May
the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your
sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.
Let
us pray! Gracious God, when we come to
Your temple we enter as sinners and leave as saints. This only occurs because of Your action, not
ours. Break our proud and prideful hearts
and humble us to see and be embraced by You and Your Cross for all of mankind,
including all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel this morning. AMEN.
If
you have ever come to the church office between Sundays during the summer I
usually do not wear a clerical collar.
For one of my professors that would have been a sacrilege, he said he
even would do yard work wearing his collar.
I personally try to be comfortable and try to be approachable by anyone
to the point that I even wear sandals reminiscent of Jesus day and time in
order to beat the heat and be comfortable.
My attire though appearing to be ‘unprofessional’ makes me very
approachable by complete strangers and also has a certain whimsy that is quite
Lutheran. You see most of the shirts I
wear either have Christian sayings from scripture, the Complete Small Catechism
by Martin Luther or something that allows everyone who pays attention to it to consider
our faith in an interesting manner.
While
preaching for a small congregation in Delaware before coming to Kansas, I would
always bring a t-shirt with some Christian or Lutheran saying that would in one
sense give permission for the church to not only show off Lutheranism, but also
introduce matters of faith in an unusual way.
One such shirt I acquired has a phrase on the front that speaks directly
to and for us today from our Gospel.
“I’m proud to be a humble Lutheran!”
In
our Gospel this morning, Jesus tells a parable about two men who come to the
temple to pray. These men are complete
opposites not only in jobs, one is a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. Their demeanor is clearly different, one goes
to the front of the temple, the other hides behind the pillars not wanting to
be seen. And what is said in prayers by
both is plainly polar opposites, the Pharisee is prideful and the tax collector
is repentant.
This
same polar oppositeness is seen in the shirt, “I’m proud to be a humble
Lutheran!” I wear the shirt not only to
illicit a chuckle, because then I know the person who read it gets the irony,
but also to help us understand we Lutherans and Christians are no different
than the men who Jesus tells the story about.
The key difference is not only in our words, but in our understanding
and what cannot and can be seen in how we live out our faith with the people of
God that we meet on a daily basis.
Jesus
parable reveals for us today that we are no different than the Pharisee or tax
collector. Sometimes we naturally and
purposefully gravitate towards pride or repentance, but the reality is as Jesus
clearly says, the tax collector is justified more so than the Pharisee. The tax collector who humbled himself instead
of exalting himself will be justified.
Our
society lives on pride, whether it is in our vehicles, our farms, our yield of
crops or our being seen in a good light by our relatives. We also take pride in our hometown schools
like the Goodland Cowboys and the sports and the position our children play,
how our team or children are doing in sports, our jobs or farms and the yield
we have of corn or wheat or what we have done here in the church. We want recognition and accolades and to be
noticed in the community and among our friends, family and by the church, just
like the Pharisee in the temple.
However, Jesus words sting us, “everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted”.
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