Given some of the nonsense coming out of the mouths of self-describing Christians, we might do well to focus our attention on Jeremiah this morning and remind ourselves of the roles of false prophets and ends that God pronounces for them. Given the anxieties of the world, I suppose we should not be surprised. But I have to admit the focus shocks me, and some of the prophesies leave me gobsmacked. One politician was on television, Friday I think, exhorting her supporters that it was her privilege to cause Jesus to return. Something about her policies and her words were meant to hasten His return and judgment Day. We wonder why people hate Christians? For my part, I could not change the channel fast enough. I had a couple visitors in the office who expressed that I needed to rally y’all to support a particular party because I was risking your souls by allowing you to vote according to your own conscience (as if I can MAKE any of y’all do anything!). I even received a wonderful mailer about the end times, how some guy has figured out the time of the eschaton (yet again) and in spite of Jesus’ reminder that it is not for us to know the times. Good, you are snorting, so I am guessing you do not need to be vaccinated against that skubala. If you do, though, feel free to swing by or call me. We can commiserate together and then figure out our roles in that mess.
Instead, I was
drawn to the Gospel passage for us today.
I am hoping that those who need the vaccination against the nonsense of
the false prophets and politicians of our day well be given a firm foundation
to resist the allure of such false teachings.
Better still, I hope all of us will be reminded of our where our focus
should be as we head toward the end of the Church and calendar year and prepare
ourselves for Advent and the Incarnation.
Our reading from
Luke today is rather short, especially when compared to our selection from
Jeremiah. It is only six verses, but the
spiritual wedgie might be third degree!
Jesus tells the parable to those who trusted in themselves that they
were righteous and regarded other with contempt. Right off the bat, we are warned that only
those who trust and themselves and loathe others need to pay attention. Of course, a quick glance around or personal
inventory will remind us all that we all find ourselves in need of this
teaching from time to time. Some of us
more than others! Don’t despair. God is not shocked. And Jesus knew we would sin, and still He
loved us to see our salvation through.
Human beings are
well-versed in creating in-crowds and marginalized people, us and them. Think of the war in Ukraine. How do the Ukrainians view the Russians
now? Orcs. Most of us realize that the Russian soldiers
have no idea why they are in Ukraine fighting their cousins. Now, with the recent call up’s of those who
could not flee the country, there are 2-300,000 more soldiers who do not want
to be fighting deployed to the front lines.
We understand why Ukrainians hate the invasion. We know that on some level they understand
that the guilt falls on Putin. But
should they be thinking of most Russians as orcs? Not if they are faithful Christians. Those Russian soldiers are human beings,
too. While there are some evil soldiers
who like stealing and raping and destroying, most just want to live. But, all are dehumanized so that no one feels
remorse about their deaths.
It’s harder to
tap into that in America. I learned
pretty quickly that people in Tennessee like to pick on people in Alabama a
lot. I guess, thanks to college
football, that’s a rivalry of sorts.
When I lived in Iowa, we sort of had a rivalry with Missouri and
Wisconsin and Missouri. Since I was not
from there, it was hard to become emotionally invested in the rivalries, though
I laughed at the toothbrush joke.
Haven’t heard it? Why don’t we
call a toothbrush a teethbrush? Because
it was invented in Missouri. Take your
time. It’s not that subtle.
I grew up in
West Virginia where our big rivals for status in the United States are
Mississippi and Louisiana. Imagine
living in a place where you get excited you are 49th or, dare to
dream, 48th in whatever ranking.
But football does seem to contribute to the creation of “others.” Marshall fans and WVU fans do not get along. At all.
It’s like an Alabama-Auburn hatred or a Florida-Georgia loathing. It’s just that nobody else cares because,
well, sometimes we are 49th and sometimes we are 50th. I suppose we did export a feud, though. Everybody knows about the Hatfield’s and the
McCoy’s, right? We love to believe we
are the good guys and the others, whoever the others happen to be, are
contemptible. Hmm. That sounds like political speech, doesn’t
it? It is and it is not. The issue is the sin of pride or the virtue
of humility, if we want to speak positively about this. But sin touches every interaction in this
world, be they social or political or economic or cultural or anything else.
