Luke 18:9-14: We Need to be a Pharisee to be a Tax Collector...

Luke 18:9-14 (NRSV)
The first day of college orientation I shyly sat with very little hair on my face in a Guerry Auditorium with 366 of classmates. Dean Rob Pearigan, the dean of students at the time, asked us to raise our hands if we thought that we were going to make A’s and B’s during our first year at Sewanee. At least 367 hands shot skyward. For a moment Dean P let us sit there starring around at one another in our arrogance, before he said, “About eighty percent of you are wrong!” A strange sense of worry washed over the auditorium, as we all started grumbling. I believe Dean P was just trying to motivate us. Yet, it felt like a disappointed coach taking the mistakes of last year’s team out on the new recruits. Somehow his words got through to me. 

During the next nine months I worked harder than I had ever worked in my life. I read every page assigned to me, I took all my drafts to the writing center to be marked up so professors wouldn’t make them bleed red ink, and I even spent many Friday and Saturday nights in the library doing work. At the end of those two semesters, I looked back and thought, “I was right to hold up my hand in that auditorium on the first day of orientation.” The confidence I had been building over that first year was reaching a level of inflated ego that teetered on the verge of making me downright cocky. 
As I entered into my sophomore year, I took on a few more commitments. I was running varsity track and cross-country, serving as a sacristan at church, working on the dorm staff, making new friends, and still keeping up my grades. Noticing all that I was doing, my mom rightly felt a sense of parental pride. By the time Christmas Break came my quiet confidence had been melted away by an unhealthy amount of cockiness. So when my mom told me something like, “I am proud of you for all your hard work the last year and a half.” I responded, “I know. I am awesome!” 
While my remark to her was made somewhat sarcastically, she could tell that the naïve dedication of my first year had shifted into a sense of self-righteousness. Cutting through my own puffed up ego my mom looked me dead in the eyes and said, “Yeah, and you are humble too!” When I begin to rely a bit too much on my own ego I remember this story and it seems to be a gentle reminder. 

I am reminded not to avoid working hard, or striving for excellence, or even taking the time to recognize the things that I have done well, but rather this story helps me to recognize that I have a tendency to believe that on my own I have achieved something that makes me right, praise worthy, or awesome. I bet we all have a story from our life where we have thought a little too highly of ourselves. 
Even though I know this tendency that resides within me, I really want to put myself in the place of the lowly tax collector. I want to do this because I know that he, and not the Pharisee, is whom Jesus praises. Much more often I am in the place of this particular Pharisee. I think highly of myself because I follow the “rules” of being a Christian: I pray, I tithe, I give up stuff during Lent, I come to church, I do outreach. Is this not enough? I am doing all the right stuff. However, it is not really about what I do, it is about how I do it. We can see this starkly in the two characters from the parable: 

-The Pharisee is self-righteous; the tax collector is contemptible. 

-The Pharisee thanks God for making him unlike the thieves, rogues, adulterers, and even the tax collector; the tax collector begs God for forgiveness.

