Bible Text: Luke 18: 9-14 | Preacher: Rev. Jenn Geddes
In November of 1972 Carly Simon released one of her greatest hits. The song reached #82 on Billboard’s greatest songs of all time, and the UK official Charts Company crowned it the ultimate song of the 1970s. The song is a critical look at a self-absorbed partner and for a long time there has been speculation regarding who this song is about. Which in my mind is a little ironic because the song is about a person speculating that the song is about them. Apparently the press speculated that David Bowie, David Cassidy, and/or Cat Stevens were all candidates. It is such a mystery that in 2003 Carly agreed to reveal the name of the song’s candidate to the highest bidder at a charity auction. The top bid was $50,000 and went to the then president of NBC sports. A condition of the prize of course, was that the highest bidder could not reveal the secret to anyone else. Upon the release of her tell all book just last year Carly admitted that one section of the song, the second verse and second verse alone, was about actor Warren Beatty. “You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you/ You’re so vain, I’ll bet you think this song is about you/ Don’t you? Don’t You?”
To be perfectly honest I think we all have these moments of vanity when we think that what someone has said is about us when in fact it is not. It is actually a struggle that I encounter in our Gospel passage. Perhaps not that the parable which Jesus shares is about us but rather that we are in danger of becoming like the characters in the story. In the crowd, to which Jesus is speaking, there are some people who are complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and they look down their noses at others. One might claim that they are so vain that they think this story is about them- or not. Jesus uses a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector to teach them a lesson. The Pharisee prays loudly, “O God, I thank you that I am not like other people because I am capable of and do all these righteous acts like fasting and tithing.” While the tax collector slumps in the shadows with his face in his hands asking, “God, give mercy. Forgive me a sinner.” Where we might be in danger of thinking that this parable is about us and then conversely end up truly having this parable being about us is that when we look with judgement on the Pharisee than we end up no better than the Pharisee. Basically, our prayer ends up being, “God, we thank you that we are not like the Pharisee who is hypocritical, overly pious, self-righteous and vain.” Sure this parable is about being humble but it is also about avoiding self-congratulatory words or actions. It is about avoiding placing judgement upon others, regardless of who they are. It’s about loosing our selfish behaviour for selflessness- taking off our masks, presenting who we really are and putting others first, including the Pharisee.
In fact, before we judge the Pharisee for his behaviour we need to look at what is really going on. Notice how Jesus doesn’t actually say that the Pharisee is wrong for his behaviour. I can only assume that everything the Pharisee says is true. That he has indeed set himself apart through righteous living. That he has indeed followed the letter of the law and that he has donated generously to the temple. Why not be grateful that he has been placed in such a blessed situation. Why not be thankful that he has enough money to truly tithe. There is nothing actually wrong with his prayer- especially if we think of it as a prayer of thanksgiving. The Pharisee is, however, missing part of the prayer. Both prayers are steeped within the language of the Jewish tradition. The Pharisee’s prayer is quite simply a prayer of thanks. Likewise the tax collector’s prayer has roots too in traditional prayers of confession. When we pray our prayers of the people they are thanksgiving prayers but they are also intercessory prayers, asking for God’s actions through us. Luke states at the very beginning of this section that Jesus told this parable to people who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous.” That’s the problem.
While the Pharisee makes the claim that he is righteous based on his own accomplishments and merits, the tax collector relies entirely on God’s actions. That’s the difference. The tax collector throws himself on the mercy of God. He takes his sin seriously. He knows that God is truly righteous. He knows he cannot hide himself from God. But the tax collector also believes that God can be merciful, even to a traitor, lawbreaker, deceiver, tax collector, sinner, like him. He has nothing to offer but his broken self. The tax collector puts every hope, trust, claim not on any action or word of his own but rather he places it entirely in God’s hands. Now, one can suppose that the tax collector does this in part because he is desperate and in part because he truly hasn’t done anything righteous. But there is a message in that too. It is not about what we do but what God has done for us. The tax collector is bold enough to ask for this gift. God meets us in our desperation. God hears our cries for mercy. God turns humility into exaltation.
Famous author Flannery O’Connor uses this theme in one of her stories in which one character declares, “Try as we may, we cannot redeem others, much less ourselves. There is only one who can save , and we can only throw our sinful selves at the feet of this one’s inscrutable mercy. We “ain’t right”, and only God can make us so.” Jesus sums up this parable by saying that the tax collector is the one who went home right with God. Eugene Petersen’s the Message translates it like this, “If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”
Maybe this parable is about self-esteem- but in a world where bullying is a reality for many, where feeling inadequate is something we know all too well, where feeling like we have to change because there is just something different about us, when we all wear a mask to hide our hurting selves, this is a parable about trusting that God will deliver us. The Pharisee begins his prayer with all the things he is not. We could easily do the same, “O God, we thank you that we are not like those lackadaisical believers who only come on special occasions, we thank you that we are not declining as rapidly as most churches, we thank you that we are not judgemental like those other congregations.” But then we are no better than the Pharisee. Instead, there should be no judgement on anyone else but rather our prayer should be, like the Pharisee full of gratitude, thank you God for who we are, but we would do well to stand with the tax collector and join him in his simple prayer. O God- help us be the people you want us to be. Help us to be the church you desire us to be. God, we’re so vain, that we think it is all about us. Have mercy. Help us to trust in you. Amen
In November of 1972 Carly Simon released one of her greatest hits. The song reached #82 on Billboard’s greatest songs of all time, and the UK official Charts Company crowned it the ultimate song of the 1970s. The song is a critical look at a self-absorbed partner and for a long time there has been speculation regarding who this song is about. Which in my mind is a little ironic because the song is about a person speculating that the song is about them. Apparently the press speculated that David Bowie, David Cassidy, and/or Cat Stevens were all candidates. It is such a mystery that in 2003 Carly agreed to reveal the name of the song’s candidate to the highest bidder at a charity auction. The top bid was $50,000 and went to the then president of NBC sports. A condition of the prize of course, was that the highest bidder could not reveal the secret to anyone else. Upon the release of her tell all book just last year Carly admitted that one section of the song, the second verse and second verse alone, was about actor Warren Beatty. “You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you/ You’re so vain, I’ll bet you think this song is about you/ Don’t you? Don’t You?”
