Jeremiah 14:(1-6)7-10,19-22
2 Timothy 4:6-8,16-18
Luke 18:9-14
Psalm 84 or 84:1-6
"We look for peace, but find no good; for a time of healing, but there is terror instead..." Oh, God, "remember and do not break your covenant with us..." (From Jeremiah)
Since before the time of Jeremiah, humankind has been looking for peace. Today we are still searching for that peace... and it still seems as elusive as it was then.
When I read today's Gospel, I was frustrated, because I couldn't see how it was the least bit comforting during this time of agony and terror and anguish which our nation is suffering... We all know that pride goeth before a fall, and we all know that it's just not the thing to do...to go around telling God and everyone else how great we are...and how lousy someone else is.
So just how does that speak to the insanity going on in today's world?
A world where...
Jerry Fallwell says that the September 11th terrorist attack was the punishment of God against a nation that has accepted Gays and Lesbians rather than casting them out as they should be - damned to hell fire for eternity.
A world where...
Osama bin Ladin says that America must be driven out of his homeland - that we have brought nothing but corruption and decay to the world of Islam - and that we must be eradicated from all the lands of Islam.
A world where...
George Bush says that we will not stop until we have destroyed the terrorists who have killed thousands of innocent people in senseless and vicious acts of terrorism.
A world where...
The Afghan refugee, who has never even heard of New York, asks why America is destroying his home and his family..
So I go back to Jesus' parable and look again.
No doubt all that the Pharisee says is true: he surely does fast; he meticulously gives tithes; he is scrupulous in his observance of the law and he is probably not like most other people who are more remiss in their observances of such things...and certainly he is not like the tax collector.
The tax collector of Jesus' day really was a despicable character. The Roman government auctioned off contracts to wealthy tax collectors who would pay the Romans out of their own pockets and then collect from the public as much as they wanted. Their profit was made by extorting outrageous amounts of money from their fellow Jews. They were seen as traitors who fed off the poor and desperate, caring little for how their victims came up with the exorbitant amounts of money that they demanded.
So it seems as though we have the proverbial good guy and the proverbial bad guy. And when we look at them, frankly neither one of them looks all that enviable. So what's the point?
Some years ago, I took a trip back home to my grandparent's farm in Missouri. It was a lovely summer day and I drove past an old farmhouse that I had forgotten about, and noticed how white and clean the house looked against the bright green grass and brilliant blue sky.
About eight months later I needed to go back to the farm, and I found myself looking forward to seeing that lovely old farmhouse again. It had snowed the night before and when I came to the farmhouse its whiteness seemed drab and soiled and almost grey in comparison with the virgin whiteness of the sparkling new snow.
Now the house obviously hadn't changed that much in 8 months. The context had changed. And perhaps that's the point of the story in today's Gospel.
Perhaps the question is NOT "how do I stack up against the guy next door, or across the world?"
Perhaps the real question is "How do I stack up with God?" Now THAT changes things real fast doesn't it? When we set our lives beside the life of Jesus and the holiness of God, all that's left to say is, "God be merciful to me - a sinner."
And now I begin to detect a small glimmer of hope in today's reading... Hope of finding that peace which has been so elusive...
Because when we realize and accept that we are ALL sinners in the eyes of God - Jerry Fallwell, Osama bin Ladin, George Bush, the Afghan refugee, you and me...then just maybe we can begin to see ourselves and our neighbors as God sees us... Each and everyone of us as God's beloved child who is lost and frightened...
In today's world of terrorism and war and chaos - it's real easy to take on the role of the Pharisee and offer our testimonial to God - to advise God of how good we are, and how bad the terrorists are. And there is some truth in that... After all we didn't intentionally destroy a civilian target filled with thousands of innocent people... And the terrorists did.
How easy it is to put an impassable chasm between ourselves and those other people - and to tell God that God belongs on our side of that chasm - that the perpetrators of this heinous crime are beyond the reach of a loving and all-forgiving God.
Yet is that where God is? On our side, and condemning the terrorists?
It reminds me of my great, great, great grandmother who watched both of her sons sign up to fight in the Civil War - one joined the Confederate army and one the Union...
What must it have been like for a mother who gave birth to these two young men to watch them take up arms against one another? She loved both of them with all her heart - and they were both determined that they were each right and that she should be on their side... How on earth could she possibly choose? Well, she couldn't. And at first it seemed as though she had lost them both. But in time they ultimately reconciled with their mother and with one another.
So here we are today - God's children, still demanding that God choose sides. And God is still refusing to do that.
For God is still waiting with a broken heart for us to put away our words of pride, and to put down our weapons of revenge -
God is still waiting for us to clasp the hands of our brothers and sisters - and to whisper, "God, be merciful to me, a sinner..."
AMEN.