October 24, 2010
(Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost;
Proper 25)
(From The Lectionary Page)
Cleaning the Windows
A young couple moves into a new neighborhood. The next morning while they are eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging the wash outside. "That laundry is not very clean," she said. "She doesn't know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry soap." Her husband looked on, but remained silent. Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the young woman would make the same comments. About a month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice clean wash on the line, and said to her husband: "Look, she has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her this?" The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned our windows."[1]
Both this story and the parable in this morning’s gospel remind me of what theologian and writer Marjorie Proctor-Smith said about parables: “…they are a lot like fishing lures: they are full of attractive features – feathers, bright colors, and all – and they end with a sharp little barb!”[2] It’s a dangerous business, judging others without seeing oneself clearly, truthfully.
A number of contrasts are presented in today’s gospel reading. Both the Pharisee and the tax collector have prayed to God, and in doing so, have given us clues about how they see themselves. From the judgment at the end of the parable, we learn that the tax collector sees correctly in God’s eyes, and the Pharisee does not.
But it’s important to note that nothing the Pharisee says is incorrect. We can assume that he does the things he says he does. He fasts regularly, and he tithes. These things were seen as favorably by his religious community as they would be today. They are good in and of themselves. But there is a sort of pride revealed here as well. The works named seem to him, to have earned him the same standing with God that they have earned him in his community. Furthermore, while the words are addressed to God, in reality, they are simply a list of accomplishments, as if the Pharisee were simply accounting for his good status before God.
This assessment is supported by the parable’s introductory sentence. First, as we’ve seen already, Jesus warns us against trusting in ourselves to produce righteousness before God. And second, against the regarding of others with contempt. The parable itself suggests, that these things are intimately related to each other. In fact, one seems to lead to the other. You might even say that, as the first can be difficult to detect in oneself, it is the second that can serve as indicator, that the first has taken root in us. When we find ourselves feeling superior to someone else, we can be sure that we have decided for ourselves, that we stand ahead of them before God.
The prayer of the tax collector is quite different. It can be assumed
that he has neither tithed nor fasted. He has done nothing to make him
think he’s earned any status with God. But Jesus holds it before his
disciples as a model prayer. “It reveals a kind of candor, simplicity,
and absolute trust in God’s mercy…The trick here, is that…the one offering
this prayer must be willing to stand before God
- without excuse,
- without special pleading,
without expectations,
- without a single claim on
anything, except God’s mercy.
The difficulty of this prayer should not be underestimated.”[3]
But that is precisely what this parable is about. It’s hard to imagine, that when Jesus spends so much time and effort, talking about how we are to live, that the very act of doing of those things that he teaches, can so easily become a stumbling block. The difference seems to be, at least partially, in what we think we are doing in our good works. Are we earning our place among the saved, or are we responding to the undeserved grace that God has given to us? Knowing what we are doing changes our actions altogether. But even if we “get it” at one moment, what is to keep us from unknowingly forgetting? And how can we maintain the heart of the tax collector’s prayer, while doing the works of the Pharisee?
The answer, in part, is Eucharist. We’ve all turned to God at some critical point in our lives, and asked God for mercy. But doing this requires a measure of humility and often, even desperation, that is hard to maintain. To be laid bare to God with all our faults fully exposed, is both difficult and exhausting.
But the celebration of Holy Eucharist, offers us a pattern for living our lives, that brings us back to this place, where we can see a true vision of ourselves. One writer that I admire says it this way: “…the actions of the community at worship are the paradigm for all other actions.” “It is not,” he warns, “that the actions practiced at worship, are inherently more important than actions engaged in outside the liturgy…”, but rather that everything we do finds its meaning in relation the Eucharistic pattern. “That is to say, that the community gathered for worship, seeks to have its imagination so shaped by this worship, that its entire life outside the liturgy, will become a powerful expression of this worship of God.”[4]
Our gathering together each week is itself symbolic of our identity as brothers and sisters helping each other on our common journey. Our hearing together of Holy Scripture each Sunday, calls us to see ourselves as having fallen somewhat short of answering God’s call to us. Then we acknowledge together this shared predicament in the confession, humbling ourselves equally before God, praying what is essentially the prayer of the tax collector. Arriving at this place of openness and honesty makes way for God’s absolution. We are forgiven, handed a clean slate, and renewed, prepared to receive together the bread of new life. This is the ever repeated pattern of Christian life.
All this is to say that while the Eucharist is primarily our worship of God, it has the peculiar effect of showing us the dirt that has once again settled on our windows. We are in competition with no one for God’s grace. We are heralds of it.
It even goes so far as to place in our hands us the windex and a clean towel.
[1] From
www.preaching.com/sermon-illustrations , accessed on 10/7/2010
[2] from Proctor-Smith, Marjorie, “Luke 18:9-14, A
Homiletical Perspective.” Published in Feasting On The Word, edited by
Bartlett, David L. and Brown Taylor, Barbara (Louisville, KY: Westminster
John Knox, 2010) p. 213
[3] from Proctor-Smith, Marjorie, “Luke 18:9-14, A
Homiletical Perspective.” Published in Feasting On The Word, edited by
Bartlett, David L. and Brown Taylor, Barbara (Louisville, KY: Westminster
John Knox, 2010) p. 217
[4] Kenneson, Philip. “Gathering: Worship,
Imagination, and Formation.” From The Blackwell Companion to Christian
Ethics. Edited by Stanley Hauerwas and Samuel Wells (Malden, MA:
Blackwell Publishing, 2004) p. 58
