Sermon 10-23

Introductory

Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

• Then afterward
  I will pour out my spirit on all flesh;
  your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
  your old men shall dream dreams,
  and your young men shall see visions.
• I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
• Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:
• ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Parable

Once again we hear a parable from Jesus about prayer. He has told us about 2 men who pray to God – one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The one is satisfied with himself. The other is keenly aware of his many short-comings.
You may remember the principle I mentioned last time about trying to decide where we identify ourselves in the parables. Who do we naturally identify with as we listen?
In this case my hunch is that we don’t so much identify with the tax-collector as we say to ourselves, “Well, at least I’m not like the Pharisee!”
Our natural place is to feel pretty good about ourselves, isn’t it? And honestly it’s not without some good reason. Each of us has found our way to this moment, this morning, by way of much searching and discovery, looking for God in all kinds of places, finding evidence in sometimes surprising places – each of us feels ok with the way we approach God.
Probably each of us has a time – or times – in our life when we would have just come right out and identified with the tax-collector, aware of our own short-comings, not expecting anything from God except judgment, and pleading for mercy.
Another part of my suggestions to folks about reading the parables is to ask ourselves where we place God in them.
In today’s example, we tend to see God above the whole story, watching us to see what we’re thinking. We place God with the voice of Jesus in the opening line that explains what the parable is about:
Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:
We read that and we think, “Well, I know what this parable is about. Whew. Now on to the next thing.”
That little verse at the beginning of the reading – the camera is on Jesus, explaining what the parable is about. But that’s not really what it is. Jesus’ voice is to be found in the parable. In the story itself. The opening voice is the gospel writer, telling us what’s about to happen – like a stage script, describing the next scene in a play or movie.
What I want to say this morning about parables, in addition to what I’ve said before, is that Jesus’ parables are almost never about teaching us something. they are about getting us to take some action, to make some change in our lives.
This is a principle of interpreting Jesus’ parables that was first clearly identified about 80 years ago or so. But it is a principle that I think has always been known. But we have to relearn it over and over again.
If we think this parable is here so that we can say to ourselves, “Ok, I’m not supposed to be hypocritical and I’m supposed to be more like the guy who pleads for mercy.” – “Ok, I’ve got it.” then we have missed it.

Two Kinds of People

e.g. 2 kinds of people: is not about learning something – though there are things to learn about that

• It is about looking at myself, am I someone who divides the world into those who agree with me, look like me, think like me, … and everyone else. Or do I see everyone as human.
• It’s meant to change the world – a little story.

Knowing who we are before the Lord

Humility is the remedy

Many centuries ago great ones in the church recognized that the basic path to the kind of self-awareness and inner change that the gospel is about – was in the path of humility.
Steps of humility:
Christianity Today and cf. bernard of clairvaux
(1)fear of the Lord
(2)renunciation of self-will
(3)obedience to the superior in imitation of Christ
(4)patience and equanimity in difficulties
(5)self-revelation
(6)contentment with the least
(7)awareness of one’s own liabilities
(8)avoidance of individualistic and self-seeking behavior
(9)radical restraint of speech
(10) avoidance of laughter
(11) gravity of speech
(12) humility manifest in all facets of life
Humility is required for Self-awareness and self-knowledge – knowing who we are (and aren’t)
Humility is not something highly valued in our society.
Silence valued over sound – can you imagine?
St. Bernard 1,000 years ago outlined the steps of humility for defeating the exalted mountain we call Pride – the queen of sin.
Lesson from Colorado Mountain Club: Leave the mountains in the same condition it was in when you entered.
These were mountain men kind of folks. They weren’t wimps.
Humility could be that kind of story

The tax collector does not claim to know as much about God as the Pharisee knows, but the tax collector at least knows who is who. He knows he cannot grant mercy upon himself and that no comparison to others will ever wipe his slate clean. He knows who is God and who is not, who is the subject and who is the object. Jesus says, to learn who is who will not diminish our importance but exalt us to our rightful position. No longer the subject of our own prayers, or the granter of our own grace, we can be the humble recipient of God’s.

By: Kayla McClurg (Inward/Outward)

in God’s presence (even here)

Humility allows us to know ourselves in the presence of God. – Now that’s a humbling thing to think about. But it’s exactly what we claim by standing, sitting in this room today.
Annie Dillard:

There is one church here, so I go to it. On Sunday mornings I quit the house and wander down the hill to the white frame church in the firs. On a big Sunday there might be twenty of us there; often I am the only person under sixty, and feel as though I’m on an archaeological tour of Soviet Russia. The members are of mixed denominations; the minister is a Congregationalist, and wears a white shirt. The man knows God. Once, in the middle of the long pastoral prayer of intercession for the whole world–for the gift of wisdom to its leaders, for hope and mercy to the grieving and pained, succor to the oppressed, and God’s grace to all–in the middle of this he stopped, and burst out, “Lord, we bring you these same petitions every week.” After a shocked pause, he continued reading the prayer. Because of this, I like him very much. “Good morning!” he says after the first hymn and invocation, startling me witless every time, and we all shout back, “Good morning!” …
The higher Christian churches–where, if anywhere, I belong–come at God with an unwarranted air of professionalism, with authority and pomp, as though they knew what they were doing, as though people in themselves were an appropriate set of creatures to have dealings with God. I often think of the set pieces of liturgy as certain words which people have successfully addressed to God without their getting killed. In the high churches they saunter through the liturgy like Mohawks along a strand of scaffolding who have long since forgotten their danger. If God were to blast such a service to bits, the congregation would be, I believe, genuinely shocked. But in the low churches you expect it any minute. This is the beginning of wisdom.

–Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm (Harper & Row, 1977)
Thanks be to God that