Joel 2:23-34; Psalm 65; 2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18; Luke 18:9-14
The Rev. Drew Brislin
As the beloved creations of God made in his image, we are by nature naturally drawn to relationship with our Creator. Likewise, as beings created in the Father’s image, we are naturally drawn into relationship with one another. Sadly, though our humanity creeps into our attractions and we find ourselves entrenched in tribes. Today we find ourselves in the middle of just such a season that pushes us into these tribes judging those across from us. Is there anything that pushes us into our tribes more than college football? It is hard to find something that stirs as much passion, especially here in the South, as college football. Whether we are alumni or ardent fans of one team or another, for many of us our allegiances were formed at an early age. As we grow into this loyalty to our team of choice, all too often we see the fans of the other team as the opposition. Many of us see the opposing team’s fans as other on Saturdays and question why they would pull for their team and subsequently begin to hold to the belief that at least we don’t act like that. In this morning’s Gospel lesson, we hear the parable of the pharisee and the tax collector. It is a story that for so many draws us at first hearing to align ourselves with the tax collector, who we believe is acting with humility, rather than being boastful as we believe the pharisee is behaving. We want to believe that at least we are not like that. But to paraphrase as Nadia Bolz-Weber says in her book Pastrix, “When we draw lines between us and them, we often find that Jesus is on the other side with them.” Maybe both the pharisee and the tax collector have something to offer us this morning.
While we were instructed on the importance of persistent prayer last Sunday in the parable of the ‘Widow and the Unjust Judge,’ this week we are seemingly warned against presumptuous prayer and the power of simple prayer in the parable of the ‘Pharisee and the Tax Collector.’ At first reading we want to choose to identify with the tax collector and say “at least I’m not like that pharisee.’ We want to identify with the tax collector but the problem with this is that it puts us in the position of that which we think we are condemning. I once read that ‘We must not let ourselves become intolerant of intolerance.’ In doing so we are not acknowledging the good qualities that the pharisee shows us such as tithing, fasting and giving thanks without expecting anything in return. What if the pharisee is truly thankful and simply saying in essence, “There but for the grace of God I go.” Just like our parable last week, we are instructed in God’s justice. Today, we continue to learn of the importance of community. What one person does can have an impact on the lives of others. The pharisee instructs us on our piety and how we understand ourselves, while the tax collector raises for us questions about how repentance works for us. How different would we read this lesson if we saw the pharisee as helping the tax collector. If we understood how the actions of individuals impacted our communities. If the sins of the tax collector negatively impact the community, does it not make sense that the merits of the pharisee would conversely serve to benefit the community as well? In our Thursday morning gatherings, we are currently reviewing Rowan Williams book The Truce of God. The former Archbishop of Canterbury seeks to clarify what peace and the peace of God look like for us. He explains that peace is not an absence of conflict but rather an act of contemplating the other. An active seeking of relationship with those who are not like us. That peace does not exist in a vacuum but can only exist in community. That the peace of God is an active breaking up of our smaller communities that is required so that we may grow our communities. This brings into focus the imagery of breaking a bone that when reset grows back together even stronger or when exercising we are tearing the muscle that it can grow back stronger and bigger. Throughout scripture God is constantly revealing for us this desire to work in and through those who seem small, insignificant, and unworthy. God is constantly doing this to reveal his power and that through him nothing is impossible, and everything is possible.
On Saturdays in the Fall whether we are on The Plains or at The Capstone or on the campus of whichever school has secured our loyalty, how different might the experience be if everyone had an appreciation and genuine concern for the fans of the opposing school. How different is the experience of community not just on Saturday but throughout the rest of the week and year if we could contemplate the other as Rowan Williams says we are called to do? Amy-Jill Levine, the New Testament professor at Vanderbilt Divinity School, suggests that in our scripture reading this morning there may be a translation error in how this parable concludes. That in the last verse the phrase “this man (the tax collector) went home justified rather than the other” might more correctly be translated from the original Greek text as “this man went home justified along with the other.” God made you and me together to be in relationship with him and to be justified along with each other. This relationship is the source of all love that we are called to share with each other as we seek to build his Kingdom and share his peace on Earth. God’s peace be with you friends.