Faith | Cats | Hope | Grace

Growing up, my family stressed the importance of niceness and good manners. Something I heard frequently was “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” The Pharisee we hear about this morning, did not seem to get similar lessons. He’s praying to God, while also using it as an opportunity to make sure folks around him know what he thinks is the spectrum of humanity. Toward the one end—the correct end–is the Pharisee and all his correct behaviors. And at the other end are the thieves, rogues, adulterers, and tax collectors.

The Pharisee is setting up a dichotomy. Those who are good and those who aren’t. And with that, he is ascribing value to himself and not to those others.

The world is very polarized right now. Conversations frequently feel very us versus them. And with that opposition, we sometimes hear the conversation move away from engagement with, and yes disagreement with, an idea or policies. Instead, there is a move to equate a value judgement about the person as a human being. This isn’t an idea I disagree with, it’s an idea I disagree with from a person whom I don’t value. And at worse who’s humanity I don’t see.

And we are at a moment in time where that is way too easy to do. Those people over there are such fill in the blank with your preferred invective. In our anger and worry and disappointment we allow ourselves to see people as less than human, as less than worthy than ourselves. And we think that that lack of humanity on their part means that we can think and talk about others as beneath us.

And so to counter that we hear frequent calls to be kind and to be civil. And as members of a society that is good advice. But the question that might needle at us is why. When there are such profound differences, when the chasm between our values is just so vast, why would we heed the calls for kindness and civility. We say, “It’s the right thing to do.” And again, yes, that is true. But why? Why are we as Christians, as followers of Christ, called to engage with our fellow humans with kindness and civility. What is the answer to our why?

It is because, we are all, every single one of us, created in the image of God. That is a weighty gift as well as a weighty responsibility. That person sitting across from me is a reflection of God and God’s love in the world and the relationship that God wants to have with us humans. And with that relationship with God to each of us, there is the relationship we are to have with each other. And it is by that other person’s very humanness, we see the presence and reflection of God. Even if in a moment we are struggling to see it, that other person’s mere existence is a reflection of God. And by denying their humanity, we are denying God. And if each of us as individuals is a reflection of God, what should our actions be to outwardly reflect that inner identity. So our calls to kindness, to civility, is not merely a social nicety. It is part of our call as Christians. We will hear echoes of this next week as we support those making their baptismal covenant. We have and we will be called to love our neighbor as ourselves. We have and we will be called to respect the dignity of every human being.

But a call to civility, a call to see, respect, and honor the humanity of those I disagree with does not mean that we don’t with equal sense of purpose call for justice in our world. Calling out injustice may not be seen as nice. It can feel disruptive. It can rattle the status quo. But that doesn’t mean we shy away from that work—from striving for justice and peace. We just engage in that work in ways that honor the image of God in those across from us. We engage in that work while recognizing that we too are made in the image of God.

But as usual, all of this is hard. Something I tell myself frequently is that Christianity and following the path of Jesus is not for the feint of heart. We are called to do hard things. We are called to love people whose actions and beliefs we don’t agree with. We are called to love those whose actions would harm us or others we love. A prayer that is frequently on my lips is “God help me to see you in those I struggle to love.” We are called to love people in spite of their sin. And along with his lack of humility, not seeming to love his fellow sinner is another stumbling block for today’s Pharisee.

Despite his list of all the things that make him righteous, the Pharisee neglects to remember that he too is still a sinner. The uncomfortable fact is we all are. And the mention of the reality of our sinfulness and the reality of being sinner is where we often start squirming in our seats. It can be hard to hear and reflect on. But I think it’s important to remember what sin is. It is not just the actions of those called out by the Pharisee—adultery, theft, or roguishness. There are many definitions, understandings, and interpretations of sin. One definition is in our prayer book on page 848 which describes sin as “seeking out own will instead of the will of God, thus distorting our relationship with God, with other people, and with all creation.” Some translations of sin are to miss the goal or to miss the mark. I like and am challenged by both descriptions of sin. There isn’t a list of things that are categorized as sin. Don’t do these things, and you are free and clear of being a sinner. Instead, both of these descriptions require reflection and discernment. It might be easier to see how theft is distorting our relationship with other people. With theft we are missing the mark of how we are to be in community with other people. But what about losing your temper and making a rude gesture at another driver in traffic. Ok, maybe not as bad as theft, but probably still falling short of who God is calling me to be.

And again, that’s the beauty and challenge of these definitions of sin, is their broadness. Leaning on that broadness, on a bad day, I’ve already committed a handful of sins before I’ve even pulled into the parking lot at work. None of us are as sin-free as we’d like to think of ourselves. And we are all sinning and sinners in our own unique ways. And if we aren’t careful that realization can steer us in two directions. One is, everyone is a sinner so my sins don’t really matter because there is definitely someone worse than me. Or an over self-flagellation about how I am a horrible, irredeemable sinner. In the first case, we can pretend that that lets us off the hook about our thoughts, words, and deeds. If there is always someone worse, then maybe we don’t need to do better. In the second case of wallowing in the belief that one is an irredeemable sinner negates some of Jesus’s work in the world—redeeming us of our sins. Our individual sin is not our final story. We have been and continue to be redeemed.

And that assurance of redemption leaves us free for the work of repentance. The work of turning away from sin and to turn our actions and our lives back to God. Reflections and then repentance gives us the opportunity to call to mind the things done and things left undone that have missed the mark. And we continue to miss the mark. But we will continue to be offered the opportunity to repent and start again. There is nothing we can do that will put us out of reach of the redeeming power of Christ. And the work of each of our lifetimes is to keep trying to hit the mark in all aspects of our lives and to hopefully get ever closer every time.