To be perfectly honest I think we all have these moments of vanity when we think that what someone has said is about us when in fact it is not. It is actually a struggle that I encounter in our Gospel passage. Perhaps not that the parable which Jesus shares is about us but rather that we are in danger of becoming like the characters in the story. In the crowd, to which Jesus is speaking, there are some people who are complacently pleased with themselves over their moral performance and they look down their noses at others. One might claim that they are so vain that they think this story is about them- or not. Jesus uses a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector to teach them a lesson. The Pharisee prays loudly, “O God, I thank you that I am not like other people because I am capable of and do all these righteous acts like fasting and tithing.” While the tax collector slumps in the shadows with his face in his hands asking, “God, give mercy. Forgive me a sinner.” Where we might be in danger of thinking that this parable is about us and then conversely end up truly having this parable being about us is that when we look with judgement on the Pharisee than we end up no better than the Pharisee. Basically, our prayer ends up being, “God, we thank you that we are not like the Pharisee who is hypocritical, overly pious, self-righteous and vain.” Sure this parable is about being humble but it is also about avoiding self-congratulatory words or actions. It is about avoiding placing judgement upon others, regardless of who they are. It’s about loosing our selfish behaviour for selflessness- taking off our masks, presenting who we really are and putting others first, including the Pharisee.
In fact, before we judge the Pharisee for his behaviour we need to look at what is really going on. Notice how Jesus doesn’t actually say that the Pharisee is wrong for his behaviour. I can only assume that everything the Pharisee says is true. That he has indeed set himself apart through righteous living. That he has indeed followed the letter of the law and that he has donated generously to the temple. Why not be grateful that he has been placed in such a blessed situation. Why not be thankful that he has enough money to truly tithe. There is nothing actually wrong with his prayer- especially if we think of it as a prayer of thanksgiving. The Pharisee is, however, missing part of the prayer. Both prayers are steeped within the language of the Jewish tradition. The Pharisee’s prayer is quite simply a prayer of thanks. Likewise the tax collector’s prayer has roots too in traditional prayers of confession. When we pray our prayers of the people they are thanksgiving prayers but they are also intercessory prayers, asking for God’s actions through us. Luke states at the very beginning of this section that Jesus told this parable to people who “trusted in themselves that they were righteous.” That’s the problem.
While the Pharisee makes the claim that he is righteous based on his own accomplishments and merits, the tax collector relies entirely on God’s actions. That’s the difference. The tax collector throws himself on the mercy of God. He takes his sin seriously. He knows that God is truly righteous. He knows he cannot hide himself from God. But the tax collector also believes that God can be merciful, even to a traitor, lawbreaker, deceiver, tax collector, sinner, like him. He has nothing to offer but his broken self. The tax collector puts every hope, trust, claim not on any action or word of his own but rather he places it entirely in God’s hands. Now, one can suppose that the tax collector does this in part because he is desperate and in part because he truly hasn’t done anything righteous. But there is a message in that too. It is not about what we do but what God has done for us. The tax collector is bold enough to ask for this gift. God meets us in our desperation. God hears our cries for mercy. God turns humility into exaltation.
Famous author Flannery O’Connor uses this theme in one of her stories in which one character declares, “Try as we may, we cannot redeem others, much less ourselves. There is only one who can save , and we can only throw our sinful selves at the feet of this one’s inscrutable mercy. We “ain’t right”, and only God can make us so.” Jesus sums up this parable by saying that the tax collector is the one who went home right with God. Eugene Petersen’s the Message translates it like this, “If you walk around with your nose in the air, you’re going to end up flat on your face, but if you’re content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself.”
Maybe this parable is about self-esteem- but in a world where bullying is a reality for many, where feeling inadequate is something we know all too well, where feeling like we have to change because there is just something different about us, when we all wear a mask to hide our hurting selves, this is a parable about trusting that God will deliver us. The Pharisee begins his prayer with all the things he is not. We could easily do the same, “O God, we thank you that we are not like those lackadaisical believers who only come on special occasions, we thank you that we are not declining as rapidly as most churches, we thank you that we are not judgemental like those other congregations.” But then we are no better than the Pharisee. Instead, there should be no judgement on anyone else but rather our prayer should be, like the Pharisee full of gratitude, thank you God for who we are, but we would do well to stand with the tax collector and join him in his simple prayer. O God- help us be the people you want us to be. Help us to be the church you desire us to be. God, we’re so vain, that we think it is all about us. Have mercy. Help us to trust in you. Amen