We Need Each Other

Jesus...why do you present parables that are so hard?

The one about the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18 ought to have been an easy one to preach. Y'know, don't be so self-righteous. It basically says that in the introduction. 

Except....there is more to this story...and it speaks to the moment we're in right now in our culture of the not-very United States.

There are those who have lots of money...and control of our government...tech bros, casino owners, and other billionaires who have joined with those who are simply sadistic people, the types that like to see other people suffer.

And they have coalesced in the Republican Party. There's just no other way to put it. One political party has become rife with greed and avarice. 

The Democrats aren't saintly...but they also aren't sadists.

As the government shutdown drags on and on...Congress is still getting paid. ICE terrror troops are still getting paid. A billionaire named Timothy Mellon (descended from railroad magnate Andrew Mellon) shelled out $130 milllion to pay our U.S. Military. Gotta wonder what he wants in return for that?

What does any of this have to do with the Gospel?

Well...typically we're expected to side with the tax collector in this parable. But how uncomfortable that was for the original hearers....and should be for us, too...when we remember that tax collectors are part of the Empire...and traitors to their own people.

Sure...the tax collector offers "thoughts and prayers" but we don't know that he's changed. Ugh!

The more I think about what's happening currently...the more I am convinced that as white people start to feel the pinch of tariffs...no SNAP benefits...higher healthcare premiums....maybe they'll start to realize that there's something not right with this picture.

Maybe it's time to understand that our enemy isn't that "other"...whatever "other" that is...but it's the greed and the evil behind it all that we should fighting...not our neighbors.

See what you think.

Text: Luke 18: 9-18 

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A Pharisee and a Tax Collector walk into a Temple to pray.

That sounds like a good set up for a joke.

And maybe that’s what Jesus had in mind by telling this parable…talking presumably to those who are following him.

People such as you and me.

Leave it to Jesus to give us a lesson in self-righteousness.

We who have done the right things…have fought the good fights of our days…have come together to pray for ourselves…our families…our communities…and our nation during a crisis of politics and posturing this morning.

And now here’s …Luke’s Gospel giving us Jesus…with a parable.

A story that on the surface we might think we understand…thanks to years and years of Sunday School.

The church has tried to make Jesus easier to take.

But if we take time with this story of the pharisee and the tax collector…if we think about it through the mind and understandings of the original hearers of the Gospel…we might realize Jesus is here to give us a sharp elbow to the rib cage.

Not out of meanness or hatred of us.

Out of love…and a desire for us to start seeing each other as God intended from the beginning

As we listened to this parable and the prayer offered by the Pharisee…what did we hear?

“God, I thank you that I am not like other people…” and then he lists out all the “others” including the tax collector.

He notes all the good things he has done…how he has kept all the right laws of giving…and fasting.

In our minds…we might be hearing this as haughty and sanctimonious.

It certainly sounds that way, doesn’t it?

And then there is the prayer offered by the tax collector.

“God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” as he beats his breast as if this were a perpetual Yom Kippur recitation of the litany of sins.

We then hear that the tax collector goes home “justified”….we might be thinking:

Yes…of course.

Afterall…he wasn’t like that Pharisee…acting all high and mighty.

That tax collector: he was humble before God…just as he should be.

Sunday School has taught us well.

We ARE to be humble before God.

AND we’ve been conditioned to think:

 “Pharisee: bad.” Any person opposite the Pharisee: good.”

Except…if we really dig into this parable…it gets a lot more complicated than that.

Tax collectors were collaborators with the Roman Empire.

They were not the good Jews.

They participated in oppression.

Likewise…the Pharisees were not bad Jews.

In fact…this particular Pharisee…confessing about his tithing and the way he keeps the fasts…he’s doing all the right practices.

These Pharisees…annoy ritual cops…they were the guys who kept the fire of their faith burning in the aftermath of the Roman Empire’s destruction of the Temple.

In terms of their social status…the Pharisee would likely have represented some middle management type.

Meanwhile…the tax collector would have been the one wearing the gold Rolex watch…and the finest robes…bought with the money he gained through illegitimate means at the cost of his fellow Jewish citizens.

So…if we heard this parable and thought…we’d much rather be like that humble tax collector than that haughty Pharisee….consider which side we’re choosing.

Because if you side with the tax collector…you’ve just put yourself in the shoes of an oppressor…a person inflicting hardship on others.

And…if we have chosen a side…. haven’t we then also become no better than that Pharisee…thanking God that we aren’t the Pharisee?

In truth…both characters fall short of perfection for different reasons.

The Pharisee offers a prayer that doesn’t have much to say about God’s goodness or his dependence on God.

He’s only thankful that he’s not like the people who he doesn’t consider “his kind of people.”

And while the tax collector’s prayer says all the right words and he submits himself to God’s mercy….we have no way of knowing from this parable if that the tax collector did anything to change his behavior.

Yes…he confesses he’s a sinner…but it doesn’t say that he’s going to change…give up making his money by ripping off people like the Pharisee.

And if there’s one thing prayer ought to do…it should lead us to become better versions of ourselves.

As the Letter of James reminds us: a faith that doesn’t produce action or lead us into doing the work of healing our world is dead.

If all he does is mouth the words and not follow through with a change of heart…and perhaps even a change of allegiance to Rome…then all the prayer in the world is just empty phrases going up to the heavens.

Perhaps we should not choose sides here.

Because if we are honest with ourselves…we have probably been both characters at one time or another…maybe even all at once.

In these times…when there is so much happening in our country to drive wedges between us…I think we’d be fooling ourselves if we didn’t acknowledge that we are drawn to look upon those we consider “on the other side” as terrible…horrible…sinners…’oh, thank God I’m not one of them.’

So…maybe we should think a little more critically of the translation we’ve been given.

Our English rendering of the Greek has Jesus saying that the tax collector “rather than” the Pharisee went down to his home justified.

But as New Testament scholar Amy Jill Levine notes, the phrasing could just as easily have been translated to read: “This man went down to his home justified alongside the other.”

You see…in truth…both men…in their perfect imperfection…need each other.

The Pharisee could stand to learn from the tax collector how to pray…admit he “ain’t all that” and be humble.

The tax collector could get more with the program of the Pharisee…fasting…tithing…actually taking the Torah more seriously…and reading how you don’t swindle people to enrich yourself.

And ultimately…wouldn’t that be an amazing thing for these two men in a Temple praying to see one another as brothers…rather than as others?

Refusing to allow the tyranny of Empire to make them enemies?

Wouldn’t it be a great improvement in our own culture and society if the children of God…whether they identify that way or not…come to realize that we are all in this life together?

Imagine what that might look like if white Americans could recognize themselves in the face of a Haitian immigrant and if the Haitian immigrant could find kinship with the Korean autoworker?

What if all of us could accept that unless our ancestry traces back to pre-colonial days on this continent…we are all immigrants?

At a time when there are those who want us to be separated from each other…and drawn apart over our differences of language…origin…gender…and identity…it is our task…as followers of Jesus…to take a prayerful stand in favor of unity  over division.

It’s up to us to live out our faith…based on the teachings of Jesus…to love God…and demonstrate that love of God by our actions of helping each other…supporting one another through our time…through our resources…and through our advocacy for those who are in need.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon you and me to pray for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven…as it happens…through us.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.