O Lord, we pray, speak in this place, in the calming of our minds and in the longing of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.
When I first started going to church many years ago I had some real problems with people there. Do you ever have problems with church people?
I certainly did.
I was at that time - and still am - what some would call a bible believing Christian - I not only took my bible to church with me every Sunday, but I normally had one in my smartphone.
At that time the faith was new to me and I was enthusiastic and eager.
Winning souls for God was important to me, prayer was important; enthusiasm in worship was important - and, while I was in a very good congregation, I nevertheless found that I was in some kind of minority within the church.
I looked around me at worship services - and I saw that many people there did not read their bibles, they did not sing the hymns, they did not seem to pray, nor did they fellowship with their brothers and sisters afterwards.
How many of you people do that you know - check out what other people are doing during worship? Looking to see if they are singing, or if they close their eyes during prayer time or lift up their hands?
I think lots of us do it. During worship - and at other times in our life together.
And when I did it, when I checked things out, I noted that many in my congregation seem more concerned that the service end exactly one hour after it began so they could get home and eat - than they were about the actual worship they were involved in.
I noted too that very few of the congregation ever bothered attending the weekly bible studies and fewer still in prayer meetings; and - and that - as far as I could tell by how they talked - most of them had never really grasped the Gospel message is one of grace - instead of works - that Jesus died not so people who treated one another decently could be rewarded - but so that sinners could approach the throne of God and find there a welcome that they do not deserve.
I had real problems with some of the people in the church in other words. To my eyes the church was full of hypocrites, full of people who could barely talk the talk, let alone walk the walk.
You ever make judgements like that??? You ever thought of yourself as better than someone else???
One of the biggest issues I had at worship services in those days were the prayers of confession that were often printed in the bulletin - as one was printed in our bulletin this morning.
I don't know about you, but sometimes I still have a strong reaction to the words that I find in prayers of confession that have been written by other people.
The fact that those prayers were prayers of confession didn't bother me. I knew I was a sinner. What bothered me was the kinds of sins that were often listed in the prayers - things like - neglect of the poor - selfishness - ingratitude - racism - and the like.
I found it hard to pray some of those prayers because I knew in my heart that I had not done those particular things - that I was not especially selfish or neglectful of the poor, nor was I in any way a racist, or ungrateful for all that God, and indeed other people, did for me.
I found it hard, in part, because I knew in those long ago days that, all in all, I was pretty much on the right track.
While I was not well off, I gave a substantial amount to the work of God each year, a tenth of my income in fact, and that little tenth was more than most others in the church gave, though they had far more income than I.
Indeed, I tithed, I went to prayer meetings every Wednesday night, I attended a bible study every Tuesday night, and I worshipped almost every Sunday morning - even if I had friends meeting me for lunch or relatives were expected to drop in for supper, and helped out whenever I could with church special events, and helped lead in worship whenever and wherever I was needed.
Not bad eh? I know that many of you out there have been there. You have been faithful. You have been generous. You have worked hard and asked nothing in return.
Like me all those years ago, you too have realized God needs many workers in his vineyard. Like me, you knew too that your efforts have made a difference both to others, and in the end, to you.
Now in all this you have to understand I was not particularly prideful. Any more than the hard workers among you are particularly prideful.
I knew that there were sins that I committed - I knew that I needed God's grace and forgiveness - I believed that it was only because of Jesus Christ and his sacrifice upon the cross that I would enter heaven.
My favourite hymns in fact revolved around these ideas - and I, even with the poor memory that I have, memorized some of the key verses of those hymns: verses from songs like those we sing today:
Amazing Grace - how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now and found, was blind, but now I see.
Or
Just as I am, without one plea - but that O Lord, you died for me.
One of my favourite sayings from that time of my life, in fact it is still one of my favourite sayings, was a short and simple one that is know to you all - There, but for the grace of God, go I.
Those hymns, those verses, and that saying, my friends, are good stuff, they are of the essence of the Gospel - but I want to suggest to each of you here today, that they can easily be misused by us; that they can be, for us, songs and words that allow us to feel good about ourselves, and good about what we are about, instead of being words that penetrate and pierce our hearts!
We may, in other words, comprehend in our heads what these words concerning God's grace mean, but in our hearts, and with our feet and our hands and our lips, display a total lack of true appreciation for their messages.
In still other words, We may fail, by our behaviours and by our attitudes to really understand who we are before God - and who we are in relationship to one another.
Hear today's reading from the Gospel once again:
"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 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. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.
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!'
If you were one of the two persons described in that reading, which would you be?
You know, it is one thing to thank God for what he has done for us, for the blessings we have received. but it is quite another thing to compare ourselves to one another and to thank God for the differences, as if somehow we are better than that poor miserable tax collector over there, better than that single mother who drinks too much, or that clumsy idiot who is our fellow worker or the parishioner who sits next to us and seems to have no real faith at all.
But we do it don't we?
We do it - whether we see ourselves as the tax collector begging God's forgiveness, or as the Pharisee - who has been diligent in all things of the faith.
I don't know about you. But I suspect that most of you do it.
Even I, many years later from when I began, find myself doing it on occasions, I still find others lacking something - which I, by the logic of the observation, think I have.
Why oh why do we, do I, such dumb things? Why oh why do we, do I, engage in behaviour, or hold an attitude, that can do not but end up dividing us, one from another?
That is the mystery of sin my friends. It has power.
And while we have breath, we must continually fight that power. We must fight it - and we must trust in the good Lord to forgive us when we fail.
You all know the Jesus Prayer don't you? That famous prayer that is recommended as a mantra, which we should repeat over and over again, when we get down to serious praying?
"Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner."
"Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner."
"Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner."
It comes from today's Gospel reading - where the tax collector - the lowest of the low according to all that was right and holy in those days - and even today - beats his breast and says: "God, be merciful to me, a sinner".
Words to live by. Words to cultivate in our minds and hearts that we might know the true joy of salvation.
There is a beautiful promise in today's gospel lesson my friends, the promise is this:
"All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."
It is a promise of God, but it is also a challenge - a challenge because it is very hard not to exalt oneself - very hard not to think that somehow or other, that I am better than that person over there: that tax collector, that sinner, that arrogant person, that cheat, that hypocrite, that lazy person, that liar, that domineering person.
It is very hard, but it is not impossible .
We do not have to think that we have the one right answer; that because we do this or that thing better, or more often than others, we are somehow better people, wiser people, or holier people than those who do it poorly or less often than we.
We do not have to think that because we are more diligent at serving God inside the church and out, that because we tithe, or attend worship more often than most other people, that we are somehow more important, or more faithful, or more loved by God than they are.
Nor do we have to think - that because we work hard, pay our taxes, and refuse to hold out our hands, that we are better than immigrants from the third world, or politicians, or those who own big businesses, or people on welfare.
"All who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."
A promise. And a challenge, a challenge that we are all called to embrace a challenge that we are all called to work on.
There is an old saying that goes like this:
"The person who thinks he can live without others is mistaken; the person who thinks that others can't live without him are even more mistaken."
Our prayer each day - should not be "O Lord, I thank you that I am not like other people - like John or Jane, like my mother or my fellow worker"; but rather it should be "I thank you God that you are so good to me - me a miserable sinner; help me be good to others in the same way."
May His Name be praised day by day. Amen!
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