The Road to Humility

They always say to start off with a joke. Did you hear about the fire at the circus? It was intense.

Get it? In-Tents?! Because circuses have tents?! And the fire is in them?! And it is also intense, because it’s a fire?!

That is one of my all-time favorite jokes because it makes people both laugh and groan at the same time. And, whenever anyone uses the word “intense” around me I tell that joke.

And the reason I tell it this morning is because times are getting a little intense for Jesus. He is starting to tell parables about the coming kingdom of God, and the afterlife, and God’s judgment because he knows that he does not have much time left. He is going to Jerusalem soon.

It is almost like when your dad comes home and says…son, we need to talk. You know its serious. You now know that this is no joking matter.

Jesus is telling about how some will be with him in heaven, and some will be left when the kingdom of God comes. Jesus tells us about judgment when the Kingdom of God comes. He talks about the difficulties of the rich getting into the Kingdom when the Kingdom of God comes. Its intense conversation, for an intense time.

And in this intense time, Jesus blatantly challenges some self-righteous people. He tells a parable specifically for them, specifically to them. It would be like the time I went to an away Georgia game. I wore all of my Georgia gear. And found out that my tickets were in the middle of the home team’s student section.

He is going to some people who are lost, but think they found themselves, and telling them that, no, God does not look favorably on them. They need to change.

In polite company, after Jesus left, people would turn and look at each other and say, “the nerve of that man,” and go about their day.

But Jesus rarely sits in polite company.

He tells the parable of a Pharisee and a tax collector. And just to give you some information, I want to unpack these two terms for you a little bit. Because Pharisees and tax collectors keep popping up as characters in the New Testament, and we have heard about them for so long, I think we have lost their meaning. We think, Pharisees, bad. Tax Collectors, good. But that is not how Jesus’s audience in this parable would hear it.

A Pharisee is a religious elite. A Pharisee is the person we look up to. A person who seems so in tune with God and how we are supposed to act that we strive to be like them. A Pharisee writes books and goes on TV talk shows to tell people how to live their lives like they do. Pharisees are admired in the religious community, for their commitment, and for their insight.

A tax collector is a blatant sinner. A tax collector colludes with Roman oppression, extorts money from the poor to give to the wealthy landowners, and then extorts even more for himself. A good parallel would be the Sherriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood. Taking the very last coin of the poor widow to pay her taxes. No mercy. No regrets. His responsibility is to keep the Romans wealthy, and anything he skims off the top is fair game, as long as the Romans get paid.

So when the two go to the temple to pray. Its clear who the better pray-er is going to be.

One of the more interesting parts about being a minister is getting to observe people, and one of the most interesting things to observe is how people react when you ask them to pray. Even to give a blessing. I have some friends who are convinced that ministers are employed to pray out loud, just to avoid awkward silence at the dinner table and before meetings.

There were probably even some whispers about why the tax collector was even there. He didn’t belong.

I was talking with a friend of mine this past week, and he was saying that there is a whole group of people in our world who feel unworthy to come to church. They can’t let go of something they did, or can’t reconcile a part of who they are. And so they just don’t come to church. They are afraid that people will look down on them for being there because of something they did in the past. I don’t know if this is the fault of the church or not, but it is a real feeling that is in our world. People are afraid to come to church.

I’ve seen this first-hand. In college, there was a Tuesday evening communion service every week. One time, I invited some friends to come along with me. And one girl said, “I hate communion. Everyone is staring at you walking up there. Whispering about what you are wearing or what you did over the weekend. I can’t stand communion.”

How incredibly sad. That the one who calls us and heals us, who we claim to follow in our churches, the one who has the power to truly help people repent and be healed, isn’t believed to be found in our churches…because people will wonder what they are doing here.

That’s the tax collector.

So it must have been a real act of courage for the tax collector to even come to the temple. Walking past the stares, past the whispers, past the conversations he knows will happen throughout the rest of the week, in order to stand before the Creator. Fall on his knees, and say, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

A noble, and humble prayer. One which if you have prayed at some point in your life, you know its power. I’ve prayed it. I know many of you have probably prayed it. The prayer that you pray when you have no idea what to do. You run out of options. There is no way you can “fix” what has gone wrong. It just has. Whether it is by a choice you have made, or by forces outside of your control. The wheels have come off, and you turn to God and say, God, have mercy on me.

And that tax collector goes home justified, because he prayed a humble prayer.

And the opposite of humility, is arrogance.

The Pharisee prays the prayer…thank you for making me so great. Thank you for making me give a tenth of my income, so others can see how great I am. Thank you for allowing me the strength to fast twice a week instead of just once, because I am better than everyone else. Thank you for not making me like everyone else.

I read this in the Bible, and I am skeptical. Because I look around. It seems to me, that those who are arrogant, are the heroes in our world.

Those that push themselves to be the best, are looked up to, and even rewarded. Or think of athletes. Those that are arrogant are the role models. Because they know they are better than everyone else. That they know how to do things better than anyone else, which automatically means that they don’t listen to anyone else…including God.

The CEO who works 23 hours a day who is a “self-made” man is the subject of articles and books of success. The wide receiver who is the best in the game and lets everyone know seems to be rewarded year after year with an even bigger contract giving him millions of dollars. Or the minister, who tells everyone that they have all the answers, and they must follow their prescriptions to get to heaven, gets rewarded with bigger churches, and bigger salaries.

So the irony of Jesus telling this parable to a bunch of people who thought they were justified by their actions…is that they won’t listen to Jesus, because they know better. So we need to pay attention. It doesn’t need to go in one ear and out the other.

Its not right, we scream…but its not our job to judge, that is God’s line of work. We say, God, have mercy on me. Because while it seems that the world rewards the arrogant, you will notice that the ones who are truly great, the kindergarten teacher who spends extra time in school to help a student get on the right track; the firefighter who trains to protect those around them, or the mother, who puts her own career aside to help raise wonderful children…those are the ones God justifies. That is our hope, and those are the ones we recognize as being great. The humble, who give their lives to Christ, and know how much we depend on God for salvation.

What it so hard about life is that we don’t fit neatly into these categories. At some times, we are arrogant. At others, we are humble. So as we are chameleons in our world, what do we do when we don’t fit into these neat categories?

I think there is a way to get from arrogance to humility, and I think that road goes through compassion. To get outside of our selves and see others. To see other people in the world that we may pass everyday. Building on what Rev Mike Selleck said in his sermon last week. Stop and take some time, because you never know what others are going through, because we all make choices everyday, and your kindness may be exactly what they need that day.

Have compassion on one another. When a tax collector comes through the doors of our church, and asks for help, help them. When someone calls, listen to them. Know that if we can just for one moment, help them interact with Jesus, then their lives can be changed. That is what we believe.

Or, if we run across someone who is arrogant, pray for them, that they may step away from the narcissistic mirror, and begin to see that there are other people in the world besides them.

If there is anything in the world that we need it is compassion. Jesus taught it, over and over and over again. Love for our neighbor. I hope, that our church will be known as a place of compassion. So if there are any out there, or any in here, who have turned from the wonderful creation God made you to be, you are not judged here. Your prayer is the same as our prayer. God, be merciful to me.

May God be merciful to all of us, as we strive to be our best selves, and as wonderful as God created us to be.