The Pharisee and the Tax Collector

            At this time of the year and in this season, I have become a fan of “fact-checking.” As I was reading the Gospel this week, a story came to mind. I did a little fact checking at snopes.com and found this story to be a mixture between truth and fiction.

            The story goes like this: There was a pastor who was going to his mega church with 10,000 members. He showed up to church and walked around while people were going inside. He asked for food, change, and sometimes just said “hello.” Out of those 10,000 people, only 7 gave him the time of day…seven. He then went into church and wanted to go down to the front row. Ushers stopped him, parishioners stopped him and gave him a seat in the back of the church. When it was time to begin the service, the leadership, who were in on it, said, “we now introduce our new pastor!” there was clapping and everyone was excited. The homeless man began walking down the aisle, then up on the stage, took the mic and began to reveal who he was…the new pastor.

            Imagine the judgement that went into ignoring that man! Think about it! All those 10,000 people just walking by him, denying his request for food, change, or not even saying hello. I can almost hear their voices: “don’t bother me, I am going to church. What a scruffy guy. He might get my clothes dirty. THANK GOD, I AM NOT LIKE HIM!

            This is where our Gospel reading comes into view and reveals something very telling. We have this Pharisee…this important person who is in the hierarchy of the religious leaders standing at prayer. This guy is lifting himself up all over the place! He starts going over his list of good things that he does. He fasts and he gives of his income. I might add he is also praying. This Pharisee in the parable is telling God of the basic things that need to be done in order to be righteous! He has got the checklist down pretty well, doesn’t he? It would seem so.

            His first words are more revealing than this checklist. Hi first words are, “God, thank you that I am not like other people.” What a compliment! This Pharisee, and I am not trying to paint Pharisees as evil, has already assumed that he is on the righteous list! He thinks he has it all figured out. As long as I am not a thief, rogue, or adulterer then he has hit the mark! He even pulls the “or even like this tax collector.” This guy thinks that salvation is now his…he thinks he hit a home run by doing the fasting, alms giving…and praying. So, he is pretty puffed up. I am sure he can stick out his chest and walk proud as a peacock.

            But Jesus tells us about this…this…tax collector. He, too, is in the synagogue. He, too, is praying. Jesus tells us that his head is bowed. He would not look to heaven, beats his chest saying, “God be merciful to me, a sinner!” This man is acting quite different. He is praying for God’s mercy. We know that tax collectors were not looked upon too favorably. They were considered low-life’s. They took from people, took a cut for themselves when it came to taxes. They were loathed in the world.

            The tax collector brings himself before God, humbly. He is not walking around like any kind of proud peacock. He realizes the nature of who he is by his profession and places himself before God asking for mercy and not so sure that he is going to get the mercy he is looking for. Yet, he pleads to God. This tax collector pleads to the only one who decides righteousness. He pleads to the only one who can offer the mercy he seeks.

            Jesus gives us two examples of what it means to be a child of God. We have the one example of the person who thinks that he has checked off all the boxes to attain God’s favor and yet the Son of God tells us that checking off the right boxes is not enough. He then shows us the example of the one who comes to the temple and is not sure if he is in God’s favor. He shows us the person, that we know to be questionable because of his profession, and lifts this person…this uncertainty, this person who stands before God humbly, and confesses himself a sinner…a broken person; a person willing to throw himself before God’s judgement not knowing what to expect as justified…as worthy of receiving God’s grace.

            So, where do we fit on this scale, if you will? What are our experiences? Well, I do believe there are times when we make that “Thank God I am not like him or her,” statement. We make judgements everyday about something, whether it is good or bad, right or wrong. I would even venture to say that we all make a decision that serves our own best interest on any given day. We make judgements about how someone dresses, acts, talks, eats, haircuts, piercings, and the list goes on.

            We can even make judgements about worship, faith, and religion. How many times a person attends worship. Is there religion one of good or evil, are their religious garments acceptable? All these things and one traits mentioned above cause us to judge a person’s value, worthiness, and even righteousness. Based on all those things, do we really want that person in our community, neighborhood, or church?

            The truth part of this story from the beginning was that there have been several pastors who have been disguised as homeless and living around their church to gauge reactions. The results varied between helping to judging and rejecting.

            And that is where we get caught in the trap of judgement. That decision of righteousness is not ours to make. It is not up to us to decide who is in and who is out. Jesus tells us that it is God and only God who makes that call…NOT US! Through this parable Jesus shows us what it means to be a child of God. It is not about checking off boxes, showing up to make sure you meet what you believe are the expectations of being righteous.

            Jesus tells us that it is about not knowing what our outcome is. Through this tax collector, we see that life as children of God is walking humbly. Living the life as God’s child is realizing the brokenness in our own lives and laying it all at Jesus feet at the foot of the cross! Admitting that we are not worthy of God’s love because of our sinfulness and hoping, praying, and pleading for God’s mercy to forgive us our sins (as it says in the Lord’s Prayer).

