William H. Willimon - "The Good" (October 29, 1989)
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| I | 0:17 | |
| confess | 0:18 | |
| that I hold my breath when | 0:18 | |
| I check out | 0:24 | |
| what the assigned Scripture is on a coming | 0:25 | |
| Sunday from the ccumenical lectionary, particularly | 0:31 | |
| when I'm preparing for parents' weekend. Because, look, | 0:35 | |
| I- I realize that | 0:40 | |
| your high tuition pays my salary, and | 0:42 | |
| so naturally I want to make a good impression on visiting parents and, by | 0:46 | |
| the way, let me take this opportunity to thank all of | 0:51 | |
| your parents for your tuitions | 0:56 | |
| payments. Because I know that without you, not | 0:59 | |
| only your Duke daughter or son but this Methodist preacher would probably not | 1:03 | |
| be here. At any rate, I want to look good for visiting parents and | 1:08 | |
| to convince you | 1:13 | |
| that the spiritual care of your son | 1:14 | |
| or daughter is in good hands and I believe in making a good impression | 1:18 | |
| on | 1:23 | |
| visitors. And yet I also believe in preaching from the Bible and | 1:24 | |
| therein lies my Twenty-fourth Sunday | 1:30 | |
| after Pentecost Parents'-Weekend dilemma. | 1:35 | |
| Because today's Gospel is not a parentally approved text - | 1:40 | |
| Jesus' story of the Pharisee and the Publican. Let | 1:46 | |
| me read it to you in English. "He | 1:50 | |
| also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that | 1:54 | |
| they were | 1:58 | |
| righteous and they despised others. 'Two men went up to the | 1:59 | |
| temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. | 2:04 | |
| The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself. 'God. | 2:09 | |
| I think we that I am not like other people - extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or | 2:14 | |
| even this | 2:19 | |
| tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes | 2:24 | |
| of all that I get.' | 2:28 | |
| But the tax collector, standing far off, would not | 2:31 | |
| even lift up his eyes to heaven. | 2:36 | |
| He beat on his breasts saying, 'God, be merciful to | 2:39 | |
| me a sinner.' 'I tell you | 2:43 | |
| this man went down to his house justified, rather than the | 2:47 | |
| other. For every one who exults himself will | 2:52 | |
| be humbled, but he humbles | 2:56 | |
| himself will be exalted." | 2:59 | |
| Now | 3:06 | |
| to get into this story, first, let's get out of the way any | 3:07 | |
| notion | 3:12 | |
| that this Pharisee and Publican story of Jesus is | 3:14 | |
| a story about the virtue of humility. As | 3:19 | |
| Robert Capon says, it's not a parable about | 3:23 | |
| the virtue of humility. Rather it is a parable | 3:28 | |
| about religious futility. | 3:32 | |
| It is not a story about how we are to adapt a humble religious stance, as | 3:35 | |
| opposed to a proud one, but rather it is an exhortation to let go of | 3:41 | |
| all religious posturing. | 3:47 | |
| And | 3:51 | |
| so, to get into this story, I want you to give all the credit that you possibly | 3:51 | |
| can to this Pharisee. Now I know the Pharisees get a bad press in | 3:56 | |
| the Gospels, | 4:01 | |
| but I want to, you to just put out of your mind this morning any | 4:02 | |
| unattractive things you have ever heard about Pharisees because | 4:08 | |
| Jesus points out that here we have a good Pharisee, | 4:12 | |
| a really good man. | 4:16 | |
| Here is a man who never cheated on his church or | 4:19 | |
| his wife, he never raised his voice to his kids, he's never sold timesharing | 4:23 | |
| condominiums in Charlotte, he did his time as president on | 4:29 | |
| the PTA without grumbling, he does work with Habitat for Humanity on | 4:34 | |
| the weekends, and even though he won the Congressional Medal | 4:38 | |
| of Honor in the big war, he told President Bush to ease up on aid to | 4:41 | |
| the Contras - here is a good man, not | 4:46 | |
| like that tax collector. This | 4:54 | |
| tax collector | 4:58 | |
| who has collaborated with the Roman occupation forces to oppress his very | 4:59 | |
| own people. | 5:04 | |
| How do you think he, | 5:07 | |
| he bought that stretch limo? | 5:09 | |
| And why he's able to spend winters in | 5:11 | |
| Palm Beach and summers in | 5:15 | |
| Newport? Why he only drinks the best Scotch? Bought | 5:18 | |
