Reflection on Luke 18:9-14

Here we see a righteous man praying to God in thanksgiving for the goodness of his life.  This righteous man causes my mind to wander, and makes me think of a distinguished pastor who preached to a congregation of around 500 attendees. 

The pastor had wisdom filled grey hair that was slicked perfectly back.  He preached with an authoritative fire in his voice.  Most importantly, he lived a distinguished life outside of the Sunday morning worship service that was consistent with the character that he displayed on Sunday morning. 

On the golf course he spoke of prayer and in the clubhouse he raised tantalizing biblical insights.  He gave generously as he passed by a poor woman on the street.  He loved his wife and was proud of his equally outstanding children and grandchildren. 

The guy was above reproach.  The guy could have run for public office with no problem.  Not only did he have no skeletons in his closet; the guy never bought a closet in the first place!  He did not need to hide anything.  The guy was righteous in every sense of the word that I could see. 

“Righteousness,” by the way, has to do with following God’s law.  Being righteous literally means that you follow God’s law.  So, as a righteous man, this pastor never committed adultery, never murdered, always spoke well of others, took care of his aging parents, you know…his life was as remarkable as his distinguished, slicked back hair.

I looked up to this righteous man.  He was the model of what I should become, not only as a pastor, but also as a Christian man.  But, the guy was so above reproach that he was actually a little hard for me to relate to. 

This was not his problem by the way, it was mine.  I was not remarkably distinguished.  I was not above reproach.  I had a tendency to be self-centered…probably still do.  I felt ashamed when I forgot others because I could become so easily become wrapped up in my own life.  I did not dress as impeccably as he.  And I, quite frankly, did at times slip up and speak ill of others.  I never had the foresight to have money in my pocket to give to any homeless people.  And, on top of it all…I gotta tell ya, the slicked back hair never worked for me!  It just always looked like I accidentally rubbed bacon grease through my hair before washing my hands after breakfast.

Normally, when we read the gospel story of the righteous Pharisee and the tax collector, we find the moral of the story to be: do not be a stuck up liar like the Pharisee, rather be humble like the tax collector.  But, if you read your bible carefully, you will see no indication that the Pharisee was lying about any of it.  Nor, does it say that he was stuck up.  But, what it does indicate is that he was righteous when compared to others.

Like the pastor I looked up to, I fully believe that this Pharisee was “righteous.”  I fully believe that he followed God’s law close.  I fully believe the guy when he prays, “I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” 

According to the heavenly laws of right and wrong…this guy is in the right.  This is the guy that you want your daughters to date.  This is the guy who you want to have in charge of keeping the golf score card.  This is the guy who you want leading a 500 person institution of faith.   This guy is indeed “righteous.”

“Congratulations sir, you are a man of impeccable self-control and you obviously read your bible regularly.”  But, the righteous man was not the one in the temple that day who walked away “justified” by God. 

Paul reminds us in Romans 5:1-2 that we are “justified by faith.”  It is because we are justified, and not because we are righteous, that “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.”

Justified: it means to be set straight, like the next board in a line of floorboards.  It means to create a straight edge.  It means to be set straight…set in the right direction by God and not by our own hands or our own efforts.  Justification is being made right because Jesus wanted desperately to make us right through the redemption of his cross in which our sins have been cast away and we are free to be the people of God.

We come to church to worship the Lord, not because in church we somehow find a way to be perfectly “righteous” people, but precisely because we cannot find the way.  We need to be “justified” or “set straight” by Jesus.  We absolutely need the love and salvation of Jesus Christ.

This is what some first time visitors to churches misunderstand when they walk in the doors, look around, and choose to never return.  When I have the chance to talk to visitors who chose not return to church, the number one reason that I get for their failure to return is not that the worship is terrible, but rather that they cannot stand the hypocrisy. 

In church, they see a bunch of people who claim to be good and who look good in church, but in the outside world swear, lie, cheat, and show hate.  In other words, they do not return to church because they fail to see “righteous” people.

