October 28, 2007
(Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 25)
God, Be Merciful to a Sinner Like Me
By The Very Rev. Terry White, Dean
Sirach 35:12-17 Psalm 84:1-6
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Luke 18:9-14
(From
The Lectionary Page)
In all my years as priest, this is the first time that the final Sunday of October has not been a Sunday when we get an extra hour sleep. That now happens next Sunday, thanks to an act of Congress (the very phrase sounds like a contradiction in terms.)
When the last Sunday includes a celebration of All Hallows it is a doubly good day. One year, my parish was holding an afternoon event on October 31, and I needed to make a grocery store run to get more supplies. Going through the check-out in my usual uniform, the clerk looked me over and said, What a great costume!
Dressing up is to engage in fantasy, and give thanks for all the diversity in creation. Creativity, imagination, and fun are gifts of God we should celebrate.
We also know what it means to put on costumes that are not so fun; that is, to clothe ourselves in attitudes and practices that are anything but joyful. We encounter two men in todays Gospel who are not as fully clothed in faith as they should be.
'Lex orandi, lex crendi' is a Latin phrase the roughly means the way you pray is the way you believe. In essence, when we gather for corporate worship, we clothe ourselves in our faith. We Anglicans treasure prayer, especially common prayer that we celebrate together. We encounter today the prayers of two men in the Temple. There is a common error in presenting the Pharisee as a despicable character, and the tax collector as something of hero. This may in fact lead us to an incorrect reading of the parables message. [Preaching Through the Christian Year Year C]
The Pharisee represents religious obsession with observing the law of Moses. His prayer, which includes listing the things he does, proves that he goes beyond what the law requires. And one should be thankful for the opportunity to perform more than is asked. But then he shows how little impact these acts have on what he thinks of others and how he treats them. He does not feel a need to minister to the tax collector in his distress, but rather, condemns him. The Pharisees observance of the law has fallen short. [Ibid.]
Just as the Pharisee is not a villain, so the tax collector is anything but a model. He works for the occupying Roman army, collects taxes from his own people and thus betrays them, and has turned his back on his faith and is religiously impure because he does business with Romans. He prays rightly, Lord have mercy on me a sinner, but his life does not reflect this desire to repent. He wants forgiveness without actually changing how he lives his life. [Ibid.]
Each man seems to understand something of faith, but by no means have grasped all of the essentials. So why does Jesus say that the later, the tax collector, left the Temple being justified? Because the Pharisee in the end trusted in his ability to keep the law, and the tax collector in the end trusted in God for mercy and compassion. That is the difference. And it is a huge difference. [Ibid.]
And as we begin to get the point of this parable, dont we come dangerously close to repeating it: for if we thank God that we are not like the Pharisee, then we have committed the same mistake. Instead, our model is the tax collector. Our prayer should simply be, "God, be merciful to a sinner like me."
How does todays Gospel passage begin? "Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves . . . and regarded others with contempt." Piety at its best makes you and me more open to Gods love for us and for others. Piety at its worst is used to justify contempt of Gods children." [Ibid.]
Humility is a cardinal virtue which works to remind us that we are not the Almighty, but we are in need of the Almighty. As the Body of Christ, we are at our strongest not when we list our accomplishments, but when we claim our need of God alone.
May our lives from this day forward reflect a simple prayer: God, be merciful to a sinner like me. May the cathedral parish grow in understanding how dependent we are upon God. Let us enthrone the Lord as the one rely on and let us embody the Lords call to love, heal, and serve in lavish and stupendously generous ways. If praying shapes believing, then what we believe and how we live out that belief all flows from what we pray in this place this morning.
My friends, may God be merciful to sinners like you and me. And may we, in turn, be the very incarnation of that divine and never-ending mercy, that we might live this Temple justified.
