in London, a group of us used to do a bit of a church-crawl.  One Sunday we went to a well-known church.  The vicar preached a sermon on hospitality, and, unwittingly, we became a visual aid when he waved his hand towards us, mid-sermon, and told the congregation that there were four visitors amongst them and how they must make us feel welcome. 

At the end of the sermon we fully expected that we would be smothered by the milk of human kindness.  We needn't have worried.  The entire congregation ignored us, as indeed did the vicar.  Needless to say, we crossed that church off our list.

More seriously, when I was a curate the vicar had the bright idea that during Lent we would visit every house in the parish - which had a population of 18,000!  At one house I met a woman who had five children, whom she was bringing up as a lone-parent.  She didn't have much in the way of material things, but I sensed that there was a lot of love around in that house. She was highly intelligent and we had a fascinating conversation about God.  Inevitably, I talked about how welcome she would be at church - something she rather doubted.  'They wouldn't want the likes of me there', she commented.  Over two or three visits, I persisted and eventually she agreed to come to church - which she did, with three of her children.  For some reason I wasn't there that day, and when I saw her gain she said, 'I told you so.  I went and nobody made me feel welcome.  I shan't be going again.'

I didn't try to persuade her to give it another go, I just felt rather disappointed that a church that I thought of as open and welcoming had let me down - or rather, much more importantly, had let her down.  She felt they had judged her and it confirmed her view that they thought she wasn't their sort of person.  When I tackled some of them later about it they just hadn't realised they had been unfriendly.  They had made the assumption that she'd just follow the crowd to coffee after the service and it hadn't occurred to them to actually invite her.

I contrast that with a visit I made to a church in Holland.  Although I couldn't speak the language the service was similar to our sand I could easily follow what was going on.  The sermon was a bit challenging!  After the service I was immediately invited to stay for coffee and people really took an interest in me.

These three anecdotes came to mind when I thought about this morning's Gospel and because I've been reading a challenging book by Stephen Croft, now Bishop of Sheffield, who for the past 5 years, has been heading up the Church's initiative called Fresh Expressions - a movement that has been helping the Church to 'think outside the box'.  At its most radical Fresh Expressions has encourage the Church to witness in places it may never have dreamt of being: places like supermarkets, for example.

When I was in the Blackburn Diocese, a young priest I knew persuaded Sainsbury's in Preston to allow him to hold a little prayer service in the supermarket on a Sunday morning.  If shoppers didn't come to church, then the church would go to the shoppers, and, against all odds, it proved to be very popular.

Throughout Britain, churches are engaging with the challenge of how best to serve their communities and offer the Gospel of Jesus Christ in way which will be accessible to the many for whom Church is an alien place, visited infrequently for rites of passage services of baptism, marriage and funerals.  Pioneer ministries are being carried out but also, and alongside this, traditional church communities are engaging in new  ways of being church whilst retaining the stability of the tradition which many find helpful.  As usual, it is not a case of either/or but of both/and.

Here in Epping we can cite the way in which this church is used by the community and how it is, throughout the week, a haven of peace for those who are perhaps troubled or perplexed or who simply want to touch base with God.  Also in Epping, there is very much a Fresh Expression of being Church in the work Christians are doing with young people through The Box.

Another Fresh Expression is the Upfront initiative with lay-led service throughout the four Team Churches. These are giving us an enrichment of approach to how we tell the Gospel and how we worship God.  At the same time, traditional services such as Choral Evensong, with its sumptuous feast of music in the time honoured Anglican tradition is enjoying a resurgence.  As I said it's a both/and.

One of the reasons why I am pushing for our Development of the St John's House site is that we will gain facilities which will help us develop a Fresh Expression in our Mission and Ministry.   In some ways the lack of these facilities, including pragmatic one of access for the disabled and the importance of a fully-equipped kitchen together with a café and learning areas, is holding us back.  It may feel to some that this is a long way from the Gospel, but if we are to proclaim Jesus Christ in a challenging and meaningful way then this building and its development is a prime resource for that mission.

