Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector (Luke 18:10).

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1 Two people went up to the temple area to pray; one was a Pharisee and the other was a tax collector (Luke 18:10). 30 th Sunday in Ordinary Time October 24 th, 2010 First Reading: Sirach 35: Be generous when you worship the Lord, and do not stint the first fruits of your hands. 11 With every gift show a cheerful face, and dedicate your tithe with gladness. 12 Give to the Most High as he has given to you, and as generously as you can afford. 13 For the Lord is the one who repays, and he will repay you sevenfold.

2 14 Do not offer him a bribe, for he will not accept it; 15 and do not rely on a dishonest sacrifice; for the Lord is the judge, and with him there is no partiality. 16 He will not show partiality to the poor; but he will listen to the prayer of one who is wronged. 17 He will not ignore the supplication of the orphan, or the widow when she pours out her complaint. 18 Do not the tears of the widow run down her cheek 19 as she cries out against the one who causes them to fall? 20 The one whose service is pleasing to the Lord will be accepted, and his prayer will reach to the clouds. 21 The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds, and it will not rest until it reaches its goal; it will not desist until the Most High responds 22 and does justice for the righteous. Second Reading: 2 Timothy 4: 6 As for me, I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 From now on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have longed for his appearing. 9 Do your best to come to me soon, 10 for Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful in my ministry. 12 I have sent Tychicus to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. 14 Alexander the coppersmith did me great harm; the Lord will pay him back for his deeds. 15 You also must beware of him, for he strongly opposed our message.

3 16 At my first defense no one came to my support, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them! 17 But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion's mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 19 Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. Gospel Reading: Luke 18: He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 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. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income.' 13 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!' 14 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." Homily There s so many different directions we could go with the three lectionary readings this week, but after some study, I decided not to attempt to bring them all together, but rather, to focus on the First Reading and the Gospel Reading. Perhaps we will take them in a somewhat different direction than other homilists and sources are going this weekend. Sirach, as those of you who were raised Catholic may be aware, is one of the socalled apocryphal wisdom books that was not accepted into the official scriptural canon by protestants but was part of the canon for Roman Catholics and other sacramental traditions. It seems that it is the general ethical aspect to it and an absence of a specific personal salvation theme that led to a view of Sirach and other wisdom books as somehow being less important. They weren t religious enough for some. When I first read these books a few years ago, I was overwhelmed with their beauty, and felt that I had somehow been cheated by growing up protestant! If you haven t read Sirach, Baruch, Wisdom (Ecclesiasticus), I strongly urge you to do so. There was also one book in the New Testament that almost didn t make it into the canon because some thought it overemphasized works rather than faith. Luther

4 took out the Epistle of James and placed it in an appendix in his translation for this reason. The somewhat discounted or even despised wisdom books, depicting the general truths of religion and ethics, should not be detached from our understanding of salvation. This is a level of understanding that is accessible to everyone, including those from various religious traditions and perspectives. And as Christians, we can realize that Jesus is the fulfillment of the wisdom tradition, a bearer of heavenly wisdom and giving us the witness of the Holy Spirit as can be seen, for example, in the prologue to the Fourth Gospel (John). He embodies both divine wisdom and at the same time lived in the real world where ethical relationships were constantly challenging people in his day as well as ours. Salvation has too often been narrowly construed, understood as only pertaining to one s personal beliefs and one s eternal outcome. But, in reality, we are all in this world together, and this is why the apparent New Testament conflict between faith and works, is so misleading. The works side is that side of working out one s own salvation wherein we live out our ethical contribution to those around us. And how does the wisdom in Sirach tie together with today s Gospel Reading? Most of us have heard the story about the prayers of the Pharisee and the tax collector many times, where they are contrasted as either the self-appointed good guy or the publicly-scorned parasite on the people. Jesus does not condemn the Pharisee in the performing of his religious and moral duties to others. He does not think that the Pharisee was wrong in doing good and pious deeds that truly benefited others. Those in Jesus day would have seen him as a righteous man. And, so he was. We don t need to discount his acts of public contribution to the welfare of others. It was his underlying motivation that was the issue. And just what was the tax collector s flaw, the basis for so much public derision? He made his living by extortion of money from people. Tax collectors worked for the Roman government to collect taxes that were due, but they had to make their own salary as it were, by collecting more. In many cases, they lived extremely well, but at the expense of the people. The tax burden in those days was far beyond what we in our times complain about. But at least our I.R.S. Agents are salaried employees who presumably do not get bonuses for extracting more than the tax payer owes. So, the tax collector s sin was a product of his failure to live as an ethical person in his society. While Jesus views the prayers of the tax collector as more authentic than those of the Pharisee, he is not saying that the tax collector was right in his lifestyle of opulence and extortion of others nor is he even focusing primarily on his acts. Rather, it was his admission of wrong thinking behind those acts. Hence, personal salvation requires an ethical component toward others in the world, not merely right beliefs. What is important here is that the tax collector was aware and cognizant of his errors, and he cries out, Kyrie eleison! (God have mercy!) He failed in service that is pleasing to God, as well described in our First Reading. Please note that prayer and service ( faith and works ) are linked in one sentence (Sirach 35:20): The one whose service is pleasing to the Lord will be accepted, and his prayer will reach to the clouds. There is no compartmentalization occurring here.

5 The larger theme in these passages is just what is prayer? Prayer starts with opening ourselves to awareness of who we are, and honest acknowledgement of our own motivations which may at times be quite mixed. Christ does not condemn serving ourselves if we do not harm others in the process, as we saw a few weeks ago in the story of the Steward who offered good deals to those who owed his Master, creating a win-win arrangement where all could benefit including himself. It was a lesson in creative benevolence even if motivated by saving himself. Prayer continues in accepting our own responsibility for the things that have gone wrong and not putting our errors off on others. It is not an exercise in self-justification and thinking of ourselves as more worthy and more spiritual than others. Prayer is not an act of trusting in ourselves as the source of wisdom and knowing what is good. Nor is it an act of self-induced suffering that we think somehow is required in order to be spiritual. Some have termed such distortions as power suffering, where the unacknowledged goal is to attain recognition for being spiritual through some form of self-denigration. Prayer is a process of coming before God as we are, and it is only from this place that healing is possible. If we delude ourselves, we will not be healed. Prayer is a process of opening ourselves and increasing knowledge about ourselves as well as increased sensitivity to the needs of those around us. Prayer is not merely praying, as a separate activity that is more mental or spiritual. It does not require words. Prayer is a process of living out the Great Commission, to go into all the world and being Christ to those who are in our paths. Prayer is best embedded in all of our daily activities. The Celtics had a prayer for almost every activity sweeping the hearth, making the bread, shodding the horses. It was an integral part of living and serving. O Lord, may we come to trust that as we open ourselves to you, living in your truth, we will find the acceptance that we crave, not from misdirected public displays, but from honesty shared in our closets that changes how we serve others in your world. Amen.