God Knows Who We Are

The Pharisees get a bad rap in the Gospels! Why, to call someone a Pharisee is almost an insult! The Gospels of John and Matthew, describe them in the most negative terms. Matthew, for example, shows Jesus calling them evil and malicious. Luke’s account is not quite so negative, and Luke even shows Jesus occasionally speaking positively of them. And why not? They were the good people in ancient Israel, the fine, upstanding citizens like ourselves. Even though the Law of Moses was detailed and complicated, the Pharisees did their best to follow its commands. They kept the feasts and fasts. They went regularly to the temple and made the required sacrifices. They bathed and prayed at home. They donated generously to the upkeep of the temple and did their best to associate only with people whose moral standards matched their own. They were probably responsible for the survival of Judaism after the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. They were the good people.

And the Pharisee in the parable Jesus tells in this week’s reading from Luke’s Gospel appears to be better than most. He fasts twice a week, and he tithes all his income, not just what is strictly required. Why is he not a model for all of us good Christians? Perhaps it’s because of the way he prays. He doesn’t really express gratitude to God, does he? Instead, he contemptuously compares himself with others: “I thank you that I am not like other people.” Ironically, of course, he is “like other people,” even though he doesn’t see his resemblance to them. Worse yet, in his “prayer” he goes on to judge others, including the tax collector who has also come to the temple with him. And what does the Pharisee request from God? Nothing! He appears to trust solely in his own ability to follow the commandments and asks nothing of God. He has such a high opinion of himself that he almost has no need of God. He may be righteous, but does he love and trust God? Doubtful.

Does the Pharisee sound like anyone we know? A couple of years ago, a woman began a letter to Dear Abby saying, “I know I am a real catch. But for the life of me, I can’t get a date with the right kind of guy.” She went on to recite all her wonderful traits, then ended her letter complaining, “I’m so sick of meeting creeps. I really want someone in my own league. I’ve been told a thousand times that I’m gorgeous and stunning…. Where are the male equivalents?” Dear Abby’s sage response was, “They died of altitude sickness, trying to climb the pedestal you have placed yourself on…. [T]he sooner you become less preoccupied with your own perfection, the more likely you will meet your male “equivalent.” Of course, that attitude is just Dear Abby! We’ve never felt like that letter writer! Or have we?

And what about the other character in this parable, the tax collector? Tax collectors were really scum in ancient Israel. They were not good people. They followed very few, if any, of the commandments. They collaborated with the hated Roman government. They gouged their own people. They were not people I would want to emulate! However, in contrast to the Pharisee, the tax collector acknowledges his sins. Standing outside the holiest part of the temple, he knows he has not lived up to God’s expectations. In remorse and shame, facing the truth about himself, he beats his breast. And then he does the one right thing: he asks God for something! He asks for God’s mercy and compassion. Unlike the Pharisee, who asked nothing of God, the tax collector asks God for compassion, and, by implication, grace to amend his life. And so, as Jesus tells us, the tax collector in this parable went home “justified,” i.e., in a right relationship with God.

So is the tax collector our spiritual model? I don’t think that Jesus expected his hearers, or that Luke expected his readers, or, by extension us, to adopt a criminal lifestyle, surrender our integrity, or enter a morally dubious occupation, just so that we can be forgiven abundantly by God. As Paul asks in Romans 6, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? By no means!” Then should we do nothing but beat up on ourselves, continually acknowledging and bewailing “our manifold sins and wickedness,” denying any good things we have been able to do? Probably not. Rather, we are to acknowledge who we all are before God, that we “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” That we are needy, unfinished, imperfect creatures. That we are not self-made, that we cannot trust solely in ourselves if we are to grow spiritually, that we must depend on God to work within us. That if we are to have a right relationship with God, we need God’s help and God’s grace. That we must not close ourselves off from God’s grace by thinking that we don’t need it, but, rather we need to be honest and open about our need for grace to amend our lives and to continue to grow as God’s children. God knows who we are, and God loves us as we are, failings and all. When we acknowledge who we are, then God’s grace can work in us. There is no room for God’s grace, if we don’t think we need it, but when we ask God for grace, as does the tax collector in the parable, then God is more than ready to pour out God’s grace on us.

In Vienna in Austria there is a church in which the former rulers of Austria, the Hapsburgs, are buried. When royal funerals arrived there the mourners would knock at the door of the church to be allowed in. A priest inside would ask “Who is it that desires admission here?” A guard would call out, “His apostolic majesty, the emperor.” The priest would answer, “I don’t know him.” They would knock a second time, and again the priest would ask who was there. The funeral guard outside would announce, “The highest emperor.” A second time the priest would say, “I don’t know him.” A third time they would knock on the door and the priest would ask “Who is it?” The third time the answer would be, “A poor sinner, your brother.”

That, my friends, is what we all are. The truth is that we are probably like both the Pharisee and the tax collector – and both were sinners in their own way. Although we may not reach the level of the writer to Dear Abby, there are probably days when we think we don’t need God. Likewise, there are probably days when we feel our need for God acutely. What we want to do as Christians is, by God’s grace, to move further away from the Pharisee’s self-sufficiency and closer to the tax collector’s acknowledgment of our need for God’s grace. One way to do that is through prayer. Notice, in fact, what both the Pharisee and the tax collector are doing in this parable. They are praying. In fact, it is in prayer that we often come face to face with both truth and grace, the truth about ourselves and the grace of God. Like the tax collector, if we can pray focusing our attention on God rather than on ourselves, God will help us to see ourselves as we truly are, incomplete yet beloved by God, and God will help us to become the people that God wants us to be.

And so we must pray. Certainly, some of our prayer must be corporate prayer. We are surely nourished Sunday by Sunday by the corporate prayers that we offer in the liturgy. But we must also, at some point in our day or week, pray as individuals. In the midst of all our work, family obligations, committee meetings, much-needed rest and recreation, travel, visits with relatives and friends, exercise, we must find that quiet time in the day to encounter God personally. As you know, our church has inherited a rich tradition of contemplative prayer. Lest you think that’s something for only monks and nuns, let me quickly add that contemplative prayer is at its heart simply sitting quietly and opening yourself to God. There are many ways to do this. You can sit in absolute silence, you can meditate on Scripture, you can pray with an icon, you can write in a spiritual journal, you can join me here in this church on Wednesdays at noon and on our Advent quiet day in December . There are also many resources available to help you. What is important is to commit yourself to taking some time to let God speak to you through one or the other of these means. Are you willing to let God speak to you in this way? Can you commit yourself to even ten minutes a day being alone with God in prayer? If you do, I promise you that God will richly bless you in those ten minutes and in the rest of your life.