Cry for Mercy Knowing Who and Whose You Are
Bethel UMC, Greenville, SC
Luke 18:9-24
Adam Hamilton is the pastor of the The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection, our denomination's largest church in the country located in Leawood, Kansas, just outside Kansas City. The church began in 1990 with a worship service attended by 100 people in a funeral home chapel. Today more than 15,000 people worship, study and serve at three physical locations and through an active online community. They also host an annual leadership training event for church leaders.
Adam Hamilton's sermons are often the basis for his next book. One of his sermon series led to the book When Christians Get It Wrong. He was motivated to preach this series after talking to a thoughtful young man who had given up on the church. Like the vast majority in a study of non-Christian young adults and their perceptions of Christians, this young man had no interest in Christianity. He perceived Christians to be hypocrites who are overly critical of everyone else. They relate Christ with love but do not see a people who exhibit God's love. Instead they see people who are more like the Pharisees than most of us like to admit.
The Pharisees were a group of religious leaders who "believed that holiness and a life pleasing to God came from separating yourself from sin and in obeying the commands of God." They knew the Law and strove to follow it to the letter. Jesus often challenged the Pharisees because he saw them as hypocrites who were set apart not only by the religious authority, but who also separated themselves as special and looked down upon others. They had the wrong motives, were busy pointing out the sins of others while failing to acknowledge their own sins, were so concerned with the details of the law that they missed the main points, and had superficial faith.
We don't like to admit when we read a passage like today's Gospel Lesson that we can really identify with both characters. But I suspect that Adam Hamilton is right when he declares that most of us who are religious are also recovering Pharisees. It is easy for all of us to get it wrong and to act in ways that don't show Christ's love and mercy. Like the Pharisees Christians can get so focused on following a moral code of moral holiness that we speak and act in ways that do not reflect the most important component of holiness: love.
Adam Hamilton notes that, in his experience, non-religious people don't expect us to be perfect, but they do expect us to acknowledge that we are also sinners. They expect us to know who we really are, because we are willing to look at ourselves honestly and to acknowledge our own mistakes and struggles. This honest look at who we are isn't easy. For when we look at ourselves, we may find ourselves acting more like the Pharisee, but needing to act like the tax collector from today's lesson.
The Pharisee didn't get it wrong by fasting, tithing, or coming to the temple to pray. He got it wrong when sought to justify himself rather than seeking God. The Pharisee knew the Law; he had a checklist to follow. When he went down the list checking off the things he did and used his checklist to judge the tax collector, the tax collector was easy to judge. His profession made it clear that he was out for his own personal gain. His profession alone made him a sinner.
It is easy to be hard on the Pharisee because we know the end of the parable, but many of us want exactly what he had. I have many friends who say that they want a checklist – something they can use to make sure that they are doing what they need to do to be right with God. It seems like it would be nice to have a list to go by to determine what we need to do, but such a list is very dangerous. Yes, that checklist might provide some guidance, but it also becomes a standard by which we judge ourselves and others. Like the Pharisee, when I check items off the list, I see what I do, not what God does. Then I turn around and use the same list when I look at someone else. I see what boxes on my list they have checked and judge them according to what they do, rather than seeing them as Jesus sees them.
Checking items off the list can distort how we see ourselves. Some people see all their check marks and believe they are getting being a Christian right. Others may not focus on the many items they can check, but on the items that they didn't check. Since we tend to focus on what we are doing, or what we are not doing, it is easy to forget that we aren't the ones who earn our way to God's approval. The reality is that we can never earn God's love, God's grace, or God's mercy.
Isn't that what we usually mean by grace and mercy? Grace is receiving something better than we deserve. We typically thing of mercy as not receiving the punishment we deserve, but mercy can also imply healing and comfort. Whether we are receiving grace or mercy, we are not the ones in charge – it is God who is in charge. It is God who is doing; we are receiving.
We need to know who we are and admit who we are. Addicts in a Narcotics Anonymous meeting, introduce themselves by name saying, "I am Joe, an addict." One of my professors begins each class saying, "Hi, I'm Tony, a sinner…" I need to be able to admit "I'm Laura, a sinner…." I need to be able to see that I need God, for I cannot earn my place with God. My place has been established by God's grace and mercy that has been shown to me through Jesus Christ. That is why my professor can say, "Hi, I'm Tony, as sinner redeemed by the blood of the Lamb." And I can say, "I'm Laura, a sinner, a beloved child of God by the grace I receive through Jesus." Our status with God isn't based on what we do, but on what God has done and continues to do to transform us by grace.