-The Pharisee tithes and fasts; the tax collector bows his head and beats his breast.
Based solely on the actions of these two characters the Pharisee is the one apparently doing the admirable things. Tax collectors in those days would take more than their share of their tolls, which would create enmity in his neighbors and separation between them. What I believe Jesus wants us to see is that it is not enough to just do the right action! It’s not about coming to church, it’s not about fasting, and (Evan close your ears) it’s not even about tithing! (Blasphemy in the pulpit during stewardship season!) God does not care about any of these actions. God cares about the intention! 
The sinful tax collector looks in the mirror and sees the wickedness he has committed so he goes up to the temple and standing away from others, he prays. He cannot bring himself to looking up towards God and even averts his eyes from catching anyone else’s in the temple. Beating his breast as a sign of his contrition, he prays a very simple prayer, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” To this miserable one the only thing that will bring relief from the separation and destruction that he has caused is God’s mercy. God’s mercy is more than enough though to overcome the wrongs that the tax collector has committed and he is the one that walks home justified. He is the one that walks home in right relationship with God. He is the righteous one and not the Pharisee. 
Yet before you walk away thinking that I am saying go be like the tax collector, steal money from others, and one day turn back to God seeking his mercy think about what Jesus is saying to us. Neither of these men is complete. Both need God. One, the Pharisee, goes through the motions, while he appears connected he is walking in a spiritual wilderness. He is the one who seems to have it all together (nice car, big house, beautiful family), yet just beneath the surface he is cracking. He has relied upon himself for so long that he has turned himself into a God. God alone is merciful, justifying, and righteous! 
The other, the tax collector, knows he is far away from God and yearns for God’s mercy to overflow in his life, so that he will turn away from a life of swindling others out of money. Only the one who seeks God’s mercy is put in right relationship with God, but after turning from this life of taking advantage of others he needs reminders of God’s mercy. We need reminders of God’s mercy, God’s presence in our lives, God’s abundance in our world. 
This Pharisee is not wrong because he tithes, he is wrong because he does not connect his tithe to gratefulness for all God’s blessings in this life. He believes that what he has done has brought him into right relationship with God. Rather it is by tithing, serving others, fasting… whatever the spiritual discipline… that we are reminded that it is not us who is righteous it is God. 
We do not give money to the church so that we can boast about it or serve the poor so we can guilt others into it or fast just to feel more important than someone else. We practice these so that we can participate more fully in the life of God! To tithe our first fruits is to show our gratitude and our reliance upon God’s abundance. To serve the poor is to connect with the person of Christ Jesus in those who are around us. To fast is to help understand all that God gives us daily. 
When I hear today’s parable I don't want to be the arrogant college student or the Pharisee, I want to be the tax collector, seeking always God’s mercy which never fails. But, to do this I have to practice, like the Pharisee. The challenge is for us to avoid just going through the motions, and instead find practices that continuously draw us into the realization that we everyday we require God’s mercy! 

I am going to end with a prayer inspired by Peter J. Scagnelli’s Prayers for Sunday and Seasons, Year C. Let us pray:

Silence our prayer when our words praise ourselves. Turn your ears from our cry when our hearts judge our neighbor. Raise always up to us spiritual practices that leave on our lips the prayer of the tax collector: “O God, be merciful to us who are sinners.” We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, One God for ever and ever. Amen. 

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Endnote: Much of this sermon came from a comparison of the parable's characters based on Joel B. Green's The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel of Luke (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1997, 645).

The Pharisee 
Frame: Some who relied on themselves because they were righteous regarding others with contempt (v. 9)
Scene: Went up to the temple to pray (v. 10)
Position: Pharisee (v. 10-11)
Stance: Standing by himself (v. 11)
Prayed: “God, I thank you I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even this toll collector.” (v. 11)
Action: “I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” (v. 12)
Result: Unjustified; All who exalt themselves will be humbled (v. 14)

The Toll Collector 

Frame: “Other” regarded with contempt (v. 9)
Scene: Went up to the temple to pray (v. 10)
Position: Toll Collector (v. 10-13)
Stance: Standing far off (v. 13)
Prayed: “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (v. 13) Request for reconciliation made in humility as seen by following actions…
Action: Did not look up to heaven, beat his breast (v. 13)
Result: Justified; All who humble themselves will be exalted (v. 14)

St. James of Jerusalem: You think your family is tough!

Left to Right: My mom (Barbara Sloan), me, and my sister (Elin)

My sister, Elin, and I are very good friends. We talk with each other at least once a week. I am privileged to be the godfather of my niece and was blessed to help baptize my nephews this past summer. We spend a week together each summer as camp directors and another week at the beach. In all of these settings I realize more and more how thankful I am to have my older sister; however, that has not always been the case.

