Pastor Ann presided today and she centered both the Children's Time and the Sermon on the Gospel Lesson, focusing on how things may not be as they appear. Today's Gospel Luke 18:9-14 tells the parable where a Pharisee and a tax collector go to the
temple to pray. The Pharisee prayed 'God, I thank you that I am not
like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax
collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.’ The prayer of someone going to church rather than being the church in today's world.
The path to being self-congratulatory is easy to understand for this Pharisee because of how deeds are normally rewarded in daily life. When does someone have "permission" to do less than what the church can expect? This is one way we maintain our own self-worth and reputation.
The tax collector, humble in his prayer, didn't even lift up
his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to
me, a sinner!' He probably has a bad reputation so he does not feel he has any standing to thank God he is not like the Pharisee.
Jesus ends the parable saying, "This man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.".
It’s difficult to avoid interpreting the parable in straightforward,
even simplistic terms, in part because the dramatic action of this
parable is so very predictable even to those with only limited knowledge
of the story of Jesus’ life. Knowing that Pharisees are regularly cast
in the gospels as Jesus’ opposition, we all too easily judge the
Pharisee to be a self-righteous hypocrite and assume that the moral of
this story is to be humble. There is good reason for this
straightforward interpretation, as Luke seems to frame the parable in
just these terms. The difficulty with such an interpretive tack,
however, is that we might as well end up preaching, “Lord, we thank you
that we are not like other people: hypocrites, overly pious, self
righteous, or even like that Pharisee. We attend church each week,
listen attentively to Scripture, and we have learned that we should
always be humble.”
In the past I only felt Jesus extolled the tax collector's humility
but now something else seems apparent. We know
the Pharisee went down to his house justified without being told directly. If the tax collector went home with a similar attitude because of his prayer, then, perhaps,
Jesus was teaching that God is not in the ranking - judgement business
at all. Neither man's prayer or attitude changes God's love or the grace that God
offers to either.
There’s a well-known story about a sitar player (in some versions, it’s a lute player) who was discouraged with his meditation practice and prayer. He went to the Buddha to ask for instruction.
“What happens when you tune your instrument too tightly?” the Buddha asked.
“The strings break,” the musician replied.
“And what happens when you string it too loosely?”
“When it’s too loose, no sound comes out,” the musician answered. “The string that produces a tuneful sound is not too tight and not too loose.”
“That,” said the Buddha, “is how to practice: not too tight and not too loose.”
I hear the wisdom in this echoed in today's parable. The Pharisee's prayer is tight. He is tempted to not being in right relationship with God's grace and mercy by thinking he has earned it by his actions.
Yet the tax collector's prayer is loose.He is tempted not take God, or the good, seriously in his life. No sound really seems to be coming out. His attitude may be that of the unjust judge in last week's parable. He does not fear God and is not in right relationship with man either, being a tax collector in this time.
The Pharisee and the tax collector are at two different ends of the spectrum when it comes to prayer. In fact hearing the the story it is hard not to chuckle at the ridiculous posture of the Pharisee. Why would anyone think this bragging qualifies as prayer? Jesus makes that point but the tax collector is likely in the midst of falling into another trap.
Justification, in Christian theology, is either (1) the act by which God moves a willing person from the state of sin (injustice) to the state of grace (justice), (2) the change in a person's condition moving from a state of sin to a state of righteousness, There is no indication in the parable that the tax collector has moved from his state of sin or has a desire to, just like the Pharisee. Yet with God's grace and mercy neither prayer is critical to justification.
This reminds me of a beautiful song that T Bone Burnett sang
during his "Christian" period (about the same time as Bob Dylan's). The
song is called Trap Door:
It's a funny thing about humility
As soon as you know you're being humble
You're no longer humble
It's a funny thing about life
You've got to give up your life to be alive
You've got to suffer to know compassion
You can't want nothing if you want satisfaction
Tonight the world looks like a different place
Tonight the moon is turning in its place
Tonight we find ourselves alone at last
Watch out for the trap door
Watch out for the trap door
It's a funny thing about love
The harder you try to be loved
The less lovable you are
It's a funny thing about pride
When you're being proud
You should be ashamed
You find only pain if you seek after pleasure
You work like a slave if you seek out the leisure
Tonight the world looks like a different place
Tonight the moon is shining on your face
Tonight we find ourselves alone at last
Watch out for the trap door
Watch out for the trap door
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Once again, as we become worn down by God's persistence we help God's kingdom come to earth and life is once again brought out of death.
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