He
also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were
righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple
to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing
by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice
a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far
off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying,
‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house
justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be
humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
A
couple springs ago on the Saturday evening before high school graduation, I was
fiddling around in my garage with the garage door open. There evidently was some sort of graduation
party nearby because there were cars parked up and down the block and plenty of
teenage voices to be heard. It brought
back fond memories of not so many years ago when I was walking in the same
shoes. But I was a little bit
embarrassed as they passed my house by the thought that perhaps I also once talked,
so-to-speak, in the same shoes. A whole
conversation which I could hear begin a block away and carry on for a block in
the opposite direction consisted of two boys and two girls taking polite turns
speaking sentence after sentence. I must
have heard about 30 or 40 complete sentences … and every single one – I kid you
not – began with the word I. They
weren’t talking filthy or rude or starting fights. Like I said, they weren’t even interrupting
one another. Everything was very
civil. But despite their best behavior,
a certain egotism was plainly revealed.
They
say that in wine is truth. Well I don’t
think these kids were drinking; but perhaps we could also say, in youth is
truth. In the excitement of the moment
these young teenagers allowed their innate selfishness to shine through. It seems that all they really wanted to say
and hear were their own voices reflecting on the all-important “I”. The Greek word for I is ego. Perhaps it was their immaturity that made
them so self-referential. Or perhaps it
was just the fact that they had not yet developed the skill in hiding it. It’s probably a little of both. When we get older, most of us learn to stop talking
about ourselves so much. But we don’t ever
really become any less egotistical. We
don’t stop loving and esteeming ourselves any more than self-absorbed
adolescents. What we want to say, what
we think and feel, always remains the most interesting topic for each one of us.
It
is true, however, that, as we grow up, certain responsibilities force us to
step outside of ourselves and fulfill more and more duties toward others. This discipline is good. God calls us into certain stations in life in
order to teach us to love and serve our neighbor rather than just ourselves. We call these callings vocations. Motherhood is especially useful in drawing us
away from “me, me, me” and toward the needs of those around us. This is also one of the most beneficial things
about marriage in general. For a young
man who is excited to enjoy the pleasures of life, the company of a young woman
is exactly what he wants. But marriage
teaches the young man that life is not all about taking. He enters marriage to serve and seek the
needs and desires of the other before he seeks his own. And through their union, God kindly blesses
their marriage with even more “others” whose needs are more important than both
of theirs. Our vocations draw us out of
ourselves and teach us to live better lives.
But
what happens when this holy vocation of marriage is abandoned in favor of a more
loosely defined relationship – one without such strict boundaries on intimacy —
what does this do but reinforce the false notion that it is OK to be selfish
and to seek one’s own pleasure above others? We live in a selfish world. The vocations surrounding the marital life are
the most important in training children to be self-giving and respectable
people – to grow up, so to speak, and be valuable members of society. And yet these are the very vocations that are
being attacked the most fiercely in our culture today. It is sad to see. People think it’s OK to enjoy the intimate
company of another for recreational purposes without committing oneself to that
person’s happiness and security. How
selfish. Parents neglect to care for and
teach their children in the way they should go.
“Let the schools do all of it for
me.” Well, that’s not a very good
lesson to teach the kids. Married
couples prevent pregnancy for material gain as though getting stuff were more
important than receiving children whom Jesus loves. “Kids
are too much work.” Well, that’s not
a good lesson to teach either. And the
children learn it. And so we see men refuse
the responsibilities of being a father even though they jump at the opportunity
to become one. How childish. This is what happens when the children learn to
stay children. But these things are not
just immature. They are sinful. And our culture suffers from this in a big
way.
It’s
like children are never taught to grow up.
And so the sin that exists within all of us is left unchecked, and even
encouraged. Instead of growing out of
that egotism that is so typical of youth, children learn instead to embrace
whatever makes them happy as self-serving individuals. Selfishness becomes the standard. Children are taught falsely that in order to
love others, they must first learn to love themselves. And so “I, I, I” begins and ends every
thought they think.
Our
Christian vocations draw us out of ourselves and teach us the much needed
discipline of serving others:
Are
you a child? Then God has called you to
honor your parents and to serve whatever siblings he has given you. Obey your mother and father even if you
disagree with them. Defend your brother
or sister even if he or she annoys or embarrasses you. Thus says the Lord who made you. You are not your own. You belong to others for their benefit.
Are
you an employer? God did not give you
what you have to earn yourself a profit.
Your primary duty is not to increase your own wealth and success, but to
serve and supply the needs of those who work for you. Support your family. Be fair and generous to those under you who
have families to support themselves.
Are
you a laborer? Your duty is not simply
to clock in and out. God has called you
to seek your employer’s best interests in hiring you. Your work is not merely valued in
dollars. It is valued by your Father in
heaven who rewards those who are honest.
Are
you a grandparent? Does it seem that
because of your age most of your vocations have expired, or that there are few
duties left for you to tend to? Then, encourage
those who are young to listen to and trust in God. Remind them of their obligations to raise
God-fearing children, to live chaste lives, to serve their wives, submit to
their husbands, and to fulfill their duties at work as Christians who live not
for themselves but for God. This is what
you have been called to do – to step out of yourselves and to serve the other
whom God has placed in your life.
It’s
easy to pick on teenagers. They do tend
to ask for it, don’t they? It’s not that
they’re necessarily worse than others.
