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The Gospel - Luke 18:9-14
Jesus 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."
Homily by the Reverend John S. Ruef
The Pharisee and the Sinner
I will bet you that the average rector is delighted to hear
one of the parishioners say that he tithes. And don't we wish we had more like
him! Of course we would be remiss if we did not point out that, according
to Luke, the parishioner, like the Pharisee in our story, was boastful and one should not be like that. Ok so far.
But what about the business of "despising others," in this case, the tax collector?
We don't know how much he gave. All we know is that he
identified himself as a "sinner." Tax collectors were assumed to
be sinners because of their occupation. In the eyes of conservative Jews
such as this Pharisee, it was not possible for this tax collector or any
tax collector to adhere to the Jewish tradition the way they did, so they
were lumped together with extortionists, the unjust, and adulterers.
Luke tells us what he thinks this parable is about: being in a right relationship with God, i.e. "justified." In Luke's eyes, the tax collector was better off, i.e. "justified," rather than the Pharisee.
Could the parable, apart from Luke's interpretation, be construed any other way? What was the tax collector's problem? Did he think of himself as a "sinner" in our sense of the word? Or did sinner simply mean outcast? And if so do we have here another instance of Jesus' sense of humor? Would our morals be offended if we thought that the tax collector laughed all the way home?
More than two dozen parishioners and friends gathered in Emmanuel's
Parish Hall on Saturday evening October 20th for a pot luck supper to
celebrate the successful conclusion of the first season of Emmanuel's Dinner Groups Program.
The summer season's four dinner groups (ably led by Betty Camp, Jane De Paulo, Mary Hicks Heitzler and Jane Ruef) brought some four dozen parishioners and friends together on multiple occasions and in a variety of social settings ranging from cocktail and dinner parties, to picnics and restaurant nights out.
The dinner groups program allows groups of 8 to 10 adults, singles and couples, to meet on a monthly rotating basis for an evening of potluck, fun and fellowship. Since the format of each evening is at the discretion of that night's host / hostess, the venue could be a cookout, a buffet, just coffee and desserts, or an evening at a local restaurant.
If you would like to join a dinner group for the coming season, please email the Parish Office for more details, or call one of the group leaders.
Click Here for more photos.
The Gospel - Luke 18:1-8a
Jesus told his disciples a parable about
their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said, "In a certain
city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for
people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and
saying, `Grant me justice against my opponent.'
For a while he refused; but later he said to himself, `Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.'"
And the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them? I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them."
Homily by the Reverend John S. Ruef
Persistence in Prayer
This is a story about a little girl. She lived with her
mother and they were very poor. As Christmas
approached, the mother could hear her little girl in the bedroom praying for a
bicycle. The mother was very sad because she knew she could not afford one.
When Christmas came and there was no bicycle, the
mother said to the little girl, “I'm sorry God did not answer your prayer,” “Oh,”
said the little girl, “but he did. He said ‘No.’"
The story in today's Gospel is about persistence in prayer.
The bit of encouragement at the end is God will answer your prayer quickly. The
early Church as well as the later Church must have pondered this Gospel,
especially the word "quickly." The question was somewhere between
when and whether. It is no accident that many of the efforts to get back to
pure and undefiled Christianity quite regularly drift into the more apocalyptic
works such as the Book of Daniel and Revelation which deal with God in some
form coming for Judgment.
Jesus himself is quoted as speaking of the end of the world and God's coming in judgment not in some remote future, but within the lifetime of some of those who stood around him. It had to be a problem for the earliest church waiting for the end of the world and Jesus' return in triumph that this did not happen. But they had the Church and there were probably prophets imitating those of the Old Testament, who proclaimed God's purposes and intentions in those difficult times.
Most of us do not believe the end of the world a good thing. But some of us still believe that we can see God at work in the world for good. We also believe that He calls us to join Him in that effort.
