Proper 25, Year C
Sunday, October 20, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City, TX
Joel 2:23-32
Psalm 65
2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18
Luke 18:9-14
“Have
mercy upon us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we
have had more than enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are
at ease, of the contempt of the proud.” (Psalm
123:3-4)
Tax collectors, the contemptible person in Jesus’ parable were generally
speaking not overly great folks back in Jesus’ day. They notoriously collected more than they
were supposed to so they could give themselves a kick back. It was easy to hold a tax collector in
contempt.
Put the
words of Psalm 123 on the lips of the tax collector, however, and I can’t help
but feel sorry for him. “Have mercy upon
us, O Lord, have mercy upon us, for we have had more
than enough of contempt. Our soul has
had more than its fill of the scorn of those who are at ease, of the
contempt of the proud.” (Psalm 123:3-4) In the context
of Jesus’ parable, that psalm on the lips of the tax collector is a prayer of
someone who is lost, a prayer of someone who is fairly contemptible to those
around him and yet a prayer of someone who doesn’t know how else to be.
The tax
collector is harming others to help himself, and yet Jesus presents him as
someone who has lost his way, or as someone who never knew a good way to go in
the first place. Jesus told
another parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
regarded others with contempt. It seems
to me, that if you trust in yourself and hold others in contempt, then you’re
just a stones’ throw away from becoming like the tax collector yourself,
harming others to help yourself.
This isn’t so hard to do if your
life is not part of a greater narrative. If you truly trust in yourself that
you are righteous, then others can quickly become beneath you. “I’m a self made man.” “I did this all without any help from
anyone.” “Everyone else is beneath me.” Not everyone who would claim those first two
statements would believe the third, but they are closely linked. I am righteous through all that I do. My life is my own, not part of a greater
narrative, therefore others can easily be held in contempt.
The flip side of that coin is, you
have to prove your worth through what you do.
If what you do is the only thing that makes you righteous, then in some
respect, you have to earn your own worth.
Take God’s love for you simply because you are his out of the
equation. Take your incalculable value
as God’s own creation away, and yes, you do have to prove your worth and be
righteous only on your own. Take away
the belief that you were made in God’s image and are a part of his redemptive
work in creation, and you likely should trust in yourself and hold others in
contempt.
In our Gospel story today, however,
Jesus was talking to Jews. Folks who
believe in nothing greater than themselves can easily feel how Jesus was
describing, trusting in themselves and holding others with contempt. The people of Israel, however, believed they
were part of a greater narrative, part of something greater than
themselves. They believed that God had
made them and redeemed them as a people to be a light to the nations. How could they then hold others in contempt? They were shown God’s love and their great
value through God’s love, that they might show that same love and value to
others. “Have you forgotten who you
are?” Jesus was asking.
I was at clergy conference this
week, and one of our presenters, Dwight Zscheile, talked about growing up in a
nominally Christian household in a part of the country where 85% of the people
claimed no religious affiliation. His
family, while Christians, basically fell into that 85%. He never attended worship growing up. They didn’t pray. He didn’t learn the Gospel narrative. Dwight basically grew up feeling about like I
described above, like he had to earn his own worth through what he did. I don’t know that he treated others with
contempt, but he felt that he had very little self worth if he did not
accomplish great things.
As he grew up, however, some folks
introduced him to the Gospel narrative.
Some of these were church goers, and some of these were not, but by the
time he finished college, he was a committed Christian, having heard and
believed that he was a part of a greater narrative than just his own life. Being a Christian, he no longer believed he
had to trust in his own righteousness and earn his self worth, but as he put
it, he believed in…
…an alternative story, one in which
every human life is precious beyond measure, created for loving relationship
with the source of all life. In this
story, your worth is given, not earned.
Rather than bearing the weight of making it all up as you go, you find
yourself in a common narrative that goes back many generations. You are welcomed into a community of unlike
people where difference need not be cause for division, as is so often the case
in our world. You are offered
forgiveness for your faults and errors, for the violence you do to others and
this earth, and so are released to forgive others and break the cycle of hatred
and retribution. You are claimed by a
love and power beyond your own. You are
held in arms of grace. And in that
embrace, you are freed to participate in the restoration of human community and
all creation.
(Zscheile, Dwight J.: People of the Way: Renewing Episcopal Identity, Morehouse,
New York, 2012, p. 2)
There isn’t exactly room for
self-righteousness and contempt in being “freed to participate with God in the
restoration of human community and all creation.” Self-righteousness and contempt diminish who
we are and the restorative work we get to do in partnership with God. Self-righteousness and contempt are not who
we are as disciples of Jesus. As
disciples of Jesus, we are offered forgiveness “and are so released to forgive
others.”
This is not to say that we don’t
point out faults or bad behavior when we see it. Of course we do. Jesus made no bones about demanding a high
moral standard for his disciples. What
else could he demand when his two guiding laws were love God and love your
neighbor?
As disciples of Jesus, we too are
called to point out bad behavior when we see it, but we are called to do so
without contempt. We’re called to think,
not just react, and we are called to build others up in love, not tear them
down in contempt.
This goes to all of our
interactions with others…how we raise our kids, treat our neighbors, forgive
those who have hurt us, and seek restoration with those whom we would otherwise
hold in contempt. Forgiveness, love,
incalculable worth as God’s children, beloved and redeemed by Jesus. This is our life, and this is who we
are. This is the narrative and the
Gospel which we live and believe, being baptized into Jesus’ body. This is the narrative and Body into which
Rinley Dodd will be baptized this morning, a narrative and Body in which she is
in the words of Dwight Zscheile
precious beyond measure, created
for loving relationship with the source of all life. In this story, [her] worth is given, not
earned. Rather than bearing the weight
of making it all up as goes [she’ll find herself] in a common narrative that
goes back many generations. [In this
narrative she is] welcomed into a community of unlike people where difference
need not be cause for division, as is so often the case in our world. [She is] offered forgiveness for [her] faults
and errors, for the violence [she’ll] do to others and this earth, and so [she
is] released to forgive others and break the cycle of hatred and
retribution. [She is] claimed by a love
and power beyond [her] own. [She is]
held in arms of grace. And in that
embrace, [she is] freed to participate in the restoration of human community
and all creation.
(Zscheile, Dwight J.: People of the Way: Renewing Episcopal Identity, Morehouse,
New York, 2012, p. 2)
Amen.
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