Sermon: Luke 18: 9-14 (Read Isaiah 58 & 1 Sa 16: 1-13)
Stevie F. and I used to run together, train together and spar together at the local boxing club. We were great friends from the age of 8 to 14 in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Stevie came from a poor family but he was kind and generous and never boasted. I admired him and loved Stevie F. He had a “peek-a-boo” style like Floyd Patterson. My mother always took exception to our friendship and was keen for me to befriend James from the other side of town; she thought he and his family were “suitable”. They were “decent” and had money. James was always one place ahead of me in class. Mum never said it but she did not like me having Stevie as a friend. Stevie was black. I grew apart from Stevie and I didn’t see much of him. I learned to be prejudiced. I learned to judge the book by the cover; I was blinded by these attitudes; I was bound by them. I often think of Stevie with a mix of feelings – gratitude and sadness – and sometimes a little shame.
Two very different people - two worshippers have come to the Temple to pray; they are in the same vicinity but the gulf between them is wide - One man: the worst of the worst; a sinner by reputation (tax-collector) and by self-designation hides in the shadows; his head is bowed in penitent prayer, crying for mercy…
One looks the part: best of the best; showy in his devotions; he is greatly admired in his time. He is seen and heard in his praying, and considered admirable and godly…
This man has a problem: he can’t see himself as God sees him. He’s convinced he is right, thinks his heart and his life are right before God. He knows his worship is acceptable to God because of the external rituals he observes which he makes obvious to others. He truly believes in himself. He is better than the guy across the street. He has no intention of crossing the street. He thinks that the laws he keeps (that the tradition he upholds) will make and keep him safe.
He even thanks God he’s not like the man across the street – he is proud of this achievement of his!
One Jewish prayer still to this day goes, “Blessed are you, King of the Universe for not having made me a Gentile, a slave or a woman!”
The two men will have to worship apart: one has contempt for the other; the other has contempt (only) for himself…One’s a Pharisee. And we have made him into a caricature. We, of course, in our individual and corporate lives, are nothing like him…
We are not prejudiced…we don’t direct any preconceived judgments or irrational attitudes against individuals, or groups, or any race! We’re not confident of our own righteousness…The truth, however, is very different…
We all harbour secret, perhaps even blatant, prejudices, and these can run so deep that we are uncomfortable in the presence of those we perceive to be different from us.
Philosopher William James spoke of a natural inclination (in all of us) to keep unaltered as much of our own knowledge, as many of our tried and tested beliefs, as we possibly can. What we do is we learn to ‘patch and tinker more than we renew’.
We don’t like to change. How good we are at pointing out the faults of another. The first man, indeed, doesn’t believe there is a single thing that needs changing in him…
1. PREJUDICE IS LEARNED:
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character…” (Martin Luther King, 1963)
Long before commissions for racial equality or the civil rights movement, Jesus knew about the reality of prejudice. (Mark 7: 21-23) He experienced it himself. He went through the pain of it himself! Nothing good could come from the town where he was raised!
The hatred fuelled by human prejudice sent Jesus Christ, at least in part, to the cross…
It is he (Jesus) who brings us face-to-face with prejudice (our own); it is he who tells us that deep within our own sinful, depraved hearts we learn all-too-well the business of judging others and mis-judging God.
It is painful coming face-to-face with our prejudices - it is painful to realise that we fail often to see others as God sees them.
The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
I don’t believe any of us were born prejudiced, but (like you) I was born in sin and into a very fallen world. I learned the attitudes which were hardened by peers or parents.
I remember those countless times when I judged myself better than others – confident in my own righteousness. I can still catch myself doing it and I don’t like it! The church catches itself doing the same thing!
2. PREJUDICE BLINDS US:
Jesus explained that “the eye is the lamp of the body, so if your eye is clear your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness.”
Our eyes are like windows. Light enters to form an image which our brains transform into thoughts and ideas. This is true not just physically but emotionally & spiritually too: if the eye sees a different skin colour or a different expression of culture that it doesn’t understand or value, an opinion (pre-judgment) is formed – and it impacts the whole person, body, mind and will. How easily, then, our minds blindly base their judgments on a reality that is, at best, dimly seen.
Note from the passage in 1 Samuel that (even) the discerning old prophet gets it wrong when it comes to selecting a new king for God’s people and so the Lord rebukes Samuel and says,
Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
The LORD elected David as king because only HE could see his heart, what he thought, what his intentions and motives really were. The heart is who you are at the innermost level, your soul, who you are when all the fine clothing is stripped away. To those who witnessed the line-up of would-be kings of Israel, David was really the runt of the litter, the one that most others would overlook.
God is not blind. Saul the rejected King looked the part, superficially – a fine specimen from an eminent family but he did not possess the inward fitness – a once humble man became self-serving and unrepentant. That was his heart.
The Lord looked into David’s heart and saw the heart of a shepherd and a king…
25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
We become blind to the genuine spiritual seeker across the street or next door; we become blind to the uncomfortable possibility that we may further from that genuine relationship with God than we would like to think…take the plank out of your own eye!
3. PREJUDICE BINDS US TO THE OLD:
Prejudice is the ugliest side of traditionalism: it closes our minds to the possibility of the unusual; it closes us off from creative and the innovative. The one man gave thanks to God that he wasn’t a slave! Which of these two men do you think was really the slave?
27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness. (Mt 23)
Prejudice prevents us from crossing to the other side of the road. It will ensure that we worship apart from one another. It prevents us from seeing the other and making new relationships. Being bound by prejudice will mean that we are at odds with the will of God, “to love one another” – love that is not based on the goodness of the judgments of men who can see no further than the outside; it doesn’t matter how you appear to people – but how you appear to God.
We listen to the words of Cardinal Mercier: “In order to unite with one another we must love one another. In order to love one another we must know one another. In order to know one another we must go and meet one another. Let us agree to do more than patch or tinker!”
The truth is we cannot justify ourselves. We might compare ourselves to others. We might be better or worse than the next person but none of us is better than God.
Perhaps it is only when we pray, heart-felt and honest - as the reviled tax-collector prayed, “Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner”; perhaps it is then that we really appreciate something of the gift of the love and grace and kindness of God, spoken of by Paul in Romans 3:
20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. 21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith.
That way we might leave aside our hasty judgments of others and see ourselves as God sees us and we leave for home justified before God…
Prayer…
Lord I thank you that You love me
Though I scarce deserve your grace to me…
Lord, forgive me for the despising, discriminating
And destroying I have done to others this week
In word and deed and thought. Help me recall:
In Christ there is no east or west,
In him no south or north,
But one great fellowship of love
Throughout the whole wide earth…
Clear my mind Lord, and use it for your glory.
Wake me up Lord, so that the evil of racism
finds no home within me….Help me recall:
In him shall true hearts everywhere
Their high communion find,
His service is the golden cord
Close-binding humankind…
Keep watch over my heart Lord,
and remove from me any barriers to your grace,
that may oppress and offend my brothers and sisters…Help me recall:
Join hands, united in the faith,
Whate'er your race may be!
Who serves my Father as a son
Is surely kin to me…
Fill my spirit Lord, so that I may give
services of justice and peace…Help me recall:
In Christ now meet both east and west,
In him meet south and north,
All Christ-like souls are one in him,
Throughout the whole wide earth.
And finally, I recall: Lord that you said,
"Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called children of God."
Amen.