| with | 5:21 | |
| money that he has squeezed out of the meager earnings of widows and orphans. | 5:22 | |
| The publican, the tax collector, is a | 5:28 | |
| bad man. Not | 5:33 | |
| only is this Pharisee | 5:37 | |
| good, but the really attractive thing about him is that he thanks God | 5:40 | |
| for his goodness. | 5:44 | |
| He refuses to take any personal credit for his high moral tone as | 5:46 | |
| if this were somehow his personal achievement. | 5:51 | |
| Earlier that week, when he was tutoring some inner city kids in math as he does every week, he | 5:54 | |
| slipped up and said something like "Boys, I'm glad to say that I have never in | 5:59 | |
| my whole life stolen anything from anybody." | 6:04 | |
| Well, on the way home, he got to thinking bad about that remark as if it somehow implied | 6:07 | |
| that his goodness were of his own creation. And so he's at the chapel this morning | 6:12 | |
| to | 6:17 | |
| make clear to God | 6:18 | |
| that if he is good, it is because God has made him that way. "God, | 6:21 | |
| I thank thee. | 6:27 | |
| God I thank thee that, that I'm not like other people." Here is a good | 6:30 | |
| prayer from a very good man. | 6:36 | |
| And what does Jesus tell you about this good - good - good, very | 6:40 | |
| good man. | 6:45 | |
| He tells you that he was worse off when he came to | 6:48 | |
| church than that sleazy good-for-nothing tax | 6:54 | |
| collector who just waltzes in to the chapel, and he doesn't sing the hymns because he doesn't | 6:58 | |
| know the words. | 7:02 | |
| And when it comes time to prayer he can only get out a few halting, mumbling phrases "God," | 7:04 | |
| or "I mean, like God, uh, uh, | 7:10 | |
| be merciful, uh, like to me, a | 7:15 | |
| sinner. Amen." | 7:18 | |
| And Jesus tells you that this sleazy tax collector, staring down at the tips of his | 7:23 | |
| eelskins, and mumbling, | 7:28 | |
| was justified by | 7:32 | |
| God, but not our Citizen of the Year | 7:36 | |
| Pharisee. | 7:40 | |
| I'm sorry that your mother had to hear this, because I know full well that she | 7:43 | |
| has told you otherwise. | 7:48 | |
| But here it is in the Bible. Just because | 7:52 | |
| you happen to be good at being good or | 7:57 | |
| good at religion, | 8:02 | |
| even if you were a good little girl or | 8:04 | |
| boy, that when it comes down to your basic relationship | 8:07 | |
| with | 8:11 | |
| God, all that is really quite irrelevant, even | 8:12 | |
| sometimes, surprise, detrimental. As far | 8:16 | |
| as God is | 8:21 | |
| concerned, both the Pharisee and the Publican | 8:22 | |
| are losers. | 8:28 | |
| But we say, wait a minute, isn't Jesus at least trying to make a little | 8:31 | |
| distinction between these two people. Isn't | 8:36 | |
| this proud Pharisee, okay, we know we're all sinners, but isn't this | 8:40 | |
| proud Pharisee, somehow, a little bigger sinner than this | 8:44 | |
| humble Publican? | 8:50 | |
| You see, you're making the same mistake that the Pharisee made, assuming | 8:53 | |
| that there is | 8:59 | |
| something within the behavior of this tax | 9:01 | |
| collector, maybe his humility or his penitence, that | 9:06 | |
| somehow weasels him in on God's good | 9:11 | |
| graces, it somehow earns him God's | 9:17 | |
| love. But you can forget it, | 9:21 | |
| because, look, we're talking God here - pure love, complete truth, utter honesty, pure | 9:23 | |
| righteousness - God. We're not talking sorority rush, we're | 9:30 | |
| talking eternal life here and no human goodness, even the, even | 9:35 | |
| of the very good Pharisee variety | 9:40 | |
| is good | 9:45 | |
| enough for God's | 9:46 | |
| goodness. | 9:49 | |
| So here we come Sunday morning, trudging up to God, like at Pharisee, dragging | 9:51 | |
| along behind us in our Sunday school attendance pins and our confirmation certificate and | 9:58 | |
| our record of giving to the United Way, only | 10:03 | |
| to find out that God really | 10:05 | |
| isn't impressed with all that stuff. " | 10:07 | |
| Cool it," says God. Look, save all that baggage for | 10:11 | |
| your application to law school. | 10:14 | |
| We're talking justification | 10:18 | |
| here. We're, we're talking the right to stand face to face, toe-to-toe | 10:21 | |
| with God almighty, not nomination to Alpha Phi | 10:24 | |
| Omega. The Pharisee is | 10:28 | |
