This sermon was first preached on 26th October 2025 at St Francis of Assisi Hemel Hempsted
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Back in 2005 one of the very early episodes of the New Doctor Who featured Zoe Wannamaker as Lady Cassandra. She was the ultimate example of people who think they are better than anybody else. Claiming to be the “last pure bred human” – after 708 pieces of plastic surgery to make her thinner and more wrinkle free – Cassandra had been reduced to a sheet of skin with a face on it stretched out between a frame – constantly calling on her mutant clone slave to moisturise her. Well – you can’t get thinner than that… (1)
Contrast that with a little toddler. He’s been told off because he has done something wrong – stretches out his arms and goes “Sorry Mummy – I love you”
Which of these more sums up our relationship with God? Are we someone who somehow thinks we are better than anyone else in the world.
“Lord God I thank you that I am not like other people – the self righteous, the arrogant, the super religious or even like that Pharisee in the reading. I am humble (twice a week) and make a big point of not being seen to give any money to the church, just in case people might think I am showing off” (2)
Cassandra - a stretched out piece of skin - is laughable because she somehow thinks she is the most beautiful person in the world – and everyone else just looks at her and [shakes head]. A little toddler on the other hand isn’t anything special but they just know they are loved {stretching out arms} “sorry mummy”.
So we come to the Pharisee and the Tax collector.
The Pharisee like Lady Cassandra somehow thinks he is better than any one else – not "the last true human" but “the last true Jew”.
The Pharisees as a movement began during the Maccabean period a couple of hundred years before Christ – When the Antiochene Oppressors who had conquered Judea were trying to force all Jews to give up the faith, eat Pork and worship the King, The Pharisees responded by doubling down. Not only keeping every law of the Old Testament – but interpreting each one of them in the most extreme possible way. For example – well you are meant to tithe 10% of all your crops to God – well what about the herbs growing on your window sil?
Phariseeism evolved into a faith of the rich because you had to have plenty of sparetime to keep the level of rules and regulations they kept. Compare say a shepherd out on the mountain top looking after his sheep – who know way could do all the ritual cleansing things before he ate his food up there. Or a man doing hard physical labour who would struggle to keep going if he fasted twice a week. And like Lady Cassandra he looked down on those who didn’t manage to do everything that he did.
None of the things the Pharisees did were bad things. Our churches wouldn’t stay open if many of you didn’t give very generously. And those of you who are able to Tithe 10% of your income really help in a huge way. Its all good stuff.
And fasting to is a beautiful spiritual practice – and can draw you closer to God.
But the Pharisee in this parable acts as though somehow God owes him a favour.
Tithing won’t earn you a place in heaven – but neither will being so proud that you are not like those fundamentalists who do silly things like tithing – that won’t earn you a place in heaven. If you can afford to increase your giving – that’s wonderful – and if you can’t: you know what – God loves you just as much!
But then in comes the Tax Collector – “the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13)
A man who has sided with the Roman Occupation – a traitor who has made himself wealthy not just from the pay he gets but from skimming a little extra on the side – now comes in recognising he has made a mess of his life and says “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!”
{stretching out arms and saying in Toddler’s voice} “I’m sorry mummy – I love you”
At the heart of the Christian faith is Grace – which to use the old Sunday School acronym is G.R.A.C.E. – “God’s riches at Christ’s Expense”
God doesn’t owe any of us a favour and we don’t buy our way into heaven neither by financial giving, nor by prayer practices nor by good deeds. But God loves us. And we are justified not by anything we have done but simply by his love for us.
God’s riches at Christ’s expense. G.R.A.C.E – God became Jesus to pay the price so that we might have eternal life. What happened on the cross was extremely costly – but he paid the price so you and I don’t have to.
And so we come to our Epistle and to St Paul writing about his nearing death
“the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing.” (2 Tim 4:6-8)
“not only to me but also to ALL who have longed for his appearing.” St Paul doesn’t see himself as better than any one else. Indeed elsewhere (1 Cor 15:9) he writes “For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.”
He knows he doesn’t deserve it. But he loves God and God loves him.
{stretching out arms and saying in Toddler’s voice} “I’m sorry mummy – I love you”
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Tim 4:7)
Have any of you ever done a fun run or a half marathon or even the London Marathon? [give people a chance to put their hands up]
This is the sort of race that is the race of faith – winning isn’t coming first – winning is finishing! Indeed if someone is really struggling and you slow down and put their arm around your shoulder and help them across the finishing line – that’s seen as a good thing in the Race of Faith.
When Pope John XX111 was told he had terminal cancer and would not live long – he responded “My bags are packed – I’m ready to go” like a little child trusting God.
We are saved not by our Pharisee like good deeds or even having marginally more good deeds than bad deeds – you can be an absolute “cad and a bounder” (I think that is the sort of language I can get away with in church, yes?) but if like the tax collector in the parable you finally recognise your need of God, then like the prodigal son you’ll find the father running down the road to welcome you home
St Augustine when he became a Christian wrote “my heart was restless until it found its rest in you” (3)
And to finish – a poem by the Anglican saint – George Herbert that expresses all this beautifully
LOVE bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back,
Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning
If I lack’d anything.
‘A guest,’ I answer’d, ‘worthy to be here:’
Love said, ‘You shall be he.’
‘I, the unkind, ungrateful? Ah, my dear,
I cannot look on Thee.’
Love took my hand and smiling did reply,
‘Who made the eyes but I?’
‘Truth, Lord; but I have marr’d them: let my shame
Go where it doth deserve.’
‘And know you not,’ says Love, ‘Who bore the blame?’
‘My dear, then I will serve.’
‘You must sit down,’ says Love, ‘and taste my meat.’
So I did sit and eat.
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(1) Dr Who series 1, Episode 2 - "The End of the World"
(2) encountered recently in a sermon by Fr Steve Day, although I believe it is older - a parody of Luke 18:11-12
(3) St Augustine of Hippo from "Confessions"
(4) Love bade me welcome by Fr George Herbert 1593-1632
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