In any event, I
share all that because Jesus’ example will not hit us the way it would have hit
his or Luke’s audiences. Jesus tells us
there were two men, one a Pharisee and one a tax collector. Pharisees would seem a modern oxymoron. They were the religious lawyers of the
day. Most of us seem to think lawyers
are anything but religious, it might surprise us to learn that the Pharisees
were studious articulators of the torah.
Now, in theory, we are Anglicans, and Anglicans have an appreciation of
canon lawyers in our tradition. We don’t
in America, but we have people like Hilary and Oliver who can tell us about
them from the motherland. In the
beginning, Pharisees helped Israel figure out disputes. Those who were judged to be closer to God’s
intention were deemed righteous by the courts.
Note, you could have been going sideways to God at 90 degrees and be
more righteous than someone running away at 180 degrees. Neither, though, would be in a relationship
with God which we would call intimate.
Human beings being human beings, though, Pharisees eventually decided
God needed their help. As one
commentator I read put it, they created, at least in their minds, the shield
around the torah which kept Israel from breaking the Covenant with God. The idea was noble. If you keep our instructions, you will never
run afoul of God’s instructions. But,
thanks to Jesus’ interactions with them in all the Gospels, we understand that
sin of pride grabbed them by the throat.
They elevated themselves and their role in society to the role of God’s
defenders, as if He needed anything from any human being. While the intention was, perhaps, noble in
the beginning, it certainly morphed as time passed. Eventually, the Pharisees created so many
shield laws that they earned Jesus’ condemnation for creating an oppressive
system rather than leading people to the worship of God. The fruit of their sin in illustrated in the
Pharisee of our story today.
The Pharisee
begins with what we would call the formula for a prayer of praise of thanksgiving. Those who study the psalms can talk to you
during the coffee hour, but a prayer of praise or a prayer of thanksgiving is
mostly self-evident. The prayer is meant
to praise God or thank God or both for fulfilling a need of or delivering the one
praying from danger or threat. To give
us all a bit of a spiritual wedgie this morning, it’s the kind of prayer we all
promise to make if God will get us out of our current predicament but seldom
follow through praying. Ouch? I see the squirms.
Such prayers are
meant, as we would expect, to focus on the blessings or deliverance that God
has provided. More specifically, the
prayers are meant to focus on God Himself.
In two short verses, though, the Pharisee makes it clear that God is not
the focus of his life. Five times he
uses the pronoun “ego.” Verbs in Greek,
like many other languages, has the pronoun included in the verb. The use of the pronoun occurs when one wants
to emphasize that pronoun. This Pharisee’s
grammar makes it clear to those hearing Jesus’ teaching or reading Luke’s
account that the subject of the Pharisee’s prayer is himself.
We think it a
horrible prayer, of course, and we love to assume that it is a problem for
people then or for “other” people, but it is often one of those prayers that is
hidden in the heart. One example is the “There
but for the grace of God go I.” I am
certain that none of us present have ever said that with pride in our hearts,
but have we ever heard the prayer and wondered whether the person saying it was
thankful to God for the blessings He has provided them or pleased in
themselves? To cut a bit closer to the
bone, what about pronouncements involving “those people”? We serve a God who instructs us that He created
everyone wonderfully and in His image; how quick are we, though, to draw
borders, to label those different as “other,” and to treat them as anything but
a brother or sister? And what of our
treatment in the Church of each other’s denominational affiliations? This group mocks that group, and that group
mocks another group. And even within our
denomination, look at the “those people” discussions.
As I named
earlier, the sin is pride. We elevate
ourselves, and those things that we value, to be equal to God or the things
that God loves. To be sure, I have been
blunt. Many who have this in their heart
know they have to be careful in how they make their statements. But it is a condition known by them and
God. They are trusting in their own
sufficiency, of their perception that God needs them, that Jesus died for
others, but not themselves.
Against the prayer of the Pharisee stands the
tax collector. Tax collectors were
loathed in the ANE, but in Judea especially.
Think politicians with soldiers under their control. Tax collectors got their licenses by bidding
on the areas. There was lots of bribery
involved in getting the choicest regions.