| condemned because he's trying to slip through that narrow needle's eye | 10:35 | |
| that Jesus spoke of. | 10:37 | |
| Slipping | 10:41 | |
| in the needle's eye into God's kingdom while still clutching, clutching all | 10:44 | |
| that works and righteousness baggage. | 10:44 | |
| Whereas the tax collector gets welcomed because he's | 10:50 | |
| not holding on to anything. He's got nothing to hold onto, | 10:54 | |
| his hands are empty. He's got nothing, | 10:59 | |
| and what is more, he knows he's got nothing. | 11:04 | |
| He is a complete | 11:09 | |
| moral, social, religious loser, a dead | 11:12 | |
| duck, so far as his relationship to God is concerned. | 11:14 | |
| But fortunately, we know from a lot of other stories, here is a savior who | 11:19 | |
| just loves to raise the dead and just lives to | 11:24 | |
| seek and to save the lost and likes nothing better than to party | 11:29 | |
| with sinners. | 11:33 | |
| Now, | 11:38 | |
| let's be honest here. At this point, you may be thinking to yourself, what | 11:43 | |
| a fool this Pharise is for thinking that somehow he can get | 11:43 | |
| in with good with God through his good works. | 11:48 | |
| But | 11:53 | |
| don't be so quick to judge. Even now, I would bet you that | 11:59 | |
| even now, in the back of our minds we are anxiously rearranging ourselves in | 11:59 | |
| ways that are shockingly similar to that Pharisee. | 12:04 | |
| Come on now, isn't somebody out there thinking God, I thank | 12:10 | |
| thee that, well I'm not the best person in the world, I'm | 12:14 | |
| certainly better than that self-righteous bible-beating, priggish, literalist | 12:19 | |
| religious fanatic Pharisee. | 12:24 | |
| I don't make a big show out of my religion! | 12:32 | |
| You | 12:34 | |
| see, see? It's just, it's right back down the ole works-righteousnesss path we go. | 12:38 | |
| This time we're carrying different baggage, but we're still carrying | 12:39 | |
| baggage. And if you don't believe me, Robert | 12:45 | |
| Capon suggested we try this little experiment. Try this. | 12:50 | |
| Let's say that Jesus' parable does not end with just the two people going | 12:56 | |
| back home after Sunday morning justified. One of them | 13:01 | |
| justified, and one not. Let's say the story goes on. Now, okay, the | 13:06 | |
| the tax collector has gone back home and he's made right with God and, okay, the | 13:10 | |
| fellow's been forgiven. He's been accepted by loving infinitely | 13:16 | |
| forgiving and gracious God. Okay, now let's say | 13:22 | |
| it's next Friday night, and you're on your way with a family and you're | 13:27 | |
| driving through a seedy section | 13:32 | |
| of town and you happen to see coming out of the Kit Kat Club, peroxided | 13:37 | |
| blonde on each arm, ten dollar cigar in his mouth, getting into | 13:38 | |
| his pale pink limo. | 13:44 | |
| Now | 13:48 | |
| do you find this a little shocking, after all that grace and forgiveness that | 13:53 | |
| was given out on Sunday morning by | 13:53 | |
| God? | 13:58 | |
| But let me tell you, your shock at seeing him on Friday night is nothing | 14:01 | |
| compared to the shock you feel on the coming Sunday morning. | 14:03 | |
| Say you've settled into your seat here in the | 14:08 | |
| chapel and, it's, the service has begun and it's the | 14:13 | |
| opening prayer of | 14:16 | |
| confession and you're praying and suddenly you hear someone mumbling over to the | 14:20 | |
| side, it catches your attention and right there, down front, in front | 14:22 | |
| of the cameras, the blondes and the cigar gone but you can still tell, it's him, mumbling | 14:27 | |
| of the cameras, the blondes and the cigar gone but you can still tell, it's him, mumbling | 14:31 | |
| out once again, "God, have mercy on me, a | 14:38 | |
| sinner". And this is too much. | 14:43 | |
| Okay, grace is amazing but, I mean, aren't there limits? | 14:44 | |
| Okay, grace is amazing but, I mean, aren't there limits? | 14:49 | |
| And | 14:56 | |
| And | 15:03 | |
| what about God in all this? | 15:03 | |
| At the end of the service, when the benediction is done and | 15:07 | |
| there is God sending this guy back down to his house, forgiven, made righteous, | 15:10 | |
| there is God sending this guy back down to his house, forgiven, made righteous, | 15:14 | |
| If the tax collector isn't going to change his ways, just a little, can't we expect God to | 15:20 | |
