2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18; Luke 18:9-14
Today is Reformation Sunday and it seems fitting we have this text as we come together as one church even though we are from different traditions. I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith. What faith has this writer kept. We like to think that Christianity started out with no disagreements or divisions and yet Paul was the first person to ask questions about this Way. The first ones to disagree about a point was the Jerusalem church and Paul. They disagreed about how you became a follower of the Way. The Jerusalem church thought you had to become a good Jew first and Paul thought it was faith alone.
So often we get caught up in the right way either like Paul or the Jerusalem church. There has to be a right formula, a right way we can come about our way of faith. Yet the more we journey this faith walk the more we realize it's not in rightness that we come to encourage a healthy faith life. Just look at the example we have from Jesus today. There were people who thought they had their faith walk right. They were self justified, self righteous and they looked on others with contempt. So Jesus tells the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee.
In this parable we see what true humility is, we never know when we are right. When we think we are we are so less likely to be right. The Pharisee prays about all the things he has done right and the tax collector hasn't. At least that is what is implied. I have it all right and the other person doesn't. So much of the reformation was based on that. We have it right and the other denomination doesn't. We killed each other because it was so important. Yet it never is the core.
The core is humbly not knowing it all. The tax collector doesn't know it all, he only knows his estrangement from God and he is willing to work on that. What if we approached Christianity that way? Jesus we don't know, we don't know what you were trying to teach us, we try and we fail most days to understand it. The biggest fail is in not recognizing you in the other.
When we are the most self-righteous we are the most disconnected from God. We know better than God what God wants others to believe. We have to protect God from being damaged by others because they can't possibly know whats best. All the while God is watching us damage one another and not understanding why. Why do we think we know better than God.
We are told in the bible that God sees with eyes we don't see with. To understand God is to see through a glass darkly and to know only in part. The answer is love. Love doesn't boast, love doesn't seek the self but another, love doesn't insist on it's own selfish way. Jesus gives us love today in the tax collector. A love to be vulnerable, to say he doesn't understand anything except his lack of understanding. At least it's honest.
The thing we seem to forget is Paul's example, even though he didn't agree with the Jerusalem church, even though all his letters are about keeping the original instruction, which boiled down to not becoming a Jew first, even then we know he went to Jerusalem. He went to say I don't know it all, he went to say how can we hold this fabric together, he went to repair the division between them because that is God's love on a cross. Sacrifice, sacrifice of what we think is most important, sacrifice of our own pride, sacrifice to be vulnerable to another. It's why he can write these last words today. I have fought the good fight (not always fighting), I have finished the race (not always winning), there is the crown in the face of imprisonment and death. What needs to die in us so we might have life and have it abundantly?
Today is Reformation Sunday and it seems fitting we have this text as we come together as one church even though we are from different traditions. I have fought the good fight, I have kept the faith. What faith has this writer kept. We like to think that Christianity started out with no disagreements or divisions and yet Paul was the first person to ask questions about this Way. The first ones to disagree about a point was the Jerusalem church and Paul. They disagreed about how you became a follower of the Way. The Jerusalem church thought you had to become a good Jew first and Paul thought it was faith alone.
So often we get caught up in the right way either like Paul or the Jerusalem church. There has to be a right formula, a right way we can come about our way of faith. Yet the more we journey this faith walk the more we realize it's not in rightness that we come to encourage a healthy faith life. Just look at the example we have from Jesus today. There were people who thought they had their faith walk right. They were self justified, self righteous and they looked on others with contempt. So Jesus tells the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee.
In this parable we see what true humility is, we never know when we are right. When we think we are we are so less likely to be right. The Pharisee prays about all the things he has done right and the tax collector hasn't. At least that is what is implied. I have it all right and the other person doesn't. So much of the reformation was based on that. We have it right and the other denomination doesn't. We killed each other because it was so important. Yet it never is the core.
The core is humbly not knowing it all. The tax collector doesn't know it all, he only knows his estrangement from God and he is willing to work on that. What if we approached Christianity that way? Jesus we don't know, we don't know what you were trying to teach us, we try and we fail most days to understand it. The biggest fail is in not recognizing you in the other.
When we are the most self-righteous we are the most disconnected from God. We know better than God what God wants others to believe. We have to protect God from being damaged by others because they can't possibly know whats best. All the while God is watching us damage one another and not understanding why. Why do we think we know better than God.
We are told in the bible that God sees with eyes we don't see with. To understand God is to see through a glass darkly and to know only in part. The answer is love. Love doesn't boast, love doesn't seek the self but another, love doesn't insist on it's own selfish way. Jesus gives us love today in the tax collector. A love to be vulnerable, to say he doesn't understand anything except his lack of understanding. At least it's honest.
The thing we seem to forget is Paul's example, even though he didn't agree with the Jerusalem church, even though all his letters are about keeping the original instruction, which boiled down to not becoming a Jew first, even then we know he went to Jerusalem. He went to say I don't know it all, he went to say how can we hold this fabric together, he went to repair the division between them because that is God's love on a cross. Sacrifice, sacrifice of what we think is most important, sacrifice of our own pride, sacrifice to be vulnerable to another. It's why he can write these last words today. I have fought the good fight (not always fighting), I have finished the race (not always winning), there is the crown in the face of imprisonment and death. What needs to die in us so we might have life and have it abundantly?
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