The Corner of Fourth and
Walnut
October 28, 2007: 30th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Sirach
35:12-14,16-18 II Timothy
4:6-8,16-18 Luke 18:9-14
To the church in the diaspora[1]
& to the church of the unchurched[2]
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading from
the holy Gospel according to Luke.
Glory to you,
Lord.
Lk 18:9-14
Jesus aimed this parable
at those who were self-righteous and looked down on everybody else. "Two
people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was
a tax collector. The Pharisee got up to pray and spoke to God saying, 'Oh God,
I thank you that I am not like the rest of men -- greedy,
dishonest, adulterous -- or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a
week, and I pay tithes on all my income.’ But the tax collector stood off at a
distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and
prayed, 'O God, be merciful to me a sinner.'
I tell you, the latter went home justified, not the former; for whoever
exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be
exalted."
The Gospel of
the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus
Christ.
----------------
Introduction
Feasting on Luke’s parables
These past Sundays we
have been feasting on the best of the New Testament parables which are found
only in St. Luke: the Parable of the Rich Fool and His Bursting Bins(18th
Sunday), the Parable of the Prodigal Son (24th Sunday),
the Parable of the Poor Lazarus at the Rich Man’s Gate (26th
Sunday). On this 30th Sunday
we are treated again to another great parable found only in Luke: the Parable
of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (i.e. sinner). That parable indicts those
who look down on everyone else, and it encourages those who think they are
sinners.
Tax collectors i.e., sinners
When the Romans occupied
the
In the New Testament tax
collectors (traitors and extortionists that they were) are always mentioned in
the same breath with sinners. One day the Pharisees complained to Jesus’
disciples saying, “How come your master eats with tax collectors and sinners”
(Mt
Contrasting strokes
Today’s parable is a
picture painted with contrasting strokes.
When the parable begins, the sun is rising, and the two are leaving home
to go up to the temple to pray. In that
sacred place the Pharisee gets up to pray and thanks God he’s “not like the
rest of men.” But the tax collector goes down to pray; he bends low to the
ground where humility gets its humus. The Pharisee defines himself by what he
does: “I do my tithing. I do my fasting. I do my Schema prayer three times a
day.” But the tax collector defines himself by who he is: “I am a sinner.” The Pharisee confesses other men’s sins
(“They are greedy, dishonest and adulterous”). But the tax collector confesses
his own sins (“Oh, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner”). In his heart of hearts
the strutting Pharisee is really sad, while the confessing tax collector is
really glad. When the sun is setting and the two are returning home, the tax
collector has been set right with God, but the Pharisee has not.
Self righteousness: a holy feeling
Luke says “Jesus aimed
this parable at those who were self-righteous and looked down on everybody
else” (Lk 18:9). Self- righteousness is a holy feeling of not being like the
rest of men -- greedy, dishonest and adulterous. As a holy
feeling self righteousness wears the mantle of God around its shoulders, and
with that mantle wrapped around one’s self there’s no limit to what can be
perpetrated in the name of God. At the end of the day, self righteousness is
the feeling we accord ourselves when we don’t feel good about ourselves. It’s a
kind of compensation.
The
Nazis’ self righteousness which kills
After their sound defeat in World War I many
Germans didn’t feel very good about themselves. They blamed everybody else but
themselves. The German Nazis chose to blame especially the Jews. They thanked
God they we’re not like those Jews – greedy, dishonest and immoral. Then they
pursued and persecuted them with a vengeance. On the night of
The Islamists’ self righteousness which
kills
Of
the three great monotheistic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) Islam
is the youngest. It is founded on the Koran as the scripture revealed to the
Prophet Mohammed (570-632). In the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries Islam
became the very center of the universe eclipsing Europe in the fields of
mathematics, physics, architecture, medicine, chemistry, poetry and
spirituality. But for the last two centuries, Islam has been on the losing side
of history because of all the modernization and secularization closing in on
it. Many Muslims dismiss modernization and secularization out of hand as evil.
Left behind by history, many Islamists respond by blaming everybody else but
themselves. Andrew Sullivan writes, “Much of the Arab world has withdrawn into
a fortress of intolerance and self-righteousness.”
A great part of Islam, consciously or
subconsciously, thanks Allah for not being like those Western infidels: greedy,
dishonest and immoral. A holy feeling of self-righteousness clothes
all Islamist suicide bombers with divine
authority to commit the most heinous crimes in the name of the Allah. Without
any doubt, bin Laden is first and foremost a religious man. On 9/11 that
religious man through his missionaries (his suicide bombers) brought down three
thousand innocent infidels and two towering trophies in the name of Allah, Most
Kind and Most Merciful.
The
Rev. Phelp’s self righteousness which kills
Extreme
Islamists don’t have a monopoly on self righteousness, but the Rev. Fred
Phelps, it would seem, does. He has so much of it it’s hard to believe there’s
any left for anyone else. He and his followers picketed the funeral of Matthew Shepard (a gay student from Wyoming
College) beaten to a pulp by two skinheads who tied him to a wooden fence out
in the country and left him there to die in his blood and tears on October 12,
1998. At the funeral they carried signs that read, “God hates fags and buries
them in hell.”
He and his group never tire of thanking
God that they are not like the rest of men, greedy, dishonest and immoral, as
homosexuals are. The Reverend and his Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka,
Kansas, announced plans to erect a monument in a city park in Casper City where
Shepard grew up, and where he learned it was OK to be gay. The monument would
be made of marble or granite. It would stand five to six feet in height with a heavy bronze plaque bearing the face
of the slain young man and an inscription reading, “MATTHEW SHEPARD, Entered
Hell October 12, 1998, In Defiance of God’s Warning: Thou shalt not lie with
mankind as with womankind; it is abomination. Leviticus 18:22.” So read a
letter from the
Behold the
Reverend and his bunch confessing this kid’s peccadilloes instead of confessing their
own mountainous sin of self righteousness. Imagine all the teachings of Christ
and all his parables that they had to ignore in order to get to the point where
they could rejoice in putting someone in hell!
The unself
righteousness which gives life
The Bible tells Phelps and his followers
that, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind; it is abomination”
(Leviticus
So I started keeping track
of that. And then also, as I produced for PBS, I did a story about this woman
at Harvard, an African-American, with this great life story -- tragic
upbringing, but she pulled through and was doing great things with her life.
She was a theologian, and she was also a lesbian, and I thought it was
important for people to see that. And the day after that aired, I got an email
from this kid -- a gay kid in
And I got a number of emails like that over the next few years similar to this,
but this was the first that really knocked my socks off!
An unself righteous Gospel
(a Gospel which is truly Good News) made the gay kid throw his gun into the
river, and that story knocked the socks off Karslake’s feet!
Merton’s joyful unself righteousness
Thomas Merton is the most celebrated Roman Catholic monk of the 20th
century. Born in 1915 in France ,
he grew up in France , England , and the United
States and studied at Cambridge
and Columbia
Trappist monks were
always known as a very special breed apart
-- “not like the rest of men.” They took a strict vow never to speak
except to God and their spiritual directors.
They rose daily at
In his book Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander Merton
writes about a rare visit to
Conclusion
Go and stand on Fourth and Walnut
To this day on the corner
of Fourth and Walnut in