Who does God regard with contempt?

Luke 18:9-14: Jesus also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ‘Two men when up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the others a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself was praying thus, ‘God I thank you 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 my income.’ But the tax-collector, standing afar off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner.’ I tell you, this man when down justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”

• Please pray with me. Lord may the words of my lips, and the meditation of all our hearts be exalted in your sight. Amen.

Okay, for those of you who want, this is audience participation time:

Don’t worry, it’s just a simple raise your hand exercise. I am interested in just how popular these characters have become. The thing is, while this may be a popular parable, the characters are, probably, a little more popular.

So, for those of you who want to participate, here’s the exercise: I am going to read this parable sentence by sentence. Raise your hand at the point when you were able to tell who was going to be the good guy and who was going to be the bad guy.

In other words, there is a twist at the end of this parable, but we’re all so familiar with these characters we expect the twist before it comes. So, if you want, just raise your hand at the point when you expected who would be the good guy, and who would be the bad guy. I’ll even play, too:

• 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 the other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of my income.”

• But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”

• I tell you, this man want went down to his home justified rather than the other…”

This is the part that should shock many of us, but we’re familiar with these characters so we’re ready for this last sentence.

Okay, so there we have it. These characters are very familiar, these tax-collectors, and even more so, these Pharisees. We know these caricatures, and before the end, we kind of know the end.

So, in an attempt to help us recapture the power of this parable, I’m going to indulged in the holiday season: Yup, it’s that time of the year again!

It’s that very special season, a national holiday if you will. This holiday’s expenses rival that of Christmas. Now, while this holiday doesn’t celebrate splendid meals like Thanksgiving, there are big celebrations at the eve of the holiday, like new years. Plus, this holiday has more ads than the Super Bowl.

Yes, you guessed it; it’s political advertising season!

I don’t know about you, but it’s my favorite season. So, in the spirit of political advertisement season, let’s have another one. (In fact, I know many of you are just waiting to rush home to take in as many ads as you can.)

This ad captures how many may have thought about tax-collectors in the ancient world:

• Anthony has made his fortunes by working for a foreign government, and his policies have consistently created high taxes for us. Anthony does not have our interests in mind; if he is elected he will keep working for his foreign allies; at all our expense.

Hmm…

I wouldn’t vote for him, would you?

Now, Jesus never says the tax-collector’s name is Anthony, I used it because it is a popular Roman name. But hopefully this shows what is at stake in Jesus’ parable. Tax-collectors were collectively despised.

Yet, Jesus holds him up as the type of person God chooses to elect. I mean, the tax-collector doesn’t even pledge to reform, surely that, at least, offends our sensibilities. But there it is anyway, God chooses to vote for this outsider who brings only his shady past and offers nothing but commands to God.

• What are we to make of this?

• I mean, is there is no moral to this story?

• Our sense of forward progress is challenged!

• But wait, our conscience tells us! This tax-collector was awfully humble, and after all, the Pharisee was not. That must be why God choose this tax-collector.

Is that it? Should we go down that road? Should we focus on the tax-collector’s humility?

This has often been the case. In traditional Christian theology, pride is the number one sin. This is because pride tricks us into thinking we are god, and we don’t need Jesus.

Yeah, maybe that is the way to go. If not his actions, we should all emulate the tax-collector’s humility.

• Just be more humble.

Let’s be honest, though. That hardly seems like a challenge! I mean, for heaven’s sake, we’re in a Lutheran church, in a traditionally Scandinavian city. Humility comes naturally for many of us.

• What’s this, you protest?

Perhaps you say, ‘well, it’s just our good fortune that we’re blessed with qualities God desires.”

Or perchance you protest at my assumptions? Maybe you’ve spent many a night cultivating your humility. And who am I, after all, to challenge the virtue of humility?

• Well alright, Fair enough.

In fact, if we want to go headlong into exalting humility I’ve even got a prayer we can use to help us on our path of humility:
“God, we thank you we are not like other people: celebrities, hams, glory-hounds, or even like those Pharisees. We are humble, we always give credit to You.”

