Ecclesiastes 35:12-14, 16-19; Psalm 34; 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14
Grace and peace to you my dear brothers and sisters in the Lord.
In the Gospel of today, Jesus speaks a parable to those who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else. In that parable, a Pharisee approached God and boasted of his righteousness before Him, whilst the tax collector humbled himself before God and confessed his sin. The tax collector went home forgiven and justified while the Pharisee was not.
Every time I have preached this parable, my focus has always been on the Pharisee. Today, let’s focus on the tax collector. There are two important lessons I want us to learn from him today. I shall use the acronym- AA- Awareness and Action.
(I know we are familiar with AA rescue).
I. Awareness:
Many people are lacking self-awareness. There are two dimensions to self-awareness:
A. The awareness that we matter to God, that we are special and blessed.
Many people look down on themselves. They despise themselves, mostly because they have listened to negative judgement about themselves or because they have not reconciled and accepted themselves. This kind of attitude is not humility; it is self-abuse. God wants us to love and accept everyone He has created, including ourselves.
B. The awareness of our weaknesses.
This is very common in many of us. We lack awareness of our faults and weaknesses; we see what is wrong with everyone else but not with us. We cannot improve and become better people if we lack self-awareness. The tax collector was aware that he was a sinner, that his actions were wrong. Many Christians presume that they are pious and better than everyone else – that is the phariseeism in us.
Some of us do not even know that we are very judgmental, that we lack patience, self-control, that we talk too much and waste people’s time, that we are proud and boastful, selfish and self-absorbed (self-centered), etc.
The Pharisee wasn’t aware of how boastful, proud, uncharitable and self-absorbed he was.
Shall we recall what the Lord told the Church in Laodicea? (Revelation 3:17)
“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”
Am I aware of how special I am to God? Am I aware of areas of my life that I need to address?
II. Action:
The tax collector realised his sinfulness and he came to the Lord asking for mercy, asking for forgiveness, asking the Lord for grace to become a better person.
The real problem is not having those weaknesses; we all have them. The question is “What do we do with our weaknesses?
Some of us deny our weaknesses.
Some of us justify and excuse them.
Some of us just blame it on other people.
Some of us just don’t care.
Some of us just hate and condemn ourselves.
Let us learn from the tax collector. He was aware of how wretched he was – he didn’t justify himself, he didn’t blame it on society or God. He came to God to ask for help. His prayer was very short and powerful, “Be merciful to me Lord, I am a sinner.” This is another way of saying, “I acknowledge my sins, and I have not lived a good life. I need your mercy and your grace. I don’t want to continue this way – forgive me, strengthen me. I am willing to change and become a new person.”
This is how people are justified before God.
What about us?
Are we aware of our weaknesses?
If we are, what are we doing about them?
Today, being Mission Sunday, perhaps we should begin our mission by going inward to search ourselves and then going “upward” to God, before going outward to others.
If there is someone here that the Holy Spirit has convicted as a sinner in need of mercy, would you bow your head and raise your heart to God and pray in the words of the tax collector, “God, be merciful to me, I am a sinner and by the help of your grace, I firmly resolve to change my life and become a better person, Amen.”
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on October 23, 2022.