The Pharisee and the Publican

Reading: Luke 18:9-14
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, October 27th 2013

A printable PDF file can be found here

I'd like to start with a story. Visualize a pool hall. Around the tables are the usual Pool Hall sort of crowd trying to get that white ball to hit the other balls and knock them into the pockets. Some kind of country music is coming out the Jukebox. And seated at a corner table is God, dressed up as a normal guy.

Through the door enters the Pharisee. He looks disdainfully around the room at the kind of company God is keeping these days and seeks out the Almighty. He slams some coins down on the table; “Next game, God, it's me and You!” God says nothing, shrugs His shoulders, and beckons to a couple of folk at the nearest Pool table. They give God a nod and a thumbs up, stop their game, and start setting up the balls.

A feisty looking girl with a twinkle in her eye comes over, looks straight at the Pharisee and says, “You call”. She flips a coin into the air. “Heads” says the Pharisee. It lands. It’s Tails. God gets to break. He picks out a cue from the rack on the wall and as He’s rubbing chalk onto the end, a country version of the Hallelujah Chorus starts playing on the Jukebox. ‘Ding ding ding ding a ding, ding ding ding a ding, Arrleylooyarh!’

As a Master of the Game He propels the white towards that triangle of colored balls.  Bang, bang, bang, like some carefully choreographed ballet the balls roll into the pockets. He then slowly and deliberately pots the others, concluding with an awesome ‘around the table ricochet’ that causes the Black Ball to mark the shape of a Cross before leaping into the upper right hand pocket.

The Pharisee is standing ashen faced at the side of the table. He’s glancing around at the others, as if to say, 'That’s not fair, I didn’t get a chance'. God has hung His cue back on the rack and is walking over to the Pharisee. He grabs the cue from out of the Pharisees sweaty, clammy, hands.  “You Fool” says God, “Don’t you realize that when you 'play me' there is only one rule?” God sighs, shakes His head and walks away. “Tell Him people, what's the result whenever people play God?”

As one voice the assorted characters in the Pool Hall shout “You Lose!” before bursting out into laughter and returning to their games and conversations. The Pharisee, spits on the floor, straightens himself up and haughtily exits the way he came in. As he leaves he turns and says, “Next time, next time, You’ll see, I can win this one”. End of story. Let's move to a bible story.

Jesus tells a parable about two men, not in a pool hall, but praying in the temple. One of them, a tax collector, hanging his head and beating his chest from anguished frustration. “God, be merciful to me, a sinner”. The other, a Pharisee, is not praying to God, he’s playing God and He’s about to lose.

He foolishly thinks that the cards are stacked in his favor. He is thankful that he is not like other people in their irreligious ways. He knows the sorts of things that go on, double dealing and swindling in the business world, people treating others unjustly so as to make a profit or win an argument, people sleeping around and not honoring their marriage vows. He’s thankful that his life is free from all of that.

He has a particular contempt for that hopeless tax gatherer over in the shadows. He knew what sort of people tax collectors were. Collaborators with Rome. Cheaters who took the cream of the taxes to line their own pockets. Friends to low-life’s and crime bosses.  No sir, he was way above all that. His cards were on the table for everybody to see.

He fasted twice a week, and he gave a tithe, not just of the things that the law proscribed but a tithe of everything that he received. Such an elevated moral status, so above many of his peers, and a life which manifested such exemplary characteristics, surely, oh surely, it had to count for something in God’s eyes. Surely that’s got to buy you a little slice of God’s good favor, right there.

Well, you’d think so! But Jesus tells us that the Pharisee leaves the temple with a life that is unjustified before God. Unjustified means:- Out of line. Out of shape. Missing the mark. Distorted. Out of focus. Not connected. Separated from. Divorced from. Far from. He had played God and he had lost.

Pharisees come in many shapes and forms. The frightening thing is the one that you see the most of, but recognize the least, is the one that stares back at you from the mirror. As Parables always seem to have a sting in their tales. The moment we start thinking, “Well, thank God I’m not like that Pharisee”, is precisely the moment that we have started to play God.

Thank God we are not like those evangelicals who think that if they don’t have an altar call and nobody gets saved that it hasn’t been a proper worship service. Thank God we’re not like those folk at such and such a church with all that fire and brimstone and ‘Jesus is coming Soon’ attitude hovering around. Thank God we’re not like those colorful folk at the Pentecostal Church who wave their hands around and shout out ‘Hallelujah’ and have services that last for hours on end.

