Humility and How I Perfected It (Dennison)

Walking through the parables for the summer at http://www.pcbc.org/audio, Jim opens with a reference to Luke 18 saying that the God of the Universe wants us to know Him on a personal level. This is not an invitation from Allah to the Muslims nor is it familiar to Budhists or Hindus. In ancient times, worshippers did not want to get too close to Zeus or some of the other gods. Celebrating his 10th anniversary at the church, Jim says its time for full disclosure. There were some things that he didn't tell them before. "When I was in college, I made the intramural softball team." He is obviously kidding, but he talks about how he thought he was a pretty good batter until he tried to hit a ball in a batting cage. Jim played tennis in college and he was humbled when a retired tennis pro shut him out. "I thought I was a good tennis player until I played a good tennis player." The same tends to be true spiritually. If we compare ourselves to others, we feel pretty good. It's much tougher when we compare ourselves to Jesus. St Francis of Assisi once said, "What a man is in the sight of God, that he is and no more." The setting in verse 9 says that some in the crowd were overconfident because of their own righteousness and they looked down on those who weren't as righteous. Two men went up to a temple. This was known to be the highest point in the land. You had to climb up this structure to pray. The Jews prayed three times a day, 9am, 12am and 3pm. This is where the Muslims got their practice of praying 5 times a day. Climbing higher seemed to give more meaning to their prayers. They had a specific set of prayers called the Shimena Ezra, which are 18 benedictions and are still used by the Jews today. The first one goes like this: "Blessed are you Oh Lord, our God, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the great and majestic and reverred God most High, the God who bestows loving kindness, the God who made all that is, the God who looks with favor upon the good deeds of our forefathers and promises in love to give a Redeemer to our children's children for your namesake. Oh, God, our Helper, our King, our Saviour, our Shield, blessed are You oh Shield of Abraham." The Jews would memorize these and Jesus memorized them. The Pharisees, at the time, were seen as very respected. In the minds of the Jewish people, these were the men who would keep the laws in detail when no one else would. It was a small sect and seen like we might see a nun or a monk. The tax collector was not like an IRS agent today. These were men at the lowest social rung. The Romans paid these men to collect taxes from their fellow men. These men were turncoats because they would tell the Romans how much their neighbors could afford to pay. Then they would keep as much of a commission as they wanted and the Roman soldiers protected them! They were hated! Tax payers were not even allowed in the temple to pray. The only time a tax collector could enter a temple would be when he returned all that he "stole" and then earned his right back into society by works. This is apparently what has happened with this tax collector who is entering the temple with the Pharisee in Jesus' story. Jews, like the Pharisee, would pray standing or prostate, not sitting. The Pharisee, in the parable, prays about himself. It was a common prayer that went something like this: "God, I thank you that I am not like these other men. I thank you that I am not a women, gentile, slave or tax collector. I fast twice a week and I give 10% of everything." In Jesus' time, a Pharisee would literally give 10% of everything he used. Jim said it would be like using salt at the table and literally setting aside 10% of that salt and bringing it to the church. "We don't want you to do that here." It would also be like filling up your car with gas and then bringing 10% of the gas you used to church. "That, you're welcome to do here." jokes Jim. But the Pharisees would stand up in the middle or the most prominent point in the temple and pray so that all could hear him. The tax collector, on the other hand, would pray quietly in the furthest corner. Beating his breast was the worst kind of mourning for the Jews, usually reserved for the death of a loved one. The tax collector grieves hard and asks for God's forgiveness. Then Jesus drops the bomb on the crowd saying that the tax collector was the one who is justified rather than the Pharisee. The closer you get to God, more you realize how far away you are from Him (in His perfection). It's easy to be a Pharisee today. We can physically show what we do for the church while the world outside doesn't bother to come. Comparing ourselves to others is a practice that can blind us of our sins. "I must tell you that this parable terrifies me." It reminds Jim of all the times he worshipped, gave, preached and prayed because he thought it was the right thing to do. When is the last time we spent in repentence? But why does God call us to do this? God loves us and He cannot forgive what we won't confess. The Holy God of the Universe cannot have a relationship with people who are not willing to be holy. Spiritual complacency is equivalent to spiritual suicide. God wants us to have an abundant life; more abundant than we have and he shows us how if we are just willing. C.S. Lewis, in "Mere Christianity", said it best: "Man, in his natural condition, does not have spiritual life, that higher plain of existence with God. Our biological life comes to us from nature and it's prone to decay and corruption. That's why we must incessantly be subsidized by Nature with food and air and water and so forth. The spiritual life is eternal with God and He actually was the creator of the entire natural world. There is a relationship, to be sure, between the natural and spiritual; a shadowy symbolic relationship, but it is the relationship between a photograph and a place or a statue and a person. A person who changes from natural life to spiritual life would undergo as great a change as a statue, which changes from carved stone to being a real man. And that is precisely what Christianity is about. This world is a great sculpture shop. We are the statues. There is a rumor about the shop that some of us, someday, are going to come to Life."

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