Reverend Ref +

YEAR C - PENTECOST 21 - PROPER 25

How's your prayer life? Regular, I hope. As you read through the gospels you will notice that prayer comes up in critical instances. In the desert, away from the stress of the crowds, dealing with evil spirits, in the garden before the arrest. At face value, one might get the impression that we should only pray at critical times in our lives. You'd be wrong. Like last week's gospel urged us, we should pray always, unceasingly.

Today's gospel, however, isn't simply about continual prayer. Today's gospel is about honest prayer. Part of the official definition of prayer, taken from the ODCC -- a really BIG and REALLY expensive dictionary of Christian terms which saved me at least once during the GOE's so it was worth it -- is, " . . . any raising of the heart to God." That's an important choice of words, because the heart is an important part of our emotional conversation. We talk about being heart sick, heart broken, following our heart not our head, and heartfelt conversations. When we talk about our hearts, we talk about real issues and concerns. The heart isn't logical, but it's honest.

One of the things I try to convey in my marriage prep classes -- all of one to date, but it seemed to work -- is the need for open, honest and continual conversation. If something is bothering you, don't bury it, let your spouse know. Don't answer, "Fine," to the question of, "How are you?" if you aren't fine. Good relationships take hard work, and it takes hard work to build good relationships.

Prayer is the key to your relationship with God. Prayer is that open, honest and continual conversation with the one person who offers unlimited love. Therefore, prayer is more than I want, I need, I'm good type of stuff. If that's all your prayers consist of, then it's prayer that is superficial. It's prayer that tries to be logical, not heartfelt. It's prayer that is based in self-trust and leads to looking down on those who aren't like you.

This is the distinction that Jesus is making. He's drawing a line between earnest, heartfelt prayer, prayer that raises the heart to God, and prayer that is shallow, self-serving and only serves to raise the ego. And in drawing that distinction, Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

Jesus could have used any two examples, such as a Jew and a Samaritan, a man and a woman, a doctor and a leper. But what Jesus did was to draw on two polar opposites, characters who would bring a certain imagery into the minds of his audience. Had Jesus told the parable today, he might have used a priest and a porn star.

How do you pray? Alone? Quietly? My guess is that most of us follow Jesus' injunction over in Matthew to pray in secret. It's important to remember, however, that the story today isn't about public or private prayer. Many of us pray in public, just look around before service and take note of how many people pray publicly. This gospel and this parable is about the context of your prayers. My reading of this is that, just like pre-service prayers, the two men were praying quietly, individually. So Jesus is talking about their private thoughts, their private prayers.

The Pharisee prayed from a position of privilege, a position of human understanding. He knew he was better than the other riffraff in the temple that day. He was, afterall, a Pharisee. He had been through the discernment process, battles with the COM, psychological evaluations and years of seminary. He knew the law. And he not only upheld and lived according to the law, but he went above and beyond what was required. Fasting, for instance, was designated for times of penitence. He fasted twice a week, whether he needed it or not. According to the law, tithing was only required of one's agricultural gains; one tenth of what you reaped. But he tithed based on his entire income. Kind of like you tithing on your income plus your 401k return plus your expected life insurance return plus the equity of your home plus tips plus what grandma sends you for Christmas.

He began with good intentions, but slowly moved away from a theology of abundance to doing it because it proved how much better he was than other people. His heartfelt prayers became a self-justification of his goodness and he began to contrast himself with others who didn't measure up. You might even say that he began to contrast himself with his competition in order to score holy points.

Then we have the tax collector. I'm probably not far off the mark when I say that if you told your mother you were going into the porn business you would be on equal footing with this guy. This was not a highly regarded career. They were seen as traitors and thieves. Traitors because they worked for the Roman government. Thieves because they would collect more than required to pad their own income. They were despised by every facet of Jewish society; and here he was, a tax collector, praying in the temple.

What does somone in that position say to God? Well, you don't say, "Look how good I've been." If you are praying from the heart, you examine your life and come to the conclusion that the only thing you can say to God is, "Have mercy on me, a sinner." He recognizes that he hasn't done anything good. He knows that he can't uphold his actions or lifestyle as exemplary. So he cuts right to the chase -- have mercy on me. He knows he needs help. He knows he can't save himself.

I'm reminded of the story in Numbers where poisonous snakes infest the Israelite camp. Once bitten, you died, and there was nothing you could to to stop it. That is, until God told Moses to erect a bronze serpent so that whoever looked at the serpent would live. There was nothing anyone could do to save themselves; but by recognizing God's grace, they could accept the gift of the bronze serpent and God would save them. In recognizing their own shortcomings, they recognized that they needed God.

So, how's your prayer life? Are in you regular conversation with God? Are you raising your heart to God, and not your ego? Whether you are a doctor or farmer, Democrat or Republican, priest or prostitute, none of us are in a position to compare our goodness or rightness against those with whom we deem to be worse than ourselves. All of us need mercy. All of us have been bitten by a serpent and need the healing power of God. All of us need to admit our shortcomings. And we all need to raise our hearts to God on a regular basis.