Common Ground of Grace (Sunday, October 23rd, 2016)

Bible Reference(s): Luke 18:9-14

Sermon by Rev. Terri Thorn

Note: Max Lucado’s children’s book You Are Special used during Children's Sermon

Is it any wonder that more than once Jesus encouraged, “Let the little children come to me?"  Sometimes the biggest lessons in life are found in simple, child-like words.   It’s pretty easy to picture the Wimmicks walking around putting stars and spots on each other isn’t it?  Creating separation based on someone's established set of parameters or personal bias.    Not all that different from  the first century Pharisee. 

After all, Pharisees were perceived to be THE most righteous of all Jews. The holiest...most faithful.   They were the kind of folks you would want in your church. They prayed, they fasted, they tithed.  They were most assuredly deserving of stars.  In fact, their name meant “the separated ones”, implying that they were unique in their pious observation of the law.  However, it also came to be interpreted that Pharisees separated themselves and put themselves in a position where they looked down on everyone else, especially those whom they deemed to be sinners.

Still, we need to acknowledge that the Pharisees were very sincere in their desire to follow the Law in order to seek God's righteousness.  They were doing what they believed to be the right things.  Much like most religious folks today.  The problem was that, over time, the Pharisees had taken God's beneficial law that had been given to Moses and the prophets, and expanded it into a hierarchy of rules and regulations that most folks could never keep up with or follow. 

The law had become a mechanism to separate and divide..just like stars and dots.  The Pharisees  truly believed that the hundreds of laws they created were pleasing to God and that to follow these laws to the letter, or beyond, was the path to earning God’s favor.  The more obedient a person was, the more justified, or made right with God, he was.   And of course, the more stars he would earn.

This particular Pharisee seems to have taken the whole thing to an extreme.  He had stars all over himself – lots of stars - stars that he had put there himself...and he was proud of it.  So, here he is up in the front of the temple, where everyone could see him...offering this prayer.    

Now, it's quite possible he is doing this on purpose so that others around would be impressed and give him even more stars.   When he thanks God that he is not like other people, he's really saying thank you, God, for all the dots I don't have on me.  Talk about lack of humility!  Talk about creating division.   And if that's not enough, then he basically said and while you're giving me stars, be certain to put some gray dots on all these other kind of people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – big gray dots and lots of them.  And the tax collector, well, cover him with dots.

The Pharisee also makes his case to earn a bunch more stars.   He reminds God  that he fasted twice a week.  Now, keep in mind, he didn’t have to fast that often.  The law said Jews were to fast once a year minimum, on the Day of Atonement.  But no…this Pharisee fasted twice a week...and if it happened to be on  Monday and Thursday, even better.  You see, those were the days that people came to the marketplace so the fasting Pharisees were sure to be seen and admired.   In fact, to make certain that everyone noticed, the Pharisees would walk around the market with oversized clothing and white ash brushed on their faces to make them look more emaciated.  Got to hand it to those guys, they sure know how to earn the stars. They  were also very good at handing out gray dots of disapproval to anyone who didn’t do the same.  They made sure there was a distinct separation between themselves and others.

The same thing when the Pharisee reminded God that he gave s a tenth of all his income. Again, he didn’t have to do this, according to the law, only a tenth of his production of the fields was required, but he gave a tenth of everything he had.  Stars, stars, stars…

But the tax collector stood at a distance. 

Covered in gray dots.  We don’t know that this was a dishonest or particularly evil tax collector, but he very well could have been.  Tax collectors worked for the Romans to collect taxes from the people.  Rome would tell the tax collectors how much they were required to collect, but the tax collector could decide how much he actually took from the Jews.  He could extort much more than what was required if he wanted and keep the rest for himself.  The Romans didn’t care, and the Jews didn’t have any choice but to pay, as he was a Roman official.  So, it’s safe to say that he was covered in gray dots, just because of his job, regardless of his integrity. 

The fact that the tax collector even came to the temple to pray seems to say to me that he at least cared somewhat about his righteousness with God- otherwise, why would he be there?  Although, Jesus tells us that the tax collector would not even look up to heaven, perhaps he was like Punchinello, and ashamed of his dots,  

“God have mercy on me, a sinner!” Do you hear the desperation in his cry to God?   In fact, a more accurate translation of the Greek is, “God have mercy on me, the sinner.”  This is a man who is so covered in gray dots, so weighed down with the burden of his sins, that he sees himself as the sinner, the only or the worst sinner of all.

And Jesus said, that this desperate man is the man who would go home justified before God.  Not the one with all the stars...but the one with the dots.  The one who humbled himself before God...the one who admitted his sin...the one who begged for mercy...the one who acknowledging that God is God and he is not.   The one who was right with God was the one who understood his need for God's grace.

The Pharisee, on the other hand, does not think he needs to receive mercy...he just wants to get credit.   His entire focus was his stars...in his world, the person with the most stars wins. Following all the religious rules to the letter, even exceeding them, would earn him the respect of the people and the approval of God.   His justification...was about adherence to the law...and maybe a little bit about having people commend him for it!   Of course, in typical Jesus fashion, he pretty much sets that mindset up on its end with this parable.

So, does this mean that God doesn’t care if we’re obedient to his law?   No, of course not.  In fact, we are called to live lives modeled on Christ's obedience, living out the law of love. 

