Last Sunday after Trinity
“...for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Overview
Our Gospel reading is a sneaky one this morning: Jesus, Luke 18:9-14, tells a parable of the pharisee who prays out loud, assured of his own righteousness, and judgemental of the tax collectors mumbling his prayers in the corner. The tax collector is convinced only of his own failures, yet he is the one who Jesus calls justified. Our instinctive reaction is to judge the pharisee but in doing so we commit the same sin: we are the included not the includers, we are the judged not the judges. Nothing we do, for better or for worse, will make God love us more. And nothing we do will make God love us less. Our ‘righteousness’ or ‘justification’ is the work of God and God alone. As Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22,reminds us “we set out hope on you, O Lord our God, for it is you who does all this.”
FIRST READING
Jeremiah 14:7-10, 19-22
Although our iniquities testify against us,
act, O Lord, for your name’s sake;
our apostasies indeed are many,
and we have sinned against you.
O hope of Israel,
its saviour in time of trouble,
why should you be like a stranger in the land,
like a traveller turning aside for the night?
Why should you be like someone confused,
like a mighty warrior who cannot give help?
Yet you, O Lord, are in the midst of us,
and we are called by your name;
do not forsake us!
Thus says the Lord concerning this people:
Truly they have loved to wander,
they have not restrained their feet;
therefore the Lord does not accept them,
now he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.
Have you completely rejected Judah?
Does your heart loathe Zion?
Why have you struck us down
so that there is no healing for us?
We look for peace, but find no good;
for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.
We acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord,
the iniquity of our ancestors,
for we have sinned against you.
Do not spurn us, for your name’s sake;
do not dishonour your glorious throne;
remember and do not break your covenant with us.
Can any idols of the nations bring rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Is it not you, O Lord our God?
We set our hope on you,
for it is you who do all this.
GOSPEL READING
Luke 18:9-14
He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, “God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.” But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted.’
