October 24, 2004
Sirach 35:12-14,16-18 + 2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18 + Luke 18:9-14
The Lukan lesson on prayer continues this Sunday.
Last week in a story about a widow and a judge
we were invited to consider how to pray and what to pray.
This week, two men give us almost a caricature of prayer
with which we can examine our own.
The difference between these two is very subtle,
and we must tune in to the Old Testament reading to pick it up.
We are set up by our culture to approve one of these two and scorn the other, but what if we knew a little more about them………………….
Suppose on the way to the Temple that morning
the Pharisee took groceries to a family where no one had a job,
stopped to see someone recently left alone by death of a spouse,
and picked up a street person and took them to a shelter,
leaving some cash to help feed them.
Suppose at the same time, the Publican
on his way to the temple evicted a single parent from some of his rental property because they were late on rent,
had a huge breakfast and left no tip after being rude and demanding to the server, and on the way into the Temple dropped in only some loose change from his pocket at the offering plate.
With these considerations our first impressions begin to fail,
as well they should.
The issue here is the comparison.
This is that trap in the story that catches us by surprise and teaches us a lesson.
It was a surprise for those who first heard this story from Jesus too.
A surprise twist that leaves you thinking is the whole point of parable telling.
The point here is not that we should pray one way or the other,
that one prayer is bad and another is good,
or that God hears one prayer but not another.
This was a problem for the early church that formed this Gospel.
They prayed differently than the Jews, and Luke would suggest that comparison and judgment about one being better than the other was useless.
We might do well to get the same message.
Where the prayer of the Pharisee goes wrong not in thanking God or acknowledging what he has become by God’s grace; but in comparing himself to another.
It is the word: “Like” that betrays something out of order.
With that word, he crosses the line from gratitude to comparison.
It is a subtle difference, but we know how it feels.
Suppose we could listen in to the prayers of some who are here this morning:
“Thank God I am not like that one over there who sings off key.”
“Thank God I am not like that liberal who is destroying the church.”
“Thank God I am not like that conservative trying to relive the past that never was.”
“Thank God I am not like those lazy people on welfare stealing my reluctant tax money.”
You see, it is just like the Temple scene,
and all these thoughts betraying a deep insecurity.
The trouble here is that this kind of person, like the Pharisee,
does not know how to deal with God except by comparing himself to others.
For all his faults, the Publican at least has the integrity to look only at himself.
He knew who he was.
He never said, “I’m sorry I am not as good as or “like” the Pharisee.
It does not matter how we compare in the end.
What matters is that we know ourselves and who we really are within.
Because it is God who saves, and God is after us all.
The Publican went home “justified.”
Not because he went to the Temple.
Not because his prayer was better than someone else’s.
He went home justified because he knew that he could not justify himself,
and he was honest about his imperfect self.
We have no idea where the Pharisee went.
Perhaps he went on trying to justify himself or impress God further by other good deeds so that God might not let anything bad happen to him.
That’s the way it often goes with that kind of prayer and attitude —
a sort “Divine Bribery” that will see faith and prayer collapse if some tragedy occurs. They think, after all, “I’ve been so good. I’ve done so much. How could God do this to me?”
Wrong thinking here.
Jesus might well have had the same thoughts if His prayer and relationship to God had gone that way.
Our clue to the understanding of this parable comes in the First reading from Sirach. “The Lord is a God of justice, who knows no favorites……..
Who we are in the sight of God has nothing to do with anyone else.
God cannot, will not, and does compare us to one another.
But God will look for signs of His Son in us.