A sermon by Senior Minister John B. McCall, October 21, 2007
Luke 18:9-14
Today is Consecration Sunday when we prayerfully consider our ministries for next year and commit to support them. Consecration is the act of making something sacred or holy. Money is neither sacred nor profane, at least when seen through the eyes of faith. But money set aside for holy purposes is a sign and symbol of our common desire to hear and respond to the Spirit of God.
When he was being tempted in the wilderness, early in his ministry, Jesus said that we can’t live on bread alone; it’s also true that we can’t live without bread. Our ministries, our staff, our outreach and our buildings all require dollars.Our congregation is here because of the faithfulness of 11 generations starting with those who established this church in 1733. And we’re vital today because you and I have been generous. Together we give 80% of our church’s annual $500 thousand budget. The remaining 20% comes from various other sources.
Let’s remember today that we don’t give because the Stewardship Committee asks us to. We give because God asks us to. Giving is our response to God’s call to live in the ways of Jesus. You can give without loving, but you can’t love without giving. We love this church and who we are, and what God is helping us become. So we give.
We all know people who measure life but how much they can grab. We may be tempted in that direction at times, by a bigger house, or more toys. Scripture tells us that what we have can’t give us abundant life. We can only discover that Christ-centered life through what we give.
Every day, life tempts us to measure ourselves against others – particularly so we can see if we’re superior in some way. In today’s Gospel Jesus talked about that. He was talking to those who were full of themselves – the self-righteous who looked down on others with contempt. The culture of the day assumed the Pharisee was holy and the tax collector was profane. Jesus said it wasn’t that simple. And he told a parable saying that a Pharisee and a tax collector both went to the temple to pray.
The Pharisee proudly said: “Thank you, God, that I’m not like other people: robbers, crooks, adulterers, or (heaven forbid), like this tax man. I fast twice a week and give ten percent of all my income to the temple.”
At the same moment the tax man was hiding in the shadows, down on his knees with his face in his hands. “Forgive me, God; have mercy on me.” He had plenty to be humble about. Tax collectors were traitors: Jews who were paid a percentage by the Romans to collect, or more accurately – extort, taxes from their own people. Here was a sinner of the first degree. Apparently he came to worship because he’d decided to stop running and hiding.
He didn’t know quite how to behave: which hymnal to use or how to follow the bulletin. He didn’t know that the asterisk meant to stand up or which door to use to make a fast escape so he wouldn’t have to go to coffee hour. He just sat and wept quietly because something was coming unraveled in his life and he was overwhelmed. In a familiar reversal of fortunes, Jesus came to the punch line: the humble will be exalted and the exalted will be humbled.
We can have a great time stretching that punch line to fit our own opinions:
• We might say the parable is about how church folks are pious and smug, dressing up and coming to worship where the preacher reassures them with self-indulgent pep-talks, while the folks who see the hypocrisy for what it is, and play golf on Sunday, are really closer to God anyway.
• We might say this parable is about how anyone who is tidy, punctual, detail-minded or organized is fooling herself because the loose, laidback, relaxed, spontaneous way of life is really more godly.
• We could even apply this parable to big, powerful countries that expect to be honored and obeyed, and then some smaller less powerful, less noble neighbors whom the world scorns.
We can stretch this parable to say lots of things that Jesus never had in mind. What he did say was what I refer to as The Simple Truth. Here’s how Eugene Peterson translates it in The Message: “This taxman, not the other, went home made right with God. 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.” [pg. 167]
“The Simple Truth” I’m pointing to is that we’re more like each other than we are different. When we accept that we unleash tremendous potential for good. Our love for family, the importance of community, our desire for freedom, our sense of the divine, our instinct to sustain life – there are so many attributes that we hold in common. Our true differences are relatively superficial.
That may be some comfort for Barack Obama and Dick Cheney, who learned this week that they share a common ancestor, making them cousins. Lynn Cheney, the Vice President’s wife, found the link when she was researching a book. A few months ago, genealogists reported that Obama shares another ancestor in common with President George Bush. One big happy family![http://www.thesequitur.com/content/view/1690/43/]
Truly, we’re more alike than we are different from each other. And we all have fallen short of what God wants for us. The Pharisee couldn’t see that. The tax collector saw it in spades.
The life we share in our church is not about me or about you. It’s about us – the body of Christ called forth by God for a particular mission. And part of our mission is to be a meeting place where we discover just how much alike we really are.
• We’re a gathering place for many who have grown up in the church and for many who have given up on the church.
• We’re a gathering for those who are unapologetically Christ-centered and those who have to translate every reference to Christ into their own terms.
• We’re a gathering place for those who believe the first priority is getting your own spiritual life in order, and for those who find their calling in helping to heal the world.
• We’re a gathering place for those who believe God is more interested in calling everyone in, than in keeping some out.
• But most important of all we are the beloved children of a righteous God who has made us and who has come to us in Jesus to point us toward a fuller life. We are the Body of Christ. We haven’t made ourselves and we can’t save ourselves.
Pharisees think they’re self-sufficient and superior and don’t need anyone else. At one point in Sir Winston Churchill’s political career a challenger condemned him by saying he’d gained his position only because of the people he knew. The challenger declared proudly “I, on the other hand, owe nothing to anyone…. I am a self made man.” With his dry and biting wit, Chur¬chill bellowed: “Sir, that relieves the Almighty of a terrible responsi¬bility!”
The Pharisee’s blind spot was that he was like other people – not self-made and not truly righteous. He too had sinned, failed, and fallen short. Jesus said none of us really has the privilege of standing on a pedestal and looking down on others with judgment. In the struggles of life, we eventually discover we can’t place our trust solely in ourselves or even in other people. Trust in God is the only sure way.
I know some who stay away from worship on Consecration Sunday, ‘cause they don’t want to think about money. They think it’s too mundane, or that it’s someone else’s concern, not theirs. They just want to come to worship week after week, knowing that someone else will make sure the doors are open and the lights are on, and the boiler is working.
But in our hearts we know this day is much larger than budgets and money. We’re here to say “thank you” to our forbears and to our God… and to say “yes” to Jesus’ call to discipleship.
And we’re here today as living testimony to the simple truth that we’re all much more alike than we are different. We’re the flawed and broken children of God who find healing and abundant life through this blessed community.