It doesn’t take long before the new guy in the office to become the
center of attention. Some people will talk about how handsome he is
or isn’t. Some people will talk about how smart he is or isn’t. Some
people will engage in endless banter on the ties he wears, the lunches
he brings, or the looks he gives the receptionist. We will make
conscious or unconscious comparisons between him and us as we seek to
win the approval of peers – the lower our self-esteem, the more
critical we can be. It is the condemnation of others for the shoring
up of ourselves. It is the foundation and the joy of gossip.
As we all know, our shared tendency to define ourselves by defining
others is as destructive as it is unhealthy. It drives lepers into
colonies and gay teens to suicide - it is at the heart of bullying.
And at the center of this imprudent behavior can be a theological
conviction – that shapes the way we see the world.
In Luke 18 we hear the parable of a proud religious man who goes
into the temple to pray. He says, ‘God I thank you that I am not like
other people; thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like that tax
collector’ – for in another part of the temple stood a tax man, who
was also praying – but whose prayer contrasted quite starkly with the
religious man’s. All the taxman would say was, ‘God, be merciful to
me, a sinner!’
Jesus uses this story to say that the tax collector, not the
religious man, was in the right. We notice this man who refused to
use comparisons or put downs, or push himself up by beating others
down. Instead he centered his attentions on his own shortcomings and
failings.
As we talked about last week, it’s been said that there are two
types of prayer, ‘help’ and ‘thanks!’ However, here, Jesus reminds us
of a third, which may be more difficult, more important, and not
insignificant to the challenges Christians face today it’s the prayer:
‘Lord, have mercy.’ In a culture cacophonous with judgmental voices,
especially religious ones – we do well to remind ourselves that the
heart of Christianity is a gift – not discovered or improved upon by
our own activities – but by contrite recognition of our own
shortcomings before God. There is no reward in our feelings of
superiority, only in the discovery of God’s inconceivable mercy.
In what ways do we judge, gossip, and seek to put ourselves above
others? Why do we do it? And how can we make the prayer, ‘Lord have
mercy’ – our prayer?
Reading
The Sins of Scripture - John Spong
Reimagining Detroit - John Gallagher
A Stroke of Genius - Jill Bolte Taylor
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