I'm Glad I'm Not. . .

God, I thank you that I am not like those conservative Episcopalians who walked away refusing to acknowledge gospel hospitality, love, and inclusiveness.

God, I thank you that I am not like the agenda-driven liberal Episcopalians who neither understand nor respect the holy scriptures.

God, I thank you that I am not like the democrats who are driving this country into another failure of socialism.

God, I thank you that I am not like the republicans who only care about themselves and war.

God, I thank you that I study and work hard to have a good life and that I am not like those who leech off of welfare.

God, I thank you that I am a Christian and not like those godless Muslims.

God, I thank you that I am not like….

Now fill in the blank with whatever it might be for you. You may not pray like the Pharisee, but have you ever expressed those opinions in conversation? Have you ever kept those thoughts to yourself in silent self-righteousness?

The one thing we cannot say is,

“God, I thank you that I am not like the Pharisee.”

And if we do say that, then our own words become evidence that that is who we are. But that is not who we want to be. We want to be the justified tax collector because we have come to believe that Pharisees are narrow, legalistic hypocrites. To hold that belief sort of sounds like a Pharisee, doesn’t it?

Jesus’ parable sets a trap for us. It is not a trap to catch and condemn us; it is not a trap to separate tax collectors and Pharisees. Rather, it is a trap that stops us and brings us face-to-face with the reality of our life and relationship with God.

We know from historical records that when a Pharisee went into the temple, he would often separate himself from the others there, who he considered to be “unclean”. He was trying to impress God with his personal righteousness by separating himself from the “sinners”. It also seems that the Pharisee was praying to himself. It’s unclear whether his prayer was actually heard by others in the temple or not. But there is little doubt that he was putting on a demonstration for others that He thinks will also impress God.

On the other hand, the tax collector came to be impressed by God. He stood far off, not because he didn’t want to defile himself, but because he feared he might defile others. He understood that he was unworthy to even be in God’s presence. He came, not to impress God or others with his righteousness, but to beg for God’s mercy.

This parable is quite straightforward and simple; it seems to me that we could make a few observations for us to consider, and then spend the rest of our time following the example of the tax collector and taking some time to be impressed by God.

Another important question to ask ourselves is:

Why did we come to church this morning?

There are two reasons people come to church:

1. To impress God

2. To be impressed by God

It’s not too hard to figure out which of the two came for each of those reasons. Obviously the Pharisee came to impress God.

Look at this prayer that the Pharisee prayed; he’s not praying to God, he’s praying to himself. The Pharisees considered themselves worthy of God’s grace based on their religious performance. They thought they earned the right to demean others and make demands. And this prayer shows this self-righteous attitude.

In Luke 18:11 the Pharisee is demeaning others so that he can elevate himself. Even going so far to point out a particular person around him, the tax collector. He thinks he’s better than him. In his prayer he reports all the wonderful things he has done:

fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of all he gets.

He’s showing off, bragging.

The Old Testament Law only required a fast once a year. But the Pharisee fasted twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. But really, this is just a ploy to attract attention to himself. These were the days the market convened and many people came to town. He was just showing off. And the Pharisee is proud of his religious piousness. His entire prayer centers around how great he is and how terrible everyone else is, especially the tax collector.

These kinds of people have an “I” problem. Five times this Pharisee uses the pronoun “I”. He suffered from two problems: inflation and deflation. He had an inflated view of who he was and a deflated view of who God was. C.S. Lewis wisely said,

“A proud man is always looking down on things and people; but as long as you are looking down you can’t see anything that is above you.”