Proud

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

October 27, 2019

25 Proper C

          Next Sunday, we celebrate All Saints’ Sunday with glorious music and a baptism at the later service, and the reading of the names of our loved ones who have gone before us at both services.  We sing some of the best hymns in our hymnal and we light candles as we remember the pain of loss and the hope of resurrection.  All Saints is my favorite feast day, bar none.

          Next Sunday, we also celebrate the success of our Capital Campaign.  While some might say that we are celebrating the raising of enough funds to make some substantial improvements to our building, I believe we are celebrating something much more valuable.  We are celebrating the abundant generosity and unrelenting tenacity of this parish.  We are celebrating our commitment to offer the best possible gospel welcome to all who come here, whether for Sunday services, or a support group, or any of the host of other community groups that meet here.  As I have told anyone who asks, and some who haven’t asked, I am extraordinarily proud of the work we have done together, from the cottage meetings two years ago where we dreamed about our future, to the many meetings of both committees and the whole parish to finesse those dreams and make a plan to bring them to fruition, to all the work that has gone into the campaign by so many people over the past months.  I have often found that when a church takes on a rather audacious goal, larger than what the church could reasonably hope to accomplish, the result is renewed spirit and vibrant energy.

          So, I am caught short by this morning’s gospel reading.  I believe I am justifiably proud of the work of this parish.  I believe that what we have done together has been faithful work.  But do I sound like the Pharisee in today’s parable, who feels justified by his faithful works?  Should we not be proud of what we have accomplished and strictly humble ourselves?  What are we to do with our sense of accomplishment?

          The audience of Jesus’ parable is those who trust in themselves that they are righteous and regard others with contempt.  The Pharisee is being obedient to the Law.  He fasts twice a week and gives a tenth of all of his income.  These are admirable acts of faith.  Thieves, rogues, adulterers, and tax collector were, in various ways, all violating the 10 commandments.  The Pharisee does not want to be like them. The Pharisee works hard to live a faithful life and he is doing quite well.  Should he not be proud of that?

          On the other hand, we have the tax collector.  Tax collectors were despised because they made their living by collecting the taxes due the government plus whatever else they could extort out of people to pay themselves.  There was no IRS to pay them a salary.  The tax collector cannot even make himself look up to heaven, he is so aware of his sinfulness.  He can only beat his breast and say “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” 

          Then we are told that the tax collector went home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.  Clearly, we are to imitate the behavior of the tax collector rather than the Pharisee.

          But what, exactly, are we to imitate?  Does God not want us to do good works like the Pharisee?  And wouldn’t God rather us not work at jobs that exploit other people, like the tax collector?

          The reading from Joel reminds us that the rain and the grain, the wine and the oil, all come from God.  Everything we have comes from God.  Then Joel tells us that God will pour out God’s spirit on all flesh, and sons and daughters will prophesy, old men will dream dreams and young men will see visions.  All the good that we do comes from God’s spirit working within us.  That, I believe, is the difference between the Pharisee and the tax collector.  The Pharisee has everything under control. He is making a report of his good works.  He asks nothing of God and seems to need nothing from God.  His identity comes from his acts of piety and not being like the thieves, rogues, adulterers, and tax collectors.  The tax collector, on the other hand, makes a request of God.  “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”  The tax collector has no good works to fall back on and he is, well, a tax collector.  He knows he needs God and asks for God’s mercy.  His identity comes from his relationship with God and the gift of God’s mercy.    

          Jesus is speaking to those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt.  If I am proud of all that we have accomplished at Christ Church and think our accomplishments make us better than others and secure our relationship with God, then I am sadly mistaken and I am behaving like the Pharisee.  But the career choice of the tax collector is not what Jesus holds before us this morning, either.  What Jesus holds before us is the knowledge that our identity comes, not from our accomplishments, however amazing those might be, but from our relationship with God, which is rooted in God’s mercy.  All that we accomplish is God working through us.  And one of the things we have learned at Christ Church is that, in the words of a passage from the letter to the Ephesians, God working through us can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.  As long as we put our trust in God working through us, I believe this rector and all of us can be both proud and humbled by the work God is doing in and through Christ Church!

                                                                             Amen.