Thank God we’re not like those Methodists and Episcopalians and Lutherans (well actually we are kind like those Methodists and Episcopalians) and Lutherans... but thank God we get to choose our preachers, they’re not imposed on us by some high and mighty Bishop. And thank God we’re not like those Catholics who have to bend the knee to the Pope. Thank God that we are not like any of them!

Ouch.
We just played God and lost.

As with so many of Jesus parables the long-term conclusions are left open. Does the Pharisee ever grow beyond his vanity? Does the Publican ever get his life together and become a little more …well… like the Pharisee in action if not in attitude? And if he does amend his ways a little, how much would it count, in comparison to the heights that the Pharisee had scaled?

All we are told is that right there, on that day, one man went home having obtained reconciliation with God, whilst the other went home thinking that they were God’s main man, but in reality was far from God's love.

So what do we do with this parable?
What is it saying?
That it’s O.K to be the bad guy as long as we are sorry about it?
That we shouldn’t try and live decent lives
because in God’s eyes they don’t count for anything?

Seems to me it’s a parable about the heart. It’s a story that digs down deep to the center of our being and challenges us to consider what we are really all about. It’s a parable about faith and the actions that faith produces. Most of all it’s a parable about Grace. Scandalous Grace. Unmerited, undeserved, uncompromising Grace.

Let’s go back to the Pool Hall. Over in the far corner, back in the shadows, a man,  completely frustrated, throws his cue to the floor. He slumps into a hard wooden chair, holds his head in his hands and his mouth is moving like he’s cussing himself out. He sits alone. Doesn’t seem the sort of guy to make friends easily. God walks over to him. “What’s up?”

“This game, this game, I’ll never get the hang of this stupid game”. Slowly the story spills out. How he was never allowed to go near a Pool Hall when he was younger. How he ran with the wrong sort of crowd and had made bad decisions. How, on a day some years ago, he’s had his chance, but he’d slipped on his first try with the cue and tore into the surface of a perfect new green table top, and how mad people had been and how they didn’t want him around them anymore, because he just didn’t play the game like them.

“I’ll give you a game,” offered God. The man drew back. “You going to do me, like you did that Pharisee?” “Over here,” said God. “Look at the angle on this shot”. The two of them lower themselves down to table height. “You hit that white ball just a tad to the left of center, it’s going to slide down the table, miss the blue and hit that one with the spot on it right into the corner pocket”.

The man shook his head. “You don’t understand. I never hit anything straight. Life never works out like that for people like me. There will be a curve, or an ill wind or somebody will nudge the table or cause some kind of distraction just as I’m going to shoot”. “Trust me on this one” says God and moves around the table pointing to the exact spot where He wants the man to hit the white ball with the cue. “Right there.”

The man picks up his stick from the floor. He puts one hand down on the table, but it’s shaking so bad, you’d think he was recovering from an overdose. His other hand is doing no better holding the cue. A crowd has started to gather around the table. Not that he notices. His heart is pounding so hard he hasn’t even heard that the jukebox has ceased to play.

Hush descends on the room. It’s as tense as the deciding putt at the U.S. Open Golf Championships. Under his breath he’s pleading, “I can’t do this. I don’t do this. I’m not in this game”.  God moves around the table and stands behind him. He reaches over and steadies the man’s hand that rests on the table. He reaches around with his other arm and holds the cue with him, His hand over the mans hand. “Breathe Deep” says God, “1,2,3, she rides..’

Everything goes into slow motion. The cue sliding towards the white ball. The dull click as it makes contact. The curve it makes safely around the Blue before impacting the spotted ball. Slowly the spotted ball is heading towards the corner pocket. But wait! Not enough velocity. It’s going to slow. It’s too far. The ball stops, right on the lip of the pocket. The man is turning his head and mouthing to God, “I told you” but the ball teeters and drops right in.

The crowd around the table goes wild. They’ve got the man up on their shoulders, giving him a few victory laps around the Pool Hall. Someone puts that confounded country music version of the Hallelujah Chorus back on the jukebox. ‘Ding ding ding ding a ding, ding ding ding  a ding, Arrleylooyarh!’ God has a smile on His face that spreads from ear to eternity.

Luke 18, verse 14, as it reads in the Message Bible “Jesus commented, "This tax man, not the other, went home made right with God. If you walk around with your nose in the air, you're going to end up flat on your face, but if you're content to be simply yourself, you will become more than yourself."

Or as it appears in more traditional language,
“For all who exalt themselves will be humbled,
 But all who humble themselves will be exalted”

To God’s name be the Glory.
AMEN.


The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.