However, what is being taught here, is that obedience to any laws, God’s or man’s, is not what will make us right with God!  We are made right with God because of his mercy…his grace given to us through his Son Jesus Christ.  In other words, we can never earn enough stars to earn God’s grace.  That doesn't mean we don't need to do "good things"...or that we are free to sin against God and our neighbor.  It just means that we can't count on our Pharisee-like goodness to earn God's favor, or our tax-collector sinfulness to keep us from it.

Perhaps even more troubling, this Pharisee believes that since he has so many stars, he gets to play the role of God - in that he can pass judgment on others.  Remember his words, “Thank you God that I am not like other men.”  That is about as judgmental as it gets, and very much the normal prayer for most Pharisees, not to mention some Christians, but we’ll get to that in a minute.  This attitude of contempt toward others is what caused Jesus to call out the  Pharisees on a regular basis;  and it's safe to say he does not want to discover it in us either.  When we think that our goodness or righteousness make us better than someone else, we are as guilty as the Pharisee.

But truth be told, there’s a little Pharisee in all of us.   It is revealed the moment we read this parable and say to ourselves, "Thank God, I'm not like the Pharisee".   Because right then, we are.  While we try our best to be obedient to Christ as an expression of our faithfulness,  we are, at times, some of the worst at giving stars and passing out little gray dots.   For example, we tend to give a lot of stars to people who are like us – if you dress like us, think like us, work like us – then you’re full of stars. We have something in common.  But if your life is different, let’s say you have body piercings and tattoos, or you’re homeless, or you’re unable to keep a steady, regular job – well, there just might be some gray dots for you.  Do you come to church, read your Bible, and pray?  Star, star, star.  Do you have an addiction, a felony or are you guilty of sexual sin?  Dot, dot, dot, extra dot. 

We also give dots to anyone whom we think is not a believer. Unfortunately,  “not a believer” is a title we often give to anyone who believes differently than we do!   Christians are also guilty of putting dots on other Christians.  Protestants, Catholics,  Fundamentalists, Orthodox, Evangelicals and  Progressives - dots and stars everywhere depending on your theology.   Some Christians give stars to the churches that sing old hymns and dots to contemporary services, and others do the reverse.  Some believe it is wrong to have women in their pulpit.  Others do not.  Some believe it's wrong to ordain homosexuals, others do not.  Consequently, we give stars to those with whom we agree, with whom we share certain values.  Those with whom we disagree get dots.   

But let me just say, Christians do not have the corner on the market on this star and dot stuff.  In fact, the world is filled with Wimmicks...separating and dividing people based on the stars and dots of opinion and personal bias.    

To me, there is nowhere this seems more obvious for Americans right now than in this 2016 national election cycle.  Talk about stars and dots.  Our entire nation seems to have turned into a hotbed of Pharisees --- segregated, separated, divided...pointing at each other "Thank God, I'm not like that party...or that candidate."  Now  I'm not saying that any candidate is as boastful and arrogant as a Pharisee or  that anyone is as dishonest as a tax collector.  It is, however, safe to say that none are as pious as the Pharisee in his godliness nor are any as humble as the tax collector in their confession.  However, we...the people...the voters...have become quite prolific in sticking stars and dots on each other.   Social media and internet blogs have made this nearly instantaneous...and pervasive.   And, maybe it's just my age, but it sure seems to be the worst, ugliest, most divisive partisanship I can remember in my lifetime.   I mean, many of us are afraid to express our thoughts, for fear we will end up slammed personally and covered with ugly, ugly dots.   So, instead, we huddle with those who share our views and talk about our disdain for those who do not.

My fear is that we are becoming so much like the Pharisees and the Wimmicks that we will forget what Jesus taught.   We will forget that all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.   We will forget that God is God and we are not.

Friends, we cannot count on politicians to reconcile our divisions...we can't count on media to heal our brokenness..and we cannot vote our way into God's righteousness  We cannot count on the rest of the world to humble themselves before God ...but we, the church, most certainly can.

We can be the ones who humble ourselves and forgive those who have wronged us.

We can humble ourselves to admit our sin of pride, as well as seek forgiveness for the ways we have caused hurt and harm.

We can humble ourselves to serve others.

We can humble ourselves to offer compassion and mercy and benevolence, even and especially, to those who are so very different than we are.

We can humble ourselves to turn the other cheek, to love our enemies, and to put our relationships above our need to be right.

We can humble ourselves to love our neighbor as ourselves.

And, perhaps the most important thing we can do as Christians is to completely humble ourselves and cry out to God, "Be merciful to us, the sinners."

Beloved of God...grace is our only hope...our only salvation.  Grace is the only thing that makes us right with God, and the only balm that can heal our division.  Friends, grace is our common ground.  We all stand equally in need...we are all equally unmerited to receive it....yet grace is abundant ours to receive and to share.  Grace is what brings us together in Christ.  Grace is why stars and dots do not matter to God.  As Eli said to Punchinello, “It doesn’t matter what other Wimmicks think, it matters what I think, because I made you.”   

The reality of the story of the Wimmicks, and the reality of this parable is that we are all guilty.  We either putting stars and dots on people in judgment; or we’re seeking to have all the stars put on us; or we’re placing our hope in the stars rather than Jesus for our righteousness.  We’re guilty, yes, but in Christ Jesus, we are forgiven.  By amazing grace, through faith. This is our common ground...no more separation from God or from each other.  Amen.