Luke 18:9-14
"Be Real"
So, who are you, really?
I'm not talking about the person who appears to have everything perfectly under control, or the persona who has been created, layer-by-layer, through the painful, embarrassing or shameful experiences of life...
...the protective shield we build layer by layer.
I'm talking about the authentic you.
According to experts, unhappiness stems from living as one person, but knowing the real you is much different.
The strain of acting all the time can crush your spirit and steal your joy.
The authentic you is much more beautiful, talented and powerful than anything you could fabricate.
I remember in high school, riding in a car with a group of friends.
We had been partying and skipping school.
The song playing very loudly on the car stereo was Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb."
I remember relating, painfully to the words of the song that go: "This is not who I am. I have become comfortably numb."
I think it's very hard to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ without authenticity.
But what does that mean?
Not putting on "airs."
Being "yourself."
Admitting your "flaws"...to God, yourself and others...
Being honest; real.
Accepting yourself and others for who you and others are; human beings--with faults...
...human beings with insecurities...
...human beings who do some pretty awful stuff sometimes...
...especially when we are acting on our insecurities...
...but human beings who are so greatly loved by God and worth more than anything in the world...
...human beings, wonderfully unique...
...gifted...
...and created in Christ Jesus to live the kind of lives God has created us to live.
Being authentic and real also means trusting in the mercy of God, and the mercy of God alone for our salvation--for our everything!!!
It also means accepting others for who they are, forgiving as we have been forgiven, being merciful to others as God is merciful to us.
It is so easy, though, to become self-deluded.
Who's in--Who's out?
It's a question that consumes the minds of many of us, not just the readers of entertainment tabloids.
We can become so used to "putting on a show" for others that we come to believe that "the show" we are putting on is our real authentic self.
We can't tell the fake from the original.
And that's sad.
And so Jesus told the parable we are studying for this morning "to certain people who had convinced themselves that they were righteous and who looked on everyone else with disgust."
Have you ever felt as if others were looking at you with disgust?
Have you ever felt as if you were excluded from the "in" crowd?
Have you ever been made to feel as if you weren't as good as other people?
Perhaps you were tormented by bullies as a kid.
Maybe you had a lisp, or weren't as good at sports as some of the other children.
Perhaps you came from a poor household and your parents couldn't afford to buy you the "latest and greatest" brand name clothing, shoes and toys.
So you were "made fun of," and you came to believe what the other kids were saying about you.
You came to believe you weren't as good as them.
You came to believe that you were somehow "inferior" to the people who seemed to look on you with "disgust."
So maybe you tried to "act cool" in order to protect yourself from the attacks.
Maybe you are still trying to "act cool."
Being cool is supposed to make us irresistibly confident in our up-to-the-minute blase-ness, but it actually feeds our insecurities with the false belief that popularity or a certain image is needed for our validation.
Tim Kasser and Richard Ryan, from the University of Rochester, have documented the fact that external goals like appearance and possessions are associated with lower self-esteem, higher anxiety and lower well-being.
Jennifer Crocker of the University of Michigan reports that, when self-esteem is based on external measures like appearance and approval, there is more stress, anger, and substance abuse.
It would appear, then, that being cool is uncool for our happiness.
Let's face it, the premise of cool is a stretch: You're cool if you're copying somebody else.
That's not going to make you feel too authentic.
Cool stifles authenticity, turning off the aliveness and genuineness that leads to close relationships with God and others.
Cool shuts off authenticity for studied posing.
So, who are you...really?
Who am I?
Who is the Pharisee in the parable for this morning; who is the tax collector?
If we've been Christians for a while or coming to church for a while Pharisees and tax collectors have become kind of "biblical stock figures" have they not?
The Pharisee is the self-righteous, rule bound religious leader...
...he lacks compassion and insight.
Indeed, the word "Pharisee" has entered common English usage to mean "acting with hypocrisy and self-righteousness."
But to those who were first listening to Jesus' parable they would have thought of Pharisees as persons whose aim it was to make the observance of the Word of God available to all.
The tax collector, whom we may think of as "the repentant, meek, simple, and humble sinner", was seen, in Jesus' day as far from humble or simple.
They were seen as being corrupt, unscrupulous, and dishonest.
Tax collectors were perhaps the most hated people in Jewish society.
Remember that Israel, at this time was not independent.
They were a colony of Rome, an nation under military occupation.
The Jewish people groaned and staggered under the tax burdens of Rome.
And all of Israel had free-lance tax collectors: they were turncoat Jews working for the enemy and there was no limit to what they could collect.
They had, a license to steal!!!
