“THE BLESSINGS OF MEDIOCRITY”

LUKE 18:9-14

9  He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt:

10  "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.

11  The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

12  I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.'

13  But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner!'

14  I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted."

If you’re looking for God’s grace and God’s love, more often than not you’ll find it in your moments of mediocrity.  Now that may sound a little strange because we live in a society that is very success oriented.  We live in a society where the goal is to always be the best.  If you want to be anybody at all you have to climb to the top of that ladder of success.  You have to be #1.

That attitude can be seen in a conversation that the president of a junior college had one evening with the coach of his basketball team.  The conversation took place at a banquet that was held to celebrate a very successful season.  After the president congratulated the coach and praised the team for its accomplishments, the coach asked him a question.  “Would you still like me if we weren’t winning?”  “Absolutely,” the president said.  “Of course I’d still like you.  I sure would miss you though.”

Success.  That’s what it’s all about these days.  Why even our kids have to be successful.  That’s why they’re constantly being shuffled from one activity to another, from one practice to the next.

Be good isn’t enough these days.  You have to be great.

The question though is whether all of that success will lead you closer to God’s grace and God’s love.  The answer to that question can be found by looking at the Pharisee who went up to the Temple to pray.  He was undoubtedly a very successful and important man.  You see, in order to be a Pharisee he had to be a scholar when it came to the commandments.  That expertise meant that he got to call the shots when it came to deciding what people could and couldn’t do.  It should also be pointed out that most Pharisees were better off financially than people in general.  That’s one of the reasons why Jesus often talked about their long flowing robes.  Pharisees also made it a point to tithe which was something the average poor person wasn’t able to do.

So, here you have this very successful and important Pharisee praying in the Temple.  And what does he do?  He starts taking pot shots at this poor guy standing next to him. People today would say he started talking trash.

“God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.”

The Pharisee was like a few of the Yankee fans I’ve met over the years.  He couldn’t just leave well enough alone.  He couldn’t just sit back and enjoy his good fortune and his blessings.  He had to rub his neighbor’s nose in his faults and his failures.  Some Yankee fans are like that.  They’re lousy winners.  They can’t just be happy with their success.  They have to thumb their noses at all the long suffering Red Sox fans around them.

The Pharisee couldn’t leave well enough alone.  He had to throw a few verbal stones at the poor guy standing next to him and it makes you wonder why.  Is that what God’s grace and God’s love is all about?  So, why did he do it?  Could it be that deep down the very successful and important Pharisee wasn’t all that happy?

It isn’t hard to see how that could have happened.  You see it happens to people all the time. Think about it.  You push yourself to climb to the top of the ladder of success.  You push yourself to get ahead.  You push yourself to be the best.  No matter what you do though it isn’t good enough.  So, what do you do?  You push yourself a little harder and the stress gets worse and worse.  Eventually, you push yourself so hard you have no choice but to fail.  When that happens you start criticizing yourself.  Not only that but sometimes you start criticizing the people around you because in a strange way it makes you feel a little better about yourself.  The problem though is that the people around you eventually become resentful of your criticism and your competitiveness.  So, they start avoiding you and you end up becoming more and more lonely.  Before you know it the push to be successful, the push to get ahead, the push to be #1 ends up becoming a demon in disguise.

You become a lot like the woman Dr. Norman Vincent Peale met while riding on a train one day.  When the time came to eat the waiter seated Dr. Peale at a table with a couple he didn’t know.  As Peale and the husband were talking the man’s wife interrupted them. “This grapefruit is so bitter it isn’t fit to eat,” she said.  A few minutes later the wife interrupted them again.  “There’s a terrible draft in here,” she said.  Before they knew it she was at it again complaining about something else.  At that point the husband turned to Dr. Peale and said, “You mustn’t let my wife disturb you. She really is a very fine person.  In fact she’s very clever.  She’s actually a manufacturer.”  That surprised Dr. Peale.  “And what does she manufacture?” he asked.  “Oh,” the husband said with a bit of a smile.  “She manufactures her own unhappiness.”

I think it’s safe to say that the Pharisee in the parable wasn’t all that happy.  He was successful and important, but he wasn’t happy.  I think it’s safe to say that a lot of people today aren’t all that happy.  They may be successful and important, but they’re not all that happy.  That just goes to show you that you won’t always find God’s grace and God’s love at the top of the ladder of success.  You won’t find it in the push to be better than everyone else on the tennis court.  You won’t find it in that elusive 4.0 GPA.

I’m convinced that more often than not the place you’ll find God’s grace and God’s love is in your moments of mediocrity.  That’s where the tax collector found it.  He found it when he went to the Temple and basically said, “You know what Lord?  I realize that I’m really nobody special.  I’m not the richest guy in town.  I’m also not the smartest guy in town.  In fact, I know that I’ve made some really bad mistakes in my life…mistakes that have hurt people.  So, please forgive me.”

Two men went up to the Temple that day to pray.  A Pharisee and a tax collector.  After everything was said and done, Jesus made it very clear which of those two men went down to his house that day justified.  It wasn’t the successful and important Pharisee.  It was the stumbling and bumbling tax collector.

More often than not you will find God’s grace and God’s love in your moments of mediocrity.  You’ll find it when you accept the fact that you don’t have the best or the brightest.  You’ll find it when you accept the fact that you don’t have the have the finest things in your house or be first in everything you do. 

If you’re still not sure about that consider the grace and the love that a young 15 year old boy found when life wasn’t going very well for him.  Douglas Mauer of Creve Coeur, Missouri had a pretty ordinary life until he was diagnosed with leukemia.  His doctors were honest with him.  They told him that he would have to undergo chemotherapy and that the side effects would be very unpleasant.  They told him that he would go bald and that he would experience a lot of painful bloating.  Upon hearing all of that Douglas went into a deep depression.  One day an aunt decided to send him some flowers.  Now ordinarily a 15 year old boy isn’t going to get all that excited about receiving a bouquet of flowers.  This bouquet though was a little different.  You see when the aunt placed the order she told the woman at the flower shop that the bouquet was for her teenage nephew who had leukemia. Well, when the flowers arrived at the hospital Douglas read the card from his aunt without much emotion.  He then noticed a second card.  It was that card that made his face light up and brought forth an exuberant, “Oh wow!”  That second card was from the woman at the flower shop and this is what she wrote, “Douglas – I took your order.  I work at Brix Florist.  I had leukemia when I was seven years old.  I’m 22 years old no.  Good luck.  My heart goes out to you.  Sincerely, Laura Bradley.”

Douglas Maurer was in a hospital that was filled with incredibly expensive and sophisticated medical equipment.  He was being cared for by doctors and nurses with all kinds of degrees from big universities.  The best medicine he received though came from a young woman who was making $170 a week at a flower shop.  Most people wouldn’t consider her very successful.  Most people wouldn’t consider her very important.  It was through her though that God’s grace and God’s love found its way to that 15 year old boy.

More often than not you’re going to find God’s grace and God’s love in your moments of mediocrity.  So, you don’t have to play all the games that go with climbing to the top of the ladder of success.  You see, as far as God is concerned, there really isn’t any shame in being somewhere in the middle of the pack. Amen

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

October 10, 2004