Download Sunday October 27th, 2013 (Word Doc)

St. Margaret’s Uniting Church, Sunday 27th October, 2013
READINGS
Luke 18:9-14 & 2 Timothy 4:6-8
In our passage from 2 Timothy, the writer speaks of fighting the good fight, and
finishing the race, and keeping the faith.
Naturally I couldn’t help but focus for a moment on the thrill of finishing the race!
So some reflections on running a couple of Sundays ago … There are many
things that might be said, but I recall seeing this quote on the shirt of a runner:
"If you can read this, I'm not in last place."
It was on that runner’s back, so I was obviously behind him. So perhaps I should
have had this on my shirt: "I know I'm slow. Get over it."
I am intrigued by competition. It can bring out the best or worst in people. Ani was
at the MCG to support me and noted the excitement of the finish to the women’s
marathon. Australian runner Lisa Weightman was significantly behind the woman
in front in the last couple of kilometres of the race but she was gaining ground
fast. When you can see the back of another runner it is strangely motivating and
you can find reserves you never imagined you had. By the time they entered the
final lap of the MCG, Lisa had hit the lead and she received a standing ovation
when she broke the record for the Melbourne marathon. The woman she beat
also got an ovation for being part of a thrilling finish. But by the time the third
person came in, no one was paying any notice.
Our world seems to be geared towards winners and losers … Some more
running quotes: “2nd place looks good on you.”
"If you wanna catch me, you got to be fast...if you wanna stay with me,
you got to be good...if you wanna pass me...You've got to be kidding."
"Why are all these people following me?"
If we are not careful, we can fall into the same trap. If we see Lisa Weightman
and Dominic Ondoro as ‘the’ only winners, then there are about 7,000 losers in
the marathon, and a further 11,000 losers in the half-marathon that I ran. My own
ranking for age group was around 100th, so I cannot ever entertain visions of
being a winner, at least not in the same way as Lisa Weightman.
I wonder if we realise how much we are caught up in the same mentality – that
winning is everything and losing is for losers? If we don’t see how it can affect us,
it can even impact on how we understand this parable of a Pharisee and a Tax
Collector as told by Jesus.
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We might think of the Pharisee as a winner, for example. Often folk in the church
think that being members of a church, praying often, and living lives that are good
and clean will make them winners in the eyes of God. Isn’t it good not to be like
thieves, rogues, and adulterers? Isn’t it good not to be fraudulent and side with
the infidels, the Roman enemies - like your average tax collector? Isn’t it morally
worthy to fast twice a week and tithe your income? You would think so. Surely
this one is a winner, one who fights the good fight, one who runs the race, one
who is keeping the faith!
And we are tempted to make our own judgments about winners and losers. We
would likely frown on the Tax Collector for example. Or perhaps we would be far
more critical? People have a way of giving out messages without speaking about
how they welcome or feel about others. A critical eye can be far more
condemning that words. And our society and its morals are built on things
sociologist call social sanctions. That is what happens when people are brought
into line to the expectations of the wider group through chiding bad behaviour.
You can see it on TV shows like ‘A Current Affair’ for example as they air another
criticism of young street hoons in our city streets.
So the Tax Collector shouldn’t be in the temple to pray because he is social
scum. He is a petty criminal. He collects taxes for the benefit of Rome. And Rome
represents all that is wrong with this world. They are foreigner and oppressive
power. They are the people who shatter the vision or sense that God’s people are
in God’s favour. The Tax Collector wreaks of betrayal …
But it seems he knows it, and that he feels intensely the social sanctions against
him. He is in the temple to pray as an act of faith. But he is on the edges, not
daring to enter places of importance, not expecting acceptance or welcome …
Imagine if you feel you are morally upright, or at least feel like you are trying to do
the right things and find Jesus accepting and welcoming the scumbag instead of
you? Doesn’t that call into question all that we have ever strived for as we run the
race and fight the good fight? It might surprise you, but I see the Pharisee a bit
like those runners who need to win at all costs. In effect as he prays it is like he
has a slogan on his back ‘God’s favour makes me a winner’.
