Publican and the Pharisee 2021

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and

of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Glory to Jesus Christ.

Glory to Christ. I could speak to you about some

topics that I'm interested in with some proficiency,

some knowledge about guitars, about audio equipment

and microphones, and live streaming, about masks.

about some things in scripture, history, some

things in theology, liturgics. I could tell you

all about liturgics after I teach some catechism.

So there's a few things I know about. But today,

I'm going to speak to you about something I really

don't know anything about. You know, if you go

to the doctor and you want to know something

about your health, you expect that doctor. to

have some information. You go to your mechanic

about your car, you want someone that has some

proficiency. But today I need to speak about

something that I really am, I lack. And that

is the topic of humility. Humility is usually

not what we think it is. Our society tells us

you can do Anything you set your mind to do.

We just heard this wonderful recording from Father

Sarah from Mo, where he talked about the societal

emphasis on you can get it done. You set your

mind to it. You're good just the way you are.

And this lifting up of the self. And of course

we see sports figures and the way they talk too.

Well, that's not humility. We live in a culture

of pride. And so, if we don't know what humility

is, if we don't have it, it's no surprise. The

first thing I can tell you, though, it's a gift

from God. It's not something you can manufacture.

It's not something you can pretend you have.

This Pharisee and this tax collector story. The

Pharisee, well, he looks pretty good. But is

he the bad guy here? And the publican, he looks

pretty bad, but is he the good guy here? That's

the superficial reading of the story. And by

the way, the term publican in our older English

translations rather than tax collector comes

from the Latin meaning public contractor. The

man who would collect the public taxes for the

Romans under contract. We know about that from

last week. In any case, this parable is not a

moral tale about who was good and who was bad.

The modern view, let's say, if you were looking

at this gospel passage in a university now, in

a literature class, using so -called critical

theory, you would see that the Pharisee was of

the privileged class. And he was oppressing the

tax collector and everybody else. And the tax

collector came from the lower class, so he was

just trying to get by. But he also was an oppressor.

How uninteresting. Lord have mercy. What could

we learn from that? Nothing at all. What we can

learn today is one brief point. This parable

begins with the comment by St. Luke that our

Savior Jesus Christ told the parable while teaching

about prayer and who is first and who comes last

and the last shall be first and the first shall

be last. He begins with this comment. He says,

he said the parable to those who trust in themselves

that they are righteous and look down and despise

others. So, examine yourself, brothers and sisters.

We've all come into the temple. We've all come

to pray. God, I thank thee. And how does it go

from there for us? That I'm a good person. We

have to examine our inner attitude in light of

this parable. The Pharisee who boasted to God

rather than prayed was a zealot for the Lord.

He's the kind of parishioner on the surface you

want. Tithes, fasts, gives alms, prays, like

we're encouraged to do. But he proclaims himself

righteous, that is, right with God and the world.

justified by what he did, and God should be thanking

him instead. The Almighty Father in heaven should

be applauding. Now we contemporary Orthodox,

like me, not proficient in prayer, not very zealous

about fasting, or tithing, or giving alms, works

of mercy to the poor, nothing to boast about.

In that sense, we are not pharisaical, are we?

We're not legalistic about our faith. And often,

we're not judgmental towards others either. We

try not to be. That's good. Kind of. Yet, we

do, many of us, think thusly. Oh God, I am a

good person. Really. Although some terrible things

have happened to me in my life. Not my fault.

I'm a sinner, yes. But I've done pretty well

under the present circumstances. Looking at the

spiritual ledger of my life as if I was writing

it down, I am pretty good. I thank thee, oh God,

that I'm not like that Democrat, that Republican,

that Anti -mask wearer. That homeless man. That

activist. That commentator. All people notice.

All people we don't know for the most part. Let's

reorientate ourselves. Everything. Absolutely

everything. And we can be joyous about this.

All virtue. All holiness, all goodness, all truth,

all beauty, all kindness, all spiritual health,

and all humility comes from our Lord Jesus Christ.

And from being joined to him in his glorious

death and his resurrection when we were baptized.

The humble person is moved by the greatness of

God. who is humble. We're not going to be fasting

this week. You know that, right? Next week we

go back to normal. The week after that we start

to fast, abstain from meat products, and the

week after that, forgiveness Sunday, we will

begin fasting. We're going to be doing all the

things that the Pharisee is congratulating himself

about. That's what we're enjoined to do. And

we're not fasting this week. Not so we get fat

and, you know, put on some extra pounds to take

off during Lent. Not to use up our meat and dairy

products, because Lord knows we're going to go

back to the store. But in order to set our minds

and our hearts straight. That a fast is not a

diet. United with prayer, humble prayer, weak

prayer, poverty of spirit prayer, not knowing

what we're doing prayer, it is a medicine not

just to cure gluttony, but it humbles us further.

Alms is not something we do to feel good. It's

the way God is, and being his servant in this

sad and corrupt world. We are asked to be his

image. We've been created to be his image. Now

we just have to be cleansed to be his image.

Prayer is not something the Almighty God needs

from us. We are invited to draw close to him.

And it was the publican who drew close to God.

Yes, he was a bad man. The Pharisee was a good

man. But the Pharisee couldn't change to become

godlike, whereas the publican was being transformed.

He was giving up his sin. The Pharisee could

not even see his sin. All these Lenten practices

that we're going to do are essential for us,

but none of them could help us. None of them

are worth anything without Jesus Christ. So to

boast in them is insanity. St. Paul says if we're

going to boast, what do we boast in? What did

he tell us? I boast in the cross of Christ. It's

the sign that the Christian suffers. There's

no cross that we can carry that's not going to

bring some suffering. Because it puts our passions

and our sins to death. We can boast that through

the cross Christ is in our heart. in our home,

in our mind, in our body. The boast of the cross

of Christ is what St. Macarius of Optina said.

We can bring our shame, our weakness, our sins,

our failures to Christ, and he is going to love

us. Humility, in the light of that, is knowing

your weaknesses and sins before God without shame

or despondency, but with hope. Because it's a

gift from God. Humility is not wretched abasement.

It's not negativity. It's not hatred of yourself.

It's not woe is me. Humility is self -knowledge.

Again, of one's sinfulness and brokenness before

God and my neighbor. but without shame and without

despondency. Today's gospel, today's message,

which we are invited to meditate on all week,

is given to us so we can reflect on it ourselves.

I can't tell you what to do about it. I can't

say, here are five easy things to do so you can

be humble. One of the saints says that as long

as we run away from humility, the Lord our God

himself is going to continue to chase us and

to humble us in every way possible so that we

will become like him. Today is so that we can

gauge our own attitude when we stand here. when

I stand before my neighbor, when I stand before

the person that I don't know and maybe don't

like. And we see ourselves. Ask yourself right

now, five minutes before this homily started,

as we were singing and praying, what was the

state of your mind and thoughts? Pray to God

that he will illumine you. We all need this,

brothers and sisters, if we are going to fight

the good fight of the great season of the fast.

Amen.