"Thank God I'm not like _______________"

So a Pharisee and a tax collector walk into a Temple…I know, this sounds like the beginning of a really bad joke. But the reality is this was how one of Jesus’ parables began. You can read the whole parable in Luke 18:9-14.

            But the point seems to be a matter of prayer. In particular, a matter of the position of our hearts when we pray.

            The Pharisee sounded ego-centric and self-sufficient in his prayer. He thanked God that he was not like other people, people who he viewed worse than him, and in any societal or religious ranking they probably were. Then he went on to remind God how good he was, what he did, and how he went above the requirements of the Law in his giving.

            And then there was the tax collector, a notorious-swindler-corrupt tax collector. Granted, he was just doing his job, but his job was part of a corrupt Empirical system that was draining the people and making the rich richer.

His prayer is “God, have mercy on me, a sinner”. That’s it. No list of his accolades. No list of his accomplishments. No reminding God how nice he had been and how naughty the other sinners were. There was no building himself up. In fact, he didn’t even look up. He couldn’t. He looked down at the ground, stood far away from everyone else in the Temple, and beat his chest as he cried out to God.

            He is not comparing himself to others like the Pharisee had done, he simply sees himself before a perfect and holy God, and realizes how far from that standard he is. How far we all are.

            That’s a pretty powerful picture of repentant prayer. I like to think that he quit his job, too. In the 2014 movie, Son of God, this scene was portrayed as Jesus telling the parable and then calling Levi (Matthew) from his tax collector booth and Levi left this lifestyle behind to follow Jesus. I think that’s a neat picture of this parable, but I don’t know if that’s exactly the historical context or not. In fact, in Luke’s gospel the calling of Matthew comes much earlier as recorded. The gospels were never meant to be chronological historical documents, but if any of them had a chronological base I think it would be the ordered and logical account of Luke.

            Here’s my point with all this today: Do you thank God you’re not like other people? This was one of the “21 Questions” of John Wesley (for more info on those questions you can visit our website under the resources tab at www.telforumc.holston.org). You can also watch a video devo for all 21 Questions on our Youtube channel.

            I know we could talk about prayer right now. We could say pray like the tax collector, not like the Pharisee.

But even there we have to be careful. C.S. Lewis wrote,

“Be careful about wanting to just pray like the tax collector, or before long you may be thanking God that you’re not like the Pharisee”.

           

So instead of just looking at this as an example of how to pray (or how not to pray), I think this has more to do with humility. It’s about having a right view of ourselves, a right view of God, and a right view of others.

            So, the question again, is “do you thank God you’re not like other people?”

            Maybe you can think of characteristics of people that you are thankful you are not like…

            Maybe you can think of names of people that you are thankful you are not like…

            Maybe you can think of nationalities, or races, or colors, of people that you are thankful you are not like…

            When we have too high a view of ourselves, or others, or even we have too low of a view of ourselves, or others, we are discrediting the creation of a perfect God. Jesus died for everyone. And He rose for everyone, too!

Thank God we are not all alike!

Thank God I am me, and thank God you are you!

And thank God that when we turn to Him with a humble and repentant heart that we are justified, and set on a path of life as works in progress following our Creator.

Thanks be to God!

           

The 3 R's

For my family the return to school signifies the end of summer. Even though it will still be in the near record high temps in August, going back to school is a signal that the sleep-in-late and no-homework relaxing days of summer are over. But, at the same time, there is a sense of anticipation for something new, moving into a new grade level, new classes and new people. Thankfully all my children kinda like school, and I thank the teachers at Jonesborough Elementary, Jonesborough Middle, and David Crockett for this. So, my two youngest are preparing to head back into high school, my middle child is heading off (way off to Austin Peay) to begin college, and my oldest son will return to ETSU.

            I will be back to work on classes for my ordination in August also, so school plays a big part in our lives right now. I was thinking about this as I was reading a Psalm this morning. I thought about all the teachers who have been so instrumental in our lives and helped create, instill, and nurture a love of learning and desire to make a difference.

            Do you remember the “3 R’s” of school? Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic? These were actually listed together by St Augustine in his autobiography, Confessions. Augustine said,

“Even now I have not yet discovered the reasons why I hated Greek literature when I was being taught it as a small boy. Latin I deeply loved, not at the stage of my primary teachers but at the secondary level taught by the teachers of literature called 'grammarians' (grammatici). The initial elements, where one learns the three Rs of reading, writing, and arithmetic, I felt to be on less a burden and an infliction than the entire series of Greek classes.”

