Sermon – Luke 18:9-14 – Called to Humility

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon – Luke 18:9-14 – Called to Humility
Pitts Creek and Beaver Dam Churches
October 24, 2010

We have seen over the last few weeks how God calls us in many different ways: a call to discipleship and it costs, a call to repentance resulting in joy, a call to faith with a lifelong commitment to prayer, worship and Bible study, a call to service with the requirement that we love our neighbors, a call to thanksgiving which motivates us to cross barriers, and a call to prayer which transforms us into a people who hunger and thirst for justice. And today we look at our call to humility and the blessing of forgiveness that we receive as a result. But first lets pray.

Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen. (Calvin)
Luke 18:9-14 9He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11The 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. 12I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' 13But 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!' 14I 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."

For those of us who have been coming to church for a long time we don't have a very high opinion of those Pharisees. Sunday School teachers and preachers often look at this parable and tell us not to make the mistakes of the Pharisees. The Pharisees, you see, believed that they would be saved by good works. And we all know that good works will never get us into heaven. We are saved solely by the grace of God which we obtain through our faith in Jesus Christ. So, we are taught, to be like the tax collector and depend only on God's mercy to get to heaven. This is solid reformed theology, but it would sound a little strange to a first century audience. Let me explain.

Suppose you were looking for a new home, and you wanted to live in a nice community. You would want a Pharisee for a neighbor. The lawn of a Pharisee's house would be cut and the bushes trimmed. There would be no loud music coming from the windows and their dog would not bark all night. Pharisees always try to obey the rules of the community so they are easy to get along with, model neighbors, except sometimes when they complain that others fail to live up to community expectations. You would want a Pharisee as a doctor or dentist because they would always try to make a good diagnosis of your problem and perform the right treatment. You want a Pharisee as a lawyer or judge because they would pay attention to detail and always try to do what is right.

You would want to avoid the tax collector as a neighbor. Tax collectors have loud parties
all night long, their front yard is covered with weeds, old cars are parked driveway. Beware of the tax collector financial deal, it might be a Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme or you might be investing in Nigerian gold mines that do not exist. I remember joining a church one time with a tax collector. He and his wife seemed nice enough, but they had joined the church in order to meet people and get them involved in a wine importing scam. They sold shares in a company that supposedly was importing wine from Italy, but there was no company, no wine, no profits, and this couple had joined the church just to swindle others. When all of this came to light the couple disappeared.

So the Pharisees are the nice people in the world. We want them for our friends and invite them to church. Pharisees are us. But we condemn those tax collectors and want to stay as far away from them as we can.

But Jesus knows something about the Pharisees, something they would prefer to keep hidden. You see, the Pharisees are really no better than the tax collectors. They are just more adept at keeping their sins hidden. Their lives were filled with white lies and the innocent mistakes: the little fling one night at a business conference nobody at home knows about, the cash deal that was never reported on a tax return, the addiction to prescription medicines that is carefully hidden from friends and family. A Pharisee wears a mask of holiness but underneath is really no better than a tax collector. Both the Pharisee and the tax collector have fallen short of God's expectations.

But according to our story today there is one big difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee tries to hide behind his mask when approaching God in prayer while the tax collector comes to God honestly with no mask to hide behind. Humility is when you approach God with your mask removed.

This is what worship is all about. We wear our masks all week pretending that we are good people, but on Sunday morning we come to church and leave our masks at the door. For one hour each week we are honest with God. We bow our heads in confession and truthfully admit to God who we really are. When we humble ourselves before God in this way, Jesus' promise is that we will be exalted, spiritually lifted up, into the presence of God. That why we experience such joy in worship, because our hearts are lifted up into the presence of Jesus Christ.

Should we fast twice a week? That's a good start. Should we give 10% of our income to the
church? That's good too. Should we avoid lust and crooked business deals? Of course! But will any of these things bring us closer to God and lift us up into God's presence? Not really. What God wants is your honesty and your confession because no matter what you try to do, it is never good enough. You are called to approach God in humility.

Of course I hear your objections to all this. Aren't there bad and good people in the world? Shouldn't bad people try to be better if they want to go to heaven? Yes. Doesn't the Holy Spirit do something to help us clean up our own act? Well, yes. But even if we are candidates for sainthood if we parade our righteousness around criticizing others for not being holy enough, then we are no better than the Pharisee who disparaged the tax collector for being a sinner. This is a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

We are all sinners. We are all condemned to sin. It’s part of our fallen character. Even if we try really hard to be holy, we can’t get there. You go half way today. Then you go half the remainder tomorrow. You go half of what is left every day after that. And you still cannot get all the way to where you have to go. Your only hope is that God will take you all the way to the finish line.

This is what God’s grace is all about. We are unable to live holy lives. So we either hide behind a mask and pretend that we are ok, or we take off the mask, admit our failures, and ask God for forgiveness. The promise of scripture is that if we do take off the mask and confess God will respond with the free act of forgiveness.

I recently heard a delightful story about our need to rely on God's grace. (adapted from Erickson http://www.natpresch.org/sermon.php?d=2004-08-15%200000 )

God and Satan were locked up in a scoreless baseball game. It was the bottom of the ninth, and God's team was coming up to bat. Christian was in the stands, and he was worried that the game would go on forever, with neither side scoring the winning run. Faith stepped up to the plate, and Christian cheered, because if anyone could handle Satan's wicked curve ball it would be Faith. Sure enough, Faith led off with a solid single to right field. Then Hope singled to center and there were runners on first and second. Love followed with a single to shallow left, and the bases were loaded. Finally Grace strode to the plate to face a very angry Satan. The count quickly went to 3 and 2 and Christian was biting his nails. Did Grace have the right stuff? Satan reared back and threw the hardest fast ball he could muster. Grace promptly hit it out of the ballpark for a grand slam, and God's team won. After the game God asked Christian what he thought of his lineup. Christian admitted that he had a lot of confidence in Faith, Hope, and Love, but he wasn't sure about Grace. And God replied, "Faith, Hope, and Love have a lot on the ball to be sure, but it takes Grace to bring everybody home."

So when we pray do we hide behind masks hoping that God won’t notice who we really are? Or do we remove your masks and stand before the Lord admitting the reality of who we are and what we have done? The promise of scripture is that God loves us so much that God will forgive us if we remove our masks and admit the reality of our lives. This is God's grace.

Father in heaven, we come to you today as sinners. We have removed our masks. We acknowledge that we are no better than anyone else. Here we are, warts and all. Forgive us and let us return to your loving arms.

By the grace of God you are forgiven. Amen.