As I said before, this is a complete misunderstanding of Christianity.  We do not gather together so that we can be good, righteous people; we gather together because we are not.  We are a gathering of the unrighteousness who seek the forgiveness and salvation of Jesus Christ.

Do not get me wrong, I have nothing against being a good, righteous people.  Did you read that clearly?  Pastor Jira finds nothing wrong with people being good.  Like everyone else, I too want all of my children to marry someone who is well dressed and righteous.

I do not want them to bring home a pasty, vampire boyfriend as a family friend once did.  This guy was a price of work.  The guy had that unwashed shimmer to his skin, and had long, bacon greased hair knotted into long disgusting strands.  He went out his van every evening to sleep because in his van he had his vampire’s casket, in which he slept.  Yeah, you heard me right, he slept in a casket!  You cannot make this stuff up!  No one minded that he left the house to sleep in the van. 

He once told us that sleeping in the casket limited his oxygen supply so that he could sleep better.  We fully believed that it limited his oxygen supply. 

There is no way in the world I would let my girls date a pasty, vampire guy.  Give me a stuck up, righteous guy any day.

There, I did it again!  The righteous pastor with the slicked back hair would have never told that story.  I just spoke ill of someone again!  I already told you...I am not righteous.

But, the truth of the matter is, that if that pasty, vampire guy went to church and beat his chest over his diet of bats and drinking innocent children’s blood…I do not know what the guy did!…if he sought mercy, then pasty vampire guy would be the one to walk away to his home justified.

The tax collector is the pasty, vampire guy.  He was the one who sucked poor people dry of money for the sake of the Romans.  He was the one who cheated other people of their well deserved, hard earned funds.  But, do not forget that he was also the one who cried to God for mercy, and thus found God’s mercy.

After-all, Christianity is not about making sure everyone is righteous.  Rather it is about proclaiming that Jesus Christ died in order that the sinner might be justified by faith, through God’s grace.  Christianity is about coming to God, asking for mercy, and trusting in God’s goodness.

The righteous, after-all, do not need God.  They have life all figured out.  They have themselves in which they can trust.  But, the faithful know that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  The faithful know that we are saved by God’s grace.  The faithful need God.  The faithful need forgiveness.  The faithful need God’s mercy.

That does not mean that we forget about righteousness and go about trashing our world so that we might deserve some more of God grace.  Not at all!  Those who are saved from the floodwaters do not decide to just jump right back in.  Rather, the faithful realize that they will always need God, and have always needed God.  They pray for God’s mercy at all times.  And, it is the broken sinner, finding joy in God’s mercy, and continuing to trust in that mercy, that I hope people find in our churches today.

Reflection on Luke 18:1-8

Living in the middle times is hard. 

What I mean by “middle times” is that it is hard to live right in the middle with trouble and injustice on one side and the promise of everything being made right by God on the other end.  It is hard to live where you clearly see the problem and experience the problem, but you have not yet encountered the resolution. 

It is hard to live in that place where the company is drastically cutting your time and wages, but you do not yet know if the hardships right now will mean a stronger future in the end, or if the struggle is just the beginning of something worse.  That is living in the middle times.

It is hard to live in that place where you and your spouse painfully know that things just are not working in your relationship, but you have no idea if the hard work to make things right again will be worth the effort.  That is living in the middle times.

It is hard to live in that place where the toddler rarely if ever uses the toil, and you have no clue if the toddler will become the historic first CEO of a company who still needs his Dad to change his diaper.  It could go either way.  That is the struggle of living in the middle times.

What do you do when you live in the boxing ring, and your opponent is ever present, waiting for the chance to lunge at you at any moment?  What do you do when you have been given the promise that the match will end in your favor, but the match seems to be unending and the stress of the glare from the eyes on the other side of the ring continues to intimidate?

Most certainly, though life can be a struggle at times, Jesus does not want you to lose heart.  Jesus desires that your faith be persistent. 

