17“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight O, Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”[1] I speak to you in the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.
A Sunday School teacher began her lesson with a question, “Boys and Girls, what do we know about God?” A hand shot up in the air. “He is an artist!” said the kindergarten boy. “Really? How do you know?” asked the teacher. You know by the prayer he taught us “our Father, who does art in Heaven…...”[2] The Lord’s prayer is the model prayer for us.
In the story we just heard, Jesus tells what should be a very shocking story, to his listeners, about very two different kinds of people praying. Maybe we do not hear the shock anymore because we have heard this story so many times. Every three years as a matter of fact through our Lectionary cycle. Perhaps it is like watching a movie for the 3rd or 4th time. Remember the movie The Sixth Sense with Bruce Willis? I know it was 20 years ago ---but wow. It was the highest grossing movie in 1999. It was nominated for 6 academy awards. And it didn’t have a character named Jar Jar Binks (like in Star Wars)[3]. It was about the little boy with the six sense, who said, “I see dead people.” We watched it over and over, but it was never the same shocking, horrific experience as it was the first time, we watched it. Spoiler alert. How many of you remember that movie? Did you get it the first time?
So, this Gospel story should shock us. But maybe part of the problem is that we don’t really understand the shocking bits -----they fly right over our heads. For example, during the time of the Second Temple period,[4] a devout observer of the tradition prays three times a day in the Temple, --- 9:00 am, Midday, and 3 pm. If you prayed in the temple at those times, it was believed to be the most effective (for the answering of the prayers). And a Pharisee was a member of an ancient Jewish sect, distinguished by strict observance of the oral traditional and written law, and commonly held to have pretension to superior sanctity – which simply means the Pharisee thought he was righteous -- better than everyone else. We might recognize him as we have seen people like that all our lives --- those who are the “holier than thou,” ones. Those who believe THEY are righteous. Those that look down on others who don’t follow the same pious or religious behavior that they do. It is so easy for us to have NO compassion for this “righteous person.” The actual definition of righteous is “acting in accord with divine or moral law; free from guilt or sin. But this prayer of the Pharisee seems more like a testimonial or bragging before God. True Prayer is offered to God and to God alone. Jewish law prescribed only one day of obligatory fasting -- on the day of Atonement. But for those who wanted extra points they fasted Mondays and Thursdays. This Pharisee was way above the standard!
Mondays and Thursdays, where the days when the country folk were in town for the market and the pious ones would whiten their faces, put on unkempt, wrinkled clothing and act like they had been fasting a long time. It was all for show and for the biggest possible audience. [5] The Levites were, in Jewish tradition, members of the Israelite tribe of Levi, descended from Levi, the third son of Jacob and Leah. They were to receive a tithe (10%) of all a man’s produce[6]. But this Pharisee tithed EVERYTHING, even things he was not obligated to tithe![7] Again he is way above the standard! This Pharisee didn’t really go to the temple to pray, he went to show people how good he was.
Then there is this Tax Collector, considered the slimiest character in the ancient community. He slept with the enemy. And he got a percent of what he was able to get out of the people for taxes to the Roman Empire. It was how he made his living, he probably was fairly rich like the Pharisee. But in the Temple, he stood far off, could not even lift his eyes up to look towards God. Our New Revised Standard Version’s (NRSV) translation doesn’t really do justice to his humility for he actually prays “O God, be merciful to me –THE SINNER,” as if he was not merely a sinner in a group of sinners but the sinner par excellence – the finest, the foremost, the preeminent, and the premier sinner. He was beating his breast as a sign of his repentance. Talk about humbleness – just the opposite of the other guy. “And,” said Jesus, “it was that heart-broken, self-despising, prayer which won him acceptance before God.”[8]
We are taught certain things from this parable about prayer. No person who is proud like that can pray. The gate of heaven is so low that none can enter it except upon their knees. No one who despises their fellow human beings can pray. In prayer, we don’t lift ourselves up above others – we lift others up. We remember that we are part of “a great army of sinning, suffering, and sorrowing humanity, all on our knees before the throne of God’s mercy.”[9] According to Jesus, righteousness that exalts itself over others is not true righteousness. True righteousness begins with a recognition of one’s unrighteousness.
The famous actor Gregory Peck was once standing in line with a friend, waiting for a table in a crowded Los Angeles restaurant. They had been waiting for some time, the diners seemed to be taking their time eating and new tables weren't opening up very fast. They weren't even that close to the front of the line. Peck's friend became impatient, and he said to Gregory Peck, "Why don't you tell the maitre d' who you are?" Gregory Peck responded with great wisdom. "No," he said, "if you have to tell them who you are, then you aren't."
We come before God today not secure in our own righteousness, this must come from God, but asking to be worthy to receive communion at the Lord’s table – to receive Jesus ---as the ancient Prayer of Humble Access puts it, “We do not presume to come to this thy Table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy manifold and great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy Table. But thou art the same Lord whose property is always to have mercy. Grant us, therefore, gracious Lord, so to eat the flesh of thy dear Son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.”[10]
[1] Oxford University Press. The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments: New Revised Standard Version (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 646.
[2] Markham, Ian & Samantha Gottlich. Lectionary Levity; the Use of Humor in Preaching. Page 256.
[3] http://mentalfloss.com/article/66913/17-straightforward-facts-about-sixth-sense Accessed October 25, 2019.
[4] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Pharisee Accessed October 26, 2019. The Second Temple period in Jewish history lasted between 530 BCE and 70 CE, when the Second Temple of Jerusalem existed. The sects of Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes, and Zealots were formed during this period. The Second Temple period ended with the First Jewish–Roman War and the Roman destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple.
[5] Barclay, William. The Gospel of Luke. Page 223.
[6] Numbers 18:21; Deuteronomy 14:22
[7] Barclay, William. The Gospel of Luke. Page 224.
[8] Barclay, William. The Gospel of Luke. Page 224.
[9] Barclay, William. The Gospel of Luke. Page 224.
[10] Book of Common Prayer, Holy Eucharist Rite I, page 337.
The Rev. James T. Said, St. Augustine of Canterbury Luke 18:9-14
Proper 25 Year C Righteousness Versus Unrighteousness October 27, 2019