Readings for the Day:
Sermon:
There's a sign on the Methodist Church in Moundville that says "A Christian
believes God does not love us because we are good but that God makes us good
because He loves us."
This is a good lesson for us to remember. Because we often fall into the trap of
thinking that we have to not only act a certain way, but be a certain way.
Sometimes it's easy to feel that unless we are some sort of great holy person, or
at least seem to be so, God will not care about us.
That is not what we hear in the Gospel this morning. In the parable Jesus tells, we have two characters: the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. To many of Jesus' listeners, the Pharisee would have been a person many would have liked to be. They were strict observes of the Law of Moses. That made them what many would have considered holy. The Pharisees have a huge impact on our own faith as Christians. In fact, one of the greatest Apostles, the one who our church is named for, was himself a Pharisee. And as such, he was a great follower of the law.
On the other hand, Tax Collectors would have been pariahs in Jesus' day, as they often are now. But in Jesus' time, tax collectors worked directly for the occupying Roman Empire. Now the Romans only prescribed that tax collectors collect what needed to be given back to the Empire. In order to get have any money for their own livelihood, tax collectors had to collect more than the Romans asked them to give back them. And so many tax collectors bleed those around them dry. And in Israel, that meant that it was Jews, as tax collectors, taking everything from other Jews, their own people.
We would expect God to favor the Pharisee. They live an openly righteous life. While the tax collector leads a life as a parasite on those around him.
But that's not what we see. Because it is not just how they are on the surface that matters to God, but instead what their relationship is with God and their neighbor.
The Pharisee, while following the letter of the law, does not follow the heart of it. The heart being what we read today in the summary of the law. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And love your neighbor as yourself."
This Pharisee does not love his neighbor. He sees himself above his neighbor. And his prayer to God in this parable isn't about how he can continue to become closer to God. Instead it is purely selfish, only about how he is the best.
The Tax Collector is different though. He knows what he is. He knows what he has done. He doesn't hold himself up to God. Instead he just asks that God will show mercy on him, a sinner. And it is this man, Jesus' tells us, who comes home justified.
And the reason he is able to come home justified is that he doesn't try to present a false version of himself. He doesn't try to put forth a show of following God's commandments without really understanding the heart of them, like the Pharisee. He merely comes to God just as the person he is.
And that is what we are called to do. To come, as we will soon sing, just as we are. Those who God chooses to bring in. Those who God chose to die for, so that we could rise again in new life with Him.
God doesn't love us because we are good. Because as we, like the Tax Collector, know, we are not. We struggle. We fall. We do those things we know we shouldn't. And we mourn over those things we wish we hadn't done and wish we could change.
But it is God who comes in to make us whole. To help restore us in relationship
with Him. To make us better. To make us good. All because He loves us.
God isn't asking us to be something we're not. He's asking us to come to Him as we are right now, in order for Him to renew us in relationship to Him. To make us whole.
This is not to say we don't have to change. We do. Because the Tax Collector doesn't come to God accepting what he did. He comes to God realizing he has done wrong. He comes to God asking for help.
And that is what we are called to do as well. To come to God, realizing what is good in us, and also what is bad. We are called to come to God, asking Him to transform all that we are so that we can be restored in relationship to Him. So that we can be truly good. And for our transformation through the love of God, we can truly say, Thanks Be to God!
God isn't asking us to be something we're not. He's asking us to come to Him as we are right now, in order for Him to renew us in relationship to Him. To make us whole.
This is not to say we don't have to change. We do. Because the Tax Collector doesn't come to God accepting what he did. He comes to God realizing he has done wrong. He comes to God asking for help.
And that is what we are called to do as well. To come to God, realizing what is good in us, and also what is bad. We are called to come to God, asking Him to transform all that we are so that we can be restored in relationship to Him. So that we can be truly good. And for our transformation through the love of God, we can truly say, Thanks Be to God!