Proper 25 – Katharine Armentrout
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
This morning Jesus is talking to “some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous”.
And he tells us this familiar parable about the self-righteous Pharisee who recites all his good deeds to God and makes clear that he is not like other sinners and certainly not like that tax collector over there.
One writer said the Pharisee’s recitation was like a “personal progress report or, to use a new phrase, it is a “humble brag!”
And the Pharisee’s recitation reminded me of that old country song by Mac Davis: “Oh Lord it is hard to be humble when you are perfect in every way.”
But.. the fact is that he does fast more than required under Jewish Law and he does pay more tithes than are required.
And, he assures those who listen, that he isn’t like “ other people” – those thieves, rogues, adulterers, and certainly not like the Tax Collector over there. ,
But… the problem with his prayer is that it really isn’t a prayer as you and I might think of one.
A prayer is ordinarily addressed to God with a heart-felt request or a deep offer of thanks for God’s blessings.Instead he recites proudly his righteous deeds, using the first person pronoun “I” five times in just a few sentences. It is I,I,I!
Yes, I think he is sincere in thinking he has done well by following the rules of God’s desires under those rules – which is faithfulness.
But he is ignorant of his of what a real prayer is.
He has good feelings about how faithful he thinks he is, how he follows all the rules, but he it is all focused on himself.
In fact Jesus calls our attention to his problem when he says at the beginning: “Jesus told the parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and treated others with contempt.”
And … we can see the blatant contempt of the Pharisee for others when he says,
God, “I thank you that I am not like other people, thieves, rogues, adulterers or even like this tax collector.”
His contempt for others blocked him from looking inward at his own soul and his own relationship with God.
The problem was his pride, I think. He did not come before God with any kind of reverence, any kind of humility, any sense that he might have erred, or as my friend used to say, “that he had fallen short of the glory of God.”
There was no recognition that his contempt for people placed him outside God’s loving nature.
He came into that Temple without any reverence for God.
But, as far as he was concerned, he had checked off all the boxes of being a faithful person,
without looking for the heart of God
and without looking deeply at what is important to God, and
what our God desperately wants us to care about.
Jesus goes on though after this lengthy recitation by the perfect Pharisee to tell us the story of the Tax Collector.
Jesus describes the desperately humble tax collector, whom we are to know was a collaborator with the Roman Empire. He really was a traitor to his own people.
He was despised by most in his world, unwelcome in most houses. In Jewish culture he was the ultimate bad guy.
And, unlike the proud Pharisee, he acknowledges that he is outside the usual faithful people in the Temple,
he even stands bent over and far off – to the side in the Temple.
He is so aware of his sinfulness that he is barely able to lift his head to pray.
And he prays only one, heart-wrenching line: “ God be merciful to me, a sinner.”
“God be merciful to me, a sinner.”
And, surprise of surprise, it is the tax collector that Jesus says went home justified.
And the explanation for this surprising turn of events, is simple:
Jesus said: “For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
So how did the Pharisee, who was rigidly attentive to the requirements of the Law, fall short?
He tithed more than most, he prayed constantly, he gave alms.
Quite honestly he sounds like the kind of person we might want in our church…
except for the fact all his practices seem to have become for him a path to self-righteousness instead of an openness to God and God’s love.
And, at first reading, this seems a very simple parable.
We may be tempted to draw the conclusion from it, that to be justified before God all that we have to do is acknowledge that we are not like the Pharisee…
That we just need to be humble before the Lord.
But, in a way, isn’t that what the Pharisee did: he thanked God that he was not like the others.
And don’t we do that exactly that when we say, “Oh God, I thank you that I am not like that Pharisee!!”
We may hear this parable as a lesson on humility, as one writer put it. We hear: “Don’t be proud like the Pharisee. Go home and be humble like the tax collector.”
And, poof, just like that we fall into a trap:
We take this parable, and instead of seeing God’s abundant, overflowing love for all of us, regardless of our faults,
regardless of what we are and what we have done,
we turn it into a story about how we can earn or merit God’s Love.
We pray: ”Oh Lord, honestly I am not like the Pharisee. I know I am a sinner like the tax-collector. Honest, I acknowledge that I really have sinned and ashamed of the things that I have done.
And, as a friend of mine used to say. “I know that I fall far short of the glory of God.”
Trying hard to show God how humble we can be. Asking all the time, “What can I do to be worthy of your love?” Trying hard to be worthy.
But … did you notice that there were no questions of the Tax Collector? Once he came to God and asked for God’s mercy there was no requirement to list every last sin,
Once he came and asked for God’s mercy, there was no requirement to pledge that he would repay what he had stolen, that he would amend his life..
There was nothing, nothing but God’s gift of forgiveness and His blessing sending him on his way.
Once we come to God there is nothing but God’s free gift of love and forgiveness. Love and forgiveness.
Why is this hard so for us? Why do we feel we must do something to deserve God’s love.
I think for many of us it is because we have grown up in a world of meritocracy…where nothing is free. You have to earn it all.
And we grow up thinking our merit is in the grades we get in school,
our merit is in the job or partnership we manage to achieve, the special house we build;
Or that our merit is in how much money we donate to the church or to Doctors Without Borders, or Alzheimer’s research.
Or how many hours we have given to help others.
Our society attaches value, worth to all of these things.
And we somehow believe that God will love us because of those efforts that we have made.
We believe we have to “merit” God’s love; that we have to do something to earn it, if we could just figure that out.
And, I think, we often don’t really believe that God forgives us all the sins we have committed, the mistakes we have made, the injuries we have inflicted.
We say our confession but then we wonder, are we really forgiven?
Do we really believe what this parable makes plain:
that there is nothing that we can do that will make us merit God’s love for us, except to come to God.
It is God’s overflowing, never-ending love for us that we have to understand and accept.
I have learned a bit about this kind of acceptance up at Arrendale with the women.
In an echo of the Tax Collector who asked for God’s forgiveness and went home reconciled, some of the women at Arrendale are examples of those who believe in the power of God’s never-ending love and forgiveness despite all that they have done.
These women, many of whom have committed serious, dangerous crimes, have come to understand that God loves them unconditionally despite their past lives. They don’t have to “merit” God’s love. They have come to deeply believe in this promise of Jesus.
There is a song they sing, often at the top of their lungs, that reflects this understanding:
The song is titled “The Never-Ending Reckless Love of God.” They sing:
“Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God. Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine.
I couldn’t earn it, and I don’t deserve it, still, You give Yourself away. Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God..”
It is God’s overflowing, never-ending love for us that we have to understand and accept as this parable makes plain.
There is nothing that we can do that will merit God’s love for us, except come to God, and take the love He pours out on us and pass it on to others…
And instead of trying to show how we merit that love, I think we are called to take this never-ending, reckless love of God and pass it on to others…Amen.