In the eyes of God, what are you?

When you pray to God, how do you approach God? Do you see yourself as a hero or heroine? Or do you come as a zero before the throne? It is important to note that this week’s parable (Luke 18.8-14) is told to those who think themselves righteous (right with God) because of who they are and what they do. What is not recognized often by those same people is that they are mistaken for they are often self deluded and thus self righteous because of the state of their hearts.

Such people tend to look down their noses at the others around them and treat others with active contempt because these self made righteous people are unaware of the state of their own hearts and are unaware of who they are in facing a holy, righteous God. They treat others as zeros – as if they are nothing; as if they are naught. They should, if they knew what God was asking and what Jesus teaches, know how to treat a neighbour and help them to be a +1 on their own scale. They ought to work to build the people around themselves up. But they don’t. Such religious people don’t even live in such a way as to help others see that they are missing something in their lives by living as God has instructed. The self involved don’t work with God to help the world around them to see that they are -1 and can be something more. We ought to work at seeing them as 10+ which is what we all hope to be someday by the grace of God. Hoity-toity people work at making everyone else a zero – a nothing, a naught.

You might ask, “Why these people do this?” Some will do so out of their own childhood and background. They might be completely unaware of it, but it still happens. Perhaps it is a lack of self esteem and/or sense of self. Sometimes it is out of a belief that they are superior to people around them. Such people degrade their neighbours to make them zeros in order to make themselves a +1. I have seen such things from people who think on themselves as true believers. Such folks are slick and smooth. They are warm and friendly until your needs impinge or conflict with theirs; then there is contempt, scorn and the possibility of public humiliation for the one who gets in the way. It may be that you think I am being too hard on such people. Please keep in mind that I regard such people to have lost touch with the reality of their won heart and have missed the call and purpose of God’s own heart where their own lives are concerned. We need to love them every bit as much as the poor; the least, the last and the lost because surely they are in that company.

Just as difficult to deal with is passive contempt. This is when people act as if others around them do not matter. Passive contempt reduces a person to naught because a neighbour, another person is paid lip service but then the offender acts in such a way that he or she reduces their target to zero by the way they act.

So how do we work at removing contempt for our neighbours from our lives?

First, we need to remember who God is and what the state of our hearts are. The Tax Collector considered ( and regarded by everyone, not just the Pharisee) as a loser, as a zero because of his occupation and entanglements with the Empire is the one who went away from his encounter with God as the one in relationship with the almighty because he knew the state of his heart and his need for mercy. A changed heart leads to a different, a transformed life. The Tax Collector left the place of prayer and of worship a different man. He needed to go and live it, which is why he left. The Pharisee was only interested in his resume and how impressive he was. He was in effect praying to himself and not interested in God’s or anyone else’s opinions. He stayed and went nowhere.

Second, let us keep our eyes on the Master and our minds on the mission. The mission of our parish is to seek, to see and to serve God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. We need to seek and to see Christ in each other in the lives of the people around us. We seek him because we desire to serve him when we find him. We love others and care for them because it is Christ in their lives that we are seeing and serving. God is at work in the lives of the people of this city. Won’t you go and find him and when you find him serve him with all that he has to offer you? Isn't it time that we got rid of the flimsy excuses and the weak armour of our own self righteousness to take the risk of putting ourselves in the nail scarred hands of our God and asked for him to be merciful to us, sinners? Isn't this the kind of prayer that is worth praying? Isn't that what takes us from being naught to being heroes and heroines in the eyes of our Father?

Jason+