Cathedral Chapel Service: Branching Out

Cathedral Chapel Service: Branching Out

Robert Jackson '20, Staff Writer

Once a year, ESJ holds their weekly chapel service in St. John’s Cathedral. This year our cathedral service was held on November 13. The Very Reverend Katherine B. Moorehead gave the sermon during the service. In her sermon, she talked about the Bible story of Zacchaeus the Tax Collector from Luke 19:1-10. 

Zacchaeus climbs a tree to see Jesus over a crowd of people. Jesus sees him and calls out to him saying, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” This was seen as a strange thing for Jesus to do because tax collectors were seen as sinners. However, Zacchaeus repented for his sins declaring, “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.” Zacchaeus was short, so he solved the problem by climbing the tree. 

Dean Moorehead then explained that, as Episcopal students, we should be able to think outside of the box like Zacchaeus did by climbing the tree. She also mentioned that our education provided by Episcopal allows us to think in such creative and innovative ways. An Episcopal education will also allow us to be leaders, so we have the ability and confidence to use our creative thinking and apply it to whatever we may do after we graduate.

Image courtesy of Daniel Vorndran.