Sermon - The last Sunday after Trinity


An elderly woman had just returned to her home from Church one Sunday morning when she was startled by an burglar.

Caught the man in the act of robbing her home of its valuables he runs towards the door,

"Stop! Acts 2:38!" The woman shouted



(Repent and be baptised, in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven.)

The burglar stopped in his tracks. The woman calmly called the police and explained what she had done.

As the officer cuffed the man to take him in, he asked the burglar, "Why did you just stand there? All the old lady did was yell a scripture to you." "Scripture?" replied the burglar. "She had a cricket bat and a rolling pin”

The Gospel reading this morning is proof that Luke had no sense of comedy timing, and no idea how to inject irony into the scenes of the Bible. He was a Doctor after all; the report today is a little clinical.

“Jesus told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt”

Aaggh, that’s the punchline.

The issue in this part of the Gospel is one of self-righteousness. This was an important issue when Luke wrote. The Pharisees were still a force to contend with, and they had taken control of the Jewish religious tradition amongst the Diaspora as well as in the Jewish homeland.

Luke was almost certainly writing to Christian converts from Judaism with this parable. He would undoubtedly have known the ancient Jewish morning prayer which thanked God for not making him a Gentile, a slave or a woman. He was trying to get them to understand that self-righteousness was a hugely destructive force in the early church.

The story itself has a ring of immediacy about it. This makes it seem as if everyone who may have heard Jesus utter it may well have witnessed this very incident many times as they went to offer their own prayers in the temple. Note that the Pharisee stood off by himself to avoid contamination from anyone who might be in the temple courts in a ritually impure state. The tax collector, on the other hand, afraid perhaps of even daring to enter the sacred precincts, is "standing far off." In fact, this may refer to the fact that tax-collectors were regarded as unfit to enter the temple, and required to stay in the exterior Court of the Gentiles. Yet in Jesus' estimation the sincerity of his prayer far exceeded that of the Pharisee. He responded in repentance to the grace he hoped to find by acknowledging his own unworthiness.

One other detail of the story is significant: We are not told if the tax collector even knew he was forgiven. The word used is "Justified" (a typically strange Pauline word) with which Luke states this man's new relationship with God. (of course he was forgiven!)

Of the two men, he was the only one who had really prayed. For doing that he had been declared righteous, but not because he was good and the Pharisee bad, nor because he felt better for it. Rather he had the humility to do the one thing God requires: he had faced the truth about himself and asked for God's mercy and compassion.

Facing the truth is always a difficult task.

This isn’t all about us as individuals though, it’s also about how WE organize our shared life as a Church.

Being able to look at what WE do in our lives as CHRISTIANS, AND THEN organising our church life to affect those around us is very important!

SO HOW DO WE FACE THE TRUTH AS A CHURCH?

(It was at this stage that I made a coffee, looked out of the window and started to think about how we as a church could do things differently, how we could change…It was quite some time before I realised that it was nonsense – change for the sake of it is the sign of a church that has no idea what it’s doing).

I can tell you that this church is already very, very good at organising our church life to affect those around us. We have groups and clubs, events and talks, societies and services that include members of the community and the church in a seamless way – from cakes to churchmen and life groups to lunches. The Magor Church Centre is the centre of this and we should be really, really pleased!

Now I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t bother doing anymore, I’m just saying that through the hard work and commitment of people in this church we have started things that are really important.

People are starting to ask the question “what ARE they doing in there on a Sunday Morning?” they don’t think that it’s just “Vicar of Dibley, and the Parish Council”.

SO HOW DO WE FACE THE TRUTH AS INDIVIDUALS?

In the Gospel reading, the Pharisee was a good religious man, but did he have faith. He trusted in the Law and the Prophets, but did he trust in GOD. Had he, at some point managed to define GOD, and how RELIGION worked? The TAX-COLLECTOR was a bad man, and he knew it – he was in the temple waiting for the thunderbolt. He had little RELIGION, but he TRUSTED IN GOD and HAD FAITH.

Have you ever sat in church waiting for the thunderbolt? We can all feel that we are not RIGHT with GOD for some reason – and then we can judge ourselves against the PHARISEE and NOT the TAX-COLLECTOR.

Now sometimes people misunderstand this.

Are you the Pharisee or the Tax collector?

If you are the PHARISEE, your FIRST CONCERN will be more worried about remembering how many books there are in the Bible and whether the New International Version is a more faithful translation than the New Revised Standard Version. You will eventually pray to God, but in that ordered way that sounds like a church service, you will expect God to answer in riddles that you need to decode. When you get home, you’ll hate me for preaching this sermon because you thought it was all about you.

If you are the TAX COLLECTOR you’re happy that you are even here this morning because you’ve come to be with GOD and your church family in your own way. Your prayers before the service were thankful about stuff and also concerned with everyday realities – you know that you have to say ‘sorry’ to God, but it’s fine because (as a Christian) the price has now been paid for you, but you still need to ask for forgiveness. Your prayers did not have any real punctuation because they came from the heart. You have not read an article on the doctrine of substitutionary atonement this week, indeed you didn’t have enough time because you were probably worrying about people and life in general and doing your best to help. You trust other people to guide you in religion and theology and trust God to lead you in faith. You don’t care if this sermon isn’t speaking directly to you, because it might be good for someone else. When you get home you will feel as though you have been recharged.