The Good News is that God’s mercy comes in the form of Jesus on the cross. Jesus went to the cross for our sins and NOT out of some propping of himself. Jesus went to the lowly cross as God’s son to take away the sin of the world! I hope we all find it humbling that Jesus was hung on a cross…that the Son of God died for you and me. He died to show us the mercy that God has for us; so, that we know the length and the breadth of God’s love which can be very humbling!

AMEN!           

Luke 17:11-19 Giving Thanks

Luke 17:11-19

ercy, and Peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ: Amen!

            This story is pretty amazing! 10 lepers are healed. I picture them across the street yelling at Jesus “Hey Master! Have mercy on us! “as they were told to go tell the priests, they were cleansed.” Pretty amazing! Kind of like a healing on the go.

            But there is this one guy who notices that he is healed. He stops and comes back. This person is so moved that he runs back to Jesus, praising him, falls at his feet (giving thanks), and is told to go, by Jesus, “your faith has made you well,” he says. So this man does some key  things: Turns back, glorifies, prostrates, and thanks. Quite a nice little checklist of things to do when it comes to God and the blessings he received. Wouldn’t you say so?

            It would be nice to lift up this person’s experience as one that we should all copy when it comes to God, right? I would like to give you this little checklist and send you on your way. But I can’t because I think we lump all these responses into this one word, thanksgiving. This guy gives thanks for being made clean and being healed. It is all wrapped up in one little buzz word, Thanksgiving.

            This man is not the example of how we should live our lives in our journey of faith. To wrap all his actions into one word causes two challenges: 1) we lift this person up, who is a Samaritan by the way, and start thinking “why cant I be more like him?” 2) It limits us to thinking that we are not even measuring up to a Samaritan who is an outsider. He is not of the chosen people and he is looked down upon by the entire community; AND if we can’t measure up to that; then what does it say about us?

            Let’s think of this person, this leper, this Samaritan in a different way. How about we look at all his actions is one BIG and different response to how Jesus…God heals this man. Let’s take away the buzz word of “thanksgiving” and think of his responses as varied and unique. He is the only one who stops to notice that he is healed. He turns back to Jesus…to God. There is a response. He comes back praising God. That is another response. Falls at Jesus feet. Yet another response. Finally he thanks God. All those responses are what he does. This is how this former leper responds to God’s blessing and healing. All these responses are what this man chose to do…chose how to show his response to the blessed gift he received!

            So how do you match up? That is a trick question. We are not supposed to be this Samaritan. We are not supposed to do everything he did because we are not this person. If I were to tell you to practice what this guy did, some might laugh, reject the suggestion, or just ignore it; and for good reason! You are YOU!

            Let’s think of this story in another way. Think of your favorite song; It has a flow to the song. The music has a certain rhythm to it that sparks your interest, makes you feel good, and may bring smiles to your faces. Rhythms have peaks and valleys, slow spots and quick spots. Our faith is the same way. We all have been at a place in our faith where faith might be strong. We may have experienced something in our life that remind us that God is present and with us…walking right beside us. How do we respond to that strong conviction? We might start singing praises to God, get a hymn in our head and begin singing it, or just get a smile saying “I knew you were there God!”

            There are times when we might see God’s sense of humor, We might know we want something but we don’t get what we want…maybe we get what we need (to steal a line from the Rolling Stones) and we end up laughing about it. Maybe our response is laugh and give thanks to god. Maybe we stop and take notice and just sit for a while in knowing that it was God who gave us blessings.

            The same is true when our faith is shaken to its very core. When we hit that valley of nothing seeming to go right, that time when we question the bedrock of our faith. Whatever that valley looks like, how do we respond to receiving God’s blessings? Maybe we come to the cross bringing the tears of our heart, the pain of our words, and cry in relief. Maybe we fall to our knees to give thanks. Maybe it is reciting a prayer that Jesus taught or that we learned in our faith journey.

            The point is that this man does not give us a checklist of things to do in order to give thanks to God. We are all different. What worked for this man may not work for us. What this man does is provide many different ways for us all to consider giving thanks and praise to God. Giving thanks and praise to God cannot be summed up in a buzzword because all our responses differ.

            So how can we respond to God’s blessings in our life? There are plenty of ministries going on here at church to give you some options. We have quilters, Victor’s Vittles, confirmation, Sunday school, bible studies, book studies, and if you want to introduce a different way to give thanks to God, let’s talk. There are ways to express and glorify God, prayer, going out and sharing your witness to God’s blessings with others (Like Jane Bowie shared with us this morning.).

            Next week we will be having Consecration Sunday. It is a time where we will be praying about what and how God calls us to share what we have been blessed with in the ministries of this church. Another expression of how we can express our thanks and praise for the blessings that God has given. But it won’t stop there. We will be working to make all this giving thanks and praise to God in varied expressions a regular discussion and action a year long process. Because like our Samaritan, there are so many different ways to give thanks to God: AMEN!