The first-century tax collector was kind of like a "sheriff of Nottingham" from Robin Hood.
He had immense power, and was widely hated and feared.
So, knowing what we do about Pharisees and tax collectors, it's hard to imagine how shocking it must have been for Jesus' first listeners when Jesus declares that the tax collector is justified rather than the Pharisee!!!
As a kid, did you ever get into rough-housing or wrestling matches with other children on the block?
Usually these matches ended up with one child sitting on top of the other, until the child on the bottom uttered the magic word--"uncle!"
It didn't matter how you said it: whispered, shouted, breathless, laughing--as soon as that word came out of your mouth, the fight or game was over.
Everyone would get up, brush themselves off, and shake hands.
"Uncle" means something very similar to "Mercy."
It means "I'm beat, it's over. I'm pinned, I can't recover."
It means, "I can no longer help myself, so help me please!!!!"
"Uncle" or "Mercy" is the prayer the tax collector is praying in the Temple.
Who knows what he's been going through in his life, how he's hit rock bottom.
Who knows what had happened in his life that brought him to the point where he became willing to "sell his soul"...so to speak...
...to the enemy...
...who knows what happened to make him feel so bad about himself that he was willing to "sell out his own people," or "rip other folks off" for the false promise of prosperity.
...to become the "hated bad guy."
Who knows what had caused him to "become comfortably numb."
In any case, Jesus leaves no doubt that the tax collector's repentance is authentic, genuine, real.
There's not a lot more the tax collector can add, to that simple statement--"God show mercy to me, a sinner."
And God is merciful.
That's one thing we can all count on in this life.
Jesus went to the Cross, so that we can fully experience God's mercy, God's love and our infinite, sacred worth.
Praise God!!!
Yet, for us, it is often hard to be merciful.
It's hard to forgive the person who has bullied us.
It's hard to forgive the person who has caused us pain.
It can be hard to forgive and accept and show love and mercy to the person or persons we have been "programmed" by our culture to hate, look down on, be disgusted with, condemn, shun and despise.
Can we really accept others as they really are...as their authentic selves...
...just as God accepts us?
By its very definition, mercy is stepping back...
...it's a calling off of the howling bloodhounds...
...it's an allowing of the fugitive to go free.
Notice that the tax collector in Jesus' parable gives no reasons why he should be shown mercy.
He doesn't make a single argument in his own defense.
He makes no excuses.
Unlike the Pharisee--who's busily preparing a legal brief, listing his life's achievements in full detail--the tax collector simply sobs, and beats his breast.
He knows he doesn't have it in him to beat his sin on his own.
He knows he has only one alternative: "God show mercy to me, a sinner."
He is being authentic.
The Pharisee, on the other hand, is so used to "putting on airs" to the point where he is blind to the fact that he and the tax collector are both in the same boat.
They are both human beings.
They are both sinners in need of grace.
The only relationship the Pharisee has with the tax collector is to notice him from afar, and to thank God that he has not been created like one of those dreadful people!!!
What the Pharisee fails to realize is a vitally important truth of faith: that, in drawing near to God, we also draw near to each other.
It is not possible to both love God and hate our neighbor.
In realizing and accepting our own humanity, we come to accept the humanity of others.
In learning to be "real" before God we learn to be "real" in our relationships and acceptance of others.
As many of you know, Clair, Mary Ellen, my in-laws and I went to Disney World this past week.
It was fun, but it was tiring for all of us.
We raced from one ride or attraction to another.
And at times, all of us got... grumpy.
I felt bad about the times when I had said something I regretted or had acted out a bit.
So, in the car ride home I apologized to everyone saying, "I'm sorry for the times when I got grumpy."
The response from everyone was, "Don't worry about it. We all had times where we got grumpy."
When we experience grace from others we get a taste of God's grace.
For me, there is almost nothing more freeing than to ask someone for forgiveness, and then to be forgiven--no strings attached.
It's both humbling and empowering at the same time.
It's actually life-changing.
That's the way it works with God.
When we ask God for mercy; God forgives us with no strings attached.
In accepting Christ's mercy, Christ's forgiveness, Christ's love--we become merciful, forgiving, flexible, loving and accepting of others.
And there is no other way to live.
There is no other way to be "justified."
There is no other way to come to know what love is, and thus to love ourselves and others.
There is no other way to become truly real and authentic...
...humble and confident at the same time.
Who are you?
Whose are you?
Are you real?
Have you struck your chest and said, "God, show mercy to me, a sinner."?
It's something I must do every day.
It's something I experience every day.
How about you?
