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| Pr. Steve's Sermon - Trusting Ourselves |
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| Children's Sermon - Pretending |
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| Youth Handbell Choir - October 2, 2016 |
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Sermon Notes from Pastor Steve...
Whenever Jesus told parables, he told them to make a point. And to make his parables and his points memorable, he often illustrated them with outrageous, larger than life characters who stick in our memories. Most people, even in Jesus' day, would have had a hard time finding a judge as overtly corrupt as the judge in last weekend's Gospel reading, or a manager as brazenly dishonest as the manager in the story a few weeks ago.
And so the tradition continues in today's parable. Jesus tells a story about two guys who go up to the Temple to pray. And one of these guys is such a self-centered big shot that he:
- Can't stop bragging about himself (even to God!)
- Says that everybody else is a loser, even people who are standing within earshot!
- Can't think of any reason to ask God for forgiveness, even though he's in the Temple and that's the reason you went to the Temple...!
So here's a character who can't stop bragging about himself, regards others as losers and doesn't even think he needs to ask God for forgiveness. It's unbelievable! Where would I ever be able to find a relatable example of such a person?!
But in fact, no matter what time or age we're living in, we all know people who like to brag about themselves; and who regard at least some others as losers; and who feel, for the most part, that they don't really need God's forgiveness (at least not as much as most other folks.)
Most of us try to keep these tendencies in check in ourselves. We value at least the appearance of humility. We understand that it's pompous and rude to put others down. And most of us readily admit that we've said and done things which, even if we didn't get caught, we're not proud of.
And yet, keeping our bragging and put downs of others in check isn't actually the point of the parable. Luke begins this story by telling us that Jesus told this parable to "some who trusted in themselves." That was the problem. The bragging, the put downs and the delusion that they didn't need God's forgiveness were all symptoms of a larger problem: they trusted in themselves.
So here's the problem for us: It's relatively easy to curb our bragging. And it's considered polite not to put others down. And we're willing to come to church and admit in prayer that, in general, we need God's forgiveness.
But it's really, really hard to back away from trusting in ourselves. And that's because taking care of yourself, relying on yourself and not being a burden on anybody else are things that most of us strive for every single day. And on one level, that's a good thing.
We want to be people who can rely and trust in our own:
- Brains and intuition - so that we don't get taken advantage of and so that we can make smart choices in life; after all, most of us have been in situations where we've been lied to or cheated, so "buyer beware" is a good motto; we want to be able to be informed and to be able to trust in our own good judgment to keep us out of trouble...
- Abilities and talents - most of us would really rather be the people who help others than people who need help ourselves; being self-reliant is part of our culture, and we're proud of it from an early age... (I remember a kid in my first congregation who taught herself the bedtime prayer, "I pray the Lord all by myself"...!)
- Moral compass - and by and large, that's a good thing. Conscience is important for all of us, and even the Scriptures teach us that each of us has to answer for our own actions - we can't just say, "somebody told me this was OK." But even in Scripture, conscience is always attached to the concept of forgiveness, because nobody's moral compass is ever perfect ...
So the point of this parable is NOT that we're despising the wrong people. That is, instead of despising the humble tax collector, we should be despising the arrogant prima dona. Instead, the point of this parable is that we should struggle against trusting in ourselves so that we don't unwittingly turn into the type of people who think we can go it alone.
So what does that mean for us? Saying "in God we trust" is really easy. But actually trusting in anybody other than ourselves - even God - can be really hard. And to struggle against this tendency, at least for myself, I find it's often helpful to:
- Thank God for the strength and opportunities I had to do something, rather than just talking about what I did with my strength and opportunities ... (one of the readings that used to be appointed for Thanksgiving, from Deuteronomy (8:17-18), reminded people not to say that their wealth came from their own strength, but from God who gave them the strength to get the wealth...)
- Think about what I can do to help others have strength and opportunities to make different decisions, instead of just considering what bad decisions they've made... (the ELCA has as our theme, "God's Work, Our Hands", and it reminds us that if we're going to pray for God to change people's lives - especially people we might otherwise look down on - we have to be willing to be agents of God's change in their lives ...)
- Remember that many of the decisions I make are at best imperfect decisions ... (choosing the right thing over the wrong thing is easy; but many of our decisions are about choosing the least bad option (something we should especially remember at Election time!); it can be as simple as wanting to say yes to giving time, money and attention to two people or activities that are both worth it; I don't want to say "no" to either; but I'm an imperfect person, making decisions in imperfect situations with other imperfect people. "Sin" doesn't mean "bad"; it just means imperfect. And even when my moral compass feels well oriented, I finally need to trust in the perfection of God's love and mercy, not the perfection of my decisions...
It's really a good thing when we've done pretty well at taking care of ourselves and doing what we feel we're supposed to do. But even - and perhaps especially - at those moments, Jesus reminds us not to trust in our selves, or our own perfection to get us through life.
Instead, Jesus uses this parable to call us to be people who give thanks to God for the abilities God has given us. Jesus calls us to share those abilities with others who haven't been as fortunate. And most of all, Jesus calls us to trust not in the perfection of our own judgment, but in the perfect love and mercy of God.
Amen.
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