I don’t know if we can be half and half! Tax collector or Pharisee, but isn’t it strange that we can leave church this morning thinking we have to be more like ‘tax collectors’.

I’ve been told that a good sermon should have a good beginning and a good ending, and they should be as close together as possible.

Therefore, this week;

May you leave this place recharged by the Holy Sacrament and the Word of God, May your love for others lead you into a deeper knowledge of God, May your prayers be messy but full of love, and May God speak to you in the words of others, the smile of children and the wonder of creation. In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. AMEN

Trinity 20 - Here comes the judge

Trinity 20! Already

Readings for Sunday

Genesis. (32.22-31)

Second Letter of Paul to Timothy. (3.14 – 4.5)

Luke. (18.1-8) - The one with the woman and the judge

Jesus told his disciples a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, ‘In a cer- tain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.” For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, “Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually com- ing.”’ And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?’

The brief and strange parable for today selects a fascinating case to show the efficacy of prayer and to teach the disciples the need to pray always and not lose heart. Jesus asks them in a critical and pointed question.

“When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?”

Is he speaking to us today? He surely is!

In our text, the widow obtains her objective. She keeps badgering the judge until she gets what she wants without a husband or sons to act for her, she has to be persistent, and make a nuisance of herself, otherwise she won’t be heard. It seems that the judge doesn’t really care about justice, his job is to administer the law, and he wants some peace and quiet - no upsets to his daily routine. So he finally gives in, and does what she wants.

The characters, on the face of it are to remind us to be faithful in prayer, and persistent, even though we want to give up, we will eventually get what we need. It is the final victory of justice over apathy, through faith and prayer.

Luke the Evangelist, who most insists on the place of prayer in the life of Jesus and the disciples recounts this story for us. We are reminded of the words of Jesus ask and it will be given to you everyone who asks receives. This is a statement of faith, the profound conviction that someone is attentive to our needs, and listening to our crying out.

Prayer to God, even in the midst of adversity is the hallmark of our faithfulness it is the cornerstone of our belief. Our faith is never something that is given forever, it needs to be nurtured and encouraged to grow, and this is done by prayer and action. Both are essential, and both are difficult sometimes. Faith is a gift, but it is also a task.

In the modern world, it is easy for us to forget to pray. When we witness the terrible troubles; war and death, poverty and famine, hatred and intolerance, it is easy for us to forget to pray, and feel somehow protected from it by our own worldly cares. It was easy for the judge in the story to forget about justice, until it affected him directly wasn’t it?

So we can see the readings give us a picture of prayer, and the importance regular prayer, asking not just for ourselves and our own concerns but the concerns of the oppressed and suffering children of God throughout the world.

The letter to Timothy tells contains another significant text. Paul writes that scripture shows us the path of a life of faith; it trains us in righteousness. So that we are equipped for every good work.

If faith is a task, it involves a fundamental requirement to proclaim the word, whether the time is favourable or unfavourable.

Paul is writing from prison in Rome to Timothy. The old guard is putting things right, by encouraging the new growth in the Church, handing over before he is finally killed for his faith.

Timothy - who was converted by Paul at Ephesus is being encouraged to remind the community about the good news of Christ. He is expected to persevere and properly guide the teaching and the prayer in the face of those who would like an easy life by cobbling together all kinds of rules and dogmas.

Timothy was having a tough time if it. He was being told to correct, rebuke and encourage not just for a while, but in season and out of season. This is the part of the story when his vocation is becoming an onerous task. There is much work ahead, and he is expected to be the defender of the faith.

In a real sense, we here today are being encouraged to speak out against all that is comfortable - the easy route to faith. We are being entrusted with the plans to the kingdom of God, the kingdom of truth, mercy, peace, love and forgiveness. We are being invited to speak out against injustice and wrong, to defend the oppressed and the destitute. To proclaim KINGDOM values and not WORLDLY values to all we meet, in all we say AND in all we do. That is the task of the CHRISTIAN, that is the task of our faith.

As I wrote this sermon, I remembered a meeting with someone who acted as CHRIST to me,

Even though I get tired, I still want to be the person who does the ‘right thing’. She was saying how this task might be hopeless, because we always appear to be fighting for one thing or another and we meet opposition in the most unlikely places. She was absolutely right to tell me this, even though she too is the sort of person who is always fighting for the right thing too.

It made me even more certain that if there are two types of people in the world, those who work for what’s right, and those who don’t, I would rather be shot down in flames as a ‘doer’ rather than a ‘fence-sitter’, or more accurately, I’ll be shot down anyway because I can’t not do stuff.

It’s all in the parable anyway…..

I know what the conventional wisdom of the parable is, the widow is us and the judge is God, but just for a moment, imagine the widow in the parable is God, uncomfortably reminding us that whatever the cost we must still have JUSTICE on our mind before all else, reminding us of the work yet to do.

GOD, who seeks justice and peace; GOD, whom society has placed in an inferior place; GOD, who is never going to leave us, even though we are not listening; GOD, who is in the right.

AND perhaps we are the JUDGE could be us weighed down by worldly cares, more concerned by an easy life rather than what’s right!

Is it the voice of GOD we hear when we feel that we should do more? Is it the voice of GOD keeping the ‘doers’ doing.

In the week to come, remember that Faith is a gift, but it is also a task, and let us all as ourselves “When the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?”