two prayers

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time

            Sometimes to get the force of one of Jesus’ parables we have to see how it would look in our own time.  So, what I want you to do is engage in a little fantasy with me.  I want you to imagine that you are on our church’s nominating committee.  You have one slot to fill on the session, and your mind takes you back to last week when you entered the sanctuary.  There was no service going on at the time, but there were two people in the sanctuary who were praying.  You recognized them both.  And right now you are thinking about these two men.

            There’s the first man, Mr. I. M. Good.  Mr. Good is a fine church member.  You think to yourself about all the things he does for the church.  He’s a man of means, and he gives a lot of money to the church.  He’s a tither.  But he not only gives ten percent of his income to the church; he also contributes above and beyond his tithe by giving to special offerings as they come up through the year.  As you think of Mr. Good, you remember how he has served the church all his life.  When he was a young man he taught the junior high Sunday school class.  You think to yourself that anyone who tries to teach junior highs ought to be nominated for sainthood!  As Mr. Good grew older, he took on leadership of the senior high youth group.  Then, as the years progressed, Mr. Good taught one of the adult Sunday school classes.  You were in that class yourself, and you knew him to be a fine teacher with deep theological insight into the scriptures.  Mr. Good, you think to yourself, is a fine, fine man.

            Your mind recalls the other man.  You know who he is.  Although he hasn’t actually joined the church, he’s been around for about a year, attending services about every other month.  You struggle to remember his name.  Then it comes to you:  Trey Tore.  Trey Tore appears to be a respectable person, but it has come out that he is a turncoat.  Not satisfied with his modest income as a shoe salesperson at the department store, Trey Tore somehow has hooked up with the terrorist group al-Qaeda.   Trey Tore goes around to his neighbors and says he’s representing a charity.  He tells people that he is raising money to send physically challenged kids to a special camp in Wisconsin.  He’s got slick brochures with color pictures of happy kids in leg braces riding horses and making crafts.  You remember when he came to your house.  You couldn’t refuse him.  But the feds caught up with him and exposed his con.  None of the money went to help kids at all.  About half of it went to al-Qaeda.  The rest he kept for himself.  It was his commission for a job well done, you see.  You wondered to yourself how someone could work for a group that sought to harm Americans.  You wondered how he could stomach taking money from fellow Americans to support such an enemy and then make a fortune for himself while he was at it.  You remember looking at Trey Tore and feeling like you might hurl your lunch right on the church carpet.

            Suddenly, Mr. I. M. Good began to pray.  You didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but you heard every word he said.  Everything he said to God was true.  He said to God, “I thank you that I’m not like other people:  thieves, adulterers, white-collar criminals, or even like this supporter of terrorists over there.  I tithe.  I pray all the time, as you know, Lord.  I do all kinds of good things in and through the church, as you know, Lord.”  You heard Mr. Good’s prayer.  It was all true.  His prayer said it all.  Mr. Good is a fine man.

            After that, you heard sobbing coming from the back of the church.  You remember that you couldn’t see him at first.  The source of those sobs was not in view.  Then, as you moved around to the back of the sanctuary, you saw a man kneeling on the floor.  That man was Tray Tore.  “How can he even dare to talk to God in this holy place?” you wondered silently.  But there was that little turncoat talking to God here in a church in America, the nation he was willing to betray.  You heard him speak to God.  No!  It was more of a cry.  It was a pleading.  “God,” he cried out, “be merciful to me.  I’m a sinner.  I know I’ve done wrong.  Please forgive me.  I know I don’t deserve your mercy.  You’d be right not giving it to me, I know.  But, Lord, please have mercy on me, for I am a sinner.”  And what Trey Tore said was also true.  Every word of it.  He is a sinner.

            So, which one would of these two men is the more worthy to serve on the session, the good man or the traitor?  Which one is the closer to God?  In our minds there is a scale.  With every good deed Mr. Good has done there is another weight on his side.  On the side of Trey Tore there are no good deeds, no weights to tip the balance in his favor.  Mr. Good is good, and we know it.  He knows it, too.  Trey Tore is a despicable person who has turned against his own country.  Who would you choose to put on the session?  The one you would want on the session is the one who is right with God.  Which one of these two, do you think, is justified in the eyes of God?

            In Jesus’ parable, there is a good man and there is a traitor.  The good man is a holy man, a religious leader.  The traitor is a tax collector who works for the occupying government to make himself rich.  The tax collector is the picture of a contemptible person.  In Jesus’ parable, both men pray, as do the men in our updated version.  They both tell the truth to God.  The holy man is a good man who does many good things.  The tax collector has spent his life in selfish pursuits, at the expense of his own nation and fellow citizens.  The sinner admits that he is a sinner.  I ask the question again:  Which one of these two is justified in the eyes of God?

            Well, you know.  You heard the gospel read a few minutes ago.  The one who leaves church right with God is the traitor.  How can this be?  Certainly not on his merits, he has zero.  He has nothing.  Except one thing.  It is the most important thing.  He is open to God’s grace.  This traitor can do nothing more than plead for mercy, for he is an unmitigated sinner.  In admitting that to God, he has made himself open to grace.  He is willing to accept the unmerited favor of God.  And so, in God’s eyes, he leaves church made right with God.  The good man, on the other hand, is so good that he has forgotten that he also needs God’s grace.  His religion has moved from confessing his sin to God, to bragging to God how good he is.  You see what has happened to him?  He has come to rely on his own goodness to put him in a right relationship with God.  We cannot come close to God in this life or the next by bragging to God how good we are.  Rather, we come close to God and God’s grace when we cry, “Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply to Thy cross I cling; Naked, come to Thee for dress, Helpless, look to Thee for grace; Foul, I to the fountain fly; Wash me, Saviour, or I die.”