Elin was born eight years before I was, and I am pretty certain that for those eight years she felt like the center of the universe, or at least the center of our family. She was not only the only child to my mom and dad, but she was also the only grandchild of my mom's parents. While I think at first she thought having a little brother was great (I was like a live doll with which she could play), soon she realized that she had to share the time and affection of her family. This did not go well for either of us.

For about ten years Elin and I struggled to figure out how to interact with one another. There were days and weeks when I am sure we were nice to each other. Yet, the bulk of memories with my sister from the first decade of my life are traumatic, like the time when I asked her to tie my shoes and kicked her when she was on my level, or that time that I beat her in bowling and she wouldn't talk with me for several days, and who could forget all those times when she would tell me that she had been tested as a genius when she was my age, and I was not nearly as smart as she was. Those first few years were very difficult for us individually and as siblings. Something happened when she went away to college though. Almost immediately we both felt immense sadness, and our relationship shifted. Since then, we have developed a great friendship realizing all our shared experiences and things in common that we love.

It seems unclear who James of Jerusalem is. Some early Church scholars point to him being the cousin of Jesus of Nazareth. This is what our Catholic sisters and brothers believe. There is apocryphal writings that describe him as a child of Joseph's first wife, which sounds a bit scandalous to me. Our gospel for today though (Matthew 13:54-58), points to James being one of the brothers of Jesus. Regardless of the familial relationship that he shares with Jesus, I have to think that growing up with the Messiah would have been difficult. I can hear the voice of Mary, "Why can't you be more like your brother Jesus?" and Joseph, "You know your brother Jesus was healing lepers by your age?" All joking aside, growing up with Jesus as your actual brother would have been as fascinating as it would have been difficult.

Matthew describes that the people in his hometown synagogue could not believe the deeds of power that he was completing. What about his family? I wonder if they were the ones had the biggest doubts in him. Mary certainly stood by her son throughout his entire earthly ministry, but we hear less about Joseph and his sons. In Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians (15:1-11), Jesus first appears to James after the resurrection. Maybe it took something so shocking as overcoming death for Jesus' brother to realize that something special was happening in his brother's ministry. It makes me think that maybe we are missing something that is happening right under our noses. Who am I overlooking? What is happening even in my own family's life that is powerful, life-giving, or restorative?

From the time that James met his resurrected brother until his death, he shared the gospel with an intense passion. Early historians called James "the Just," as he was constantly praying for those in need, coming to help them, and serving as an intermediary between Paul and Peter who did not often occupy the same space. Many came to believe in Jesus through James, who did not cut his hair or oil his body. Although his uncleanliness did not get him into trouble, his evangelism did. When other factions in Jerusalem asked him to stop his preaching they took him to the top of the temple and asked him to preach down for these early Christians to turn away from Jesus. James stood firm in his faith and was thrown from the temple and beaten to death.

I recently spoke with some friends about whether or not the Resurrection of Jesus was real. Among the many reasons I have faith in Christ overcoming death is the witness of James the Just. He went from being a doubting brother who could not believe in his brother's deeds of power to being a leader in the evangelical movement of the early Church. He was willing to die for someone in whom he believed. This strengthens my own faith.

So as we remember James, the brother of Jesus, I wonder what are we missing in our brothers and sisters, our fathers and mothers, our cousins and friends? I bet if we look close enough we will observe some deeds of power. We might just observe a moment of resurrection. We will see the Christ within each other! And for that thanks be to God!

Luke 18:9-14: 2,000 Years Later the Religious Folk Are Still Pharisees

Luke 18:9-14 (NRSV):


Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, `God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' But 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!' I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."


In yesterday's sermon on Luke 18:1-8, the Rev. Evan Garner pointed out how even though we are drawn to looking at the red-lettered words (those spoken by Jesus) in certain Bibles, often times we need those black words to help us understand what is going on in a certain text (full sermon text here). Like the parable from last week's gospel, this parable is set up as an instructive message for a certain group of people. Last week it was a parable for disciples who need to pray always and not lose heart, this week Jesus' instruction focuses on those who trust in themselves that they are righteous and regard others with contempt. If I didn't know any better I would think that Jesus was aiming this story at the judge from earlier in Luke 18. Yet, if I leave myself out of those who often thinks of themselves as righteous regarding others with contempt, then I end up being just like this Pharisee, and, perhaps I am not alone in this.