You see the irony, right?

Or, should I be a little more heavy-handed? Should we have another political ad? Well, of course we should! Who am I to deprive you?

Aaron is Washington-insider. He’s disconnected from the needs of everyday people like you and me. If Aaron is elected his policies will continue to serve himself and the elite interests, rather than us.

• Do you see the trouble?

While humility may be an honorable disposition, that isn’t what the parable is about. In fact, if we make the parable serve to justify the tax-collector only to condemn the Pharisee, one has to wonder how far we’ve strayed.

The political ads we’re an illustration, but they reveal a lot about our assumptions and our tendencies. The key to this parable is found at the beginning, not the end. The parable was told to those “who trusted in themselves and regarded others with contempt.”

And I have a suspicion that the tendency to trust ourselves goes hand-in-hand with the tendency to regard others with contempt.

The parable isn’t about the Pharisee’s pride; it isn’t even about the tax-collector’s so-called humility (never-mind that the tax-collector presumes to command God). No, this parable is about God, this parable is about those who Jesus told this parable to. This parable is about the radical love of God that regards no one with contempt.

The problem here isn’t pride; in fact it’s closer to religion. This Pharisee has just enough religion to make him hate, but not enough to love.

The problem isn’t pride, and the solution isn’t humility. Even though that is the kind of clear cut solutions we often desire.

In fact, it is these same desires within us that violent political ads rely on; and it is also why those ads will fail any meaningful change, they serve the idea that we are divided rather than radically united of love.

That is why religion can be so violent in our day, it is often used to divide rather than radically unify in love.

• This parable of Jesus isn’t about who is out, it’s about all the people that are in. This parable of Jesus is about those who needed to hear this parable.

Jesus didn’t tell this parable because he hated self-righteous people, he told this parable to invite the hearers into more of a dynamic faith, a faith that would reunite them with their neighbors and draw them deeper into the dominion of God.

While broken religion often serves to justify practitioners, God on the other hand, serves those in need. This service of God is in meeting the broken hearted tax-collectors and justifying them. This service of God is in leading those who trust in themselves beyond themselves.

This parable is about prayer, and prayer is about God and the dynamic life of followers of this person names Jesus, who was crucified under the peace of Rome. This Jesus preached the dominion of God, and God’s justification of all into that dominion here and now. And we too, are invited into that dominion.

This life of faith is fluid and dynamic, which has it challenges. But behind, around and before any of these challenges is a promise: God regards no one with contempt.

This life of faith Jesus creates and invites us into, leads past self-destroying humility and it leads past community dividing hate.

Jesus told this parable to a particular audience, and I like to hope that the telling of the Spark Bible captured Jesus’ demeanor well. Jesus told this parable to help those who needed to hear it.

In the Lutheran confessions this telling of that parable might be called the “alien work of God.” In other words, ultimately the main work of God is justifying sinners, just like what happened to the tax-collector.

For those hearers who trusted in themselves and regarded others with contempt, tough, this parable is part of showing them that ultimately God is more trustworthy than their own ability to fulfill the law. And that is good news. This so-called reprieve of Jesus, then, serves God, and God is love. This parable isn’t about narrowing the circle of insiders, it’s about broadening it.

Now, Luke doesn’t tell us what the hearers did after Jesus told the parable. Luke does tell us that Jesus went and lived out that parable by exalting children, who had no measure in that society.

And if there is a God, I like to imagine that this parable actually worked. I like to imagine, or at least pray, that the hearers went home, and the next day they went back to the temple and prayed to God about their need, hopes, sorrows, all of it.

There’s always hope, because God is faithful.

That is the point of this parable.

God regards no one with contempt. We’re invited into that promise. It isn’t as easy as violent political ads might have us believe, it isn’t as easy as separation-ists might have us believe. In fact, it’s easier, it’s akin to Laughing at how hard life can be.

There are challenges; Yes I know this. But there is something stronger than challenges. A promise. God does not, will not ever regard you with contempt. You are invited to the meal inaugurating this amazing promise. Amen.