Rector's Sermon
24 October 2010

First Reading	Psalm	Epistle	Gospel
Sirach 35:12–17	Psalm 84:1–6	2 Timothy 4:6–8	Luke 18:9–14

       It was Father Lewis Coffin who told me the story of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson who had gone camping out in the autumn woods on a balmy day like yesterday. In the middle of the night they both woke up and saw the clear, starry sky above them, with the Milky Way in its full glory. “What do you make of that, Watson?” asked Holmes. “Well,” replied Watson, “meteorologically speaking, it means that tomorrow will be a sunny day, with a few high, puffy cumulous clouds and little chance of rain. Astronomically speaking, it means that by the alignment of Pisces, Aquarius, and Capricorn we, in the Northern Hemisphere, are looking at the sky of late autumn and winter and astrologically speaking, it means that with the full moon and with Mercury and Saturn appearing to be so close to each other, it is a propitious time to plant root crops and romance is in the air. What do you notice, Holmes?” said Watson. “It’s elementary my dear fellow,” replied Holmes, “When I look up and see this glorious starry sky, I know that sometime during the night, someone has stolen our tent!”

       Most jokes depend on the element of surprise. If you tell the same joke over and over again, everyone knows what is coming and it soon ceases to be funny. In a similar way the parable of the Pharisee and tax collector depends on that critical element of surprise, and that is why it is so difficult for many of us to fully understand its original intent because we have heard it many times and have formed, long ago, our opinions.

       If we are to appreciate the point Jesus is making, we need to resist the temptation to see the Pharisee as a self-righteous villain and the tax collector as basically a humble guy with an undeservedly bad reputation and a heart of gold.  Like many others before us, we want the tax collector to go home and begin to give his accumulated money to the poor, like a repentant Ebenezer Scrooge. We want the Pharisee to show humility and instead of praying alone so much, go work in a soup kitchen. Yet the thrust of these types of wishes, undercuts the original sharpness of this particular parable, which is neither about humility nor repentance.

       The Pharisee is a good person and the tax collector a real undesirable, who has hurt and exploited many of his neighbors. The sharpness of the parable’s lesson depends on that. The tax collector knows his future is doomed, he has no excuses, no defense, no mitigating circumstances; he is doomed– without God’s mercy. The surprise is—the dependable, conscientious Pharisee also is doomed­—without God’s mercy. We all need God’s mercy. If we strictly got what we deserved, with absolutely no element of forgiveness in our lives, we all would virtually be doomed.

       The parable is warning us that more often than we would like to admit, we come to worship and gather around the Lord’s Table, thinking that we are already full. We are so full of our opinions, convictions, and accomplishments; so full that it is hard to believe we need to accept much of anything more without causing us indigestion. When we realize that we indeed arrive hungry: hungry for a righteousness or peace we do not have; when we gather here together with the admission that part of us is very incomplete and empty, then the food of the Spirit that God offers is able to be received, to work its way through us, and to nourish us.  The contrast between the Pharisee and the tax collector as they leave the temple is really the contrast between those who leave the table of God’s banquet hall with little more than indigestion and those who leave knowing they have been given a gift that they could never have given themselves or could hope to have given to them.  

       Right after Jesus told this parable, Luke records the story of Jesus taking children in his arms and saying to the adults around him, “Whoever does not receive the kingdom as a child will never enter it.” Following this, a sincere seeker of spiritual guidance approaches and asks, “What must I do to gain my place in God’s kingdom” and Jesus, in effect, answers in a two word sentence: “You can’t!”   He goes on to add, “You ask what is impossible for the powers of the world to accomplish; it is only possible with God.”

            “It is only when we come to terms with the surprise of the parable of the good Pharisee and crooked tax collector; when we are able to understand that the greatest and lasting things in our lives are gifts, not entitlements nor accomplishments, that we are ready to both accept and share the Gospel as Good News.

       And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.