A couple of weeks ago I was meeting
with our Junior and Senior Wardens, Ellen & Lou respectively.
Before I go too far, let me just say that these are two of the best
people I've had the pleasure of working with as a priest. So
anyway, we are having this meeting and somehow got on the topic of
local drivers and their habits. It was Ellen who pointed out that
newer cars were apparently being built without turn signals. At
which point I said that I thought it was only Mercedes', Lexus',
BMW's, and Lincoln Navigators that don't come with that piece of
equipment.
And with that we were off
discussing/ranting about other drivers.
I don't know how many times I've seen
people run red lights. And not the “getting caught in
no-man's-land where if you try to stop you'll end up in the middle of
the intersection” type, but the full on, obviously blatant,
“I-don't-care” violation.
And speaking of red lights, there are
the people who are lucky they don't lose their front end because
they've stopped well-past the stop line, sticking their nose so far
out someone is liable to take it off. If I were a truck driver, I'd
probably have taken out a baker's dozen by now. Seriously, how much
time are you saving by going out an extra four or five feet? Those
lines are there for a reason, pay attention to them.
I've seen several people who have used
the right-turn only lane to jump in front of everyone going straight.
There are people who either think speed limits don't apply to them
or don't understand that a sign for 40 doesn't mean to go 25 just in
case. Getting back to turn signals, there are people who don't use
them at all, but then there are the people who flip them on AFTER
they've entered a left-turn only lane. Pro tip: if you put your
signal on after you've entered a turn-only lane, you're doing it
wrong.
There are the people who lollygag along
making no effort to get through a green light when the crosswalk
signal is clearly ticking down to zero, forcing those behind to
needlessly sit through a red light. Those same people are often the
ones who, after the light turns green, decide that they must make up
for lost time and speed off well above the posted limit. And there
are the people who, when approaching a green light, actually begin to
slow down or brake, possibly because the light might
turn red.
This is not rocket science, people.
Drive something close to the speed limit. Use your turn signals.
Merge when you're supposed to. Pay attention to which lanes are
turn-only and which ones go straight. I just don't understand why
this is so hard. I mean . . . I mean . . . You know . . .
I thank God I don't drive like all
those other people out there . . .
I am the Pharisee. I sit in my car
with my clerical collar on, my Episcopal shield window decal, and my
bumper sticker that proclaims God loves everyone without exception,
and I judge the world as it speeds by me, cuts me off, or insists
that various road signs don't apply to them. And I'm glad I'm not
like them.
We do this not only with our driving,
but with other things as well. People uphold themselves as
better-than when they notice that some people who claim to be members
of the church are rarely or never in attendance. We do it with our
pledges, sure that we are giving more than some people who look like
they should be giving more. My bishop in Montana talked about his
neighbors who had motorcycles, a boat, an RV, three or four cars, and
a horse trailer, but showed no evidence of attending any church.
And on a larger and much more insidious
scale, there are those churches who loudly proclaim they are so right
that anyone not them is wrong and most likely hell bound.
We compare ourselves to and judge
others, I think, for a very simple reason – to assure ourselves
that we are on the right side. But when we judge others, like the
Pharisee judged the tax collector, we lose our ability to show
empathy. We can become so focused on how good we are that we lose
our recognition of our need for a savior.
In another place Jesus says that those
who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick do;
and that he came to call not the righteous but sinners. The funny
thing about that, though, is that we are all sinners, some of us just
choose to ignore that fact. So whether our sin is theft, adultery,
greed, covetousness, jealousy, self-righteousness, or any other
number of sins, large and small, known and unknown, done and left
undone, we are all sinners in need of a savior.
This was the difference between the
Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee not only lacked
empathy, he lacked self-awareness. He spent so much time praising
the fact that he wasn't like any of those other people, he couldn't
see that he himself was sick.
The tax collector, on the other hand,
knew all too well that he was a sinner, he knew he couldn't measure
up to the righteousness of the Pharisee, but he was willing to
acknowledge how he fell short. Following up on last week, he was
dissatisfied with who he was in the eyes of God. He had a vision
that he could be better. And he took those first steps to
acknowledge his need for mercy.
Instead of constantly telling God and
ourselves how good we are in comparison to those other people, let us
first work at living up to those expectations ourselves that we place
on others. Let us recognize where we have fallen short. Let us
empathize with those who don't live into our expectations because you
have no idea how much stuff they may be dealing with.
I ask forgiveness for my own driving
deficiencies. I thank God I have a savior who understands my faults.
And I thank God that I am not like those other drivers, because it
just may be that what they are dealing with inside their cars is way
more than I am ready to deal with right now.
So when you are passed by a speeding
car and you are tempted to praise your own driving skills and thank
God that you are not like them, just remember this: That other
person may be late to bible study – where are you going?
Amen.
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