The tax collector knew his status – he was a sinner. He couldn't rely on his own merit, he had to rely on God to grant him mercy. And so he prays simply and directly, "Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner." The tax collector came seeking to be restored to God not by his own deeds, but by God's mercy.
The tax collector's humble approach to God is often the emphasis of this parable, but we need to be careful about what we see as the tax collector's "humility". If our picture of humility is the physical picture of the tax collector – head hung, beating his breast – we might associate humility with defeat, with beating up on ourselves for our mistakes. I'm not sure that this is the image of humility that we need.
A couple of weeks ago, the daily reflection I receive by e-mail had a better definition: "HUMILITY, a word related to humus, which means "the earth," is the notion of being grounded in the reality of who one is before God; it is God who is in charge of our lives — not the other way around."
Humility – knowing who we are before God is a gift not a punishment. When we can see how much we need God, and recognize that we need God's love even though we are sinners in need of grace, then we are set free from our checklist. Then we can begin to respond to God out of love, not just duty. We are also able to look at one another differently. We no longer need to determine who someone else is based on what they have accomplished. We can now see them as beloved children of God – not better than we are, or less, but made equal by God's love. This allows us to avoid the Pharisee's mistake of looking down upon the tax collector.
The Pharisee looked down on the tax collector, but the tax collector was the one who went away justified – made right with God, not by his own merit, but by God's great love, shown to the tax collector as mercy. God seeks to restore us to him as beloved children, just as he did the tax collector. This is part of who we are just as much as our brokenness.
In my Theology of Pastoral Care class, we talk about identity in terms of who and whose we are. Our identity is grounded in the recognition that we cannot earn our place with God or make ourselves righteous, for we are sinners. Our identity is changed by whose we are – we are God's beloved children.
Our identity is based on who we are by God's grace through Jesus Christ. We do not have to come to God worrying about a checklist but free to be open and honest with God about our fears, our struggles, and our mistakes. God knows who we are – broken children – sinners – beloved children. God is in charge and has chosen to see us as beloved even though we are broken.
If we come to understand our identity and let our identity shape our actions with God, we don't need to worry about whether we have a checklist. We follow Christ's example – we respond to others the way God has treated us. God has offered us mercy, grace, and love beyond what we can imagine. This is what creates our new identity.
Our own actions can never make us right with God, and no check list will make us obedient to God. As Donald Miller states in Blue Like Jazz, "Self discipline will never make us feel righteous or clean; accepting God's love will. The ability to accept God's unconditional grace and ferocious love is all the fuel we need to obey Him in return."
Being obedient means that we follow Jesus not a set of rules. Sometimes this makes following Jesus more demanding and challenging. It requires us to see others as beloved children of God and treat them with mercy, compassion, grace, and love. We don't get to just check off boxes we are challenged to embrace a way of life. When we live this way, honestly from our identity as broken but loved children of God on a journey, then we don't have to judge others so harshly. We can witness not to what we do as Christians but to what God is doing and how God loves us. Living this way may be the best way for us to show others what God is really like and why living this way is so meaningful. We would point to Christ and show the world love beyond what they can imagine, mercy to heal their deepest wounds, and grace to set them free.
This may seem costly at times for living this life often requires self sacrifice. But what we gain is more than the tax collector. We are not just justified with God, but we also continue to be transformed by sanctifying grace we understand whose we are and share who God is.
But we must start with what we learn from this parable – God is in charge and when we come before God we need to know who we are. The painful reality is that we are all sinners who come before God in need, not of praise for what we think we have done, but in need of God's grace and mercy. The tax collector knew who he was – a sinner in need of God's mercy, and that God was in charge, and he went away justified. We may be broken but when we cry out for God's mercy, we are justified, too. Because of Christ, we know that we are offered not only mercy, but also God's grace and God's great love.
Let us pray:
Merciful God, we cry out the simple prayer of the tax collector, "Lord, have mercy." Sometimes we are so busy trying to earn our own way that we forget who we are. Grant that we might have the humility to recognize our own brokenness and trust that you are in charge. May we come to accept our identity as broken and sinful people who are also your beloved children. As we experience your love, mercy, and grace, may our actions show others your love and our humility so that you may be glorified, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
