God, be merciful to me, a sinner

Sermon-Proper 25C-Oct.28, 2007
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
The story is told that one evening a man in a Dearborn, restaurant bumped into no less than the famous Chrysler chairman, Lee Iacocca. "Oh, Mr. Iacocca," the man exclaimed, "what an honor to meet you! Say, my name is Jack and I'm having a business dinner with some colleagues over there at that corner table. It would really impress my friends if you could come over in a few minutes and say, 'Hi, Jack,' like you know me!" Iacocca good-naturedly agreed and so some minutes later went over to the table and said, "Hello, Jack! How are you?" Jack then looked up and said, "Not now, Lee. We're busy!"
Have you ever seen the story in the newspaper of someone caught in a terrible crime, and they will add, “AND THEY WERE A SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER!” or “A CHOIR MEMBER!” or worst of all, “A MINISTER!!!”. How dare someone PRESUME to be good and secretly be BADDDD!!!
There is a newspaper in town that was talking about the township board, and they said, and they built the new township board room so all the board members were sitting up higher than everyone else and could look down on the township’s residents. Imagine how you feel in a pulpit?
The last 3 weeks, members of the congregation have been sharing their stories, their faith with you-did you think they were, maybe, better than you? We never asked what any of them pledged, how much they gave, or if they had ever been arrested. We simply knew them to be good people that others looked up to, and so we asked them to talk about their journey with God. We never ask that the best people talk, or the biggest givers (for we don’t know who they are), or the most righteous. We simply ask at the beginning of the stewardship season, “who’s faith would we like to learn more about?” And so we chose Mildred and Mike, Martha and Maria, Nosa, Kylie, Lizzie, Carlos and Harry. And we told them, you don’t need to tell us about tithing or stewardship or giving-just tell us about your walk with Jesus-and that will suffice.
This may be my favorite parable in the gospels. Two men praying in a temple.
One man was so good. He prayed. He fasted two days a week. HE TITHED. And he liked to tell God what he did.
The second man, a tax collector. They were petty bureaucrats, who collected taxes for the ruling Romans or Herodian kings. They were disliked as agents of oppressive regimes, probably engaged in shady transactions, extorted money from poor people,were thought to be unclean because they had frequent contact with Gentiles at forbidden times. Which one would you want to date your daughter? I was reading on the desperatepreacher website and one minister said, “I would like to have a congregation of repentant tax collectors! With maybe just a few Pharisees who tithed and prayed and fasted”
Listen, don’t make a mistake here, the Pharisee was the good guy, the tax collector was the bad one. But the Pharisee believed that he was good, and the tax collector believed that he owed everything to God.
Have you ever been there, believing that you have earned it-you’ve been good, you’ve gone to church (almost every Sunday), you were an acolyte! A Eucharistic Minister! A pledger! YOU’VE EARNED THE GOOD THINGS THAT HAPPEN TO YOU!
C. S. Lewis gives this analogy: suppose a six-year-old little girl says, "Daddy, may I have $5 to buy you a Christmas present?" Well, any decent father will give the child the money and, come Christmas morning, will exclaim loudly and gleefully over whatever bauble the child bought. But only a fool would say that by virtue of the gift, the father came out $5 ahead on the deal!
We do the things we do for God because he has slipped us the money in the first place.
I’ll never forget our son Kyle, when he was about 22, living at home while he went to the university, receiving lots of grants and government loans to attend college telling me how angry he got at people on welfare who were just living off of others.
We are all the Pharisee, all giving thanks that we have been good because we are
ARE good we did it all on our own-and looking with contempt on those who don’t.
One of the reasons I love this story is because when we see someone else say these things, we immediately become the 1st prayer, “Thank God I’m not like that Pharisee in that story! I never think I’m better than anyone else! I never give my money away! And I certainly don’t fast!”
The prayer of the tax collector is powerful because he doesn’t try to be anything other than he is. He understands that God has slipped him the money first. He realizes that only the merciful can receive mercy, only the forgiven can forgive.
He can receive God’s grace and love only when he stops trying to earn it.
We can’t strive to be humble-because then we turn it into a work and try to achieve it. All we can do is say, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner”. It’s called the Jesus prayer. It doesn’t claim to be perfect, or to get us into heaven, or to make God do what we want. It’s just 7 words. A person who is humble, is first in the kingdom of God. When Seymour passed away, God greeted him at the Pearly Gates. "Are you hungry, Seymour?" asked God. "I could eat," Seymour replied. So God opened a can of tuna and reached for a chunk of rye bread an they shared it. While eating this humble meal, Seymour looked down into Hell and saw the inhabitants devouring huge steaks, lobsters, pheasant and fine wines. He was Curious, but deeply trusting, so Seymour remained quiet. The next day God again invited Seymour to join him for a meal. Again, it was tuna and rye bread. Once again looking down, Seymour could see the denizens of Hell enjoying caviar, champagne, lamb, truffles and chocolates. Still Seymour said nothing. The following day, mealtime arrived another can of tuna was opened. Seymour could contain himself no longer. Meekly, he said: "God, I am grateful to be in heaven with you as a reward for the pious, obedient life I led. But here in heaven all I get to eat is tuna and a piece of rye bread and in the Other Place they eat like emperors and kings! Forgive me, O God, but I just don't understand."
God sighed: "Let's be honest, Seymour. For just two people, does it
pay to cook?"
There are two people in each of us, one dying to justify ourselves, show how good we are, to be superior to all others-to believe that we are so good-and the other realizing that someone slipped us the 5 dollars first, that we are simply human beings, unable to judge another, aware of our own sin, and that we are just like everyone else. Today, remember that we are both Pharisee and tax collector, that we want the great food and the fellowship with God, that we are both trying to be good and also fallen. Just keep your prayer always the same, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner! And the God will take care of the rest .
Luke 18:9-14
18:9 He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:
18:10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
18:11 The 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.
18:12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.'
18:13 But 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!'
18:14 I 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."