Word to the Wise
Saturday, March 21, 2009 - Saturday in the Third Week of Lent
[Hosea 6:1-6 and Luke 18:9-14]But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.' I tell you, the latter went home justified......
The gospel tells us that Jesus "addressed this parable to those who were convinced of their own righteousness and despised everyone else." In the past I have recommended to my online congregation that they read Flannery O'Connor's short story, REVELATION, because it is about just this kind of person. At the end of the story, the main character, Ruby Turpin, who had spent the day in the doctor's office judging all the others in the waiting room according to her standard of righteousness. Finally a mentally ill teenager throws a book at her and tells her to go back to hell where she belonged! Needless to say, this truly shocked Ruby! And the end of the story, while she is down at the hogpen hosing the pigs down, she has a vision of a host of characters of the kind she despised going up to heaven. Her kind is at the end of the procession, but she can see that the very things that made them feel righteous were being burned away! Although the Pharisee uses the words, "O God, I thank you....." he is really blasphemous in that he hates all who are not like him and actually thanks God for it! God remains a distant figure. The tax collector invites God in by asking for mercy! It is the tax collector whom Jesus considers in right relationship with God. There's nothing wrong with being grateful for any benefit in our life as a gift of God. But no gift of God is meant to make one person essentially superior to another. This is what makes racism such a blasphemy. To believe that an entire race is inferior and any member of it below another race is to accuse God of racism! We are all God's children! We are all equally in need of God's mercy. The Pharisee in this story is literally insulting God. When the Pharisee can turn to the tax collector and see God's face (and vice versa one would hope, too), then both are justified! AMEN
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