Of course, it really was a license to steal with soldiers to enforce the
theft. Tax collectors recouped their
bribes by making residents and businesses pay more taxes. If you protested too much, you got the point
. . . of a spear. Think modern
politicians + traitor + control of a military unit, and thank God neither party’s
politicians control armies themselves!
The tax
collector knows his standing before God and cannot bring himself even to look
up at God in the Temple. He asks God to
be merciful to him, a sinner. That’s
it. No flowery speeches. No “don’t hate the player hate the game” speeches. He simple asks God, of His mercy, to be
merciful to his sinful self.
No doubt the
crowd expected Jesus to praise the Pharisee.
After all, the Pharisee fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of all his
income. The tax collector works for the
oppressing government and is a known cheat and thief. We, of course, know how Jesus often turns
expectations on their heads. Using a word
with loaded meaning to us, Jesus says the tax collector went down to his home
justified rather than the other.
There are a couple
reversals of expectations that fall beneath our radar. The first is that Jesus describes a situation
which caused the Pharisees to come into being way back when. Two men are acting differently, who is closer
to God’s will? Notice, Jesus does not
say either are sinless or holy or anything close to what God calls them to
be. Both should be glorifying God in the
lives. But, by comparison, the tax
collector is acting and praying closer to God’s instruction than the
Pharisee. I bet some in Jesus’ audience
snorted at the irony. I am certain that
Pharisees added this parable to the pile to fuel their hatred of Him and their
determination to put Him to death, a trial which will see all their rules, and
God’s instructions, set aside to get the desire result.
The second big,
and more important to us, reversal is the reminder that “the other” is loved by
God, which means God is willing to extend to “the other” mercy and grace just
as He extends them to us. Neither we nor
“the other” are deserving of God’s grace or blessings or anything good, but it
is His good pleasure to be merciful to those who trust in Him, to those who
seek Him, to those who know they are insufficient for their salvation or
deliverance. So often, we long to be
compared relatively to others. I give
more time. I give more money. I pray more frequently. I come to church more often. We think that because we do things “more”
than others, we are “more valuable” to God.
The great reversal is the reminder that all are equally valued, equally
loved, by God. God’s standard is God’s
standard. It is an absolute, not a
relative value. And to build on last
week’s reminder, the more we wrestle with God the greater the danger that,
because He is not dislocating our hip—to extend that analogy—the more He must
value us and the things we value.
How do we tell
the difference in ourselves? How do we
navigate the challenge of falling prey to sin and to the world’s chorus that some
are just better than others? The highlight
of the passage provides us with a great evaluator. As one commentator blunted reminded me this
week, pride preaches and teaches merit; God calls for compassion. How do we respond to “the others” in
life. Do we tell them they need to work
harder, to be better, to suck it up? Or
do we offer a helping hand or acknowledge their pain and their hurt?
I know the
danger of such a reminder today. It is
easy in light of all the blessings most of us have in this parish and in this
area to have become convinced of one’s merit.
The world’s chorus is really a seductive siren’s song. But against that cacophony of merit sings the
Gospel of Christ. None of us deserved
God’s love. None of us deserved the
blessings He offers those who claim Him as Lord of their life. But it is His good pleasure to deliver and
redeem all those who claim Him Lord, all those who have died to self in the Sacrament
we call Baptism, all those who come to this Table seeking the heavenly
refreshment necessary to go back out into that world to do the work that He has
given us to do, of His mercy! That, my friends,
is His promise. And that we might know
He has the power to redeem all our sufferings and all our sins, He raised the Teacher
on that Third morning, teaching us that not even death can keep Him from fulfilling
His promises.
And what if,
listening to me or, more significantly, listening to God you have discerned you
are an articulator of merit in your life, a proponent of pride in your
life? Is there anything you can do? Of course!
Our sins do not surprise Him.
Even when He was hanging on that Cross He know our sins and follies and
willed Himself to stay there so that we, in turn, might be delivered and
justified through Him. And so, in that
wonderful Sacrament where He promises to deliver us, He instructs us to repent
and return to Him, to come again to this Table seeking His nourishment, and to
once again be reminded of His unfailing love for us, that we might be fit humble
heralds of His grace and His mercy, which alone truly delivers and redeems, to
the world!
In His Peace,
Brian†
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