While the Pharisee takes his place front and centre in the temple, a place of
honour, and while he does indeed go there to pray, his focus is not on God but
rather on himself. He is full of how good he is and his prayer enumerates all his
positive virtues. And then it gets worse. He contrasts the good he sees in himself,
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with the failings of the rest of humanity. In the parable he finds a live example of
such failed misery in the tax collector.
The Pharisee positions himself as a winner, one who has fought the good fight,
one who has run the good race of God’s favour and come home first.
As Brendan Byrne (The Hospitality of God) writes describing the Pharisee’s
attitude to prayer:
Life is a competition in virtue, and God assesses and bestows prizes on
the winners. Prayer is keeping God informed about how successfully
one is doing and also about the shortcomings of others.
And by contrast the tax collector is real. He focusses his prayer on God and his
need for God. He knows he is not a winner. There is no hiding, no pretending. He
asks instead for God’s mercy.
We might assume why he feels so down on himself. He is social scum after all.
But perhaps that is too simple. Maybe he doesn’t want to be who he is but due to
circumstances he is stuck? He might find it challenging (like many of us do)
because family responsibilities and limited employment options means he has
few options. Isn’t this life?
Doesn’t the Tax Collector portray the reality of the human condition while the
Pharisee denies that he is even part of what afflicts us all? Isn’t there always
tension and disorder in our own lives? Or do we imagine we live in perfect
harmony with family, society and moral expectations like the Pharisee? If Jesus
commends the tax collector, might this be just the good news for all who find
themselves painfully judged by society for life situations that are less than
perfect? Perhaps those who are single parents might find silent or even vocal
judgement from others? Or maybe those whose sexuality challenges a narrow
range of sensibilities? Or maybe those who marriage arrangements might be
considered less than perfect? Or maybe those like the tax collector who find
themselves compromised because of their employment or even lack of it?
The Pharisee appears to be worshipping himself. The tax collector represents all
of us who have sinned and who keep on sinning and fall short of God’s glory.
But Jesus can see this. His discernment of God’s favour is sharper than our own.
And this is good news! And it seems the mess and disorder that the Tax Collector
represents is no big deal for God. Paul reminds us of that in his letter to the
Roman church (Romans 3:23-24):
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for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ
Jesus.
Jesus concludes that the one who comes to God’s house in his own eyes a
sinner went home with God’s favour, went home made just. And surprisingly, the
one sure of his virtue went home without God’s favour!
Perhaps we are all tempted to be winners. Perhaps we want to live like the
Pharisee as an attempt at assuring the grace of God upon us. But Luke’s gospel
reminds us of the reversal that brings about God’s kingdom. And it is good news,
because all of us who trail behind the self proclaimed winners, those with snappy
slogans on their backs that make the rest of us feel small or intimidated, are in
just as good a spot to find God’s favour as any other. To continue the analogy,
we are the ones who fight the fight, who run the race, who keep the faith. The
self-righteous one is actually running the wrong race.
I wonder about the Pharisee. Did he really think he was good enough to work
himself into God’s favour? Or perhaps his following of rules and regulations was
just a decoy, something he used to fool himself or hide behind?
If we are tempted to hide behind whatever goodness we perceive, maybe this
story will convince us that it is not at all necessary. We cannot fool God, even if
we can fool ourselves. So in that sense, both Pharisee and Tax Collector stand
naked before God in their moments of prayer. And if God can see so clearly, we
are also faced with a choice about who we will be in that space. Do we dare to be
honest, to be real, to desire that God align us most fully into God’s way? Do we
dare allow love to change and reshape us, to become our salvation?
The parable that Jesus shares ought tell us that God is indeed a God of grace.
But if there is any doubt, surely the words of the apostle Paul will tell us the truth?
… all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came
by Christ Jesus.
There it is – good news! God actually loves to pick us up and invite us into favour.
So we don’t need to hind behind rules or regulations or our own steely shells of
self-righteousness. We can’t hide anyway, from God at least. So let us find the
courage to let go of ourselves to find that we are fully embraced in the favour of
our God.
For the one who points us to the grace, love and mercy of God, thanks be to God.
Amen.