Jesus told of a vulnerable widow who was in one of these in between times herself.  She had not been given any relief from an injustice that had befallen her, and, being a widow in the ancient world, she had no way of resolving the issue herself. 

That being the case, she ran to the area’s unjust, lazy, and apathetic judge.  The judge was obviously just there for his paycheck, but the woman kept coming and coming and coming, like a boxer in the ring who is not really all that powerful, but seeks to win through multiple punches that deliver the equivalent of a thousand paper cuts.  Though the widow had little reason to believe so, the woman had faith that the judge would eventually hear and do something.  The woman had faith that things would eventually turn out right in the end. 

If the unjust, lazy, apathetic judge eventually decides to give the widow justice in order to avert a black eye in the boxing ring, will not God, who actually loves and cares, do so much more for us? 

God has not forgotten the painful struggle of you or your neighbor.  God has not forsaken those who are called children of God.  God has not ignored the cries of the hungry, the tortured, the homeless, the underemployed, the sick, or any of God’s children who pray over and over again.  The truth is that the end of the boxing match has already been decided by God.  But, until the resolution comes about, as Habakkuk says in 2:4, “the righteous shall live by faith.”  So, Jesus encourages us to continue praying and having faith until God grants some resolution.

Jesus asks if there he will find faith when he comes to deliver that promise of justice and resolution.  Biblically, this faith is not just a belief in Jesus as Lord and Savior (though that is part of it), but is also a way of life that trusts Jesus in the middle of the storm. 

Faith, in this sense, is a way of life that is like a high, elevated island, in the middle of a hurricane.   It can be beat by the winds but is impervious to the suffocation of the waves.  It is like an island of safety and righteousness in a storm of chaotic waves and destruction.  It is an island of God where the life of following God, respecting neighbor and trusting in God’s goodness and power, is preserved high even while being surrounded by dangerous storm ridden waves of injustice.

It is just like your parents always taught you: just because your friend jumps off a bridge does not mean that you should jump off of a bridge.  And, Jesus is indicating is a similar vein; just because the world is falling apart around you, does not mean that you should fall apart. 

Jesus has created you to be an island of safety in a world of storms.  Jesus has made you an island of God in a world of judges who could care less.  You are a child of God who cares about loving God and loving neighbor, even when others could care less about that love.  You are a child of God who believes that love will win in the end because that is what you see on the cross and in the empty tomb.  You are a child of God who does not know the details on how it all will end, but you just know the promise that the end will be with God, the one who redeems us all.

So, continue to pray always.  Pray obnoxiously.  Pray constantly.  But do not pray constantly because you think somehow that God somehow needs to hear your prayers over and over again.  Rather, pray constantly because that is what followers of Jesus Christ do in order to remind themselves that they are always the people of God, even when the world seems to threaten. 

Pray continually, because that is what the followers of Jesus Christ do.  Pray so that you never forget the presence and goodness of the one who is able to walk on the waters of the storm and calm the waves of the chaotic sea: Jesus Christ our Lord.

Reflection on Luke 17:11-19

I think the gratitude of the tenth leper stems from an amazing realization that can be summed up in words that go something like: “You healed me too.”  It was the gift of being included by Jesus that seems to have brought about that saving faith of the tenth leper. 

It is the same sort of gift of inclusion that a lonely teenage girl on of the side of the dance feels when, out of nowhere, someone comes up, takes her hand, and whisks her away toward the dance floor.  “Someone cares enough to dance with me too?” 

It is the same sort of gift of inclusion that the homeless veteran feels when someone cares to sit down with a cup of coffee to converse, listen, and help.  “You would waste your time on me too?” 

The tenth leper, the Samaritan, the enemy, walks away with the others expecting to be cut off from the healing that Jesus has to offer because that is just what happens when you are a hated Samaritan living in a Jewish world.  But, to his surprise, he looks down and notices that Jesus has included him too.  He too has been healed from his leprosy.  He too has been noticed.  He too has been loved.  He too has the chance at a normal life.  He has been healed too.