According to this article from Christianity Today, the Barna Group found that 1 in 2 Christians today hold attitudes and act in ways that are characterized by self-righteousness. The president of the research foundation, David Kinnaman, tends to think that because of how many Christians live their lives, others see them in much the same way as Luke portrays the Pharisees. In Kinnaman's words they "do the 'right' thing, but with improper motives." The Barna Group's survey results seem to show that even though Christians love to point to Pharisees as the antithesis of who Jesus wanted his followers to be, we very often act just like them. Perhaps it's not quite hypocrisy, but rather just going through the motions, so that we can be proven right by our "rules" as Christians. So what do we do as followers of Christ?


Jesus ends the above gospel, "All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted." The culmination of this parable appears a bit like a dog chasing her own tale (you humble yourself, which might make you feel exalted, which in turn humbles you), yet the words that Jesus leaves us with tends to make me believe that we are called to always start from a place of humility. This means that none of us begins from a position of judgment, power, and self-righteousness, but rather we start with curiosity about our own lives. Where are the places where I have separation between God and me, between my neighbor and me, and even between who I am called to be and where I am now? To observe our own faults, to recognize our own separation (that is sin), and to be inquisitive as to how we turn back is the beginning of a humble walk with God.

The Widow Wins: Luke 18:1-8

This blog post is in response to the Rev. Evan D. Garner's (a long way from home) blog post entitled, "I Don't Get the Unjust Judge", which deals with this coming Sunday's gospel.

The Rev. Dr. Jane Patterson told my Luke class one day that the words “parable” and “parabola” share a root word, which she interpreted to mean that for us to understand the deeper implications of Jesus’ story we have to move. Like the Rev. Evan D. Garner, I do not like the method that Jesus employs in this coming Sunday’s gospel. If I could I would like to just extract a message, something like keep the faith, keep praying, the Son of Man is coming, but to throw away the method Jesus uses is to the throw away a gift from God. While my sinful heart sometimes leads me astray, I believe willfully throwing away God’s gift is problematic at best and at worst leads to a life of sin, vice, and nothingness. So, what are we to do?

As I see it, we cannot just extract the message (keep the faith, keep praying, the Son of Man is coming!), as the characters (the unjust judge and the faithful widow) help to employ that message, and without them we lose a message altogether. We only get a glimpse of the importance of prayer by exploring who these two characters are within the culture of Jesus’ day. The unjust judge, one who would ignore the plight of a widow, certainly “neither feared God, nor had respect for people,” and in fact, ignored also the commandments of God, which were so important to the people of Israel and made them different from the Romans who would just throw beggars to the wolves. In brief, this judge is one unrighteous dude. 

In contrast, our other character, a benevolent widow, is the poster-woman of the Faith. She, along with orphaned children, are the persons that God's chosen people are bound to take care of no matter what. And yet...no one is taking care of her. She cannot even get a judge to rule in her favor. In a society where a judge is not able to rule in favor of an innocent widow who has nothing something is going wrong. Unfortunately, this inequality hits too close to home, as I think of all the unjust ways that the poor and outcast are misrepresented within our judicial system. The bright spot in all of this, is that the widow keeps at it. She stays true to her conviction. She fights the good fight, she fights the system and you know what?… SHE WINS! If that doesn’t get us fired up about our Faith, it’s hard to see something that will.

