Preacher: Revd Canon Karen Schmidt
Date: 06/11/2022
Ecclesiasticus 35: 12-17
2 Timothy 4: 6-8, 16-18
Luke 18: 9-14
Last week we heard the parable of the widow who pestered the judge until he gave in to her demand for justice and we reflected on what we could learn from that story about our prayer lives, not grinding God down until he gives in to our petitions for a quiet life but rather engaging with God in an ever growing and deepening relationship.
And on the face of it today’s parable, which follows on directly in Luke’s gospel from the parable of the judge and the widow, is also about prayer – the two very different styles of prayer – approaches to prayer – of the Pharisee and the tax collector. But this story about two very different people praying in two very different ways, whilst it is indeed about prayer is also about more than prayer. Jesus uses it as a way into his wider teaching about the nature of the kingdom of God.
We have to take a few steps back in Luke’s Gospel to the previous chapter when the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming. All pious Jews longed for the coming full reign of God but the Pharisees, in asking for signs of the kingdom’s arrival, rejected the only real signs available. The presence of Jesus is the presence of the kingdom. And the signs of it? The deaf hear, the lame walk, the dead are raised and the poor have the good news preached to them.
That is not the message that the top echelons of society necessarily want to hear because the focus is not where they think it belongs – on them. The Pharisee in today’s parable was not a bad man – he is actually exceeding the demands of the Jewish Law. His prayer of thanksgiving is a modification of a common Jewish rabbinic prayer – “I thank thee that I am not…” which in turn is in the spirit and content of verses from Psalm 17
If you try my heart, if you visit me by night, if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me; my mouth does not transgress, As for what others do, by the word of your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent. My steps have held fast to your paths; my feet have not slipped.
The Pharisee was doing what the Law required of him and more but in this parable what he was doing was putting on a display, not engaging in prayer.
God’s kingdom values have evolved from the Jewish Law. Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfil it. And so in the story of the pharisee and the tax collector, what each receive is “in spite of”, not “because of”. In spite of being an outsider in his society, working for the enemy, viewed as a traitor, but recognising his need of God and his mercy – the tax collector, too, was praying from the Psalms – those opening word of Psalm 51
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions
but approaching God and directing his prayer to God rather than to the Pharisee’s audience – it was the tax collector who was justified, made right with God. In spite of being an obedient follower of the Law, the Pharisee would, in God’s kingdom, be humbled and the tax collector raised up. That was as shocking to hear then as it is today in our society. It was not so much that each got what he deserved but rather that God works in unexpected ways, ways which are counter-intuitive to where we think our reward is due.
And about 200 hundred years before Luke, Ecclesiasticus was making plain that God sees us differently from how we see ourselves – with him there is no partiality, no one preferred over another because of their supposed status or standing in society. He gives to all generously.
We live in straightened times. People are anxious about how they will meet their bills this winter with soaring inflation, communities setting up warm hubs, children going to school hungry and our health service being overstretched. On Friday we shall have a new Prime Minister. What will be their focus? Will any of God’s kingdom values be present in the government’s programme under new leadership? Humility doesn’t seem to have featured so far in the government’s understanding of the responsibility they carry for the good of all the people of this country. Will there now be recognition that our reward does not come from a human pecking order but from understanding our dependence on God and working for his mercy, justice and peace. We can pray for a closer drawing together of the kingdom of this country and God’s kingdom. And we can do what we can to work for that kingdom here on earth now, however difficult that may seem.
Which brings us to Paul. As he wrote to Timothy, his life’s work of making known the gospel of Christ, Christ’s good news for the world, had cost him hardship and imprisonment but throughout he had known the presence and support of Christ who had continued to strengthen him in his work. In Paul’s darkest moments which he compares to being in the lion’s mouth, Paul had been confident that he would not be defeated because of Christ’s need of him to make him, Christ, known to the wider world.
And today it is we who are the means of making Christ’s message known to our world; that message of hope to those who are feeling they are in the lion’s mouth of their hopelessness. Our task may seem overwhelming, leaving us not knowing where to start or what we can do. I think sometimes we make the task seem more daunting than it needs to be.
I saw a clip on Youtube this week which reminded me that we can start with the basics. The clip showed a white middle-aged man out on the street eating a pizza, tucking in and enjoying it. As he was munching away, an orthodox Jew passed by and the pizza man offered the Jew a slice of his – rather large – pizza. The Jew thanked him very courteously but had to decline the man’s kind offer as he only ate kosher food whereupon Mr Pizza was very apologetic for having, as he thought, offended the Jew by offering him something he could not accept. The Jew graciously accepted the man’s apology and Mr Pizza then asked the Jew what he was carrying – “a palm” the Jew explained for use in a Jewish festival that was taking place, which interested Mr Pizza, so there was then a brief conversation about the festival. Mr Pizza then asked how to say goodbye in the Jewish language – was it “mazel tov” or perhaps shalom? “Shalom” said the Jew as he walked on and Mr Pizza turned to camera and beamed that he had learnt a new word – the word of course, for “peace”.
The whole encounter between Mr Pizza and the orthodox Jew had been about peace between two men from very different cultures but who had respected one another and moved beyond that to a space where they shared their common humanity whilst learning about and sharing their difference. From little acorns do mighty oaks grow. We can all be Mr Pizza as we go about our daily lives, as living examples of how we can live together and share all that is good with one another – just one way of living out God’s kingdom.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has written a prayer for our nation for these times and so as I finish, let us pray:
Lord God, the fountain of wisdom, whose will is good and gracious and whose law is truth: hear our prayer for all who serve the political life of our land at this time. Speak your word of peace into the heat of discord and debate, and lead us forward in the ways of your kingdom of righteousness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.