But back to Steve Croft.  He challenges the Church through his reflections in Jesus' People: What the Church should do next.  Amongst the things he addresses is this whole business of how inclusive, open and welcoming our churches are.  He makes the point that too often, churches are seen as places of judgement rather than of love.

We assess others constantly, he says, we judge others very readily in our conversation for their style and dress or the way their children behave or for the misfortunes that befall them

He points out, for example, that he has had many conversations with young mums, who feel that whenever their toddlers make a noise they feel they are being judged.  Tellingly he says that quite often they are tut-tutted away from Sunday Worship.

The opposite of judgemental church is one which is full of the grace of God to love the stranger and get to know them, to welcome and befriend without judgement and which shows love to all.  That is at the heart of our Mission Statement which says that:

our vision is to respond to God's love and live our lives in ways that will attract people to Christ.  As an inclusive, encouraging and listening Church we value all who share our fellowship.

That is a laudable aim, but for it to be true, we need constantly to work at it.

Which brings me, at last, to today's Gospel - for it reminds us that to be a Christ-like Church, we must constantly return to the Gospel to see how Jesus deals with people and what sort of Church he was fashioning.

In many ways, Jesus is the ultimate Fresh Expression of what it means to be Church.  He worked outside the box and touched people whom the respectable Jewish Church judged to be outside the pale.  Yet he was forming a new Community - a new Church, so he wasn't against structure or tradition.  Indeed, he was regularly to be found in Synagogue and Temple.  The Church he founded would always needs structures; was bound to develop traditions and needed to be organised as it grew.  But, and it's a big but, Jesus showed that he was not hide-bound or hemmed in by organised religion.  He not only thought and worked outside the box - he reinvented its boundaries.

When the wealthy chief tax collector called Zacchaeus heard about him and his message, he felt challenged to act in a way that was alien to his current life-style.  This little man was despised by his fellow Jews for his collaboration with the hated Roman authorities.  This sinner as he was disparagingly called, was barred from entering the Temple for worship because of his job.  He was the lowest of the low and he knew it.

What he heard about Jesus kindled an new hope within him and he wanted to know more.  Being small, he couldn't get to Jesus because of the crowd, so he scrambled up into the branches of a sycamore tree.  And there, Jesus noticed him:

Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.

Jesus already knew his name - had already singled him out.  He was going to do something radical for him - he was going to overturn his life.  And, as we heard, Zacchaeus gave half his possession to the poor and paid back, with interest, those whom he had cheated.  Just note that it wasn't a promise that he might go back on in the cold light of sober reflection.  It was something he did - there and then.  The transformation of his life was both radical and 'immediate' and as Jesus said salvation came to his house and to his life.  Zacchaeus was just the sort of person Jesus had come on earth to seek out and save. 

I just love this story and I love Zacchaeus because, faced with Jesus, he turned his life around and back to God - the true meaning of the word Repentance.  You can feel the joy that pours out of the Gospel from the moment Jesus speaks to him.  Such ordinary words.  Not

you wicked, cheating man - come and repent of your sins and be forgiven by God or else you will burn in Hell

but - I must stay at your house -

I must go where you are most comfortable and where I shall receive your hospitality and enjoy your company.  You don't have to do anything because you are already loved and saved.  You're just the sort of person on which I intend to build my Kingdom of God's Love - a love which will change your heart and through that change, I will save the world. 

In the face of being accepted, loved and wanted, Zacchaeus simply responded.  Wherever God's love is put in, then a loving response will be drawn out.

That's how Jesus deals with people.  That's his real judgement - how can I love this person so that they become loving and God-centred?  The real Fresh Expression in anyone's life is how much they are becoming Christ-like. 

If that's how Jesus builds up his Kingdom then His Church on earth must follow his lead and must invite people to share in what Zacchaeus found out and what we also know -t hat no matter who we are or what we have done, we are accepted and loved by God, and that love can really transform our lives.