Sermon 173 Feb 9, 2020 Lk 13:9-14, Phil 3: 5-9, Dt 6:4-18 Publican & Pharisee: Great Expectations

As preached by Brother Luke

Holy Wisdom Church

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

        Pip. Ever wonder what that really means and where the word came from? I looked it up. And there are way too many meanings. For example: A highly spirited individual. A person who acts like they know everything but actually knows nothing. Something extraordinary. I was wondering how it is that the hero of Charles Dickens’ novel Great Expectations got that name. Maybe that’s it, he was a spirited individual whose whole life was something extraordinary. But it was also a typical Dickens story. Each great expectation was followed by a great disappointment. And this repeated itself many times and even ended that way in the original story. But some of Dickens’ friends encouraged him to end the book with at least a little hope. Reluctantly he changed the ending. He provided hope, but not much.

        Expectations. That is something we all experience. After all, in life we live in expectation of outcomes in many very ordinary things. Go to the market and expect to get the food that you need. Go to a movie and expect to see the film that was advertised. Go to a concert and expect to be entertained. Go to college and expect to get an education that leads to a decent job. Drive to Vermont and expect to find gasoline at a lower price than in New York. Get married and expect ... well I’ll let the married among us answer that for themselves. But what about God? What are our expectations of God?

        In today’s gospel lesson we have an example of two different expectations of God. Both the publican, that is the tax collector, and the Pharisee, enter the Temple, God’s home, in the understanding of the people at that time, and they expect, at a minimum, that God will hear their prayer. Beyond that, their expectations differ. The pharisee is convinced that he is living in a right relationship with God since he has followed the prescriptions of the law to the letter. And he can strengthen his claim by comparing himself to the publican, whom he disdains as unworthy of God’s favor since the publican is obviously a sinner. So, the pharisee’s expectation is justification in the eyes of God.

        The publican, on the other hand, goes before God not expecting justification but rather asking for mercy in light of his many sins. He is a tax collector working for the hated Roman occupiers and collecting his income by adding fees to the taxes he collects. He is not necessarily expecting mercy but hoping that God might show him mercy despite his unsavory life. Jesus tells us clearly how God views the prayer of these two men. But as I was pondering this story, we might easily give names to these two anonymous individuals and see in other contexts how Jesus teaches us about God’s desires for us.

        What if we name the publican Zacchaeus and the Pharisee Simon? Over the last two Sundays we heard about Zacchaeus’ desire to see Jesus. How easily that would fit with the publican, who departs the Temple and then learns of the chance he might have to actually see Jesus. An outcome beyond his wildest expectations! And remember Simon, the pharisee who invited Jesus over for dinner? And at that dinner the woman enters with the perfume. She cries and tears fall on his feet. She dries them with her hair and then anoints Jesus feet with the perfume and Simon observes this with self-righteous indignation and is rebuked by Jesus. Simon’s expectations are dashed but he is not punished, rather, he is given the opportunity to learn what God’s real desires are.

        So, for us, entering this temple to worship God, we also come with expectations. And our liturgy is designed to help us learn what God’s desires are for us individually and as God’s people. The petitions remind us of what the human condition is and how God and we might make it better. The prayers of preparation of the eucharist remind us of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and how we participate in that through our reception of the eucharist and our living out our lives patterned after that of Jesus and all the saints.

        Just like Pip in the Dickens’ story, our expectations in life will ebb and flow but the love of God for us and for this creation is constant and we can always come and meet it and be renewed in it every time we enter the temple of God and bring our prayers to God and remain open to hearing God’s response to us.

        Glory be to Jesus Christ!