And, for the last few chapters in Luke, Jesus has been building this whole strange argument about Faith and what it really looks like to be faithful (Luke 15 was about God’s faithfulness, Luke 16 was about the shrewdness of faith and the lessons of Dives and Lazarus, Luke 17 was about being open to the miraculous power of Faith), and this is the culmination of his Faith argument. It's weird for sure, but maybe Jesus is not saying, “Wow, look at this unjust judge, boy our God is just like him,” as he has already shown us clearly what God’s faithfulness looks like (the Good Shepherd, the Seeking Widow, the Accepting Father). Instead, Jesus perhaps says, look at this woman who is so determined in getting what she wants that it consumes her every fiber. Jesus is saying, "This is what I’ve been trying to say about our Faith. It is persistent. So now you be persistent." Now, I am certain that I, Seth Olson, am not God, nor will any of us ever be God, so we cannot strive for becoming a judge, whether just or unjust. Instead, our focus is on what we do have, the power of prayer and the power of Faith. God is faithful to us always, now reciprocate that gift, don’t just throw it away.

Matthew 9:9-17: I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

Jesus receives many titles throughout Scripture: the Prince of Peace, the Lord and Savior, the Logos aka the Word of God, the Lamb of God, the Good Shepherd, the Christ, the Son of God, and the Son of Man just to name a few. I think each gives us a different way of understanding God Incarnate. In today's gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus himself hints at another title, the Great Physician, which stands out as a particularly fitting nickname for such a source of healing. Wrapped within the profundity of the cognomen itself is the way in which Jesus brings about healing to those who are sin-sick and to all of Creation.

This section of the gospel begins with the call of Matthew, who is a tax collector. Tax collectors in the First Century of the Common Era, just like they are today, were not seen as a likable characters. When thinking of Matthew here at the start negative associations with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are quite appropriate. Especially among Pharisees, folks in Matthew's line of work were villainous, for they would line their pockets with extra taxes that they added on to those imposed by Imperial Rome. Jesus' call to Matthew in light of this comes as somewhat of a shock. Maybe today's equivalent would be Jesus walking into our gridlocked U.S. Congress to call some corrupt politician to "follow me." Jesus call of Matthew is surprising to say the least. Yet, Jesus, as usual, goes a step further.

Jesus not only calls Matthew, a sinful tax collector, he goes so far as to share a meal with the IRS agent and all his friends. To dine with such lowly characters would have given the Pharisees hives. These "sinful" ones were seen not only as corrupt, but also unclean. As the Pharisees walk by they observe Jesus' welcoming action, and they cannot help but say to Jesus' disciples, "Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?" Jesus, leaning in the doorway just within earshot of the religious folks, hears their comment. Then, having to stop a very interesting conversation with liars, thieves, prostitutes, and tax collectors Jesus said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick [do]." What an obvious retort to the Pharisee's cynical question, yet it is more than just a comeback, Jesus provides with his statement an insight into the purpose of his mission. Jesus is here to heal!

I believe fully in the power of God's healing through Christ Jesus. And, I believe that it did not stop when the person of Jesus of Nazareth commissioned his disciples to go and do the work in the world, as he mysteriously left his earthly ministry. Sometimes though, I get caught up in the mechanism of this healing. Living in such a rational age, miraculous healing sometimes sets my scientific mind on edge. I start to wonder, if Jesus is truly the Great Physician, able to heal us, why have my loved ones suffered? If the Great Physician brings healing, why is there so much pain in the world? Why God?

"Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners." The healing that Jesus brings into this world is salvation. There is a 100% chance that all of us are going to die. Our bodies will stop working, our hearts will stop pumping, and our minds will deteriorate. Jesus is not promising that we will not go through this, rather he is offering to all of us who are disconnected from one another and from God a chance for healing. We are given redemption through the Great Physician.

This past Sunday morning the TED-ology Christian Education class watched Bryan Stevenson's "We Need to Talk about Injustice." Stevenson, a profound and hopeful defense lawyer from Alabama, put it roughly this way, "We are more than the worst thing that we have done. I believe, if you lie, you are more than a liar. If you steal something, you are more than a thief. And, even if you kill someone you are more than a killer." I believe this is the healing that Jesus offers to us. We are more than our sins that keep us from one another. We are children of God. Made in the image of God. Redeemed by Christ Jesus. Healed by the Great Physician.