It’s just that they usually don’t hide it as well as we do how obsessed
they are with themselves. But who among
us has not been young and foolish? As we
grow older, our habits change and our duties offer the discipline that we
lacked in our youth. For this reason, we
should be grateful for our various vocations.
This means that we should thank God for drawing us out of ourselves and
to the task of living for others. We
should thank God when we have parents who teach us not to steal or lie or to
live despicable lives. We should thank
God when they encourage us to save ourselves for marriage. We should thank God for the lessons on
loyalty, and kindness, and self-control that we have learned. Good God-pleasing habits are hard to
form. Thank God that he forms them in us
through the various vocations into which he has called us to live.
But
such change in habit does not eradicate the ego within. The sin remains. We know it.
And so we should be clear what we’re thanking God for. As grateful as we should be for these
wonderful gifts of vocation, our discipline is not what brings us into God’s
good favor. To think otherwise is to
exalt yourself before God. The Pharisee
in Jesus’ parable thought otherwise. He
exalted himself before God. He looked at
the duties that he had fulfilled and how he had gone beyond what was required
of him. He saw what the law demanded and
did more. He thought that God had given
the 10 Commandments so that he might raise himself up to God by becoming
righteous on his own. “How kind of God,” he thought. “How
good of God to instruct me so well so as to teach me how to live the life that
gets me into heaven. I will thank God
for giving me the law, since it is by my obedience to it that I have earned his
good pleasure.” This is essentially
what he said: “I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I
give tithes of all that I get.”
Look how much he says I.
And we think teenagers are bad.
Before men, this man brings us to shame.
He was as self-disciplined and selfless as we all ought to be. But before God he was obsessed with his own
accomplishments. The Pharisee believed
that his vocation from God was to make himself righteous. He thought that it was his vocation from God
to talk about himself. He thought that
God had called him to be better than other people and that’s why he compared
himself to them. But God does not call
us to be better than other people. He
calls us to live alone by mercy.
It is true that our various vocations in life train us to
live fuller and richer and more fruitful lives than many of the lives we see
other people live. But as we live these
lives, what do we find in our hearts? Do
we not still find the desire to cheat, to be lazy, to fornicate, to talk back
to parents and be disrespectful to lawful authority? Do we not find in ourselves every urge to
neglect what God has called us to do and to live for our own pleasures rather
than for the service of our neighbor and to the glory of God? So why, when we have done some small thing
that makes us look better than others do we use this as some credit to
ourselves? Should we not say what Jesus
told his disciples to say: “When you have done all those things which
you are commanded, say, ‘We are unprofitable servants. We have simply done what
was our duty to do’” (Luke 17:10).
God calls us to live godly lives not so that we might
compare ourselves to others, but so that we might serve others and learn to rely
on the same mercy that they need. The
Pharisee’s duty was to honor God and love his neighbor. But by presuming to justify himself by his
own works, not only did he not humble himself before God, he also exalted
himself above his neighbor. He despised
him, and so he despised the God who shows mercy to sinners. We do not find our righteousness by comparing
ourselves to others. Even St. Paul in
our Epistle lesson admits that he worked harder than all the others. But he counts it all as grace alone that he
is named among the Apostles. He
fulfilled his vocation more fully than any other. And yet his primary vocation was not to be
better than others, but to live by mercy from God who covered his sin.
And this is our vocation too. Our every vocation begins and ends here: that
we find our righteousness not in what we do, but in what Christ has done for
us. If we want God’s favor, we look not
to where we have done what is good, but to where Jesus did what was good. We look not to where we have lived selfless
lives, but to where the eternal Son of God humbled himself under the law for us
and lived selflessly to save selfish sinners.
We look to where he who did everything required of us suffered the
insults and cruelty of those who did not.
We look to our God who became flesh and blood for us, who did not thank
God that he was unlike other men, but
who was pleased to be counted a sinner with us – and for us: “I thank you Father that, although I have no
sin, you have made me a sinner in their place, that you have counted their
self-centered lives against me so that I might bear their punishment and cover
their lives with my own.” Christ was
called by God from eternity to be our Savior.
And we are called by God to be saved by Jesus. This is our vocation.
This is where our vocation begins and ends. We are called to step out of ourselves and
live for others. We are called to
consider how we have failed to do just this.
We are called to repent of our ego, our pride, our immature obsession
with ourselves, and to find in the death and resurrection of Jesus the life
that we need so badly. We humble
ourselves before our God who has mercy on sinners, just as the tax collector
did. And God graciously forgives us our
sins and declares us righteous in his sight.
He declares it. “I
say unto you, this man went down to his house justified.” And he says unto us who beg for the same
mercy: “Lift up your hearts. Lift up your eyes. See where I have fulfilled your calling as a
child of God. See where your sins are
taken away. See where your God loves his
neighbor in your place.” There on
the cross, your God has loved you.
We are grateful for our various vocations that teach us
discipline, because in this way we glorify God and serve our neighbor. Our vocations do not teach us to compare
ourselves to others, but to place ourselves beneath them. We do not begin with I, I, I. We begin and end with Christ, Christ, Christ. We who humble ourselves before God are
exalted to sit with Jesus and all his saints whom he has washed clean in his
blood. We live lives for one another because our Savior God lives his life for
us. Through his mercy today, he
strengthens us in faith toward him and in fervent love for one another.
Amen.
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