This is a sermon I gave while filling in for a vacationing pastor. It is based on Luke 18:9-14.
This past Wednesday I and many of my friends wore pink or purple shirts to recognize National Bullying Prevention Day. Over 160,000 kids stay home from school in a single day because of bullies. Often the bullying goes unreported and is perpetuated by the stigma associated with seeking help. In many cases bullying can lead to suicide. There have already been 5 suicides due to bullying in the Minneapolis-Anoka school district this year, three associated with Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender ridicule. The point of wearing a specific colored shirt was to promote prevention and start conversation so that we can put a stop to bullying of ALL people in ALL places: kids and adults, schools and workplaces, to create a community of acceptance. Why one color was pink is due to two high school seniors in Nova Scotia in 2007 who stood up for a fellow male freshman student who was being bullied on the first day of school for wearing a pink shirt. The boys heard about it, bought a bunch of pink shirts, handed them out and texted their friends to wear pink. The next day, nearly the entire student body was wearing pink. They told their community that bullying was not okay. Likewise there is a viral video movement in the cause of suicide prevention called the “It Gets Better Project”. Countless videos online of famous and not so famous people sharing their stories of feeling left out, being bullied, and the pain of not fitting anyone’s mold concluding with the message that “It Gets Better”. In addition, viewers are asked to take the pledge: Everyone deserves to be respected for who they are. I pledge to spread this message to my friends, family and neighbors. I'll speak up against hate and intolerance whenever I see it, at school and at work. I'll provide hope for lesbian, gay, bi, trans and other bullied teens by letting them know that "It Gets Better."
God loves in spite of who we think we are. Deep down, many of us carry a thought “I’m not good enough.” We think we don’t hit the mark; we are haunted by past failure and somehow guilty. The message of humility first gleaned from today’s text can be misunderstood to mean feeling bad about yourself is spiritual. Maybe the church has stressed human sinfulness so much we’ve missed stressing human godlikeness, leaving some people seeking other spiritual communities to heal their pain.
The Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, said, “Humility is being precisely the person you actually are in the presence of God.” That means focusing on God’s presence and who we are in that presence, not on behaving a certain way to earn heavenly kudos. A way to be in the presence of God is to pray. Prayer brings us closer to God and one another. It is a means of restoring the image of God in us. Prayer is the first wireless network of communication connecting us with God, each other and revealing a significant amount about our relationship with God and others.
Prayer is the one activity the Pharisee and the tax collector share in common this morning. The tax collector prayed at a distance not even looking up, in a posture of grief, asking for mercy. He does so with the possibility of drawing closer to God. The Pharisee prays standing above in a posture of being turned into oneself, or self-focused. His is a prayer of thanksgiving. He is thankful that he is good and not like other people. His righteous life-style is his salvation; he is a spiritual bully making sure” the other” knows he’s better.
Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.” One of the common issues Jesus addressed in his ministry was that of how we build our sense of value, our sense of worth. In the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector, the Pharisee tries to prove his goodness by recounting what a great guy he is. He’s never been to prison, never murdered anyone, and been honest in his business, never cheated on his wife, provided for his kids, gone to church every week, prayed every day. To prove his point he brings up how thankful he is not to be like others who cheat on their wives, rip off the system, drink too much, make easy money. Thank God I am not like that tax collector. I give away a tenth of all I earn and I make it honestly. I contribute to my community.
However good the things the Pharisee can account for himself, he does not go home justified by God. To be justified is to be in right relationship and cleared of all transgressions. It is God’s grace toward the undeserving. Many of us carry dark secrets, addictions, failures, “if onlys”, regrets and none of us are as self sufficient and reputable as we would like others to think. And making others feel bad about themselves won’t help our self-worth either. God loves us in spite of who we think we are.
I must admit I’m a rule-follower and over-achiever, not unlike the Pharisee. Sometimes I get upset with God because I think life should hold less struggles and more rewards for being good. But bad things happen to good people and “bad people” can seem to face fewer trials. So I struggle with Jesus’ words that the tax collector, who is not a likeable fellow, goes justified and the Pharisee does not. Jesus’ audience would have figured his story’s punch-line would have been that both were justified, not that the Pharisee was left out. But this isn’t the first time Jesus told a story like that. Remember the older brother in the story of the Prodigal Son who is upset about being a good son and never having a party thrown for him. Why does the bad brother get justification and I don’t? This is troublesome, for it means that God’s justification is not based on what we do to earn it. We can’t manipulate God to bless us, love us, and work for our benefit. We can’t control God. God is a wild force that justifies in spite of our life-style, prayers, appearance, acceptability, and likeableness. Dr. Fred Craddock comments on this text with:
The Pharisee is not a venomous villain and the publican is not generous Joe the bartender or Goldie the good-hearted hooker. Such portrayals belong in cheap novels. If the Pharisee is pictured as a villain and the tax collector as a hero, then each gets what he deserves, there is no surprise of grace and the parable is robbed. In Jesus’ story, what both receive is “in spite of,” not “because of.”
God loves us in spite of who we think we are. Whatever we think separates us from God is no more. Whatever we have done that makes us think we are unworthy doesn’t count. Whatever it is we think makes us no good is taken care of. Jesus’ death on the cross says to each one of us “you are so valuable, you are somebody, and you are set free from the wounding of your mind to be the wonderful, unique creature that you are.”
And so, I challenge you to take this knowledge of your blessedness and justification in spite of what you think you are to go live life in that knowledge. Living in that knowledge, you cannot stand for bullying of any kind. This is not about approving another’s choices or life experience or even liking the person being bullied. This is about being humane, living out your godlikeness, living out our relationship with God and each other. Jesus might have worn pink. He definitely saw the beautiful child of God that lives in both bully and bullied. Let us each strive to share the good news that we are each worth it and called to treat each other as though we stood in the presence of God 24/7.
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