We are not to walk around with our sins written across our foreheads. We are not to hurt ourselves with painful sacrifices of shame and guilt, rather we are to see each other as healed by God Incarnate himself. Jesus wants us to be contrite, to show mercy to one another and to ourselves. This is how we are healed, not by calling one another sinners as the Pharisees do. Jesus is our Great Physician and the medicine he prescribes is the sweetness of mercy, not the bitterness of shame and guilt offerings.

Luke 17:5-10: Choosing the Miraculous

This Sunday's sermon can be heard by clicking here or by going to the following address:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/dfc_attachments/public/documents/3182162/VN810143.MP3

The notes for the sermon are found below:

Pep Talk

-I thought that I wanted to be a coach

-They had an ability to cut through whatever was going on and inspire me to do something more -Sometimes this was not always done in a pleasant manner

In Today's Gospel Jesus does the same, Jesus is giving a fiery inspirational speech -he is not talking with Pharisees, Scribes, or even disciples... these are the apostles

-We only hear about them a handful of times in Luke's gospel, and each instance is important

-Earlier in Luke Jesus has sent them out to perform miracles in his name

-EVERYWHERE

-We might hear Jesus' words this morning as harsh, but he is talking with his closest followers (Jesus expects more of them)

Here they are asking to have their faith increased

-One would believe that if you are able to go out preaching and healing you have plenty of Faith, but...

-I can relate to how the apostles feel.

-Even when something miraculous happens in my life sometimes I yearn for my faith to increase.

-So how does Coach Jesus respond to this deficiency in faith?

He doesn't respond that they have enough faith already

-Jesus hints that IF they faith mustard seed they could tell a mulberry tree to throw itself into the sea

-Lectio Class: if one planted a mulberry tree in the sea, would it survive?

-While it is an interesting question...

-Jesus is in this bit about the mustard seed and mulberry tree, saying that faith is choosing to be open to something beyond our understanding.

The master-slave parable that follows helps to understand how we might choose this.

First, this parable possesses the word slave in it.

-as persons living in the US we have a host of images that pop up with this word -this is not what Jesus is taking about here

-this is not a condoning the practice of slavery, Jesus is using a controversial to help make his point about what Faith is.

Let me try to modernize Jesus' parable.

-If you were to call the cable company to come install a new service at your house

-And the cable installer came out to your house

-And after doing the work on the outside of the house, but before you had channels on your television, this person sat down at your kitchen table and asked, "why haven't you brought me a steak dinner yet?" Wouldn't you say to that person, get back to work?

So it is with our Faith.

-Our Faith is a choice that we continuously make.

-We do not get a ribbon every time we secure our responsibility of Faith.

(This is especially hard for me who grew up getting a trophy every time I participated in a sport).

-The Good News is we do not faith alone. (Yes I just used Faith as a verb)

In today's epistle Paul sincere begins his second letter to Timothy with a tender greeting

-Paul says that Timothy's faith was first kindled in his grandmother Lois, then in his mother Eunice and continues in him

-The fire of our Faith began in others too, and we have that Faith passed on to us!

Faith of family

-Camp Winnataska

-Babaw, Nangy, Mom, Elin and me, Emmeline -This shows me within my own life that Faith is contagious, it is a learned behavior, it is passed on from generation to generation.

-And yet...

We can ask Jesus to increase our Faith, I believe that to be an honest prayer.

-Yet Paul and Jesus are giving us pep talks

-They are encouraging us to choose to open up to God. We do this together!

-Look around to the persons next to you... they are your faith.

-Look around at your life... that is where faith happens.

-I believe we are called to choose God, to make the choice over and over again to follow Jesus. And while we might want rewards for doing what God calls us to do, that is not what it is about. Faith is about the size of a mustard seed, but it blooms into all sorts of miracles.