            I came across 3 R’s in Psalm 85 that I would like to share with you today. Perhaps these will help you where you are now. Whether you are anticipating with excitement something new that is getting ready to happen in your life, or if you are looking at upcoming events or even current circumstances with a bit of dread, fear, or trepidation.

            Restore. The Psalm begins by remembering how God had restored His people in the past, and the psalmist asks the Lord to “Restore us again, God our Savior” (verse 4). There is a promise here, that if God has restored us in the past, he will do it again! Are you needing something restored to you today? Is there something that you are missing in your life, maybe a relationship, health, peace, or joy? Remember that you have not been forsaken and you are not alone. Ask God, for He is a Restoring God!

            Revive. “Will you not revive us again?” the psalmist goes on to ask (verse 6). This word means to restore back to life, consciousness, or strength, or to give new strength or energy to something. I can’t help but start humming that tune by W.P. Mackay, “Hallelujah, thine the glory, Hallelujah, Amen! Hallelujah, thine the glory, revive us again”. Is there something in you that needs to revived today? Or do you completely need a divine revival right now? Our God is a reviving God. He brings people from death to life every day. Ask for a revived spirit from our Lord today, and you will receive a fresh wind of His Spirit.

            Rejoice. The psalmist has asked to be restored and to be revived for a reason. And the reason is so “that your people may rejoice in you” (verse 6). We might think that the restoring and reviving is just for us, but it’s not. The purpose here, at least in this psalm, is for the people to be restored and revived in order to rejoice in the Lord, so that they might praise God for His goodness (verse 12), for His faithfulness (verse 10), for His righteousness (verse 11) for His peace (verse 8) and for His unfailing love (verse 7). That’s a whole lot to rejoice in, but that’s because our Lord has, in the words of Robert Plant, “a whole lotta love”!

            Embrace these 3 R’s today and live them out as you are embraced in the loving arms of your Lord Jesus.

Grumbling and Complaining

            In 1729 Charles Wesley was attending college at Oxford, and had begun meeting with a group of friends for prayer and Bible study. Their goal was to grow in their pursuit of holy living. To help them in this spiritual pursuit, Charles asked his brother John to join them, and John devised a series of 21 questions that they could ask each other daily or as they came together.

            The complete list of questions can be found on our website: http://holston.org/churches/telford-umc-telford-tn/resources/

            I have been doing a daily video devotional on our church’s Youtube channel where I look at one question per day and Scripture that goes along with it. The goal is to have an intentional 21 days for us to focus on our pursuit of holy living.

            21 questions in 21 days. It doesn’t sound that hard, right?

            A pursuit of holy living. That sounds like something that we should be doing anyway, right?

            The truth is that I think this is harder for us than we might think. 21 days is the amount of time that it takes an action to become a habit. And we often think of a habit as something harmful or that we need to stop. But habits can also be good, and in that case we just call them spiritual disciplines. But call them whatever you want, the point is that we are called to be holy, and to live holy lives, and this takes an intentional, focused, and Spirit driven commitment.

            Today we don’t have the space to address all 21 questions, that’s what my daily videos are for. If you want to see more of this you can visit here: https://www.youtube.com/user/telford umc

            But I would like to do today is simply look at one of the questions at random. Here is our question of the day:

Do I grumble or complain constantly?

            This should be a mute point for Christians. But the reality is that we are not immune to the temptations to grumble, argue, or complain. In fact, my United Methodist brothers and sisters, we are cornering a market on the ability to argue within our faith.

            I was talking with someone about this question recently and he asked me, “how often is ‘constantly’?” I think at that point we’ve missed the point.

“Do everything with grumbling or complaining”

-Philippians 2:14

            Everything.

            We all have bad days. We all have things right now at this very moment that we could complain about. We all have things that we could easily argue with another person about.

But why? What would be our motive in this? What would it change?

            I think the whole idea here behind this question is about our perspective. I am not denying that there are plenty of things we could complain about right now, but what I am asking, and I think John Wesley was asking with this question, is what other things could I focus on?

            A little later in Philippians, here is how Paul answered that question:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God,which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

            You can choose to grumble, complain, and argue constantly. Or, you can choose, by the peace of our Lord, not to. Let’s turn our attention toward Jesus today, and what we have to be thankful for rather than what we can complain about. Make a list today, count your blessings and name them one by one and see what God has done for you!