Jesus is like that you know.  Jesus actually follows his own teachings and loves the enemy as well as those who are not.  Jesus does not distinguish between the deserving and the undeserving before he sets out to heal.  Jesus heals the Samaritan, even though Samaritans are known to worship in the wrong way, in the wrong place, and associate with the wrong people. 

It is as if Jesus would be willing to go to the cross for people like that Samaritan man.  It is as if Jesus loves the world, and not just those who with the right religion.  It is as if Jesus actually cares that people like him be saved.  And, it is that sort of unconventional and unexpected love of Jesus that causes a saving faith to well up inside the formerly leprous Samaritan.  But, that type of faith does not well up in the other nine.

Just to be clear, Jesus loves and heals all of the lepers.  All ten people, sequestered to the edge of the village because of their leprosy, are healed after they shout out for Jesus to show mercy.  None of them had to prove anything to Jesus in order to deserve this healing.  None of them had to demonstrate their incredible faith in order to be touched by the holy. 

I would like to note even further that the other nine lepers listened closely to Jesus’ words and did exactly what Jesus told them to do.  Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests, as required by their religion to prove that they were clean, and they went away and did exactly that.  They did nothing wrong.

The only difference that I can see between the nine and the one is that only the one Samaritan expected that the gift was not for him.  Only the Samaritan had reason to believe that he would be excluded like every other time.  But, when the Samaritan looked down and saw that he was healed too, he could not help but come back with a heart of gratitude and praise for what Jesus had done.

Now, you cannot manufacture this type of gratitude.  It is like forcing your kids to sit down and write thank you notes for their Christmas gifts.  It is the right thing to do, but the actual sense of gratitude might be somewhat lacking as you force them with pre-scripted words of appreciation. 

The difficulty of showing gratitude does not stop with children though.  I have heard many Christians express how they know they need to be more grateful, but someow fall short. 

They have surely read, as I have, all the studies that show how much better the mental health of people is who show gratitude.  Gratitude makes our brains healthier.  It decreases pain levels.  It allows for better sleep.  It relieves stress.  It reduces anxiety and depression without medication.  And, gratitude can even increase your levels of energy.  But, even with all the scientific evidence of effectiveness and the encouragement from the scriptures, people still tell me that they struggle with making it happen. 

How do you make yourself be grateful?  You cannot just make yourself feel something that you do not feel; can you?

In order to get at that question, I want to point out one more thing that I noticed about the Samaritan that I saw lacking in the other nine.  Maybe you saw it also.  He was the only one who looked down and saw that he was healed.  This is such a small detail, but it is huge.  The other nine lepers walk off, because they were told to, but they walk off without noticing that they were healed.  It is only the Samaritan who looks and notices what God has done.

Here is the thing.  God is at work and doing things in our lives all the time.  There are a multitude of things that you could notice throughout any single day that God is doing.  There are a multitude of things that could cause you to turn back and praise God. 

Those who suffer from acute asthma can tell you how grateful they are for the simple gift of breath.  But, it is only those with acute asthma who look and notice. 

Those who have lost legs and arms can tell you how grateful they are to have prostheses that restore their lives back to something that looks like normal.  But, it is only those who have lost limbs who look and notice what a gift they are. 

Having your eyes opened to look and see is a gift from Jesus in and of itself, because the faith that gratitude creates comes from the act of stopping, looking, and seeing all that God has done.

In worship we sometimes get to see a young child accepted as a child of God through Holy Baptism.  It is a gift from a loving God that draws the child into a holy family.  Note, that like the lepers, nothing had to be done by the child in order to be given this beautiful gift.  It is a gift after-all.  But, we do pray that throughout the years parents, sponsors, and the church itself will be able to help the children to stop, look, and see the grace of God that has been given.

We help others stop and notice because Jesus stops and notices.  Jesus sees you also.  Jesus loves you also.  Even if…even if you are not the one who is usually included with everyone else, Jesus sees you and gives you healing too. 

May you see the grace that Jesus pours out on you even today.  And when you see, may you hear Jesus’ words:  "Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well."