| If the tax collector isn't going to change his ways, just a little, can't we expect God to | 15:23 | |
| ways, just a little? | 15:28 | |
| ways, just a little? | 15:29 | |
| We | 15:35 | |
| gag at the injustice of the story. This little rat is getting | 15:35 | |
| But, | 15:40 | |
| but, what, what do we want? Now, what -what do we | 15:45 | |
| but, what, what do we want? Now, what -what do we | 15:45 | |
| the tax collector should again show up at church, but this time driving a | 15:52 | |
| Toyota and drinking cheaper scotch and giving the difference to Bread for the World? | 15:57 | |
| Toyota and drinking cheaper scotch and giving the difference to Bread for the World? | 16:02 | |
| Do | 16:08 | |
| we really think that if God gagged on that decidedly long list | 16:08 | |
| of good deeds of the Pharisee that God is going to somehow be more | 16:13 | |
| impressed by this short List of this allegedly better tax collector? | 16:18 | |
| No. What | 16:29 | |
| do we | 16:29 | |
| want? | 16:31 | |
| Do we want to mess up Jesus' perfectly outrageous | 16:32 | |
| story by sending the tax collector back to church next week | 16:36 | |
| Yeah, that's what I want! | 16:41 | |
| We | 16:46 | |
| We | 16:50 | |
| spend our lives before the mirror of other people's opinions of | 16:51 | |
| us, hoping that we can order our little lives in such a way, that | 16:55 | |
| somehow our points will measure up in their eyes, that they will total | 17:00 | |
| We just hate to stand naked before the gaze of God. We just hate to come | 17:04 | |
| We just hate to stand naked before the gaze of God. We just hate to come | 17:10 | |
| before God's altar empty handed with | 17:15 | |
| its consequence. | 17:18 | |
| That | 17:24 | |
| God must take us, losers that we | 17:28 | |
| God must take us, losers that we | 17:29 | |
| are, or we're not going to be taken at all. | 17:36 | |
| God's grace is a shock. That's why we | 17:42 | |
| grumble at the party that the old man threw for the returning | 17:48 | |
| prodigal | 17:51 | |
| son. "is this any way to run a | 17:52 | |
| family?" | 17:54 | |
| And we murmured mightily when the Lord of the harvest paid those people who showed up at the | 17:56 | |
| And | 18:01 | |
| And | 18:07 | |
| then later when he went off arm in arm to another tax collector's house, this | 18:08 | |
| stood in the crowd and said, "he's gone to have lunch at the home of a | 18:12 | |
| man who is a sinner!" | 18:15 | |
| man who is a sinner!" | 18:20 | |
| But | 18:24 | |
| who do we expect to have for | 18:24 | |
| Jesus to have lunch | 18:26 | |
| with? Sinners, | 18:30 | |
| be they of the good Pharisee variety or of the bad Publican | 18:33 | |
| variety - | 18:39 | |
| sinners, losers. | 18:43 | |
| We just hate to see ourselves as losers who need | 18:47 | |
| God to love us, to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. | 18:52 | |
| Now my earlier point was that some of you think I have it easy here just cause I only work one | 19:00 | |
| day a week. | 19:05 | |
| But | 19:09 | |
| you think it's easy to preach this parable | 19:09 | |
| here? I mean, parents, let's face it. | 19:13 | |
| Your kids are here because they're good. | 19:19 | |
| Lots | 19:24 | |
| of other parents have raised Publicans rather | 19:24 | |
| than Pharisees. | 19:29 | |
| A daughter at Duke no less, oh well, good for you! You must've been quite a parent. My, you | 19:32 | |
| must've done a very good | 19:41 | |
| job. | 19:46 | |
| And let's face it, they're good. I know they're good. Oh, there was | 19:46 | |
| a little matter about the late night call from the cops the night of her junior | 19:51 | |
| senior prom, but look, basically she's a | 19:55 | |
| good kid. Very | 19:58 | |
| good, very successful at being good and getting | 20:03 | |
| accepted and being successful. And | 20:07 | |
| yet here is a story that Jesus told about a loser who, | 20:12 | |
| while you were burning the midnight oil and hitting the books and getting into the college of your choice, | 20:19 | |
| cruised down | 20:26 | |
| the boulevard in a souped up Chevrolet and | 20:26 | |
| hid the six-pack in his gym locker and | 20:31 | |
| cheated his way through remedial math. And | 20:34 | |
| Jesus said, "God took him blessed him, justified him." | 20:40 | |
| I told you, it's an embarrassing story. | 20:47 |
