“THE UNFORTUNATE RACE FOR GRACE”

LUKE 18:9-17

9  To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable:

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

11  The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men--robbers, evildoers, adulterers--or even like this tax collector.

12  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'

13  "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'

14  "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Do you remember the old Smith Barney commercials?  They always ended with actor John Houseman saying the same thing.  Do you remember what he always said?  That’s right.  He always said , “We make money the old fashioned way.  We earn it.”

That’s the way life works, right?

If you want something you have to go out and earn it.

If you want a promotion at work what do you have to do?

You have to prove to your boss that you deserve it more than everyone else.

If you want an A on a research paper what do you have to do?

You have to prove to your teacher that you know what you’re talking about in your paper. 

If you’re a teenager and you want to use the family car what do you have to do?

You have to prove to your parents that you’re responsible enough for them to give you the keys.

That can be a difficult thing for a parent to do.  That’s because when it comes to teenagers parents often pray for the best and prepare for the worst.  That’s why one really frustrated parent was intrigued when he received an unusual chain letter.  The chain letter was for parents with teenage children and it read as follows:

Dear Friend,

This chain letter is meant to bring you some relief and happiness.  Unlike other chain letters, this one isn’t going to ask you for any money.  Instead all you have to do is send a copy of this letter to six other parents who are tired of their teenagers.  Then bundle your teenager up and send him or her to the parent at the top of the list.  In one week, you will receive 16,436 teenagers – and one of them should be perfect.  Be careful though.  One father broke the chain and got his own teenager back.

In the real world if you want something you have to earn it.  That’s not the way it works though in God’s world.  Just look at the Pharisee and the tax collector. Both of them went up to the Temple to pray.  It has been suggested though that the Pharisee wasn’t there to pray that day.  What he was really there to do was give God his resume. The Pharisee raised his hands to the heavens and said, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.”

It’s simple. The Pharisee stood up in the Temple and in a voice that was loud enough for everyone to hear he gave God all the reasons why he deserved to be loved.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I feel sorry for the Pharisee.  It sounds like he had a really high opinion of himself.  It makes you wonder though. Who he was really trying to convince that day in the Temple?  Was he trying to convince God that he was a really great guy?  Absolutely.  Was he trying to convince the tax collector and everyone else that he was a really great guy?  Absolutely.  Is it also possible that he was trying to convince himself that he was a really great guy?  Absolutely!

What happened that day in the Temple is similar to what happened many years ago to the actor Gregory Peck.  One day Gregory Peck was waiting in line with a friend for a table in a really fancy restaurant.  Finally, the friend became impatient and said to him, “Why don’t you go up there and tell them who you are?”  Peck just shook his head and said, “No.  If you have to tell them who you really are then you aren’t.”

The Pharisee had to tell everyone who he was.  The Pharisee also didn’t realize that it can be dangerous when you go through life trying to prove yourself all the time. On the one hand when you succeed it can leave you feeling a little conceited about yourself.  On the other hand when you fail it can leave you feeling a little crummy about yourself. 

Just ask Lillie Baltrip.  Her story appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on June 17, 1988.  Lillie Baltrip was a school bus driver and a very good school bus driver.  In all of her years of driving school busses she’d never had a single accident.  So, the Houston School District decided to recognize her safe driving record by presenting her with a special award.  On the night that Lillie Baltrip was supposed to receive her award she drove a busload of her fellow bus drivers to the banquet.  Unfortunately, on the way to the banquet, Lillie turned a corner too sharply and end up flipping the bus over.  She and sixteen other bus drivers ended up in the emergency ward of a nearby hospital. If that wasn’t bad enough, after the accident the Houston School District changed its mind and decided not to give her the special award after all.

That’s the way things work in the real world.  That’s not the way things work in God’s world.  When it comes to God’s love and grace you don’t earn it.  What you have to do is simply admit that you need it.  That’s why the tax collector didn’t go up to the Temple that day to present his resume.  He went up to the Temple to pray and his prayer was very simple.  “God have mercy on me a sinner.”

The tax collector was humble and honest.  The tax collector was very similar to the little boy who surprised his Sunday School teacher one day when she asked her class a question.  The Sunday School teacher invited the children to put their thinking hats on and then said, “If all the bad children were painted red and all the good children were painted green, which color would you be?”  This one little boy thought about it and then in a very matter of fact voice said, “Why striped of course.”

How would you answer that Sunday School teacher’s question?  Now you can play the game that that the Pharisee played that day.  You could stand up and pretend that you’re all green.  You could also try the pity party approach and pretend that you’re all red. Or you could do what the tax collector did.  You could simply bow your head and say, “I’m sorry but I’m not completely green, but I also know that I’m not completely red.  I’m striped. I’m not perfect.  I do make mistakes.  I say things I shouldn’t say and I do things that I shouldn’t do.  I need to be more patient and less demanding.  I need to be more forgiving and less bitter about things.  God have mercy on me.”

I don’t know about you put there’s something liberating when you stop playing the game that the Pharisee played that day in the Temple. 

Christian author Max Lucado shares a wonderful illustration of what God’s love and grace are like in his book, In The Grip Of Grace.  This is what he wrote, “In my first church, we had more than our share of southern ladies who loved to cook.  I fit in well because I was a single guy who loved to eat.  Our potlucks were major events.  I counted on those potluck dinners for my survival.  While others were planning what to cook, I was studying my kitchen shelves to see what I could offer.  The result was pitiful: one of my better offerings was an unopened sack of chips, another time I took a half-empty jar of peanuts.  Wasn’t much, but no one ever complained.  Those ladies would take my jar of peanuts and set it on the long table with the rest of the food and hand me a plate, ‘Go ahead.  Don’t be bashful.  Fill up your plate.’  And I would!  Mashed potatoes and gravy.  Roast beef.  Fried chicken.  I came like a pauper and ate like a king.  The Apostle Paul would have loved the symbolism of those potlucks.  He would say that Christ does for us precisely what those women did for me.”

When you think about it, is it really love and grace if you have to earn it?

Is it really love and grace if you have to prove that you deserve it?

No it isn’t.

Now, I don’t know if you ever get tired of feeling like you have to prove yourself all the time.  I don’t know if you ever get tired of pushing and pressuring yourself to be the best possible mother or father you can be, the best athlete you can be, the best employee you can possibly be.  If you do just remember the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.  Just remember that it doesn’t work that way here in God’s sanctuary.  Here in God’s sanctuary God doesn’t love you and shower grace upon you because you deserve it.  God loves you and showers grace upon you because you need it.   Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

October 28, 2007